Air Warriors

Ruthless...

And lethal...

The ac-130 gunship is made to put bullets...

Where bombs can't go.

Man: Nothing can really match the firepower

Of the ac-130 gunship.

Narrator: To its friends, it's a guardian angel.

Man: As long as there's somebody that needs fire support,

The gunship's going to be there.

Narrator: To its enemies, it's an angel of death.

Woman: They couldn't believe what was happening.

And where was this attack coming from?

Narrator: This is the story of how this lumbering giant

Was left exposed...

Man: The iraqi forces took advantage of it,

And we lost a good crew.

Narrator: Only to find its strength in darkness.

Man: It was just what the doctor ordered.

Narrator: October 3, 2016.

Kunduz city, afghanistan.

The united states military and its afghan partners

Struggle to maintain control of the city.

Reporter: Taliban fighters have taken control

Of the center of kunduz.

Narrator: The assault marks the fourth taliban attack

In just one week.

There'll likely be more.

Man: This is still part of the fighting season.

The taliban would like to take population centers.

Narrator: U.S. And afghan forces work side by side,

Conducting raids in afghan villages,

Hoping to root out the taliban

Once and for all.

Watching out for them from above--

The ac-130.

Sean silva: Behind me is the ac-130 gunship.

It's the air force's premier close air support platform.

Narrator: 38 feet tall...

133-foot wingspan...

The ac-130 is hard to miss.

This heavyweight is in a class of its own.

Silva: Its mass gross payload of 155,000 pounds

Allows us to carry more weapons, crew, and ammunition

Than any of the rotary-wing gunships.

Narrator: When soldiers need a fist to come down from above,

This is the weapon they call for.

Silva: The primary mission of the ac-130 gunship

Is to support the guys on the ground,

Keep them safe,

And make sure they are able to come home after their mission.

Narrator: November 2016.

Afghanistan.

Nearly one month since the taliban attack on kunduz.

Just north of the city,

Insurgents gather near a village,

Plotting to make further attacks.

U.S. Special forces catch wind of their location

And vow to disrupt them before it's too late.

Aaron hall: Basically we wanted to root out

The embedded taliban force inside the village itself.

Narrator: Major aaron hall has served on ac-130s

For over fifteen years.

Hall: The special forces team along with the partner force,

We're going to move in

In an attempt to capture these folks

And get as much information as they could.

Narrator: Late at night, the special operations team

Gathers just outside the village.

Their plan is to sneak in

And catch insurgents by surprise.

It's not easy to catch the taliban off guard.

The ground troops rely on hall's ac-130

To watch their backs.

Hall: We were overhead scanning around their position,

Making sure that there were no enemies

Coming in on their locations.

Man on radio: Let me know when you see the target area,

And I'll start the gun.

Hall: This was a large village area,

So multiple structures,

Pretty dense group of buildings.

And as soon as the ground force

Started moving down in that area,

We started seeing some movement.

Man on radio: We got a vehicle moving out.

Narrator: Hall's ac-130 flies with 13 crew members--

The largest aircrew of any combat aircraft

In the air force inventory.

In the cockpit,

Two pilots and a flight engineer,

Who monitors the aircraft's systems.

Behind the cockpit,

The heart of the gunship,

Otherwise known as "the booth."

Five crew members share the space.

Silva: We have our two sensor operators

Sitting up behind me.

The fire control officer sits here,

And the navigator sits next to him.

And then in the back

We have the electronic warfare officer as well.

Narrator: The sensor operators scan the ground for threats

And pass the info to the navigator,

Who validates the target.

Then it's up to the fire control officer

To select the weapon.

While the others in the booth run offense,

The electronic warfare officer is all defense,

Keeping an eye on the ground for threats.

If the front of the aircraft is its brains,

The back is all muscle.

Three gunners load up the weapons

As fast as they can.

Two more look out for threats

From the right and rear scanner bubbles.

Once the weapons are armed,

It's the sensor operators who fire.

Silva: What really makes the gunship the gunship

Is the well-orchestrated symphony

That happens inside the aircraft

To be able to put those rounds down on the ground,

Close to the friendlies when they need it.

Narrator: Over afghanistan,

Major aaron hall keeps watch on u.S. Special forces

From the booth of his ac-130.

Man on radio: Tracking, I got the square building,

The rectangle building to the northwest.

Man: We have a square building

And a rectangle building to the northwest.

Narrator: 8,000 feet below,

A special ops team slowly makes its way

Through an insurgent village...

Not knowing if the people around them

Are friend or foe.

Hall: The assumption is the taliban probably had

Some other folks in the rest of the village

Spotting for them as well.

Narrator: The ground team

Cautiously approaches a gated compound.

Man: Let's go. Roll it in.

Narrator: They suspect

That a taliban fighting cell is inside.

Suddenly, the sensor operator in the ac-130

Spots a small group of men walking just beyond the gate.

Hall: They seemed to be pretty suspicious.

It did appear that they knew that the friendly force

Was moving in their direction.

Narrator: The navigator radios a warning

Down to the ground team.

Man on radio: People running through...

Copy.

Narrator: But it's already too late.

One of the men lobs a grenade over the gate...

And right into the friendlies.

Hall: That's when all hell broke loose.

As soon as we saw the explosion, that's when it was game on.

Man: Get up, man. Get up.

Narrator: In a flash,

Dozens of insurgents emerge from surrounding buildings.

Hall: The friendly forces were surrounded on three sides.

They were trapped, and there was no place they could go.

Narrator: Hall and his crew must respond--fast.

Hall: I immediately brought up two guns,

And we moved in to engage them.

Narrator: The ac-130.

It's the world's biggest flying artillery gun.

Its enemies know it as hell in the sky.

Silva: So the guns are obviously

What make the gunship the gunship.

We have three side-firing weapons.

We can shoot two of them at the same time,

Either at the same target or at separate targets.

Narrator: Toward the front of the plane,

The 25-millimeter gatling gun.

Silva: This is the 25-millimeter gau-12 gatling gun.

We call it the crowd-pleaser.

From the 350-round bursts,

It's just 12 seconds of a fireball

Coming out the side of the aircraft.

It's pretty impressive.

Narrator: Behind it is a weapon in service since world war ii,

The 40-millimeter bofors cannon.

Silva: It can fire off 200 rounds a minute.

This is our most accurate weapon.

Because of its low collateral damage,

It's the one we get to fire the most in combat.

Narrator: In the back is the gunship's specialty--

The deadly and ferocious 105.

Silva: This is the 105-millimeter howitzer.

This is the biggest gun we have on the gunship.

Its firepower is unmatched by any other airframe.

Narrator: This massive cannon

Can fire approximately 10 rounds per minute.

It recoils with enough force

To bench-press over 20,000 pounds.

Silva: We can put these on vehicles,

Hardened targets, buildings,

Any kind of structure that we need penetrated.

Narrator: No other gunship puts more rounds on the ground,

And troops in afghanistan need every bullet.