The sensor and weapons packed AC-130W Stinger II uses a $665 holographic gun sight to help spew fire down on the enemy.
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One interesting feature we just noticed the latest iteration of the Stinger II sporting is an EOTech holographic rifle sight mounted on the left side of the cockpit, next to the pilot. The model looks to be a version of the XPS2 which has an MSRP of $665.
XPS2
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Regardless, the AC-130W, which never had a side-mounted HUD to our knowledge, now appears to have the very off-the-shelf holographic gunsight in this position. It's certainly there to help Stinger II pilots coordinate their deadly circles in the sky, but we have no idea if it can actually be used to engage targets, although it seems quite unlikely as it wouldn't have the computing power that a full-up HUD has.
Still, it's pretty wild to think that the world's largest flying gun gets help aiming its brutal arsenal using a lowly rifle sight that is more at home on a soldier's carbine, or even at your local shooting range, than on a front-line combat aircraft. Then again, maybe it isn't that surprising considering F-15 squadrons mounted high-power rifle scopes in their cockpit for long-range visual identification purposes for many years due to lack of a better or at least fully funded solution.
