Would an AC-130 be plausible in Star Wars?

[Yora]

With Star Wars being Star Wars, the limit for what seems plausible is always extremely low. It's a world with Death Stars and AT-ATs, and those are just the tip of the iceberg.

The AC-130 ground attack plane is without the most awesome stupid weapon system I've ever seen entering regular service. The only plausible story for it's creation that I can think of starts with a cargo plane pilot and an artillery gunner getting extremely drunk together.
It's a regular medium cargo plane that has proven itself as sturdy and reliable, into which you cut three holes in the left side through which you stick multi-barrel mini-gun, an auto-canon, and a field howitzer, and then you fill the rest of the interior space with ammunition.

It's ridiculous. It's awesome. And it has proven itself to actually work and be genuinely useful. To give fire support to infantry in remote places or on covert opperation when sending tanks with them is not practical, these things are just the vehicle that you want.
The main downside, and it's a big one, is that you need to have complete air dominance to use them, since they are big, slow, and unable to shot at other planes. Even moderate anti-air defenses will easily take them out.

To take this concept into Star Wars, I think the only ship you could pick for the job has to be the humble GR-75 Gallofree medium transport. It looks unassuming and sturdy, but also very distinguishable and well established as the regular Rebel freighter. Putting a turbolaser turret, a heavy laser cannon, and fire-linked quad laser cannons, as well as an additional power reactor for the cannons and shields, should not be a problem. Maybe also add a huge load of torpedo launchers.
But what would you realistically use this for?

The AC-130 is used by US Forces primarily against guerilla forces with no anti-air defenses. The Rebels are in the opposite position in that they are the lightly armed and heavily under-supplied force and are often facing heavily protected Imperial strongholds. Simply using an assault transport like this in the same way as an AC-130 would immediately result in its destruction.
There would have to be a different story for what these ships are made and used for,
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[CRMcNeill]

Not in the specific style of an AC-130 (that is, with all the cannon mounted on the port side, so that the craft flies a pylon turn around its target point), but it's certainly feasible to turn most any light freighter into a heavily armed gunship.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[CRMcNeill]

Historically, the AC-130 wasn't the first of its type to see service. IIRC, there were at least two previous cargo planes used like this: the Douglas AC-47 "Spooky" and the Fairchild AC-119 Shadow / Stinger.

IMO, a better fit for the SWU would be some sort of Special Operations Freighter, combining elements of the AC-130, MC-130 Commando II and MH-53 Pave Low III.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[CRMcNeill]

Pertinent Link Here
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[MrNexx]

So, let's take a Gthroc 720... flying turtle. Let's load it up with a bunch of E-web repeating blasters. Now, aimed flat, they only have a range of half a klick, but they can do some significant damage (8D character).

Now, how that range works becomes important. Does the bolt just dissipate at that point, or is the range the maximum effective targeting range? If it's the first, then the E-web won't do well for our purpose. But if it's just the maximum effective targeting range, then it doesn't really matter... you don't use a AC-130 for targeted precision. You use it to drop ungodly amounts of force into an area.

And I think multiple eweb, firing in sequence, if gonna mess up a lot of things.
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[garhkal]

True, but with the spooky's, or airborn dragons as many enemies have called the c130, they are often described as being Very accurate...
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[Ray]

Perhaps the Double-Blaster Cannon (or a Quad-Mount for even more punch!) from the Cloud Cars, with a nice range of 3 km as replacements for the E-Web (which is only a .50 machine gun effectively, not the 20mm Gatling Gun that's on the AC-130.).

Also, a Golan Arms DF.9 (Anti-Infantry Laser Battery, Speeder-Scale, with a nice 8 metre blast radius and a 16 km range). This would make a nice replacement for the 40mm L/60 Bofors. Alternatively, a single Heavy Blaster Cannon from the AT-AT with it's 3 km range and Walker-scale punch might be an option.

Then maybe even a Loronar Turbolaser System 1 (Starfighter-Scale Turbolaser Battery with a lovely 10 metre blast radius and a range from Surface-to-Orbit, or the other way around!), which makes a perfect 105mm Howitzer.

Or, if you want to go old skool, or just want an option of different warheads, the Heavy Projectile Cannon from the AT-TE is available with it's 3 km range, with decent Walker-Scale damage for a projectile launcher.

Also consider the species that is building this. You just might end up with a single gun, but it's a Speeder/Walker-Scale Bowcaster with an automatic loader and a belt feed.