Fairchild AC - 119 The Fairchild AC - 119G Shadow and AC - 119K Stinger were twin - engine piston - powered gunship s developed by the United States during the Vietnam War . They replaced the Douglas AC - 47 Spooky and operated alongside the early versions of the AC - 130 Spectre gunship . Design and development . By late 1967 , the idea of the fixed - wing gunship had been proven so successful that the United States Air Force was having a difficult time keeping up with demand . The newer AC - 130s that had been created under Project Gunship II were effective , but were being mostly used for interdiction of the Ho Chi Minh trail . Furthermore , the C - 130 airframe was in active service as a transport , vital to the war effort in Southeast Asia . The Air Force desperately needed a new gunship to replace the vulnerable and underpowered AC - 47 in the close air support role ( CAS ) , as well as supplementing the AC - 130 in attacking targets on the Ho Chi Minh Trail . The Fairchild C - 119 Flying Boxcar presented an obvious choice , having been phased out of front line service in favor of the C - 123 and C - 130 , and with the stock of available airframes in U . S . Air Force Reserve being sufficient . In February 1968 , under the USAF program Project Gunship III , 26 C - 119Gs were converted to AC - 119G standard , initially taking on the name " Creep , " but later assigned the callsign " Shadow . " These aircraft were primarily intended to replace the AC - 47 in the CAS role . In addition , Fairchild - Hiller , which was contracted for all the conversions , converted another 26 C - 119Gs into AC - 119Ks primarily for the " truck hunter " role over the Ho Chi Minh Trail . These aircraft were called " Stingers " primarily in reference to the two M61 Vulcan 20 mm cannons they carried in addition to the AC - 119G ' s four GAU - 2 / A miniguns . The AC - 119K could be visually distinguished by the addition of two General Electric J85 turbojet engines in underwing pods . The conversions were completed at Fairchild - Hiller ' s facility in St . Augustine , Florida . Project Gunship III , being a follow - on to the success of the AC - 130 series , meant that the AC - 119 was a more advanced aircraft in both its iterations than the AC - 47 . Even the TIC AC - 119G featured some of the most up - to - date ECM and radar equipment , as well as more basic technology including an AVQ - 8 Xenon light , a Night Observation Sight ( NOS ) and an LAU - 74 / A flare launcher . The AC - 119K , designed to hit trucks on the Ho Chi Minh Trail , was more advanced . Included in the conversion was the AN / APN - 147 Doppler Navigation radar , AN / AAD - 4 Forward Looking Infrared ( FLIR ) , AN / APQ - 133 side - looking beacon tracking radar and AN / APQ - 136 search radar . The armament scheme for both aircraft was simpler than that of the AC - 130 . The AC - 119G had a total of four GAU - 2A / A miniguns in SUU - 11A / A pods , all on mounts similar to those used on early AC - 47s . Like late model AC - 47s , these were soon changed to the purpose - built MXU - 470 / A minigun modules . The AC - 119K , needing a more powerful and longer range " punch " to take out vehicles , featured two M61 20 mm cannons in addition to the four Miniguns of the AC - 119G . Operational history . By November 1968 , the aircraft had deployed to Vietnam and joined the 14th Special Operations Wing at Nha Trang . The AC - 119Gs were placed in the 71st Special Operations Squadron which was formed from the activated 71st Troop Carrier Squadron , of the Air Force Reserves located in Columbus , Indiana . When the 71 SOS reserves returned to the states , in 1969 , the gunships were taken over by the newly formed 17 SOS . The AC - 119Ks were placed in the 18th Special Operations Squadron . With the addition of the two types , the 14 SOW for a time in 1968 was flying eight different aircraft from ten different bases in South Vietnam . The 14 SOW was inactivated in 1971 . Limited numbers continued to be operated out of Hurlburt Field , Florida as late as the fall of 1972 , but the AC - 119 was phased out shortly after from the US Air Force . The AC - 119G and 119K continued to serve in extremely small numbers with the Republic of Vietnam Air Force ( VNAF ) until the de facto reunification of the country in 1975 . During the Vietnam War , only five AC - 119 Gunship IIIs were lost to all causes .