Question: many people prefer the A-10 Warthog for ground support, and argue that the F-35 is both overpriced and insufficiently capable for the task. A big part of the reason is the A-10 cannon, which can be used to great effect on enemy targets very near friendly forces, and in a timely manner.

During the Iraq War I remember reports about about AC-130 loitering in circles above a battleground, presumably just out of the effective range of shoulder fired ground-to-air missiles. More importantly, a gunner would use a side mounted cannon on ground targets.

My question is: could be we replace the A-10's (and even the F-35's) ground support role with a similar gunship, but with much a much more accurate cannon; one that could reliably and consistently hit with, say, 1 meter accuracy. Do the existing cannon mounts on the AC-130 utilize accelerometers and mechanisms to compensate for the movement of the plane? Is there existing technology to use, say, lasers to measure wind and air turbulence to improve projectile accuracy? How high could a gunship theoretically loiter with improved technology? (I assume ground-to-air missiles will only get better, and cheaper, and more portable with time.)

Theoretically, such gunships could be flown fully autonomously, with a remote human doing targeting.