AC 130 Spectre


The AC-130 Spectre (that big-ass plane from the Call of Duty games) probably isn’t going to be a new piece of technology to most of the people reading this, due to its aforementioned inclusion in a popular video game series. However, it’s the sheer amount of fire-power this thing possesses, combined with how little any given person can do about it, that we think will be surprising to people.

If you’ve played the games, you no doubt know that the AC-130 gunship is able to rain down death from a mile in the sky, literally hitting enemies through windows, and even when they’re within spitting distance of a friendly combatant. Along with this frankly insane amount of firepower it has at its disposal, the AC-130 also packs something colloquially known as “Angel Flares,” a combination of chaff and flares which make the AC-130 all but invincible to all known lock-on technology.


But here’s the worst part: they’re known as angel flares because, as you can see, they form the image of a huge fiery angel when they’re released. Which means that, at one point in time, it’s entirely likely a guy once looked up, saw the image of an angel in the sky, and was hit in the face with a cannon a second later. So yeah, unless your day is bad, you now know that there’s someone out there who has definitely had a worse day than you.

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