A gunship-deployed sensor drone may eventually allow the new AC-130J Ghostrider to spot, engage, and destroy targets from above the cloud deck, said Air Force Special Operations Command boss Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold. “It’s awful hard to peer through the deck … even with a radar, but how about I just throw a small UAV out a common launch tube?” he said, speaking at a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event on March 18. “We’re going to be able to do that pretty easily. The technology’s out there,” he added. Heithold said AFSOC plans to request research and development funds as early as FY17. These “tethered sensors are among several “leap ahead technologies” under consideration for future AC-130J integration, he said. “Industry partners out here have the technology to the point now that we think we could put a high energy laser on a C-130 in place of the 105mm [gun], so we’re moving that direction.” Non-lethal microwave weapons are further down the road, but Heithold said he’s “very keen” on putting this capability on the gunship. “That’s a non-lethal means of getting people to stop” and disperse without bloodshed, and “I think we’ll have missions like that in the future,” he added.
As the Air Force readied for its June 21-22 strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the service was also putting its Agile Combat Employment strategy into action, dispersing combat aircraft and Airmen from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in preparation for a possible Iranian retaliatory attack. Some defense experts say…
