Original subtitles

Narrator: Big...

Ruthless...

And lethal...

The ac-130 gunship is made to put bullets...

Where bombs can't go.

[explosion]

Man: Nothing can really match the firepower

Of the ac-130 gunship.

Narrator: To its friends, it's a guardian angel.

Man: As long as there's somebody that needs fire support,

The gunship's going to be there.

Narrator: To its enemies, it's an angel of death.

Woman: They couldn't believe what was happening.

And where was this attack coming from?

Narrator: This is the story of how this lumbering giant

Was left exposed...

[gunfire]

Man: The iraqi forces took advantage of it,

And we lost a good crew.

Narrator: Only to find its strength in darkness.

Man: It was just what the doctor ordered.

[gunfire]

♪

Narrator: October 3, 2016.

Kunduz city, afghanistan.

[gunfire]

The united states military and its afghan partners

Struggle to maintain control of the city.

Reporter: Taliban fighters have taken control

Of the center of kunduz.

[gunfire]

Narrator: The assault marks the fourth taliban attack

In just one week.

There'll likely be more.

Man: This is still part of the fighting season.

The taliban would like to take population centers.

Narrator: U.S. And afghan forces work side by side,

Conducting raids in afghan villages,

Hoping to root out the taliban

Once and for all.

Watching out for them from above--

The ac-130.

Sean silva: Behind me is the ac-130 gunship.

It's the air force's premier close air support platform.

Narrator: 38 feet tall...

133-foot wingspan...

The ac-130 is hard to miss.

This heavyweight is in a class of its own.

Silva: Its mass gross payload of 155,000 pounds

Allows us to carry more weapons, crew, and ammunition

Than any of the rotary-wing gunships.

Narrator: When soldiers need a fist to come down from above,

This is the weapon they call for.

[gunfire]

Silva: The primary mission of the ac-130 gunship

Is to support the guys on the ground,

Keep them safe,

And make sure they are able to come home after their mission.

Narrator: November 2016.

Afghanistan.

Nearly one month since the taliban attack on kunduz.

Just north of the city,

Insurgents gather near a village,

Plotting to make further attacks.

U.S. Special forces catch wind of their location

And vow to disrupt them before it's too late.

Aaron hall: Basically we wanted to root out

The embedded taliban force inside the village itself.

Narrator: Major aaron hall has served on ac-130s

For over fifteen years.

Hall: The special forces team along with the partner force,

We're going to move in

In an attempt to capture these folks

And get as much information as they could.

Narrator: Late at night, the special operations team

Gathers just outside the village.

Their plan is to sneak in

And catch insurgents by surprise.

It's not easy to catch the taliban off guard.

The ground troops rely on hall's ac-130

To watch their backs.

Hall: We were overhead scanning around their position,

Making sure that there were no enemies

Coming in on their locations.

Man on radio: Let me know when you see the target area,

And I'll start the gun.

Hall: This was a large village area,

So multiple structures,

Pretty dense group of buildings.

And as soon as the ground force

Started moving down in that area,

We started seeing some movement.

Man on radio: We got a vehicle moving out.

Narrator: Hall's ac-130 flies with 13 crew members--

The largest aircrew of any combat aircraft

In the air force inventory.

In the cockpit,

Two pilots and a flight engineer,

Who monitors the aircraft's systems.

Behind the cockpit,

The heart of the gunship,

Otherwise known as "the booth."

Five crew members share the space.

Silva: We have our two sensor operators

Sitting up behind me.

The fire control officer sits here,

And the navigator sits next to him.

And then in the back

We have the electronic warfare officer as well.

Narrator: The sensor operators scan the ground for threats

And pass the info to the navigator,

Who validates the target.

Then it's up to the fire control officer

To select the weapon.

While the others in the booth run offense,

The electronic warfare officer is all defense,

Keeping an eye on the ground for threats.

If the front of the aircraft is its brains,

The back is all muscle.

Three gunners load up the weapons

As fast as they can.

Two more look out for threats

From the right and rear scanner bubbles.

Once the weapons are armed,

It's the sensor operators who fire.

Silva: What really makes the gunship the gunship

Is the well-orchestrated symphony

That happens inside the aircraft

To be able to put those rounds down on the ground,

Close to the friendlies when they need it.

Narrator: Over afghanistan,

Major aaron hall keeps watch on u.S. Special forces

From the booth of his ac-130.

Man on radio: Tracking, I got the square building,

The rectangle building to the northwest.

Man: We have a square building

And a rectangle building to the northwest.

Narrator: 8,000 feet below,

A special ops team slowly makes its way

Through an insurgent village...

Not knowing if the people around them

Are friend or foe.

Hall: The assumption is the taliban probably had

Some other folks in the rest of the village

Spotting for them as well.

Narrator: The ground team

Cautiously approaches a gated compound.

Man: Let's go. Roll it in.

Narrator: They suspect

That a taliban fighting cell is inside.

Suddenly, the sensor operator in the ac-130

Spots a small group of men walking just beyond the gate.

Hall: They seemed to be pretty suspicious.

It did appear that they knew that the friendly force

Was moving in their direction.

Narrator: The navigator radios a warning

Down to the ground team.

Man on radio: People running through...

Copy.

Narrator: But it's already too late.

One of the men lobs a grenade over the gate...

And right into the friendlies.

[explosion]

Hall: That's when all hell broke loose.

As soon as we saw the explosion, that's when it was game on.

Man: Get up, man. Get up.

Narrator: In a flash,

Dozens of insurgents emerge from surrounding buildings.

Hall: The friendly forces were surrounded on three sides.

They were trapped, and there was no place they could go.

Narrator: Hall and his crew must respond--fast.

Hall: I immediately brought up two guns,

And we moved in to engage them.

Narrator: The ac-130.

It's the world's biggest flying artillery gun.

Its enemies know it as hell in the sky.

Silva: So the guns are obviously

What make the gunship the gunship.

We have three side-firing weapons.

We can shoot two of them at the same time,

Either at the same target or at separate targets.

Narrator: Toward the front of the plane,

The 25-millimeter gatling gun.

Silva: This is the 25-millimeter gau-12 gatling gun.

We call it the crowd-pleaser.

From the 350-round bursts,

It's just 12 seconds of a fireball

Coming out the side of the aircraft.

It's pretty impressive.

Narrator: Behind it is a weapon in service since world war ii,

The 40-millimeter bofors cannon.

Silva: It can fire off 200 rounds a minute.

This is our most accurate weapon.

Because of its low collateral damage,

It's the one we get to fire the most in combat.

Narrator: In the back is the gunship's specialty--

The deadly and ferocious 105.

Silva: This is the 105-millimeter howitzer.

[firing]

This is the biggest gun we have on the gunship.

Its firepower is unmatched by any other airframe.

Narrator: This massive cannon

Can fire approximately 10 rounds per minute.

It recoils with enough force

To bench-press over 20,000 pounds.

Silva: We can put these on vehicles,

Hardened targets, buildings,

Any kind of structure that we need penetrated.

[explosion]

Narrator: No other gunship puts more rounds on the ground,

And troops in afghanistan need every bullet.

In afghanistan,

Major aaron hall's ac-130 circles above a special ops team

Under siege by taliban forces.

Hall: There was a significant overwhelming force.

The odds were definitely in the enemy's favor.

Narrator: Hall is the fire control officer.

It's up to him to choose the weapons.

He selects the 25-millimeter and the 40-millimeter

To target the taliban street fighters.

For insurgents shooting from the buildings,

He picks the 105.

Moments later,

Sensor operators target the enemy with the guns...

Man on radio: Moving.

Man on radio: Get back on those guys.

Here we go.

Narrator: And fire.

[firing]

Man on radio: Yeah.

Hall: We began firing at anything within 50, 60 meters,

Hitting any of the structures

Where we were seeing small arms fire.

[firing]

We knew that we were being effective

Because the special forces team

Were getting a little bit of relief

And able to make some ground headway,

Basically moving back to the north.

[radio chatter]

Narrator: It's enough firepower to make most fighters turn tail,

But the taliban is determined not to give up their ground.

Hall: They just kept coming,

And as soon as you'd destroy or neutralize one target,

Another one would fill its spot.

Narrator: Suddenly, hall's crew spots a group of insurgents

Closing in from another direction.

Hall: At this point, we picked up an enemy

Sneaking around on the friendly force.

It certainly seemed like some type of coordinated attack,

Just the way that they were moving in for the ambush.

Narrator: The enemy is less than 40 feet from the ground forces,

And closing in fast.

Up above, the ac-130 crew makes a terrible discovery.

They only have one type of ammunition available:

105 proximity rounds--

Usually used for targets

Far removed from friendly forces.

Hall: It's going to explode just above the ground,

And it's going to basically be like a shotgun.

It's going to spread fragmentation

In a large, wide area.

Narrator: To take out the enemy without killing the friendlies,

The ac-130 crew takes a huge risk.

Just one miscalculation could be deadly.

Hall: I knew that that's what we had to do,

But I was just praying, holding my breath.

If one thing was off,

We'd definitely hit the friendly force

That we were trying to protect.

Man on radio: Stand by.

Narrator: Over afghanistan,

Major aaron hall's ac-130 gunship

Prepares to fire at taliban soldiers.

Man on radio: You're cleared on the big square building.

Go ahead and level it.

Narrator: His calculations must be perfect,

Or he risks gunning down the troops he's sworn to defend.

Hall: You're holding your breath the entire time,

Just hoping that everything you've done has been right,

And as soon as the round went off...

[firing]

[explosion]

The enemy element dropped.

[explosion]

Narrator: It's a daring action

That saves the lives of 50 american and afghan soldiers.

Hall: If the ac-130 wasn't there that night,

There's no doubt that those casualty numbers

Would've been significantly higher.

Narrator: The ac-130.

It's the aircraft that puts the "close"

In close air support.

But this ultimate battle plane wasn't inevitable.

It took more than 50 years

For the air force to admit that it needed a gunship at all.

[explosions]

1914.

World war I begins in europe.

High above the battlefield,

A new source of firepower enters the scene:

The airplane.

William head: Before the first world war,

Military aircraft was mostly used for reconnaissance.

Narrator: Dr. William head is an air force historian

At robins air force base in georgia.

Head: After a while, some very clever airman decided,

Oh, okay, I'm going to take a rifle with me,

Or I'm going to take a pistol with me.

And then the powers that be said, oh, okay,

Well, let's try to mount some guns.

Narrator: By world war ii,

Nearly every combat aircraft is equipped with a mounted gun.

Most of them have the gun pointing forward,

Allowing the pilot to shoot while he flies.

It's a great design for airborne targets.

But it doesn't always work for those on the ground.

Head: The limitations of the forward-facing fighters

Were that you shoot,

You have to bank, turn, come around,

And come back and do it again.

And it's not very precise.

Narrator: It takes the battle to control the atlantic

To inspire a new technique:

Side-fire.

[explosion]

January 1942.

German submarines strike more than 10 ships

Along the virginia and north carolina coastline.

Reporter: Undoubtedly,

One of the most formidable assets of the axis powers

Is the u-boat.

The u-boat must be defeated.

Narrator: The u.S. Army 95th coast artillery corps

Is on high alert.

Army aircraft search for german submarines

Approaching the atlantic coast.

Should a sub attack,

Pilots need to keep it under constant fire.

A forward-firing aircraft won't do the trick.

[firing]

By March, one pilot has a brainstorm:

Add a side-mounted gun

And fly the aircraft in a pylon turn.

The pylon turn is a maneuver that dates back

To some of the earliest days of flying.

Head: In the '20s and '30s, there were air races,

And at each end of the course

There were pylons that were set up.

And they would fly around them,

And they would go in turns and circles.

And so they called them pylon turns.

Narrator: To execute a pylon turn,

The pilot banks left,

Angling the aircraft's left wing towards the ground.

His speed, altitude, and turn radius remain constant.

As he turns,

The center of the aircraft stays pointed

At the same spot on the surface,

Allowing a side-mounted gun to always be on target

And deliver continuous fire.

On paper, the idea has promise.

But it never really catches on.

Head: By 1943,

The battle of the atlantic kind of subsided,

And the military leaders

Didn't see the practical importance of this

Once the threat to the coast went away.

Narrator: Combat planners believe that future wars

Will be won dogfighting and bombing--

Not flying in circles.

Head: The cold war is beginning,

And our engineers are developing fast jets and big bombers

To fight the soviet union.

The side-firing gunships got put in basket purgatory

And lay there until the need came along.

And that didn't really come along until the early '60s.

Narrator: September 1961.

U.S. Special forces are in vietnam.

Their purpose:

Stop the communist insurgents known as the vietcong.

President kennedy: South vietnam is already under attack--

Sometimes by a band of guerrillas,

Recently by full battalions.

Narrator: Using the jungle as cover,

The vietcong attack u.S. Camps in the dead of night.

Bill walter: The vietcong would attack these camps

By the thousands,

Just overwhelming force.

And they were very, very tactically savvy.

Narrator: Bill walter

Has worked in the u.S. Air force gunship program

For more than 30 years.

Walter: They knew that the u.S.

Doesn't have a whole lot of nighttime capability.

We've got all these modern jet fighters

That are really fast,

They do a really great job for what they're designed for,

But they're not designed to go out there at night

And find dismounted troops on the ground and fire on them.

Now we have this dilemma.

So, the air force says, okay,

Let's throw some ideas on a table here

And see what we can do.

But whatever it is, it's got to be quick.

Narrator: 1963.

Wright-patterson air force base, ohio.

A small team of designers reignites a radical idea--

The side-firing sub hunter proposed during world war ii.

Head: They kind of all get together,

And they start comparing notes.

And they say, wow, we had this idea all along.

Narrator: The first step-- proof of concept.

Tests with t-28s and c-131s

Show that the pylon turn can work.

A year later, they try it out on a c-47 skytrain,

A cargo plane known as "the gooney bird."

It's been an air force staple since world war ii.

Walter: The question comes up, why did they choose the c-47?

And the simple answer is, and it was available.

It was already in vietnam,

Flown by the first air commando wing.

So, it made logical sense

To use something that was already there

Instead of inventing something new.

Narrator: The c-47s can fly low and slow enough

To loiter over a firefight for hours in a pylon turn,

Making it the perfect candidate for side-fire.

Head: They said, well, we have this idea.

If we can make it work, maybe it will solve the problem.

Narrator: Three side-firing gatling guns

Turn the gooney bird into a gunship--

Two at the cabin windows and one at the cabin door.

It carries 2,000 pounds of ammunition

And fires up to 18,000 rounds per minute.

Head: When it would fire, it looked like a dragon,

Shooting flame and smoke coming out.

And so they nicknamed it "puff the magic dragon."

Narrator: The wright-patterson team

Has made the gunship a reality.

All they need to do now

Is convince washington to give it a chance.

To the pentagon's fighter-bomber generals,

A side-firing gunship is a tough sell.

Walter: Here somebody comes up with the concept,

"let's just put a gun out the side of the airplane

And fly in a pylon turn and see how that does."

So, you can kind of see

How the conventional mindset at the time was like,

What, are you crazy?

That's never going to work.

Narrator: The gunship concept

Does have at least one powerful advocate--

General curtis lemay.

Walter: General lemay was a very big supporter

Of all capabilities.

He didn't care if it was bombers, fighters.

Head: And he says, okay, you get that airplane

And you get over to vietnam as quick as possible

And try it out.

Narrator: In vietnam,

The ac-47 gunships change the reality on the ground

Almost immediately.

Walter: Throughout '64, '65,

The ac-47 excelled in its mission

Of defending special forces camps.

Head: The vietcong called it "death by night."

And it was just what the doctor ordered.

Narrator: The ac-47 is low flying,

Fierce,

And persistent.

Its nighttime capability

Takes away the vietcong's element of surprise.

Walter: The ac-47 was built essentially

To have not only a day and night capability,

But to stay over these special forces camps

For the entire period of darkness.

Narrator: For the next four years,

Ac-47s prove a staunch defender.

But the air force wants an offensive weapon, too.

Walter: It was great in special forces outposts

Where you had dismounted troops with small arms.

But the weapons were not powerful enough

To really do the levels of damage

That was required to stop a truck.

The ac-47 has more or less met its physical limits.

Head: And so the air force decided,

We need a little bit bigger, faster, more-range aircraft

That's similar to a 47.

Walter: Right away, the engineers

And the gunship program office up at wright-patterson, ohio,

Said, "how about a 130? Let's do a 130."

Narrator: The c-130 hercules

Is the air force's transport workhorse.

It can carry up to 42,000 pounds.

Head: The 130 might not seem to be the obvious choice.

But the 130 is resilient,

It is more fuel-efficient,

It has four engines.

If one of them goes dead, you can still fly it.

Narrator: In may 1967,

Engineers load one up with two 20-millimeter cannons,

And two 7.62-millimeter mini guns.

That's the most firepower ever mounted on a cargo plane.

Announcer: When on target,

The pilot merely presses a button on the control column

To fire the guns.

Four short bursts destroy the target.

Narrator: They rename it the ac-130.

The "a" stands for attack.

The only drawback: Its size.

Its critics claim

That the gunship will be a sitting duck.

Head: The size of the plane left a larger radar signature

So that it made it a little bit easier to shoot.

Narrator: For its gunfire to be accurate,

The ac-130 must fly low and slow,

Leaving it even more vulnerable.

The air force is desperate for a win,

So it gives the plane a chance to prove itself...

In combat.

September 1967.

The ac-130 arrives in vietnam.

By February, it's in combat.

The destination:

The ho chi minh trail,

A 9,000-mile system of roads

Running through the dense jungles

Near the vietnamese border.

Each year, north vietnamese communists

Use it to funnel 80,000 tons of military supplies.

The ac-130's mission is to halt them in their tracks.

Bill patterson: We were tasked to look for truck convoys,

Armored personnel carriers,

And any troops

Moving in large quantities down the trail.

Narrator: Senior master sergeant bill patterson

Flew more than 1,200 hours in vietnam.

Patterson: Once we would find that,

We would attack it

And destroy it to the best of our ability.

[firing]

We always said, every truck that we destroy

Is less ammunition that's going to be used

Against our guys down in south vietnam.

Narrator: In its first nine months alone,

The gunship destroys 228 enemy trucks.

Man on radio: There, one just blew up. Roger.

Patterson: It got to the point

Where saigon said we was getting so many kills

That they started having, quote, "experts" look at them

To see if we was fudging

Or not giving them the straight stories.

And it proved out

That we was getting so much destruction on the trail

That it was just unbelievable.

[explosion] man on radio: We got 'em all.

Narrator: It's exactly what the air force needs--

A gunship that brings sheer terror to enemy skies,

Day or night.

Patterson: We destroyed at 100 percent.

The vietnamese called it the thud,

Because the guns would go "thud-thud."

It could really, really put down a wall of fire.

[explosions]

Walter: They took the vietnamese completely by surprise,

'cause the vietnamese were like,

Hey, we're operating at night

To avoid these bombers and fighters.

All of a sudden, the world lights up around them

And their trucks started on fire,

And they're like, what is this?

Narrator: But as the ac-130 finds success,

So does the enemy.

Patterson: The north vietnamese

Were constantly changing their tactics,

And they learned from us.

They were constantly looking for new systems to bring into play

To be able to bring us down.

Narrator: The north vietnamese have a weapon

Much more powerful than artillery--

A deadly infrared surface-to-air missile.

It's a shoulder-fired rocket with a heat-seeking warhead.

Patterson: It's easy to deal with anti-aircraft guns.

But when a missile is introduced to the mission,

The threat goes way up.

Narrator: Soon enough,

Patterson will learn just how vulnerable the ac-130 really is.

Man on radio: Get outta here.

Narrator: June 18, 1972.

Vietnam.

Sergeant bill patterson and his ac-130 crew

Look for enemy convoys in the a shau valley.

Patterson: The a shau valley was historically known

As the most defended valley in the vietnam war.

[gunfire]

We didn't question

How dangerous it was or anything else

Because we were there for a reason.

We were there to save lives in south vietnam.

Narrator: Just moments into his flight,

Patterson notices a flash coming up from the ground.

Patterson: I looked down...

Man on radio: Three o'clock. Man on radio: Keep on the stick.

Patterson: And here was just a blue-white ball of fire

Come off the ground

And it's headed straight for my aircraft.

[explosion]

Man on radio: Get outta here.

Patterson: At that point,

I knew a missile had been fired at us.

[beeping]

Narrator: Seconds later,

Patterson feels his gunship take a major hit.

Patterson: And a hot breath of air hit me,

Shot me out of the airplane,

And I was falling towards the earth.

Narrator: Patterson and two other crewmen

Make it to the ground alive.

The rest of the 14-man team isn't as lucky.

Patterson: Don't really think about myself too much.

Just thinking about your friends that died.

Narrator: That same year,

A surface-to-air missile knocks another gunship down,

And the ac-130's future hangs in the balance.

Head: Vietnam identified flaws.

They're becoming more vulnerable

To the more and more sophisticated weaponry.

And so we come back from the war,

And we have to make a decision.

Are we going to keep doing this,

Or are we going to get rid of them all?

Narrator: There's talk of retiring the gunship

And focusing on more sophisticated war birds.

Over the next few years,

Military planners invest heavily

In high-speed jet fighters and bombers

More likely to outfox the enemy's missiles.

But in the '80s,

U.S. Special forces become embroiled

In small regional wars,

Where the enemy has limited air defenses.

Once again, the gunship is in demand.

Walter: That was our stay of execution at that point.

Wait a second, now.

We really kind of need these ac-130s

To support the army special operations.

Narrator: In 1987,

The reprieve becomes permanent.

The pentagon forms special operations command,

Responsible for all special operations units

Across each branch of the military.

They decide to bring the ac-130 along for the ride.

Walter: The gunship was cited as being

The decisive air support platform

For the ground force, the special operations forces.

Narrator: Close air support...

Armed surveillance.

The gunship proves a promising tool.

But it takes the war in panama to showcase its worth.

December 20, 1989.

Panama city.

Operation just cause.

U.S. Special forces invade,

Searching for dictator manuel noriega.

Nine ac-130 gunships fly in to back them up

And prove that they can rule the skies.

Head: It was the perfect environment.

You can see the ground targets,

And you can attack and take them out

Without hitting civilians,

Without collateral damage--

Places that we didn't really have to blow up.

Walter: It goes back to the fundamentals

Of the gunship being able to stay overhead.

You're sticking with the ground force

And providing support for three or four hours at a minimum.

Plus, the precision of ordnance is relatively small

Compared to fighters who are dropping bombs or strafing runs.

So, that really was the right job for the gunship

In the dense urban area like that.

After about day three or so, we weren't even shooting at all.

We didn't even have to shoot.

Pretty much the panama defense force just says,

Gunship comes rolling overhead,

We're done.

Narrator: It takes less than five days

To win the ground war.

President bush: At about 8:50 this evening,

General noriega turned himself in to u.S. Authorities in panama

With the full knowledge of the panamanian government.

Narrator: The ac-130's performance

Receives a standing ovation.

Head: General thurman, who was the overall commander,

Later said that what won the battle

Was the courage of the american ground forces

And the ability of the american gunships.

Narrator: The ac-130

Seems like an unstoppable symbol of american might.

But just one year later,

The air force learns what happens

When they push too far.

January 1991.

Six months after saddam hussein

Sends iraqi forces to invade kuwait,

The u.S. And its allies declare war.

Hussein won't go down without a fight.

He hides surface-to-surface missiles, or scuds,

Throughout the country.

He's not afraid to use them to intensify the war.

Reporter: Iraqi scud missiles

Streaked over israel and saudi arabia

And hit ground targets with deadly force.

Walter: General schwarzkopf was very concerned

That israel was going to get pulled into war

And the whole coalition was going to break apart.

So, gunships were sent in to look for these scud sites.

Narrator: Three ac-130s begin the scud hunt.

The iraqis hide them

Near radar-guided surface-to-air missiles,

Putting the low-flying gunship at risk.

Walter: Iraq was a whole different cat.

It wasn't panama. It wasn't grenada.

They had a very sophisticated integrated air defense network.

And we were in a 130.

It doesn't matter if it's got guns on it or not;

It's still a 130.

And we can't really fly that high,

And we're not really that fast.

And we almost lost two airplanes in one night scud hunting.

Narrator: The air force decides to play it safe

And takes the ac-130s off the mission.

But the gunship's power is too tempting to waste.

Walter: We sat for about another week or so,

And then here comes the battle of khafji.

Narrator: January 29, 1991.

Operation desert storm.

Thirteen days into the war.

Saddam hussein's republican guard

Invades the saudi arabian city of khafji,

A bordertown just south of kuwait.

Paul havel: Saddam, at this point, was losing badly.

Narrator: Colonel paul havel logged more than 50 hours

Piloting ac-130s during operation desert storm.

Havel: He was getting pummeled by the air,

And he had no ability to hit back.

And this was his only opportunity, basically,

To try to engage the enemy on terms of his choosing.

Narrator: Hussein sends more than 20 lightly armored vehicles

Towards khafji.

They carry weapons and hundreds of troops.

Stopping them seems like a perfect job for the ac-130.

Havel: We needed to actually engage these armored vehicles

Before they actually broke out of khafji

And crossed over into saudi arabia.

Narrator: January 30, 1991.

King fahd airbase, saudi arabia.

Just past sunset.

Havel and his crew ready their aircraft...

And take off,

Determined to get to khafji fast.

Havel: We were concerned about the threat levels.

At this point was the early stages of the attack,

And we knew that the heavier, more advanced weaponry

Wouldn't be showing up until later.

Narrator: The iraqi convoys don't have missiles,

But a lucky bullet can be just as deadly

To a low-flying gunship.

Havel: The majority of what the iraqis had

Was optically guided anti-aircraft artillery.

Where their exact locations were,

We did not have that precise information

Until we arrived overhead at the scene.

We really didn't know what we were going to encounter.

You have an idea of what's going on,

But you're not really sure until you get there.

Narrator: Havel's gunship arrives over khafji,

Only to find hussein's troops ready and waiting.

Havel: When we first rolled in,

A bunch of enemy anti-aircraft artillery

Was shooting up in the sky in a barrage fire.

[gunfire]

Narrator: To avoid getting hit,

Havel flies an unpredictable pattern.

Havel: If I can see tracer coming up at me,

I can make just a slight pitch or a slight bank,

And I can actually avoid that anti-aircraft artillery fire

Quite easily.

But if we're doing an orbit

And they can kind of anticipate,

It makes it very dangerous.

Narrator: Going into a pylon turn is risky.

But to fire, havel doesn't have a choice.

Havel: If you have to constantly bank in and out

To avoid the anti-aircraft fire,

You're not going to be really effective

At attacking the targets.

We've known from the history

That the gunners aren't going to run away.

They're going to try to shoot us down.

[firing]

Narrator: January 1991.

Kuwait.

Just west of khafji.

Ac-130 pilot paul havel and his crew

Orbit an iraqi convoy more than 20 vehicles long.

Iraqi anti-aircraft fire threatens the gunship's safety.

Havel: It was a priority for me

To take those anti-aircraft defenses out first

In order to protect the lives of my crew members.

I figured once we got them suppressed,

We could work the convoy of trucks at will.

Narrator: Havel lines up the iraqi anti-aircraft gun

In his pylon turn

And fires.

[gunfire and explosions]

Havel: The gunners all start running away from their guns

'cause they thought they were getting hit

With an artillery attack,

Not with an aircraft's 105.

So, effectively,

That ended the anti-aircraft artillery shooting at us,

Which then, we moved on to attacking the armored convoy.

Narrator: Havel's gunship pounds the brigade.

Less than an hour later,

The convoy is stuck in its tracks.

Havel: They took such a pounding,

They basically stopped their advance

And they had to seek shelter.

And a lot of them abandoned their vehicles.

Narrator: It's a good start...

But more trucks are on the way.

Low on fuel, havel checks the time.

Almost sunrise.

Havel: It was starting to get very light,

Which would be a real big threat to our survival at that time,

Because we figured,

Now heavier equipment is showing up,

More capable air-defense systems,

And now we can't hide.

At that point, I made the decision to return to base.

And I'm glad we did, because the following day,

Another aircraft operated in similar conditions

At that time of day,

And they were shot down.

Stevens: A u.S. Air force ac-130h gunship

Crashed at approximately 7:00 a.M. Local yesterday

In southeast kuwait during a combat mission.

All 14 crew members are listed as missing.

Havel: They were in the exact same area we were.

They were working the exact same targets,

More towards sunrise,

And unfortunately

The iraqi forces took advantage of it,

And we lost a good crew.

Narrator: The tragedy is a wake-up call

For air force leadership.

Operating the ac-130 demands a different kind of tactic

From other air force planes.

Havel: Remember, the staff at the time of desert storm,

Most of whom were coming from a fighter background--

They didn't really understand us.

Walter: But yet, a lot of this really wasn't written down

Anywhere outside of our own community.

So there really wasn't anything

That these fighter planners could go look at and said,

This is how a gunship operates.

Narrator: The air force goes back to the books,

Collaborating with the gunship community

To create an official tactics manual,

Specifically for the ac-130.

Walter: And it really paid off well for us,

Because now it truly is a joint force

Where everybody's speaking the same language.

Narrator: It's not just paperwork that's new.

In 1995, the air force debuts its revamped gunship:

The ac-130u.

They replace the 20-millimeter gun

With a 25-millimeter,

Making it even deadlier than before.

Walter: They could do what's called dual-target attack.

They could actually track and fire

On two different targets simultaneously.

It had the right sensors, it had the right people,

It had the right systems and equipment and weapons.

It was kick-butt.

Narrator: It's a new fleet

And a new start.

The ac-130s get placed under special operations control.

In just a few years,

The tricked-out gunship returns to the middle east

To see if it can finish the job.

October 7, 2001.

Nearly one month since the September 11th attacks.

A u.S.-Led coalition vows to punish the people

Responsible for the attacks on american soil.

President bush: On my orders, the united states military

Has begun strikes against the military installations

Of the taliban regime in afghanistan.

Narrator: U.S. Special forces quickly deploy to afghanistan.

Their mission:

Hunt down the terrorists hiding out in the region.

Helping them to do it:

The ac-130s.

Allison black: If they're going to put forces on the ground,

Why would you not put a gunship over them to protect them?

Narrator: Lieutenant colonel allison black

Was an ac-130 navigator during operation enduring freedom.

Black: The ground forces were moving constantly,

And we would just fly and loiter, waiting for...

Like an on-call, close air support situation.

Narrator: November 2001.

Karshi-khanabad, uzbekistan.

Black and her ac-130 crew take off just after sunset.

Their destination:

Just north of kunduz,

In taliban-held afghanistan.

Getting there isn't an easy task.

Black: We had to stay away from the mountains,

The high mountains that are higher

Than the airplane is going to be flying,

And be cognizant of the borders of the countries,

And get to the team on the ground.

Narrator: The gunship carefully picks its way

Through the mountain valleys,

Keeping alert for enemy fire.

It's quiet until they start to get close.

Black: Our route down to afghanistan,

It was dark.

There were not a lot of lights in towns and cities.

As we're getting closer to kunduz,

We're starting to see triple-a fire,

Anti-aircraft fire in the distance.

[radio chatter]

We knew that they had the potential to get us.

So we needed to be smart.

[radio chatter]

Narrator: Thirty minutes later, the ac-130 arrives on the scene.

First, they look for their brothers on the ground.

Black: We get to the area,

We make radio contact with the ground forces

And their afghan counterparts that are with them,

And we get a situation report.

Like tell us what's going on down there.

We see you. What do you need?

Man on radio: Not a whole lot going on down here.

It's very quiet.

Man on radio: Confirm it was 2-44-3.

Narrator: 8,000 feet below,

U.S. Special forces travel with the northern alliance,

An afghan militia seeking to topple taliban rule.

It's a useful allegiance,

Especially when identifying insurgents.

Black: Good information to have

Because we knew when we put our sensors in the area,

We had the right people.

[radio chatter]

Narrator: The ac-130 slowly circles the friendlies.

Ground troops call up,

Asking black and her crew to scan the area for threats.

Black: If you were out,

We were going to take a good look at you.

As we would find something,

I'd get a grid, a location of that possible target or activity

And pass it over the radio to the ground force.

[radio chatter]

Narrator: About a mile away from the friendlies,

Black's sensors spot a suspicious truck

Heading straight towards the ground team.

Man on radio: You see that? Man on radio: Just west of it.

Narrator: Black quickly gets on the radios

To let the troops know.

Man on radio: Confirm it was 2-44-3.

Black: This is what we're seeing.

What do you think? Is it good, is it bad?

Are these your guys, or is this taliban?

Man on radio: We have enemy qrf approaching...

Black: They replied copy

And cleared us to shoot that vehicle.

Man on radio: Free to engage the moving vehicle.

Narrator: Black's pilot rolls the gunship into orbit

And places the truck in his sights.

Before they can take a shot,

The truck stops at a building.

It's greeted by dozens of men.

Man on radio: We've got people

Walking out of the building right now.

Black: Multiple people were moving around,

And we took the time,

Trying to understand what was going on there.

Are they good? Are they bad?

Man on radio: Copy. Not free to fire

Till we have your permission.

[radio chatter]

Narrator: Black calls down to the ground,

Where special forces confer with their afghan allies.

Black: They came back on the radio

And said, "those are confirmed taliban.

You're cleared hot."

Narrator: The ac-130 crew

Quickly brings the guns back online,

Targets the vehicle,

And fires...

Shooting 40-millimeter and 105-millimeter rounds

At the ground, vehicle, and building.

[gunfire]

Black: When we started the engagement,

Hundreds of people poured out of the building.

It was a complete surprise to us.

Narrator: The ac-130 crew keeps firing...

But fears it's an overwhelming force.

If the gunship crew can't clear the area,

It risks a massive retaliation

On the very ground forces it's meant to protect.

November 2001.

Afghanistan.

Lieutenant colonel allison black's ac-130 gunship

Battles hundreds of taliban fighters

Less than a mile from friendly forces.

Black: It wasn't just five or ten;

There were hundreds.

And because they had the ability

To close that distance with our guys on the hillside,

We wanted to take them all out if we could.

We absolutely understood that if we couldn't accomplish that,

That they could pursue our guys.

Narrator: Inside the gunship,

The crew maintains intense focus,

Everyone working toward a single goal.

Black: And we're all laser-focused,

And we all felt the responsibility

To each other as a crew,

But then the loyalty and the responsibility

To the ground forces to get that mission done.

I'm also, as the navigator,

Relaying what's going on to the friendly forces.

If we get a detail wrong because we didn't hear it correctly,

It could lead to disaster.

Man on radio: You're underway.

[explosion]

Man on radio: Clear to fire.

Narrator: Black's gunship shoots and destroys each target...

One by one.

The taliban has no idea what hit them.

Four hours later...

Out of ammo and low on fuel,

Black's ac-130 turns back to base,

Leaving the ground team safe

And the taliban defeated.

Black: Who knows how many lives we saved

On the northern alliance side and our american side.

And that played such a toll, that they turned themselves in,

And they were like, "hey, we're done,

We don't want any of that anymore."

Narrator: In afghanistan's close-in war,

The gunship's performance proves

The 50-year-old design is still unmatched.

Black: The gunships have done very well in afghanistan.

There's no doubt in my mind

That many americans

Have been able to come home to their families

Because of gunships.

Narrator: By now, the ac-130 is a legend,

And the air force wants to make sure

That the legend lives on.

In 2015, they roll out the ac-130j ghostrider.

It's an ac-130 on steroids.

Head: The j model is now the most sophisticated plane

You can imagine.

It comes from the design for c-130js,

Which have the most fuel-efficient propeller engine

In the world.

Narrator: Some say it's more than a gunship;

It's a flying tank with guns.

Head: Its weapons systems are now the most modern.

It's got the 105, and it's got 30 millimeters.

So, the planes we've got now are mean.

[laughing]

And good.

[gunfire]

[explosion]

Narrator: To supplement the bullets,

The ghostrider can fire

Up to eight laser-guided hellfire missiles,

Or dish out ten griffin missiles

That drop and automatically fly to the intended target.

[explosions]

Walter: With the advent of precision-guided munitions,

Laser-guided munitions

Gps-guided munitions,

We're able to bring forth a very highly accurate,

Supportable, and high-technology gunship

That is anticipated to last for a very long time.

Narrator: If the air force has its way,

It will even have a laser gun.

Head: It's what we call a particle beam weapon.

It would shoot a laser beam down onto the target

And essentially melt it.

Walter: There's all kinds

Of possible potential weapons systems

That could be installed on that aircraft.

But right now, this is the best one we got,

And it's damn good.

Narrator: The ac-130.

It's one of the most feared and fabled assets

In the entire u.S. Air force,

Owned and operated solely by the united states.

Patterson: It's the most tactical

Close air support piece of weapon

In the air force inventory.

And there's nothing else out there like it.

♪

Narrator: Big...

Powerful...

And fully loaded.

For ground troops, it's a game changer.

Walter: As long as there's somebody on the ground

That needs fire support,

The gunship's going to be there.

Black: There's nothing that comes close to the gunship.

She's irreplaceable.

Narrator: Devastating...

Destructive...

And legendary.

The ac-130 is a force to be reckoned with.