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16 Although not originally intended, the second major production model gunship deployed to Vietnam was the AC-119G, followed by the AC-119K. Air Force leaders never meant for Shadow and Spectre to replace Spooky, but airframe availability and Washington politics made it so. The AC-130 was initially designated to replace Puff, and the AC-130A prototype did fly several dozen combat test missions in 1967, long before the AC-119s deployed. But numerous internal disagreements among senior Defense Department officials caused the AC-130 program to be delayed. As a result, the AC-119 evolved into a spur-of-the-moment solution that leaders such as Secretary of the Air Force (SECAF) Harold Brown believed would rapidly augment the AC-47s. Thus, while the C-119 was the third major airframe designated for conversion into a gunship, it became the second one to go into full-scale production. Like the C-47, the C-119 was a vintage cargo/transport aircraft. Originally built in the 1950s by Fairchild-Hiller Aircraft Inc., Saint Augustine, Florida, it had a checkered career as a transport. In 1967 it was dragged out of reserve duty to augment the AC-47 and prototype AC-130A as well as act as a bridge between the AC-47’s retirement and the activation of the production AC-130As. In the end, Fairchild-Hiller reconfigured fifty-two, making it the most numerous replacement gunship model ever built. Plans called for the AC-119 to assume convoy escort, hamlet defense, and CAS duties from Spooky. It did these jobs well. While it never could kill trucks as effectively as the AC-130 models could, and, the G model proved in some ways only a minor improvement over the AC-47s, the K models were truly lethal interdiction weapons. The K model added increased engine power with 2 The AC-119G/K Gunship Program An Overview AC-119G/K GUNSHIP PROGRAM | 17 two J-85 jet engines that supplemented its two propeller engines. It also had greater firepower with the addition of two 20mm Gatling guns to the G model ’s four 7.62mm miniguns, an improved fire control system, and a forwardlooking infrared (FLIR) system. The AC-119G proved a worthy successor to the AC-47 for missions in South Vietnam, while the K models not only complemented the AC-130’s interdiction efforts but more than held their own along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.1 Leaders designated the modification program Project Combat Hornet. Fairchild-Hiller converted twenty-six C-119Gs to AC-119Gs at their plant in Saint Augustine, incorporating four 7.62mm SUU-11A/1A minigun pods, later replaced by General Electric MXU-470 minigun modules. They also fitted the G models with high-tech equipment that included the AVQ-8 twenty kilowatt xenon light, night observation systems (NOSs), LAU-74A flare launchers , armor, and electronic countermeasure (ECM) equipment. Given the call sign Shadow, the Gs were initially assigned to the 71st Air Commando Squadron (later in 1969 the 71st SOS) and later the 17th SOS, which was part of the 14th Special Operations Wing (14th SOW). Fairchild also reconfigured twentysix C-119s into AC-119Ks by attaching J-85-GE-17 jet engines under the aircraft ’s wings. The Ks incorporated even better high-tech radars, avionics, and electronic countermeasures as well as two M61A1 20mm Gatling guns. The first AC-119Ks were delivered on November 3, 1969 to the 18th SOS, also part of the 14th SOW. Its call sign was Stinger.2 A Brief Background of the AC-119 Fairchild-Hiller designed and produced the C-119 Flying Boxcar as a substantial upgrade and modification of its C-82 Packet. The first C-119 flight was on November 1, 1947, and, by the time the last of ten versions rolled off the assembly line in October 1955, eleven hundred of them had been produced . The C-119 aircraft were particularly distinctive because of their twin tail booms, which came forward alongside the fuselage and attached to the wings where the engines continued in front of the wing. The aircraft became TAC’s primary in-theater troop transport, its main paratroop drop aircraft, and its number one aerial resupply aircraft during the Korean War. In spite of its remarkable service, by the end of the war the Air Force was looking for a replacement. Among those companies vying to build this upgrade was Lockheed, which had already begun the development of the...

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