AC-130 Replacement Contemplated

After having been excoriated for saying that civil designs such as
those envisioned for the MC2A and ACS have no business over the
battlefield, this article gives me a bit of gratification:

USAF Plans Serious Look At Replacing Special Ops Aircraft
By Marc Selinger
February 6, 2004

The U.S. Air Force plans to start taking a serious look at potential
replacements for several C-130 variants used by its special operations
forces, a service representative said Feb. 5.

Maj. Gen. John Dorris said the Bush Administration's fiscal 2005
budget request, submitted to Congress Feb. 2, contains "seed money" to
develop concepts for an "MX" aircraft, which would replace the
MC-130E/H airdrop/transport aircraft, and an "AX" which would replace
the AC-130 gunship. The analysis could take about two years.

With surface-to-air threats becoming increasingly sophisticated, the
Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) believes it will need to
begin fielding the new aircraft in about 2015 as a replacement for its
aging Lockheed Martin C-130 variants, Dorris said. He spoke to
reporters after speaking at a special operations conference sponsored
by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA).

"After 2015, the ability of the C-130 as it's currently configured,
even with enhancements, is not going to be able to go into a lot of
the airspace that it needs to go into," he said.

The MX is envisioned as a long-range aircraft that is "able to do the
mission in one period of darkness," Dorris said. The latest thinking
for the AX is that it would be a "mothership that sends out sensors."
The sensors would then report back to the mothership, which would send
out "lethal and/or non-lethal projectiles," possibly small, guided
missiles.

A new aerial refueling capability will also be needed by AFSOC but
probably later than 2015, Dorris said.

To address AFSOC's tanker shortfall in the interim, about 27 MC-130H
Combat Talon IIs are being modified to be capable of refueling. That
work will be completed by about 2007. AFSOC's MC-130E Combat Talon Is
already can perform the tanker mission.