Cannon Could Host AC-27 Gunship

Cannon Could Host AC-27 Gunship: Cannon AFB, N.M., Air Force Special Operation Command’s second home since last October, could host the new mini AC-27 gunship that the Air Force wants to develop, Gen. Michael Moseley, Chief of Staff, said during a Congressional hearing March 12. The Air Force is exploring a “Gunship Light” concept with US Special Operations Command that would be based on a modified version of the C-27 transport aircraft, which is smaller in size than Air Force Special Operations Command’s current AC-130 gunships. The AC-27s would carry a 30 mm gun, Moseley said. Cannon gives AFSOC’s 27th Special Operations Wing access to the vast range space of nearby Melrose range as well as White Sands Missile Range and Fort Bliss, Tex.., so that it can conduct realistic gunnery and bombing training with AC-130s, Moseley told the Senate Appropriations defense committee in response to a question posed by Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.). This could also apply to AC-27s. “We now have some opportunities to do some very, very creative training,” including in concert with the Army, he told Domenici. Already the 27th SOW has certified areas of the Melrose Range to receive cannon fire from AC-130 gunships, he said. (For more on AFSOC at Cannon, see Marc V. Schanz’s piece Special Operators Head West.)

3/14/2008

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No Dog, Just Concern
"You know it concerns me that we keep hearing, 'Well this is something that the military doesn't want. They didn't ask for,' and all that. Then I go over there [Southwest Asia theater], and that's not their attitude at all. They have needs over there. Our lift capacity is in dire straights. … Now on the F-22—just yesterday we read about the T-50 … a fifth generation [fighter] that the Russians have. … I'm concerned about this. And I guess, you know, if we're down to 187 F-22s, and I think out of that only—what 120 are actually combat ready and used for combat. … I look at our committee—the Senate Armed Services Committee—and on these two vehicles I mentioned—the F-22 and the C-17—in Oklahoma. I don't have a dog in that fight. We don't have any parochial interest there. But it's the capability that we're going to need."
—Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), speaking during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Fiscal 2011 defense budget, Feb. 2, 2010.

Verbatim

Taming Expectations
"Every QDR disappoints those who look for radical reallocation of resources. The current fiscal environment is compounding that trend."
—Jim Thomas, vice president for studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, briefing reporters in Washington, D.C., Jan. 26, 2010.