#ACE SOCOM

[g4zdtechtv]

THE PILE PRESENTS: X-Play - Planes, Trains and You Get the General Idea | 12/6/06

It's not just a career, it's an adventure!

(4GTV - STREAM WHAT YOU PLAY!)

[usafphantom2]

AC-130 Gunship’s Laser Weapon Cancelled, 105mm Howitzer May Be Removed

The AC-130J was set to get the first operational airborne laser weapon, but that plan is over as the gunship changes to ensure its relevance.

Joseph TrevithickPUBLISHED Mar 19, 2024 1:56 PM EDT

The US Air Force no longer plans to flight test a laser directed energy weapon on an AC-130J Ghostrider gunship.

USAF

The U.S. Air Force has scrapped plans to flight test an AC-130J Ghostrider gunship armed with a laser directed energy weapon after years of delays. The Airborne High Energy Laser program for the AC-130J had for a time looked set to become the U.S. military's first operational aerial laser directed weapon. This all also comes amid a review of the AC-130J's current and future planned capabilities, which could see the gunships lose their 105mm howitzers, as part of a broader shift away from counter-insurgency operations to planning for a high-end fight.

Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) confirmed that there are no longer plans to test the prototype Airborne High Energy Laser (AHEL) system on an AC-130J and provided other details about the current state of the program to The War Zone earlier today.

"After accomplishing significant end-to-end high power operation in an open-air ground test, the AHEL solid state laser system experienced technical challenges," an AFSOC spokesperson said in a statement. "These challenges delayed integration onto [the] designated AC-130J Block 20 aircraft past the available integration and flight test window."

One past US Air Force rendering of an AC-130 with a laser directed energy weapon. USAF

The original hope was flight testing of an AC-130J with the AHEL system would take place sometime in the 2021 Fiscal Year, but this schedule was repeatedly pushed back. In November 2023, AFSOC told The War Zone that a laser-armed Ghostrider was set to take to the skies in January of this year, something that clearly did not occur.

Lockheed Martin received the initial contract in 2019 to supply the AHEL's laser source for the system and lead the effort to integrate the system onto an AC-130J. The complete AHEL system also includes a beam director and other components.

A now-dated US Special Operations Command briefing slide discussing the AHEL program and the components of the weapon system itself. SOCOM

"As a result, the program was re-focused on ground testing to improve operations and reliability to posture for a successful hand off for use by other agencies," the statement added.

This is all further confirmed by the Pentagon's 2025 Fiscal Year budget request, which was rolled out last week, and does not ask for any new funding for AHEL. Official budget documents say this is because the program is expected to close out in the 2024 Fiscal Year.

What "other agencies" might now be in line to benefit from the AHEL program's work and the exact status of the 60-kilowatt class laser directed energy weapon system developed under the program are unclear. AFSOC directed further questions to U.S. Special Operations Command, which The War Zone has now reached out to for more information.

The U.S. Navy's Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWC Dahlgren) had already been deeply involved in the AHEL program. The Navy has been very active in the development and fielding of various types of shipboard directed energy weapons, including another 60-kilowatt class laser directed energy weapon called the High-Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance, or HELIOS. Lockheed Martin is also the prime contractor for that system.

The US Navy's Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Preble pierside in San Diego in July 2022. The ship's HELIOS directed energy weapon system can be seen on a platform immediately in front of the main superstructure. USN

The U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps have also been working to develop and field different types of air and ground-based directed energy weapons.

The Air Force has been working on at least one other aerial laser directed energy weapon in recent years, under the Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) Self-protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD) program. The SHiELD effort was centered around a podded system for tactical jets ostensibly intended to help defend against incoming missiles, though it would have the ability to engage other target sets. In the past, the stated goal was to begin flight testing of the SHiELD pod in 2025, but its current status is unclear.

A rendering of a US Air Force F-16C Viper fighter with a podded laser directed energy weapon. Lockheed Martin

The Air Force is pursuing other directed energy weapon programs, including for base defense use on the ground. Additional work is understood to be going on in the classified realm, including efforts tied to the larger Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) initiative.

For the Air Force's current fleet of 30 AC-130Js, the end of the AHEL program comes amid larger questions about the future of Ghostrider's armament package and other current and future capabilities. There are growing signs that the Ghostriders are set to lose their 105mm howitzers as part of this reassessment of the aircraft's capabilities.

"Initiate engineering analysis and development to remove the aft weapon system (105mm Gun), refit the aft section, and optimize crew workload in support of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) crew reduction initiatives," is the plan for the AC-130Js in the 2024 Fiscal Year, according to the Pentagon's latest budget request. The War Zone has reached out to AFSOC for further clarification.

The Air Force originally planned not to include a 105mm howitzer in the armament package for the AC-130J, which was originally focused more on the employment of precision-guided missiles and bombs than guns at all. The service subsequently changed course and had more recently been in the process of integrating improved howitzers onto the Ghostriders. That work came to a halt last year after the start of the capability review. As of last November, only 17 of the 30 AC-130Js had gotten this upgrade.

AFSOC has been taking this new look at the Ghostrider's current and future planned capabilities in large part due to discussions about how AC-130Js might contribute to future high-end conflicts, especially one in the Pacific against China. AC-130Js, which are today primarily tasked with providing very close support to special operations forces on the ground, currently operate almost exclusively in permissive and semi-permissive environments and at night.

AHEL has been presented in the past as being ideally suited to supporting lower-intensity counter-insurgency-type missions.

"Without the slightest bang, whoosh, thump, explosion, or even aircraft engine hum, four key targets [an electrical transformer, the engine of a pick-up truck, communication equipment, and a parked drone,] are permanently disabled," now-retired Lt. Gen. Brad Webb, then head of AFSOC, said in a 2017 interview with National Defense magazine, describing a notional mission for a laser-armed AC-130. "The enemy has no communications, no escape vehicle, no electrical power, and no retaliatory intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capability. Minutes later, the team emerges from the compound, terrorist mastermind in hand. A successful raid."

In line with all this, the Air Force is also looking to add a new active electronically-scanned array (AESA) radar to these gunships, "allowing the platform to detect, target, identify, and engage across a spectrum of threats at longer ranges and react with greater precision," according to Pentagon budget documents. You can read more about the benefits of adding an AESA to the AC-130J here.

Other specialized C-130 variants belonging to AFSOC have been heavily involved in the testing of a palletized weapon system called Rapid Dragon. Rapid Dragon offers a way to readily transform existing cargo aircraft into launch platforms for AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) cruise missiles and other stand-off munitions. SOCOM has previously expressed interest in the past in integrating precision-guided munitions with longer reach onto the AC-130, in part to help keep those aircraft away from increasingly capable enemy air defenses. A return to a focus on precision-guided munition employment when it comes to the Ghostriders could be important for ensuring their continued operational relevance.

Altogether, the exact mix of capabilities found on the AC-130Js looks set to significantly evolve in the near term. However, a laser directed energy weapon is no longer on the horizon for the Ghostriders.

Howard Altman contributed to this story.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

@warzonewire via X

[goatsludge]

Picked up an H2 buffer and a better spring than the mystery meat stuff I previously had on there as an interim At this point I'm calling the Mod.H lower done (assuming I don't need to fiddle with different buffer weights)

Only thing to possibly change out is the Magpul CTR for an ACE Gen.3 SOCOM Stock But I don't think I will anytime soon

Now I just need a PRI Gasbuster aka the $90 charging handle that I really don't want to buy but I kinda have to for this build and ofc I still need to repaint the upper, but need to wait for warmer weather

[tobiasdrake]

"I got you an ace: Emil Blonsky, born in Russia, raised in England, and on loan to SOCOM from the Royal Marines."

Hold up, what?

...

Hey. Uh. Hey, guys? Did you know that Blonsky isn't a U.S. citizen? He's a British Marine.

After he leaves prison in She-Hulk, he takes up residency in California. It makes sense that he was made to serve his time here; The U.S. and U.K. have had a bilateral extradition treaty since 2007, one year before Iron Man took place.

But. Like. Did Blonsky acquire U.S. citizenship during his time in prison? Did the government certify a hulking rage monster who broke Harlem for citizenship? How did that happen? That must have been wild.

Is the Abomination an illegal immigrant? Because that's hilarious if he is.

This feels like something She-Hulk should have touched on.

[cagemasterfantasy]

My drawing of Hamber (or for the Japanese fans Hambel) and his Partner Dusknoir (or for the Japanese fans Yonoir) from Pokemon Horizons he is a member of the Explorers.

Hamber is voiced by Paul Mercier who has voiced a lot of people but I'm going to list them.

What a Cartoon! as Dad and Talking Dog, the .hack series as Bear, Burn up Express as Chiimama, made a cameo appearance in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex as a Fake Laughing Man, Vampire Princess Miyu as Chief, Old Man and Village Chief, Call of Duty: Operation Kingfish as Sergeant Derek "Frost" Westbrook, the narrator for Growing up Tidy: Kenadie's Next Chapter, Resident Evil: Degeneration as Leon S. Kennedy and Wrestling with God as Alexander Campbell

For Video Games he was in, the .hack series as Bear, Ace Combat: Assault Horizon as Lieutenant Colonel William Bishop, Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer as General Sheng, Age of Mythology: The Titans as Kastor, Alone in the Dark as Jeremy Hartward, Call of Duty: World at War as Private Miller, Battle Realms as Kenji, Onimusha 3: Demon Siege as Jacques Blanc, Nox as the Quartermaster, one of the Necromancers and a Mineworker as well as Aiden and Henwick, No More Heroes III as Black Night Direction and Paradox Bandit, The Merchant in Resident Evil 4, Shadows of the Damned as Fleming and the Demons, The SOCOM NAVY SEALS series as Specter, Star Trek: Starfleet Command III as a Federation Officer, Starhawk as the Rifters, The Lord of the Rings: Conquest as Faramir as well as a Evil Human Officer and a Gondorian Officer and finally in The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 1 and 2 as Uruk-Hai

[wasteland-soul-project]

Here's an insano list that will be continually updated so I have an online record of all that Im currently receptive to include. Consider this spoilers actually.

Greens got a spot on the timeline finalized.

White is sorted by era for workload

Agar.io, Saurian,Ancestors,Far Cry,Civ,History channel,The sumerian game,Hammurabi,Ass cred,Ryse son of rome,Ghost of Tsushima,evil dead,Kingdom come deliverance,western gun,Turok,Oregon trail,Samurai western,Call of Juarez,Red Dead Revolver,GUN,This land is my land,Bioshock Infinite,Valiant Hearts,Call of cthulhu,Sea wolf,Battlefield,Mafia, front line, endless war, the saboteur,Medal of honor,Call of Dutygenesisnoir,Capcom 1942,Commando,Castle wolfenstein?The incredibles,Cathode ray tube amusemen device,La Noire remember da whorient,Bertie the Brain,Nimrod,Destroy All humans,Christophers draughts,Fonzie road race,Atomic Heart,Tennis for two, gta,Spy hunter ,Spacewar!, xcom, metal gear, resident evil, 1967 world series, team fortress, afterburner, galaxy game, computer space, pong, silent hill, night driver, elevator action, E.T, space ace, uncharted, firewatch, jalopy, contra, gone home, portal, postal, prey, max Payne, illbleed, blood, FEAR, venture bros, manhunt, dead island, dead rising, kane and lynch , bully, cherry 2000, hell comes to frog town, burt reynolds flick, socom, saints row, mercenaries, half life,Alpha protocol,Outlast,Life is strange,Payday,Sleeping Dogs,Lollipop Chainsaw,Duck dynasty, hatred, tomb raider, Evil within,Dying light, edith finch, control, trad meme, alaskan road trucker, tume pilot, disco elysium, octodad, tacoma,Van Buren Tech Demo,Five lesbians eating quiche, thag cute radioactive couple,Fallout: Zero,System Shock,One man and a crate of puppets,Fallout: Frost,Wasteland,Fallout nevada,Atom RPG,Metro,Soma,Ashes twentysixty three,Fountain of Dreams ,Organ Trail,Employee of the month,Fallout 1.5 Resurrection,Squidward suicide,Stray,Horizon,Fallout Yesterday,Jazzpunk,xcom classic, breaking badFallout New Califnornia,Mad Max,Hwarts of Iron OWB, soace station 13,Storyteller,Fallout Lanius,Fallout nuka breakFallout 4 miami,All roads,Death Stranding,Morrowind,Outer Worlds

Fallout minecraft map,Fallout:Dust

Post war:Spongebob, 60 seconds, the story must be told, fallout revelation, starcraft, space quest, dead space, broken roads, breath of death, star heroine

Prewar: 2050+, idealized-era retroscifi jetsons, overwatch, series of unfortunate events, deathloop, f zero x, afro samurai, thief reboot

Prewar 2025-50, dystopia class struggle sci fi deus ex, cyberpunk, mirrors edge, cruelty squad, final fantasy

Pre war (big mess of speculative future) home front,dishonored, naissancE, space station 13, crackdown, timesplitters, kentucky route zero, red faction, dreambreak, attack of the saucermen, metal slug

My lived yearss that one 4chan comic in france, plants vs zombies ,the boys, slender, sniper assassin, stalker, hitman, the quarry, pandemic 2, black watchmen, alien hominid, police quest, tony hawk, ape out, ace attorney, the beginners guide, arma, aemy of teo , chimamande adichi, crysis, just cause, just dance, prototype, skate, various sports, dangenrampa, true crime, post void, burger tycoon, dino crisis, the cat lady downfall devil went through here lorelei, science adventure, goldsrc counter strike, detectives united, deadly premonition, freedom fighters, eternal darkness, unboxing, that unity game abt the painting, subnautica, perfect dark, famicon wars, the darkness, captain underpants

1900s fnaf, calvin and hobbes, papers please, mother, zaxxon, heros journey, stalin vs martians, x files, tom clancy, spec ops, gorillaz, the sims, GI Joe, leisure suit larry, pathologic, cold war game, hammer and sickle, jurassic park, evil dead, james bond Tropico, sims city, ikari warriors, spy hunter, time crisis, alone in the dark, syphon filter, gabriek knight, arma cold war, chinua achebe, camara laye, persona, shenmu, yakuza, brothers in arms, company of heroes, punchout, operation flashpoint, professor layton, sniper ghost warrior, sniper elite, undying, stanley parable, hotline miam, war in the east, wings of orey, men of war, 9th company, red orchestra, iron front, death to spies, mother russia bleeds, roller coaster tycoon, counterspy, esrls day off , gaiden, shin megami, suda 57, fatal frame, gorogoa, hotel room dusk

1800s thief, amnesia, samurai champloo, jojo, dark pictures anthology, wadjet games multiverse, bloodborne

1500s sekiro

1400s Europa Universalis

1300s Demons souls classic

1100s lionheart

1000s crusader kings, chrono trigger

800s prince of persia

200 silk

100 romanc eof the three kingdoms, dynasty warriors

Ancient 0ad, pharoah, the scorpion king, sphynx and the cursed mummy, age if mythology, noahs ark, empire esrth, rise of nations, total war, tak and the power of juju, hades

Cavepeople: dawn of man, jawa mammoth, age of empires, tork, tail of the sun, echo secrets of the lost cavern,roots of patcha

Old af: jurassic the hunted, nanosaur, a prehistoric tale, id software timeline, AVP TIMELINE OLD AF, evo, evolution games of itnelligent ligr, lynn margulis, civ dinosaur war like cthulhu mythos, robert howard books, cthukhu saves

[taxstamp]

- source

[benchau]

Mk12 Mod H

- b

[sfc-paulchambers]

Unlike another Special Operations Unit, members of the US Army's 1st SFOD-D , don’t write books or make movies!! Here they’re conducting direct action and counter terrorism missions in support of Task Force 145, in Iraq, 2003-2006. Sine Pari. 🇺🇸 #CAG #ACE #SMU #JSOC #MFDF #MFDFB #TFGreen #USASOC #ASOC #USSOCOM #SOCOM #USA #US (Credit to former 18D Special Forces Medic @0perator_gator) @usasoc.pics #dosomethingpositive for your #futureself #dosometjingworthwatching #contactmenow #pm #dm #text #8284892646 #usarmyreserve #classof2020 #classof2021 #careergoals #text PM46 to 462769 (at Army Recruiting Hendersonville, North Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1odL3CAI5f/?igshid=65sgizwt36av

[dirtyscoundrel-art]

european extreme

mgs commission for cozmurr

[canadian-carbine]

Family photo.

Rangers, SEALs, MARSOC and CAG pose for a photo after retaking a bridge in Syria, 2018.

[usafphantom2]

AESA Radars For AC-130J, MC-130J Sought By SOCOM

Even an off-the-shelf AESA radar solution could drastically enhance the capabilities of Special Operations Command’s C-130s.

@AviationIntel via X

[g4zdtechtv]

FULL EPISODE: X-Play - Nathan Drake Dances with the Angels

*Insane Gaara laugh*

[pixelgrotto]

The horrific Resident Evil playthrough, part ten

Resident Evil 6 is the big one that I was anticipating when I started this series playthrough in March. It’s the one that seems to have split the fanbase like no other, the one that some folks love and others abhor, and the one that took Resident Evil so far into the realm of explosions on top of zombies on top of exploding zombies that the franchise had no choice but to dial the entire thing back in Resident Evil 7 in order to give everyone’s minds a break before those exploded too. There is, in fact, a particular sort of enemy in this game that represents it well - called the Whopper, it’s a giant Fat Albert-looking thing that charges at you in a truly grotesque example of fun character design. It’s a bioweapon to be reckoned with, and when you see one coming your way, all you can say is “OH SHIT” as you try to blast its head apart before it barrages you into a wall.

RE6 is a whopper of a game. It’s chock full of so many different gameplay styles, so many plot threads, so many bits and pieces barely holding together at the seams in a mad effort to appease all sectors of the fan base - the people who preferred Resident Evil when it was eerie and quiet, the fans who fell in love with the series when Resident Evil 4 introduced an emphasis on action and the shippers who just love the characters and want to see them press the trigger of a Magnum at the same time and let loose with a bullet that will send the remains of a hulking Serbian mutation go stumbling backwards into the flames of a burning wind tunnel. 

The only way to properly assess RE6 in the midst of all this madness is to look at its four campaigns one-by-one, which took me 33 hours in total to complete, a staggering number for this series. 

Leon’s campaign - Everyone’s favorite Resident Evil protagonist who is still rocking Leonardo DiCaprio 90s hair (even though he’s aging in real-time and is apparently in his late 30s now) is BACK in this campaign, which seems to be the one that the game wants you to play first. It’s a rollicking adventure which I personally thought was the best of the bunch, though I wouldn’t blame you if you found Chris’ campaign better. I think I was won over by the fan service, since Leon’s opening chapter immediately channels Resident Evil 2 by forcing you to escape Tall Oaks, an American metropolitan area that’s essentially Raccoon City 2.0. Zombies will be lurching at you from the darkness like the old games, you’ve gotta run through subway cars just like in RE2 and RE3, and the whole vibe actually approaches scary at a few moments, which is something that the rest of this game has absolutely no time for. Partnered with Leon is Helena, a new character who’s also a US government agent but frankly kind of boring, and the pair quickly find themselves wrapped up in a conspiracy engineered by a politician named Derek Simmons. To figure out the extent of his conspiracy, you’ve gotta play Ada’s campaign (all the characters’ stories intersect at various points, which is one of this game’s best ideas), but let’s just say that Leon’s party ends in a wild rush to a made-up Chinese city named Lanshiang - which, from the POV of someone who lived in Hong Kong for six years, is clearly HK under another name. Half of Lanshiang gets blown up, Simmons transforms into what looks like a T-Rex and then a giant insect kaiju, and the general tone is deliciously batshit, though if you don’t like batshit then your mileage will vary. Leon gets music that I like to call "Funky Zombie Porno Breakbeats” for his ending theme, and I feel like this phrase can summarize the tone of the entire Resident Evil franchise perfectly. 

Chris’ campaign - If Leon’s adventure was the cheesy-but-occasionally-spooky “LET’S TAKE THESE ZOMBIES TO SUPLEX CITY, CHUMS” vibe of Resident Evil 4 on acid, then Chris’ campaign is the “MILITARY ESPIONAGE ACTION AGAINST BIOWEAPONS, BRUH” vibe of Resident Evil 5 on acid. It begins with Chris suffering from a bout of PTSD after losing a contingent of his men in a made-up country that’s supposed to be Serbia, then moves to Lanshiang after ace sniper Piers recruits Chris for one last mission. Instead of zombies, you fight mostly J’avo, a breed of terrorists using viruses to give themselves horrific limbs, and everything resembles a Call of Duty or SOCOM game, with Chris hearing instructions from his squad leader through his headpiece, ducking behind cover to shoot J’avos apart and generally being a weathered, grumpy soldier. The main theme of Chris’ campaign is actually removed from the overarching tale involving Simmons, and the focus is instead on the quieter, MANLY subplot about how all these years of fighting monstrosities has worn Mr. Redfield down. He needs to learn how to be a soldier once more, and Piers - a guy who I was initially suspicious of because he’s a pretty boy with nicely groomed hair, and those sorts are usually lame in Japanese video games - comes through as one of the most likable additions to Resident Evil lore in a long time to offer Chris much-needed support. The entire campaign might actually be better if played as Piers instead of Chris, especially due to a touching ending scene which is probably the one moment where the game’s plot transcends crazy horror action and enters the realm of something actually thought-provoking. Chris’ campaign, in general, is also where RE6 seems the most focused and confident, though the cover shooting mechanics are clunky when compared to titles that actually specialize in cover shooting, like Gears of War. Chris also doesn’t have Funky Zombie Porno Breakbeats for his ending music, so Leon gets a tiny point ahead of him in my book, but not by much. 

Jake’s campaign - I’ve read a few reviews that call this campaign the “experimental” one, and...yeaaaaah, it is. Jake, who’s the son of former Resident Evil baddie Albert Wesker, was presumably designed to serve as a bold new protagonist for future games, but he’s kind of an emo douchebag, so I played through the entirety of his missions as his partner Sherry Birkin. Sherry’s the little girl from Resident Evil 2 all grown up, which I think is genius, because she serves as a tangible example of this franchise’s progression over the years. You could probably show her picture to anyone unfamiliar with Resident Evil and be like, “That’s a formerly 10-year-old side character from the second game grown up into a secret agent” and get a response of "Woah, cool,” so yeah, I like Sherry a lot. In fact, her presence made this whole campaign tolerable, because Jake is an edgelord and his missions run the confused gamut from shoot ‘em up sections to weird exploration bits that seem to want to channel the spirit of the old games but don’t succeed. Then there are the stealth and chase sequences against Ustanak, the “hulking Serbian mutation” that I mentioned a few paragraphs ago. This fellow was clearly created to remind Resident Evil veterans of Mr. X and Nemesis from RE2 and RE3, but while those guys would break down walls and pop outta nowhere to put a lump in your throat, Ustanak’s every impending arrival is advertised from a mile away, to the point where he’s not really frightening - just redundant. And the stealth bits against him seem like B-tier ripoffs of sequences in Metal Gear Solid, because RE6′s engine is really not engineered for sneakiness. At one point, Sherry and Jake have to hide in garbage dumpsters as Ustanak sniffs around, and that serves as an accurate representation of what large portions of their campaign are. These two kiddies do get a cheesy love ballad for their ending song, though, because the game really wants you to ship ‘em. Sherry, ya deserve better. 

Ada’s campaign - As messy as Jake’s campaign is, however, it’s nothing compared to Ada’s, which was originally an unlockable extra in the original release of RE6 and designed to tie up loose story threads. It does do that, though the resulting plot - where Simmons got so obsessed with Ada Wong that he whipped up an entirely new virus to re-create her and then lost track of it - is pretty meh, though it could perhaps be an intriguing exploration of the depths of male entitlement in the hands of a better writer. Aside from these pieces of so-so story, Ada’s adventure offers aggravation in the form of bad level design and a truly horrid slew of Quicktime Events and wretched stealth sections, which, once again, this game just doesn’t do well. It opens with her investigating a sub filled with guards that she’s encouraged to sneak past, except you can’t really sneak in RE6 and eventually they all notice and decide to gangbang you, and then the sub floods and there’s dizzying shaky cam everywhere that made me feel sick. You’re given a minimal amount of seconds to succeed on the Quicktime Events to escape the rising floodwaters, and I felt like I was playing a game of Dragon’s Lair, where you need to press right or left immediately or risk seeing yourself die over and over again. That sums up the frustration of Ada’s campaign, which also made me realize one important thing - I really don’t find Ada Wong to be much of an interesting character. She’s little more than a walking femme fatale trope, and even people who insist on shipping her with Leon will probably have to admit that those two’s “relationship,” if you can even call it that, is little more than quick winks and five minute interactions that have amounted to nothing over the span of nearly twenty years. The pair of them get ONE good scene on a bridge in this game, but that’s it, and honestly, their cornball kiss near the end of RE2 is still a more genuine character interaction. Oh yeah, and on the topic of ending music, since I seem to be coming back to that a lot in this post, Ada gets generic filler tunes for her credit roll. How appropriate. 

As you can see in the impressions above, in its own special way, Resident Evil 6 has something for everyone, ranging from a quality tale about battle-hardened men shooting biomutations to terrible levels that feel like they came out of a 2005 PS2 game that was quickly relegated to the bargain bin at Gamestop. Reviews were all over the place when this sucker came out, and still are today, with just as many people insisting that this game is the shit as there are people emphasizing that it is shit. My verdict? It’s BOTH, with some truly excellent parts and some truly abhorrent ones. It could have done with some trimming, for sure, and at the end of the day, Leon’s and Chris’ campaigns feel like the only real important ones here. A streamlined and likely better-received version of Resident Evil 6 would’ve only focused on those two guys - since one pivotal scene where the pair meet for a few minutes, briefly scuffle and POINT THEIR GUNS AT EACH OTHER YEAAA FAN SERVICE - seems to have been written first. That would’ve given Resident Evil 6 a better balance, with Leon’s missions possibly focusing on old school survival horror and pulp while Chris’ missions would lean hard on the military action stuff. 

But we didn’t get that. Instead, what we got is a shambling whopper of a game - at times as unwieldy and ridiculous as the enemy bearing the same name, at other times just as satisfying as a real-life beef whopper. Resident Evil 6 is both good and bad, the video game equivalent of an excessive and expensive comic book crossover, and shit, I think I’ve just written the most about it than any of its predecessors.

That, at the very least, has to count for something.

All screenshots taken by me. For more, check out this Twitter thread showing my step-by-step progress through the game.

[ultrajaphunter]

(via The AC-130J Gunship's First Solid State Laser Weapon Has Arrived For Testing)

The AC-130J Gunship’s First Solid State Laser Weapon Has Arrived For Testing

The laser system could offer the already super versatile AC-130J a new way to covertly destroy and disable critical targets.

BY

THOMAS NEWDICK AND JOSEPH TREVITHICK

OCT 8, 2021 3:56 PM

THE WAR ZONE

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THOMAS NEWDICK AND JOSEPH TREVITHICK

View Thomas Newdick And Joseph Trevithick's Articles

The U.S. Air Force has taken delivery of the first prototype Airborne High Energy Laser, or AHEL, which is set to be flight tested on one of its AC-130J Ghostrider gunships next year. The service hopes to demonstrate the feasibility of adding this directed-energy weapon to the AC-130J's already very diverse arsenal, which could give these aircraft a unique capability to engage ground targets silently and stealthily.

Lockheed Martin confirmed yesterday that it had completed factory acceptance testing for the AHEL and then turned the weapon over to the Air Force. The laser will now need to be integrated together with a beam control system, after which ground testing will take place ahead of the installation of the complete weapon system onto an AC-130J.

“Completion of this milestone is a tremendous accomplishment for our customer,” said Rick Cordaro, vice president, Lockheed Martin Advanced Product Solutions. “These mission success milestones are a testament of our partnership with the U.S. Air Force in rapidly achieving important advances in laser weapon system development. Our technology is ready for fielding today.”

Under a January 2019 contract, Lockheed Martin has been working to integrate, test, and demonstrate the new directed-energy weapon on the AC-130J, according to the company press release, which also noted that it’s now "on a rapid schedule to continue testing this capability." The entire project is a joint service effort, and, in July of this year, Lockheed Martin's Aculight Corporation division received a new $12 million, five-year contract award from the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWC Dahlgren) for technical services, integration, test, and demonstration of the AHEL.

THIS IS ALL THE STUFF YOU CAN HANG OUT OF A C-130’S REAR PARATROOPER DOORS

By Joseph Trevithick

Posted in THE WAR ZONE

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Exactly when flight testing of an AC-130J armed with the AHEL might begin is unclear, but U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has consistently said it expects to kick off this phase of the project in Fiscal Year 2022, which began this month.

As for the power rating of the AHEL, Lockheed Martin's press release does not say, but, again, SOCOM has repeatedly said it will be in the 60-kilowatt class. This would be in line with Lockheed Martin's own statements that this airborne directed energy weapon is in “the same class” as the HELIOS laser weapon it is supplying to the U.S. Navy, which also helps explain the service's involvement in this effort.

Previous reports have said that HELIOS, which stands for High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance, is in the 60-kilowatt class but have also said that the manufacturer has been looking to increase its power to the 150-kilowatt class. Other sources have suggested that HELIOS has a rating closer to 100 kilowatts. You can read more about the Navy’s plans for HELIOS in this previous story of ours.

Even without the AHEL, the AC-130J has an expansive arsenal. This includes a 105-mm howitzer, as well as a smaller 30-mm GAU-23/A Bushmaster cannon. The aircraft can also carry a range of precision-guided munitions, including the AGM-114 Hellfire missile and the GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bomb (SDB), under their wings. The planes can employ smaller precision weapons, such as the GBU-44/B Viper Strike and GBU-69/B Small Glide Munition glide bombs, as well as the AGM-176 Griffin missile, via Common Launch Tubes (CLTs), too.

However, an operational high-energy laser weapon would be a valuable addition to these existing options, providing it works as advertised. A weapon of this kind could defeat a variety of different targets and do so in a way that opponents might not even know they're under attack until it's too late.

In one scenario described to National Defense magazine by Lieutenant General Brad Webb, then the commander of Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), an AC-130J armed with a high-energy laser could be used to pick out and destroy an electrical transformer, the engine of a pick-up truck, communication equipment, and a parked drone. A similar concept of operation is shown in a 3D rendered video found on Lockheed Martin's website.

“Without the slightest bang, whoosh, thump, explosion, or even aircraft engine hum, four key targets are permanently disabled,” Lieutenant General Webb explained. “The enemy has no communications, no escape vehicle, no electrical power, and no retaliatory intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capability. Minutes later, the team emerges from the compound, terrorist mastermind in hand. A successful raid.”

This is not the first time the Air Force has experimented with this concept. There were various tests in the 1990s and 2000s that demonstrated the potential value of adding a laser weapon system to an AC-130 gunship. A number of actual live-fire tests of one system, known as the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) were conducted using a C-130 testbed aircraft. Various technical issues, including the size and weight of this 100 kilowatt-class chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL) weapon, as well as its power and cooling requirements, had limited the feasibility of turning this into an operational system.

While an AC-130J playing out for real the scenario Lieutenant General Webb had described might still be some way off, it’s clear the basic technology required to realize that kind of mission is now within reach. A key breakthrough has been the emergence of solid-state lasers that are far more compact and lighter than the previous chemical lasers. They don’t require the cumbersome and energy-intensive cooling systems of their forebears and, at the same time, previous problems with beam control have been largely addressed. You can read more about the dramatic evolution in the overall feasibility of increasingly smaller laser weapons in recent years in this War Zone feature.

That said, it’s not necessarily been an easy path for AHEL to get to this point. At one point, it was hoped that testing on an AC-130J could begin before 2020, but this target proved elusive. Above all, technicians still struggled with scaling down the system so that it could be accommodated aboard an aircraft — even a pretty big one, in the case of the AC-130J. Similar issues have continued to plague other U.S. military airborne high-energy laser efforts, as well.

However, the system’s size, weight, and power-and-cooling demands appear to now have been brought in line with the specifications of the Hercules-derived gunship. While its power rating might not give it anywhere near the same immediate destructive potency of the AC-130J’s 105-mm gun, Bushmaster cannon, or precision-guided munitions, the AHEL also won’t run out of ammunition quickly and will be able to strike targets silently with an invisible beam.

Even with more limited destructive power, that opens up a way for gunship crews to take out objectives on the battlefield unseen, ideal for more covert operations, or simply to help sow chaos and confusion among enemy forces by disabling critical infrastructure, such as communications and power generation and transmission nodes. It remains very unclear at present how capable the beam from this weapon might be again a person, which could open the possibility of using it for targeting strikes against specific individuals.

While the capabilities offered by AHEL, and laser weapons in general, often sound like they’ve come from the pages of science fiction, the latest delivery of a trials system suggests the era of laser warfare from the air may not be so very far off.

Contact the author: thomas@thedrive.com

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