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Don’t be different just to be different

The Air Force is on a sensible course to augment its fixed-wing gunship force.

It’s opting for the MC-130W Combat Spear, an offspring of the first-generation C-130 Hercules transport, instead of the AC-XX AC-27J Stinger II “Gunship Lite,” a derivative of the C-27J Joint Cargo Aircraft.

A year ago, Lt. Gen. Donald Wurster, commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, told officers at a conference he’d do almost anything to get the AC-27J. Wurster said he would “stab ... others in the back and take their dollars” to get funding for the plane.

The AC-27J has been wisely zeroed-out of the administration’s fiscal year 2010 defense budget request, but it will be back next year if its supporters get their way.

“The AC-27J has always seemed like a solution in search of a problem,” said Robert Hewson, a London-based aviation writer and analyst. “AFSOC’s sudden epiphany that, after 40 years of gunship operations, it suddenly needs a small one doesn’t seem convincing to me.”

The AC-27J is the wrong size — and the wrong shape. Besides being small, its fuselage is too short to accommodate significant weapons and fire control systems.

“You’re not going to put a 40mm or 105 mm weapon on it,” a recently retired master sergeant who flew on AC-130Hs said of the heavy guns that define today’s gunship.

There’s no doubt that hard-fighting special operations gunship airmen need something new. AFSOC’s eight AC-130H Spectre and 17 AC-130U Spooky gunships are flying at four times their intended rate, need 14 hours of maintenance for every hour in flight and are facing wing fatigue problems.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz says those old planes will be replaced with newly rebuilt aircraft of the same vintage. He’s right to stick with first-generation C-130 variants rather than to invest in the second-generation C-130J or the misguided AC-27J.

“If gunships are a good idea — and they probably are, as long as you appreciate that they are a real niche tool, and as long as you respect their limitations and don’t use them where they’re vulnerable — then a new version of the existing C-130 would be a proven solution,” Jon Lake, a British aviation writer and analyst, said in a telephone interview.

The cost of a new-generation C-130J or AC-27J airframe isn’t a big issue, according to Lake, but “integrating avionics, a fire control system and new guns on a new airframe is a big and difficult task.”

Not long ago, AFSOC attempted to retrofit AC-130s with 30mm Mk 44 Bushmaster cannons. It seemed easier to do that than adapt a new airframe for gunship duty. The result: technical glitches and a near-mutiny from crews. Today, the Bushmasters are gone.

AFSOC should have learned an invaluable lesson from the cannon fiasco: Different isn’t necessarily better.

The Air Force is moving in the right direction with a plan to convert MC-130W Combat Spears into new gunships. It should stay on course and not revive the AC-27J.

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Robert F. Dorr’s most recent book is “Hell Hawks,” a history of an America fighter group. Write to him at Robert.f.dorr@cox.net.