A gunship is a
military aircraft
A military aircraft is any Fixed-wing aircraft, fixed-wing or rotorcraft, rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type. Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat:
* Combat aircraft are ...
armed with
heavy aircraft guns, primarily intended for attacking ground targets either as
airstrike
An airstrike, air strike or air raid is an offensive operation carried out by aircraft. Air strikes are delivered from aircraft such as blimps, balloons, fighters, heavy bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters and drones. The off ...
or as
close air support
In military tactics, close air support (CAS) is defined as air action such as air strikes by fixed or rotary-winged aircraft against hostile targets near friendly forces and require detailed integration of each air mission with fire and movemen ...
.
In modern usage the term "gunship" refers to
fixed-wing aircraft having
laterally-mounted heavy armaments (i.e. firing to the side) to attack ground or sea targets. These gunships are 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). The term "gunship" originated in the mid-19th century as a synonym for
gunboat and also referred to the heavily armed
ironclad steamship
A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamship ...
s used during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
.
The term helicopter gunship is commonly used to describe
armed helicopter
An armed helicopter is a military helicopter equipped with aircraft ordnance. Most commonly, it is used for attacking targets on the ground. Such a helicopter could be either purposely designed for a ground-attack mission—in which case it wo ...
s.
World War II aviation
Bomber escort
During 1942 and 1943, the lack of a usable
escort fighter for the
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
in the
European Theatre of Operations
The European theatre of World War II was one of the two main theatres of combat during World War II. It saw heavy fighting across Europe for almost six years, starting with Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and ending with th ...
led to experiments in dramatically increasing the armament of a standard
Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress, and later a single
Consolidated B-24D Liberator
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models de ...
, to each have 14 to 16
Browning AN/M2 .50 cal machine guns as the
Boeing YB-40 Flying Fortress and
Consolidated XB-41 Liberator respectively. These were to accompany regular
heavy bomber
Heavy bombers are bomber aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually bombs) and longest range ( takeoff to landing) of their era. Archetypal heavy bombers have therefore usually been among the larg ...
formations over occupied Europe on
strategic bombing raids for long-range escort duties as "flying destroyer gunships". The YB-40 was sometimes described as a gunship, and a small 25-aircraft batch of the B-17-derived gunships were built, with a dozen of these deployed to Europe; the XB-41 had problems with stability and did not progress.
Attack aircraft
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, the urgent need for hard-hitting
attack aircraft
An attack aircraft, strike aircraft, or attack bomber is a tactical military aircraft that has a primary role of carrying out airstrikes with greater precision than bombers, and is prepared to encounter strong low-level air defenses while pre ...
led to the development of the heavily armed gunship versions of the
North American B-25 Mitchell. For use against shipping in the Pacific 405 B-25Gs were armed with a
75 mm (2.95 in) M4 cannon and a thousand B-25Hs followed. The H models, delivered from August 1943, moved the dorsal turret forward to just behind the cockpit and were armed with the lighter 75mm T13E1 cannon. The B-25J variant removed the 75mm gun but carried a total of eighteen 0.50 cal (12.7 mm) AN/
M2 Browning machine gun
The M2 machine gun or Browning .50 caliber machine gun (informally, "Ma Deuce") is a heavy machine gun that was designed towards the end of World War I by John Browning. Its design is similar to Browning's earlier M1919 Browning machine gun, ...
s, more than any other contemporary American aircraft: eight in the nose, four in under-cockpit
conformal flank-mount gun pod packages, two in the
dorsal turret, one each in the pair of waist positions, and a pair in the tail, giving a maximum of fourteen guns firing forward in
strafing runs. Later the B-25J was armed with eight
5 in. (130 mm) high velocity aircraft rockets (HVARs).
The British also made large numbers of twin-engined fighter bombers. The
de Havilland Mosquito
The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is a British twin-engined, shoulder-winged, multirole combat aircraft, introduced during the World War II, Second World War. Unusual in that its frame was constructed mostly of wood, it was nicknamed the "Wooden ...
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
Ju 87Gs (''Kanonenvogel'') were armed with two
BK 37mm autocannon in underwing gun pods. The
Ju 88P gunships were armed with 37mm, 50mm and 75mm guns, and were used as tankbusters and as bomber destroyers. The
Hs 129 could carry a 30 mm (1.181 in)
MK 101 cannon or
MK 103 cannon
The Rheinmetall-Borsig MK 103 ("MK" - '' Maschinenkanone'') was a German 30 mm caliber autocannon that was mounted in German combat aircraft during World War II. Intended to be a dual purpose weapon for anti-tank and air-to-air fighting, it was de ...
in a conformally mounted gun pod (B-2/R-2). The
Me 410 ''Hornisse'' were armed with the same
BK 50mm autocannon as the Ju 88P-4, but were only used as bomber destroyers. None of the German twin-engine heavy fighters types were produced or converted in large numbers.
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. 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).
The
Douglas AC-47 Spooky was the first notable modern gunship. In 1964, during the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, the popular
Douglas C-47 Skytrain
The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF, and SAAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained ...
transport was successfully modified into a gunship by the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Si ...
with three side-firing
Miniguns for circling attacks. At the time the aircraft was known as a "Dragonship", "Puff, the Magic Dragon" or "Spooky" (officially designated FC-47, later corrected to AC-47). Its three 7.62 mm miniguns could selectively fire either 50 or 100 rounds per second. Cruising in an overhead left-hand orbit at 120 knots air speed at an altitude of , the gunship could put a bullet or glowing red tracer (every fifth round) into every square yard of a football field–sized target in potentially less than 10 seconds. And, as long as its 45-flare and 24,000-round basic load of ammunition held out, it could do this intermittently while loitering over the target for hours.
The lesser known
Fairchild AC-119G Shadow and
AC-119K Stingers were twin-engine piston-powered gunships developed by the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
during the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
. Armed with four 7.62 mm GAU-2/A Miniguns (and two 20 mm (0.787 in)
M61 Vulcan six-barrel
rotary cannon
A rotary cannon, rotary autocannon, rotary gun or Gatling cannon, is any large- caliber multiple-barreled automatic firearm that uses a Gatling-type rotating barrel assembly to deliver a sustained saturational direct fire at much greater r ...
s in the AC-119K version), they replaced the
Douglas AC-47 Spooky and operated alongside the early versions of the
AC-130 Spectre gunship.
It was the later and larger
Lockheed AC-130 ''Gunship II'' that became the modern, post–World War II origin of the term gunship in military aviation. These heavily armed aircraft used a variety of weapon systems, including 7.62 mm GAU-2/A Miniguns, 20 mm (0.787 in)
M61 Vulcan six-barrel
rotary cannon
A rotary cannon, rotary autocannon, rotary gun or Gatling cannon, is any large- caliber multiple-barreled automatic firearm that uses a Gatling-type rotating barrel assembly to deliver a sustained saturational direct fire at much greater r ...
s, 25 mm (0.984 in)
GAU-12/U Equalizer five-barreled rotary cannons, 30 mm
Mk44 Bushmaster II
The Mk44 Bushmaster II is a 30 mm chain gun manufactured by Northrop Grumman. It is a derivative of the 25 mm M242 Bushmaster, and uses 70% of the same parts as the M242 while increasing the firepower by as much as 50% with the 20% increas ...
chain guns,
40 mm (1.58 in) L/60 Bofors autocannons, and 105 mm (4.13 in)
M102 howitzers. The
Douglas AC-47 Spooky, the
Fairchild AC-119, and the AC-130 Spectre/Spooky, were vulnerable, and meant to operate only after achieving
air superiority
Aerial supremacy (also air superiority) is the degree to which a side in a conflict holds control of air power over opposing forces. There are levels of control of the air in aerial warfare. Control of the air is the aerial equivalent of com ...
.
Smaller gunship designs such as the
Fairchild AU-23 Peacemaker and the
Helio AU-24 Stallion were also designed by the United States during the Vietnam War. These aircraft were meant to be cheap and easy to fly and maintain, and were to be given to friendly governments in Southeast Asia to assist with
counter-insurgency
Counterinsurgency (COIN) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionar ...
operations, eventually seeing service with the
Khmer National Air Force,
Royal Thai Air Force, and
Republic of Vietnam Air Force as well as limited use by the United States Air Force.
Renewed interest in the concept of gunships has resulted in the development of a gunship variant of the
Alenia C-27J Spartan
The Alenia C-27J Spartan is a military transport aircraft developed and manufactured by Leonardo's Aircraft Division (formerly Alenia Aermacchi until 2016). It is an advanced derivative of Alenia Aeronautica's earlier G.222 (C-27A Spartan i ...
. Although the United States Air Force decided not to procure the AC-27J, other nations including Italy have chosen the aircraft for introduction. Additionally, in 2013 the US
Air Force Special Operations Command reportedly tested a gunship version of the
C-145A Skytruck armed with a
GAU-18 twin-mount .50-calibre machine gun system.
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
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experimented with the installation of
M2 Browning
The M2 machine gun or Browning .50 caliber machine gun (informally, "Ma Deuce") is a heavy machine gun that was designed towards the end of World War I by John Browning. Its design is similar to Browning's earlier M1919 Browning machine gun, ...
.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
Air assault is the movement of ground-based military forces by vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft—such as the helicopter—to seize and hold key terrain which has not been fully secured, and to directly engage enemy forces behind ...
operations and in the fire support to the troops in the ground. The
South African and
Rhodesian
Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of So ...
air forces later used armed Alouette III in similar configurations as the Portuguese, respectively in the
South African Border and
Rhodesian Bush wars.
During the
Algerian War
The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November ...
, the French operated
Sikorsky H-34 "Pirate" armed with a German 20mm
MG151 cannon and two .50 machine guns. During the early days of the Vietnam War, USMC
H-34s were among the first helicopter gunships in theater, fitted with the
Temporary Kit-1 (TK-1), comprising two
M60C machine guns and two 19-shot
2.75 inch rocket pods. The operations were met with mixed enthusiasm, and the armed H-34s, known as "Stingers", were quickly phased out. The TK-1 kit would form the basis of the
TK-2 kit used later on the UH-1E helicopters of the USMC.
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
The Bell UH-1 Iroquois (nicknamed "Huey") is a utility military helicopter designed and produced by the American aerospace company Bell Helicopter. It is the first member of the prolific Huey family, as well as the first turbine-powered helico ...
helicopters were modified into gunships by mounting the U.S. Helicopter Armament Subsystems—these were forward-firing weapons, such as
machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles ...
s,
rockets, and
autocannon
An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-caliber ( or more) armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary shells, as opposed to the smaller-caliber kinetic projectiles (bul ...
s, that began to appear in 1962–1963. 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''. Specifically, dedicated
attack helicopter
An attack helicopter is an armed helicopter with the primary role of an attack aircraft, with the offensive capability of engaging ground targets such as enemy infantry, military vehicles and fortifications. Due to their heavy armament they ...
s such as the
Bell AH-1 Cobra
The Bell AH-1 Cobra is a single-engined attack helicopter developed and manufactured by the American rotorcraft manufacturer Bell Helicopter. A member of the prolific Huey family, the AH-1 is also referred to as the HueyCobra or Snake.
The ...
also fit this meaning. In any case, the gunship armaments include machine guns, rockets, and
missile
In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket ...
s.
The Soviet
Mil Mi-24 (NATO code name: Hind) is a large, heavily armed and armored helicopter gunship and
troop transport.
[''Mil Mi-24 Hind Gunship''.
By Alexander Miladenov. Osprey Publishing 2010. Pages 4–10.] It was introduced in the 1970s and operated by the pre-1991
Soviet Air Force
The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...
and its successors post-1991, and more than 30 other nations.
[OPFOR WORLDWIDE EQUIPMENT GUIDE](_blank)
/ref> It was heavily armed with a reinforced fuselage, designed to withstand .50 caliber (12.7 mm) machine gun fire. Its armored cockpits and titanium rotor head are able to withstand 20 mm cannon hits.
Examples
;Fixed-wing aircraft
* Basler BT-67
The Basler BT-67 is a utility aircraft produced by Basler Turbo Conversions of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It is a remanufactured and modified Douglas DC-3; the modifications are designed to significantly extend the DC-3's serviceable lifetime.
Design ...
* 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
* SA 330 Puma
* AH-64 Apache
* ACH-47 Chinook
* Bell UH-1M
* Mil Mi-24
* Mil Mi-28
The Mil Mi-28 ( NATO reporting name "Havoc") is a Russian all-weather, day-night, military tandem, two-seat anti-armor attack helicopter. It is an attack helicopter with no intended secondary transport capability, better optimized than the Mi ...
* HAL LCH
The HAL Prachand (IPA: prəcəɳɖ, lit.''"Fierce"'') is an Indian multi-role, light attack helicopter designed and manufactured by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) under project LCH. It has been ordered by the Indian Air Force and the ...
* HAL Rudra
* Sikorsky MH-60L DAP
See also
*Counter-insurgency aircraft Counter-insurgency aircraft or COIN aircraft are a specialized variety of military light attack aircraft, designed for counter-insurgency operations, armed reconnaissance, air escort of ground forces, and ground support against "low-intensity enga ...
References
Notes
Sources
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