U.S. AC-130W Gunship Practices Wiping Out Small Boat Swarms With The U.S. Navy In The Persian Gulf

Warzone/The Drive: Warning To Iran: AC-130W Gunship Practices Slaying Boats With U.S. Navy In The Persian Gulf

The AC-130's massive volume of fire, precision, magazine depth, and sensors make it a ferocious tool for mitigating the threat of small boat swarms.

A U.S. Air Force AC-130W Stinger II gunship recently conducted a first-of-its-kind training exercise in the Persian Gulf with U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol planes and Cyclone class patrol boats. These assets working together could provide a formidable means of defeating swarms of small boats, such as the ones that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps operates in significant numbers. The exercise came just days before Iranian-backed militias killed two U.S. troops and a British servicemember, and wounded more, in a rocket attack that has led to retaliatory American airstrikes and a spike in tensions in the region.

The exercise took place between Mar. 8 and 9, 2020, but the Navy's top command in the Middle East only publicly announced that it had occurred on Mar. 15. It's not clear how many AC-130Ws, P-8As, and Cyclones took part in total, but video and images Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) subsequently released show at least one Stinger II gunship and three of the patrol boats, including the USS Monsoon.

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WNU Editor: The Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic is definitely not lessening tensions between the two countries .... Coronavirus adds new element to rising US-Iran tensions (The Hill).

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