US Air Force/Senior Airman Julianne Showalter
The AC-130 has humble origins. Essentially it is a 1950s cargo plane, the C-130 Hercules, decked out with guns, advanced avionics, guns, and more guns.
Able to fly faster and higher than a helicopter, but with excellent range and loiter time, the AC-130 is one of the most effective platforms for delivering devastation downrange available on air, sea, or land.
The magic of the AC-130 is it's ability to slowly bank and fly in cricles, while the side mounted guns rain down destruction on a single central point.
Recent footage from Warleaks takes us inside this mighty gunship, as we'll explore in the slides below.