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Future Bomber a Foundation for Next-Gen Gunship
Air Force Special Operations Command (Afsoc) is planning to buy a fleet of bombers to house its future gunship, breaking with a decades-old tradition of using C-130 transports to carry heavy fires into the sky.Requirements for the Air Combat Commands (ACCs) bomber and the gunship are still being drawn up. But, both commands agree on some key characteristics: a degree of low observability (LO)not necessarily full stealthand endurance. The future gunship will look nothing like todays lumbering platform, and it could actually wind up appearing more like a B-2. I dont think the transport next-generation gunship will be on a mobility platform because you are not going to need to carry around all that weight, says Lt. Gen. Michael Wooley, outgoing Afsoc commander. If you are not carrying around that big gun and all of that heavy ammunition you dont need a big [transport] that is in itself vulnerable. Wooley will be replaced by his current vice commander, Maj. Gen. Donald Wurster, later this year. Posted by: Delphi 2007-07-23 |
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