Gunship

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For the game, see Gunship (video game)

The term "gunship" is used in several contexts, all sharing the general idea of a light craft armed with heavy guns.

[edit] In navy

In navies, the term originally appeared in the mid-1800s as a less-common synonym for gunboat.

[edit] In military aviation

More recently, a "gunship" has been used to refer to helicopters to which machine-guns and similar weapons systems have been mounted, or a fixed-wing aircraft with heavy guns on board.

Another application of the term for military aircraft is more specific, describing a vehicle that is capable of circling its target instead of performing strafing runs.^{[citation needed]} According to such a definition, the AC-130 Spectre/Spooky or the AH-64 Apache are gunships.

Such other examples of fixed-wing aircraft are the AC-47 and the AC-119.