Military analysts, meanwhile, are calling for the Pentagon to invest in more advanced technologies for special operations forces. A new study by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said AFSOC’s reliance on a C-130 based aviation fleet ignores the combat environment that the U.S. military will face in the future.
Special operations forces need a “stealthy air transport,” the study said. “AFSOC’s venerable C-130 variants have remained relevant through constant upgrades, sophisticated countermeasures, and advanced tactics. In the future, however, the inherently high signatures of the C-130 platform will render it extremely vulnerable” to enemy air defenses, said CSBA. U.S. Special Operations Command and the Air Force will need to “develop a mix of stealthy airlifters and non-standard clandestine aircraft capable of ‘hiding in plain sight,’” the study said.
CSBA also suggested AFSOC needs a “next-generation gunship." By 2018, AC-130 gunships will have been providing close air support to special operations for 50 years, the study said. Gunships have received constant upgrades to their weaponry, sensor packages, and countermeasures. “Nevertheless, their high signatures and low airspeeds make AC-130s extremely vulnerable in anything other than extremely permissive environments,” said CBSA. Possible alternatives could be a mix of low-cost “disposable” unmanned and stealthy strike aircraft.
Chris Dougherty, a former Army Ranger and one of the authors of the CSBA study, said that the use of C-130s for troop insertion and extraction “probably isn't going to cut it” in combat zones where enemies are well armed. “The [radar/heat] signature is going to be too high,” he said May 10. “The bigger near-term concern for SOF is the proliferation of guided rockets, artillery, mortars and missiles, particularly advanced man portable air defense systems,” he said. “When you are flying around in an aircraft with a radar cross section the size of a small building, having those capabilities out there is of concern.”