Gunship
A gunship is a military aircraft armed with heavy aircraft guns, primarily intended for attacking ground targets either as airstrike or as close air support.[1]
In modern usage the term "gunship" refers to
The term helicopter gunship is commonly used to describe armed helicopters.
World War II aviation
Bomber escort
During 1942 and 1943, the lack of a usable
Attack aircraft
During
The British also made large numbers of twin-engined fighter bombers. The de Havilland Mosquito FB.VI had a fixed armament of four 20 mm Hispano Mk.II cannon and four .303 (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns, together with up to 4,000 pounds of bombs in the bomb bay and on racks housed in streamlined fairings under each wing, or up to eight "60lb" RP-3 rockets. De Havilland also produced seventeen Mosquito FB Mk XVIIIs armed with a 57 mm QF 6-pdr anti-tank gun with autoloader, which were used against German ships and U-boats.
The Germans also made a sizable number of heavy fighter types (Zerstörer—"destroyer") armed with heavy guns (Bordkanone). Dedicated "tankbuster" aircraft such as the
Post–World War II aviation
Fixed-wing aircraft
In the more modern, post-World War II fixed-wing aircraft category, a gunship is an aircraft having laterally-mounted heavy armaments (i.e. firing to the side) to attack ground or sea targets.[2][3] These gunships were configured to circle the target instead of performing strafing runs. Such aircraft have their armament on one side harmonized to fire at the apex of an imaginary cone formed by the aircraft and the ground when performing a pylon turn (banking turn).[2][3]
The
The lesser known
It was the later and larger
Smaller gunship designs such as the
Renewed interest in the concept of gunships has resulted in the development of a gunship variant of the
Helicopter gunships
Early helicopter gunships also operated in the side-firing configuration, with an early example being the Aérospatiale Alouette III. During the Overseas wars in Africa in the 1960s, the Portuguese Air Force experimented with the installation of M2 Browning .50 caliber machine guns in a side-firing twin-mounting configuration in some of its Alouette III helicopters. Later, the .50 caliber machine guns were replaced by a MG 151 20mm cannon in a single mounting. These helicopters were known in Portuguese service as "helicanhões" (heli-cannons) and were used in the escort of unarmed transport helicopters in air assault operations and in the fire support to the troops in the ground. The South African and Rhodesian air forces later used armed Alouette III in similar configurations as the Portuguese, respectively in the South African Border and Rhodesian Bush wars.[17]
During the
The U.S. Army also experimented with H-34 gunships armed with M2 .50 caliber machine-guns and 2.75-inch rockets. In September 1971, a CH-34 was armed with two M2 .50 caliber machine guns, four M1919 .30 caliber machine guns, forty 2.75-inch rockets, two 5-inch high velocity aerial rockets (HVAR), plus two additional .30 caliber machine guns in the left side aft windows and one .50 caliber machine gun in the right side cargo door. The result was the world's most heavily armed helicopter at the time.
Also, during the Vietnam War, the ubiquitous Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopters were modified into gunships by mounting the U.S. Helicopter Armament Subsystems—these were forward-firing weapons, such as machine guns, rockets, and autocannons, that began to appear in 1962–1963.[18] Rotary-wing aircraft (helicopters) can use a variety of combat maneuvers to approach a target. In their case, the term gunship is synonymous with heavily armed helicopter.[19] Specifically, dedicated attack helicopters such as the Bell AH-1 Cobra also fit this meaning.[19] In any case, the gunship armaments include machine guns, rockets, and missiles.[19]
The Soviet
Examples
Fixed-wing aircraft
- Basler BT-67
- Douglas AC-47
- Fairchild AU-23 Peacemaker
- Fairchild AC-119
- Lockheed AC-130
- Helio AU-24 Stallion
- Airbus AC-235
- Airbus AC-295
Helicopters
- Aérospatiale SA319 Alouette III
- Aérospatiale SA 330 Puma
- Boeing ACH-47 Chinook
- Bell UH-1M
- Mil Mi-24
- HAL Rudra
- Sikorsky MH-60L DAP
See also
References
Notes
- ISBN 9780850451634.
- ^ a b c d e f Ballard 1982, p. 9.
- ^ a b c d Hamlin 1970.
- ^ Mystery photo unseen for 30 years may show Civil War gunship, Fox News, February 14, 2015
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ignored (help) - ^ Buttler, Griffith. American Secret Projects: Fighters, Bombers Attack Aircraft 1937 to 1945. pp. 104-105.
- ^ Dorr 2011.
- ^ a b c Merriam 2000.
- ^ North American B-25B Mitchell Factsheet.
- ^ Skaarup 2012, p. 265.
- ^ It can be seen in action here.
- ^ "AC-47 Factsheet". Archived from the original on 2014-10-11.
- ^ Ballard 1982, p. 84, quote: "... the Air Force decided to substitute Gunship II for the more nautical Gunboat designation".
- ^ "The AC-119 Gunships". Archived from the original on 2007-01-26. Retrieved 2010-11-12.
- ^ "AC-130H Spectre, AC-130U Spooky". FAS.org.
- ^ "Italian Air Force to Launch Gunship C-27J".
- ^ "The Air Force Tested a Mini-Gunship Last Year". 16 March 2014.
- ^ Stringer 2006, p. 124.
- ^ Dunstan 2003.
- ^ a b c Bishop 2006.
- ^ Mil Mi-24 Hind Gunship. By Alexander Miladenov. Osprey Publishing 2010. Pages 4–10.
- ^ a b c OPFOR WORLDWIDE EQUIPMENT GUIDE
Sources
- Ballard, Jack S. (1982). "Development and Employment of Fixed-Wing Gunships, 1962–1972" (PDF). Air Force Historical Studies Office. p. 9. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
- Bishop, Chris (2006). HueyCobra Gunships. Bloomsbury USA. pp. 3–5. ISBN 9781841769844.
- Dorr, Robert F. (July 2, 2011). "Brilliant Mistakes: The YB-40". defensemedianetwork.com. Retrieved April 23, 2012.
- Dunstan, Simon (2003-08-20). Vietnam Choppers (Revised Edition): Helicopters in Battle 1950–1975. Bloomsbury USA. pp. 25–27. ISBN 9781841767963.
- Hamlin, Ross E. (1970). "Side-Firing Weapon Systems: A New Application of an Old Concept" (PDF). Air University Review. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
- Merriam, Ray (2000). U. S. Warplanes of World War II. Merriam Press. ISBN 9781576381670.
- "NORTH AMERICAN B-25B MITCHELL factsheet". National Museum of the United States Air Force.
- Skaarup, Harold (2012). California Warplanes. iUniverse. p. 265. ISBN 978-1-4759-0144-3.
- Stringer, Kevin D. (2006). Military Organizations for Homeland Defense and Smaller-Scale Contingencies. Praeger Publishers. p. 124. ISBN 0-275-99308-6.