Flying aboard the Ghostrider, a deadly aircraft carrying America’s biggest gun in the sky
Brad Lendon
By Brad Lendon and Mike Valerio, CNN
Updated 4:43 AM EDT, Wed July 10, 2024
As the US Air Force AC-130J flies over South Korea’s towering apartment blocks, its powerful cameras can almost see inside windows on the highest floors.
Aiming farther afield, the weapons officers on the four-engine aircraft, nicknamed Ghostrider, can pick out objects at 50,000 feet, almost 10 miles away – all potential targets for the biggest gun ever mounted on a fixed-wing plane.
CNN got an exclusive look inside the aircraft, assigned to Air Force Special Operations Command, in early June after it flew from its home base in Hurlburt Field, Florida, for joint drills in South Korea.
In a live-fire exercise, the 105-millimeter howitzer pumped out 43-pound shells, into a firing range east of Seoul, the force of each blast so powerful that it pushed the tail of the 80-
ton plane six feet to the right.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/09/asia/korea-ac130j-ghostrider-gunship-biggest-gun-intl-hnk-ml/index.html
