The smaller calibre guns (25mm GAU-12 and Bofors 40mm) are being replaced with the 30mm Mk44, which is said to be very effective. There has been talk of replacing the 105mm gun with a 120mm mortar, which would deliver a similar performance in a lighter package. The next step will be to add in Viper Strike munitions, and probably Hellfire missiles. As for JDAMs and other bombs, that is unlikely since they can be carried by other aircraft.

As for using them as a launch platform for JASSMs, that could be done by a regular C-130, as has been proposed with the German Taurus missile. In fact, a cargo C-130 has the cargo area available, but an AC-130 would need to be stripped down to do the same thing.

One major change will be the switch to distributed strike, i.e. an AC-130 using UAVs to spot targets, then choosing whether to fly there and attack by itself, or to send a UCAV to do the job.

Just bring back a few dozen Jaguars! They had a working cannon, good warload, were reasonably rugged, and should still be available from storage.

Actually, they are already upgrading it, to the A-10C (the -B having been taken already by the proposed night attack variant).

It probably fell through when the RN offered to sell them the carrier for £20…

Well, unless Boeing allow them to finance the purchase, which would be in their interests. If they can pay for them over a few years (i.e. buy now, pay later), then a larger fleet might be possible. Even better would be if they scrapped the FSTA deal (since the benefits of the ridiculous PFI deal are now widely recognised as questionable at best), and have Boeing make an offer the cannot refuse. If Boeing offered to increase the C-17 fleet to 10, and provide 20 KC-777s, all for a bargain basement price, then the RAF get what they want! It would probably all still cost less than the cost of the FSTA project!

I’ll sell it to ya :diablo: Cash up front and “as-is”.

Ahh, the Stavatti sales motto! :diablo:

I would be surprised if the Iranians had not reverse-engineered the J-85, since they have been using F-5s without support (post Shah) for over 25 years! It is a small, reasonably simple engine, and with some assistance, it certainly should be within their capabilities.

As for improvements, small improvements in fuel economy should not be too hard, but improvements in thrust may well be acheived simply by running the engines hotter, and accepting the decreased TBOs.

I do doubt they have gone to the effort of modifying the aircraft to use a Russian engine though – if anyone has done that, it is likely to be the Russians. There is no real reason why the Russians could not have simply been contracted to produce an improved J-85, and it is certainly not beyond their capabilities to manufacture an improved J-85!