It's about 43 pounds, the round itself.
So it's pretty big.
Normally whenever we fire this,
it recoils about 43 inches back.
So you'll feel the kick, definitely.
We feel it from the seats.
The pilots up front feel it. Everyone feels it.
Narrator: This is the 105-millimeter cannon
on the AC-130J gunship,
nicknamed Ghostrider.
The cannon is located here
on the left side of the plane
along with a 30-millimeter gun.
Both weapons take out targets with extreme precision.
Over the last 20 years in the Middle East,
the US military used the AC-130 to provide heavy fire
against insurgents to protect US forces on the ground.
But now, the military says its current adversaries,
in places like the Asia-Pacific region and Europe,
require it to be more targeted.
And the newest model of the AC-130
is meant to help it achieve this mission.
Radio: Continue to let this target develop
for a second. Let's get eyes on them,
and if they start moving this direction,
please let me know which BP is going to be the closest.
Narrator: Insider visited Cannon Air Force Base
in Clovis, New Mexico,
to find out how the Ghostrider is built for precision
and how training on this gunship is evolving
to prepare crews for the threats of tomorrow.
Riley Feeney: We're able to get places faster
and stay there longer.
Its engines are roughly 25% more efficient,
which means we've got roughly 25% more motor time.
We have the ability to stay on station for that much longer.
Also with the more fuel-efficient engines,
and it is roughly 20% faster.
Narrator: That's compared to the AC-130W.
The J model became fully operational in 2017
to aid in close air support for ground troops,
gather intel from above,
and perform controlled bombings with precision.
Sommers: All right, so, yeah, this is going to be,
the 30-millimeter is our GAU-23.
That's an incredible weapon. Very precise.
Narrator: The J model was built
with a precision-strike package, which has two weapons,
starting with the 30-millimeter gun.
Sommers: So, it's going to be made up of a barrel,
a receiver, and the feeder assembly.
And then within it it's going to have your flexible chutes
that feeds the ammo into it.
Narrator: Air Force leadership has said
that because of its accuracy,
the 30-millimeter gun is "almost like a sniper rifle."
This is going to be the 105-millimeter howitzer.
Normally you have two gunners
that are going to be here working it.
One's going to be loading it,
the other one's going to be pulling the brass out.
And then there's going to be
where we store the ammunition for it.
So, the firing is also going to be
the same for the 30-millimeter.
The personnel at the mission-operator pallet
are going to select the gun, and then from there,
where the sensor is pointing the gun,
we'll slave to that position,
and then you just fire it with a trigger
based off the hands-on throttle and stick.
So, this is going to be the MOP,
or refer to the mission-operator pallet.
So, in these two seats here, you're going to have your
combat systems officer in the left seat
and then the weapons systems officer here on the right seat.
And these are correlated with the sensors
on the outside of the aircraft.
So for this one, it's going to be
the sensor off the nose of the aircraft.
And then for this seat, it's going to be the sensor
on the left-hand side over there.
So, for this, this is where we control all of the munitions,
a lot of the radios,
we're talking to the guys on the ground,
and then both the guns.
What's unique about us is we've got two of, I think,
the best sensors in the Department of Defense, personally,
in the MX-20 and the MX-25.
Narrator: These two sensors are a key element
in how the AC-130J crew collects accurate intelligence
and confirms the location of targets
before employing its weapons.
Due to the sensors' classified design,
our cameras were not permitted to film them
when the lenses were exposed.
Sommers: All right, so right here on the pilot's station,
and it's also located at the copilot's station,
you're going to have your heads-up display,
just extra SA for the pilots.
It's going to give them a lot of their
navigational tools so they can see
and then maintain SA while having eyes out on the aircraft
while flying as well. That way they don't have to look down.
It kind of just helps keep the crew safe.
In addition to the heads-up display,
you have the side heads-up display for the pilot.
Narrator: Because both weapons are on the left side
of the plane, pilots fly in circles
when observing and firing on targets.
Sommers: It's going to help with employing the munitions,
and it gives them better SA on the battlefield.
Narrator: Another update to the J model
are its more efficient engines,
which allow the plane to fly 25% farther
and 25% longer than the earlier AC-130 models.
Luckily, there are several amenities on board
to provide comfort on these longer flights.
Pretty cool feature is we have a microwave
in addition to a coffee maker as well.
So kind of a nice way on the longer flights
to heat up your food.
That way you're just not eating cold stuff all the time.
So, yeah, actually, for myself, I was on the longest flight
in AC-J history, 16 hours headed out to Japan,
and it was nice just to heat up some warm burritos
as opposed to having, like, a cold sandwich,
something like that.
So, we do have a toilet on the aircraft.
For the longer flight, that's super nice to have.
So it just comes down like that,
and then there's a little curtain for privacy,
and then you just flip it up and, yeah,
just like a normal toilet.
So it's definitely needed on those longer flights.
Now, with us being out of the global war on terror,
I mean, it's not a priority anymore.
We're moving towards more
current events happening in the Pacific.
Maybe some things in Europe. You've seen the news.
Narrator: Nicknamed the Angel of Death,
the AC-130 has been used in past wars
to provide heavy gunfire to protect troops on the ground
or to clear out an area of enemy forces.
But that mentality is changing.
In previous conflicts, they were really simple.
People would run up on the side of mountains
with Soviet-era machine guns,
and you knew for a fact that that guy
met the rules of engagement, that was a legal strike to do.
Narrator: According to the 2022 National Defense Strategy
released by the Department of Defense,
a key priority moving forward is "integrated deterrence,"
which, according to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin,
means having weapons systems and technologies that make
adversaries think twice about engaging in conflict.
That's why the J model's precision weaponry and sensors
make it a crucial military asset
and why Ghostrider pilots are now trained
on knowing when to engage in conflict.
There's a lot of training that's required for us
to shift away from the global war on terror.
We still fundamentally want to protect the friendly force,
but we have to be discerning.
And that's the really tough part.
And so you want to train to, hey,
you got your spider senses, your spidey senses are tingling?
Let's play this out, let's develop this scenario
while not putting the friendly force at risk.
Right now we want to stop short of actual conflict.
All right, guys, we are going to take off.
We're going to go up to the Clovis area.
Narrator: For gunship crews to prepare
for potential conflicts abroad
and become skilled in precise deterrences,
they perform weekly training missions
at Cannon Air Force Base,
which all begin with a preflight briefing.
And I'd rather bust a time line but be safe
than rush to failure.
Narrator: Leading the mission today
is Maj. Riley Feeney, an evaluator pilot.
For weather out of here today,
it seems to be just fine for takeoff.
However, we may be getting gusting winds
at, like, 270 up to 30, possibly 35 knots per the math.
Narrator: Today's flight will begin with
basic pilot training but will then move
to a simulated kill or capture mission,
a training scenario that will take lessons learned
from previous wars and force the crew
to be more precise and cautious.
Gohel: All right, team, today we'll be
working with Task Force 1.6 Team USA
going after objective Red Dragon.
It's a kill/capture mission.
It's been a guy. He's a arms smuggler,
been working out of the town of Clovistan.
Narrator: As the weapons officer, Capt. Rushi Gohel
has been tasked with creating a mission
that will train the crew on scenarios they encounter.
Gohel: It's all made up, but it's based around
the different threats that we'll see
that we're fighting in the current fight.
We'll be working in building 10 particularly.
He's hidden up in the shed right in the back.
This is what he looks like.
He's known to be traveling with a small posse.
Narrator: The crew will be attempting to locate
a fictional threat who is thought to have a weapons cache.
The team must find the threat,
relay that information up the chain of command,
and then decide whether to neutralize him.
Ready ... break.
Let's go to war, boys.
JT Boone: And copy. Takeoff clearance.
Get us straightened out here.
Bottom checklist has been called complete.
Affirm. Ready to go, co?
Riley Feeney: Ready. Feeney: All right.
Textbook. Well done.
Narrator: Once in the air, the crew starts
the training scenarios.
And so we went down to Roswell
to get a couple of instrument approaches.
They're specific approaches with ground-based nav aids,
navigational aids, that allow us to put the aircraft
in a safe position to land down in Roswell.
Boone: Main point, air speed centerline. Bird.
Feeney: Bird. No factor, no factor.
It was an excellent training iteration today
because it was turbulent winds with gusty winds.
Just basically an eight on the 10 scale of difficult,
which I thoroughly love, even if it's difficult
for the remainder of the people on the crew.
Feeney: Yep, pulled just a little bit too much. Stable.
Sommers: 50,
40,
30,
20,
10,
and walking it down.
Feeney: So, we have an additional capability in this plane
which can take us down to 100 feet.
Say you got absolutely socked-in weather
and the ceiling is very low.
We can utilize this system to land safely
and be aligned with the runway.
Where you simply couldn't visually see the runway,
you get to follow these guidelines
and get yourself very low to the ground and land.
Incredibly important if you got a ground party
who's 300 miles away and they need you to come help them.
Narrator: Once the pilots finish
practicing landing at Roswell,
the training shifts to the back of the plane.
Unfortunately, the live-fire range was closed
due to some extreme weather that occurred recently.
However, what we did is a dry-fire scenario.
Feeney: All players, all players,
it's all forces internal to objective building.
Narrator: The crew began searching on the ground
for the location of their fictional insurgent.
Gohel: All right. I'm at the objective area,
just getting a quick eyes on target building.
Unable to PID weapons yet.
Will continue to scan.
Narrator: After several minutes,
Gohel spotted a potential target.
I have contact currently. About eight pax.
They are unloading weapons from two trailers
located 300 meters north of your position.
They look like they're game-planning,
getting ready to move.
I don't know what direction.
Feeney: All right, hey, and from Jackal, from Devil,
continue to let this target develop for a second.
Let's get eyes on them, and if they start moving
this direction, please let me know
which BP's going to be the closest.
We will hold up on breaching until we have an idea
of what these pax are going to do.
Narrator: One of the items the crew was practicing today
was following the rules of engagement
before firing on a target.
So, the rules of engagement are -- and they were really,
really well defined by kind of the tail end
of what was the global war on terror --
the explicit verbiage in them is relatively classified,
but the idea is you have to meet certain criteria
in order to be engaged.
Gohel: Able to PID.
Two pax. One's, he's been carrying some sort of
long cylindrical object.
Narrator: Before Gohel fires the weapons,
the aircraft commander must give consent.
Boone: I mean, I'd say we have consent, let's go.
Feeney: You're clear to engage with 30 and 105, Mike, Mike.
Gohel: Five,
four,
three,
two,
one,
splash.
Feeney: Devil, we are taking cover.
You guys are continuing to prosecute
till all pax are down.
Gohel: I got six not moving.
Just a duo running south closing on friendlies.
All right, good impacts, good impacts.
Feeney: Players, all players,
touchdown jackpot objective.
Narrator: The mission was a success
and a vital scenario for possible upcoming threats.
Feeney: We wanted to give it a little bit more of a flavor
of, say, kind of the next theater that we're looking into,
which is the Indo-Pacific theater.
And what we wanted to do today was kind of throw out,
hey, look at this thing.
Should you shoot it?
And really challenge people with,
well, does it meet the rules of engagement?
Awesome, hey, appreciate you guys playing today.
I realize today was a lot more bumpy
than you wanted it to be.
Good news, we got the mission done,
we were able to get some air on the back end,
and, honestly, I thought that was a really good
training route for us today.
I thought the crew did very well. They were very quick,
and all of their engagements, they did so legally.
The one thing I did want to bring up, though, was
we were very expeditious,
and we were about 20 meters from danger close
on the engagement for that Romeo nine Echo.
We didn't do anything wrong.
It was contact, everything was within limits.
We were out at, like, 230 meters away.
But it's one of those ones too, like, just as a technique,
and this is my instructional fix for the crew,
is anytime that you're within 25 meters
of a danger-close engagement,
you probably should be talking to the JTAC.
So I thought they did a good job,
and I thought Capt. Boone did an exceptional job
of leading the crew, which, for me,
the big ticket here is watching pilots,
watching aircraft commanders develop into leaders.
Narrator: The potential of the AC-130J continues to grow.
To keep up with the military capabilities
of its potential adversaries,
Air Force Special Operations Command
has started testing a new high-energy-laser weapon
that could one day replace the 105-millimeter cannon.
Air Force leadership says that with this,
targets could be "permanently disabled"
"without the slightest bang, whoosh, thump, explosion,
or even aircraft engine hum."
It's very fun to take this tool,
which has just absolutely been a hammer
in the global war on terror, and then pivoting it to
just where creativity is king and enabling that.
See if I can find, I see Lowe's, see Walmart.
Boone: Yep.
They put in a new skate park over there,
by the Green Acres.
Boone: Skate or die.
[Feeney laughs]