Lockheed Martin said last week it has handed over the first Gunship Multispectral Sensor System production unit for the Air Force’s 17-aircraft AC-130U gunship fleet and expects to supply three more of them by year’s end. Lockheed is providing the GMS2, which is the AC-130U’s new turreted electro-optical/infrared fire control system, to Boeing for integration on the gunships. Without divulging details, Lockheed said in a release Oct. 1 that GMS2 “will broaden the range of options” available on the gunships to fulfill not only traditional missions, but also non-traditional combat operations. Lockheed said delivery of the production units comes on the heels of successful flight testing of the GMS2 in its engineering and manufacturing development configuration in July. “Our primary focus is to take the demonstrated capability of the EMD flight test system over the last two years and turn it into a very high performing production system,” said Mike Inderhees, Lockheed’s director of Turreted Systems.
The U.S. continued to move a significant amount of airpower toward the Middle East in recent days as talks to forge a nuclear deal with Iran hung in the balance. Flight tracking data indicate there was unusually heavy movement of dozens of fighter jets and other assets that might be…
