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A Look at Military Aircraft in Operation Iron Hammer
Aired November 13, 2003 - 13:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk a little bit about this attack and the escalation of attacks by the U.S. military as it tries to seek out these insurgent terrorists. Joining us now to talk a little bit about it, retired Air Force General Don Shepperd out of Los Angeles today.
General Shepperd, good to have you with us.
MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: How are you, Miles?
O'BRIEN: Let's talk quickly about the AC-130, as we go through some of the statistics. I know you know a lot about it. Your son actually was a commander of one of these birds. This particular craft has a tremendous amount of firepower, 105 millimeter, 40 millimeter and 25 millimeter weaponry. They all fire from the left side, the aircraft firing in a in counterclockwise direction the whole time.
How effective, I guess a killing machine would be the word, is this?
SHEPPERD: It's very effective, Miles. It has all-light TV, infrared sensors on board, electronic countermeasures for radar-guided and also heat-seeking missiles. And in addition to that, that firepower is very precise, so it only (UNINTELLIGIBLE) you to do things inside a city with very little collateral damage. It's a effective weapon system for what we call urban close air support or military operations on urban terrain.
O'BRIEN: So in it's own way it's a smart weapon because the crew is so close to its target.
Let's talk a little bit about how it can be coordinated. We don't know that this is the case in this particular attack, along with unmanned vehicles, the Predator being one of them, which can actually send information to the crew and allow them to identify targets and home in.
Here's what we've shown you here. That's a Predator which would be flying much higher with a lock on, with a television signal. And that green thing that we're showing you right here is a stream of information, which will be fed into the AC-130.
What sorts of information would that be, and how does that guide the weaponry?
SHEPPERD: Yes, basically, we established in Afghanistan, and also in Iraq, layers of ISR, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance such as the Predator.
The Predator can now datalink information to the AC-130 so it can get the AC-130 looking at the same thing the Predator is seeing. And when it can do that, it can bring it's weapons to bear very quickly.
Now a scenario that this might play out in is looking for Saddam. You have Predators all over the place looking for him. They see him, they can then call up an AC-130 and get their eyes very quickly on Saddam feeling in a vehicle, would be an example, Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, quickly, gun No. 1, gun No. 2. What are those?
SHEPPERD: Gun No. 1, gun No. 2, a 40 millimeter Bofors cannon, a 105 millimeter Howitzer, and then in the Spooky model it has a 25 millimeter cannon also that is not in the Spectre the model. That was removed early on, a 20 millimeter was removed from that aircraft.
O'BRIEN: But here's a 25 millimeter Gatling gun, which is employed, correct?
SHEPPERD: It was. That's the 25 millimeter and it is in the Spooky aircraft. Yesterday, supposedly, the 25 millimeter was deployed. If it's true, it had to be the Spooky airplane.
O'BRIEN: All right. General Don Shepperd, thanks for giving us some insights. We'll check in with you later, talk a little bit more about some of the tactic and how these tactics are shifting over Iraq. Thanks very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 13, 2003 - 13:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk a little bit about this attack and the escalation of attacks by the U.S. military as it tries to seek out these insurgent terrorists. Joining us now to talk a little bit about it, retired Air Force General Don Shepperd out of Los Angeles today.
General Shepperd, good to have you with us.
MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: How are you, Miles?
O'BRIEN: Let's talk quickly about the AC-130, as we go through some of the statistics. I know you know a lot about it. Your son actually was a commander of one of these birds. This particular craft has a tremendous amount of firepower, 105 millimeter, 40 millimeter and 25 millimeter weaponry. They all fire from the left side, the aircraft firing in a in counterclockwise direction the whole time.
How effective, I guess a killing machine would be the word, is this?
SHEPPERD: It's very effective, Miles. It has all-light TV, infrared sensors on board, electronic countermeasures for radar-guided and also heat-seeking missiles. And in addition to that, that firepower is very precise, so it only (UNINTELLIGIBLE) you to do things inside a city with very little collateral damage. It's a effective weapon system for what we call urban close air support or military operations on urban terrain.
O'BRIEN: So in it's own way it's a smart weapon because the crew is so close to its target.
Let's talk a little bit about how it can be coordinated. We don't know that this is the case in this particular attack, along with unmanned vehicles, the Predator being one of them, which can actually send information to the crew and allow them to identify targets and home in.
Here's what we've shown you here. That's a Predator which would be flying much higher with a lock on, with a television signal. And that green thing that we're showing you right here is a stream of information, which will be fed into the AC-130.
What sorts of information would that be, and how does that guide the weaponry?
SHEPPERD: Yes, basically, we established in Afghanistan, and also in Iraq, layers of ISR, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance such as the Predator.
The Predator can now datalink information to the AC-130 so it can get the AC-130 looking at the same thing the Predator is seeing. And when it can do that, it can bring it's weapons to bear very quickly.
Now a scenario that this might play out in is looking for Saddam. You have Predators all over the place looking for him. They see him, they can then call up an AC-130 and get their eyes very quickly on Saddam feeling in a vehicle, would be an example, Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, quickly, gun No. 1, gun No. 2. What are those?
SHEPPERD: Gun No. 1, gun No. 2, a 40 millimeter Bofors cannon, a 105 millimeter Howitzer, and then in the Spooky model it has a 25 millimeter cannon also that is not in the Spectre the model. That was removed early on, a 20 millimeter was removed from that aircraft.
O'BRIEN: But here's a 25 millimeter Gatling gun, which is employed, correct?
SHEPPERD: It was. That's the 25 millimeter and it is in the Spooky aircraft. Yesterday, supposedly, the 25 millimeter was deployed. If it's true, it had to be the Spooky airplane.
O'BRIEN: All right. General Don Shepperd, thanks for giving us some insights. We'll check in with you later, talk a little bit more about some of the tactic and how these tactics are shifting over Iraq. Thanks very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
