Vulcan weapon. M61 Vulcan aircraft cannon - the rebirth of the Gatling system

Work on the creation of a multi-barreled machine gun began in the 40s of the twentieth century. This type of weapon, with a high rate of fire and high fire density, was developed as a weapon for tactical jet fighters of the US Air Force.

The prototype for the creation of the first sample of the six-barreled M61 Vulcan was the German twelve-barreled Fokker-Leimberger aircraft machine gun, the design of which was based on the Gatling revolver-battery design. Using this scheme, a well-balanced design of a multi-barreled machine gun with a block of rotating barrels was created, and all the necessary operations were performed in one revolution of the block.

The Vulcan M61 was developed in 1949 and adopted by the American Air Force in 1956. The first aircraft to have a six-barrel M61 Vulcan machine gun mounted into its fuselage was the F-105 Thunderchief fighter-bomber.

Design features of the M61 Vulcan gun

The M61 Vulcan is a six-barreled aircraft machine gun (cannon) with an air-cooled barrel and ammunition with a 20 x 102 mm cartridge with an electric capsule ignition type.

The ammunition supply system for the six-barreled Vulcan machine gun is without a link, from a cylindrical magazine with a capacity of 1000 rounds. The machine gun and the magazine are connected by two conveyor feeds, in which the spent cartridges are returned back to the magazine using a return conveyor.

Conveyor belts are placed in elastic guide sleeves with a total length of 4.6 meters.

The entire array of cartridges in the magazine moves along its axis, but only the central guide rotor, made in the shape of a spiral, rotates, between the turns of which the ammunition is located. When firing, two cartridges are synchronizedly removed from the magazine, and two spent cartridges are placed into it on the opposite side, which are then placed in the conveyor.

The firing mechanism has an external drive circuit with a power of 14.7 kW. This type of drive does not require the installation of a gas regulator and is not afraid of misfires.

The ammunition load can be: caliber, fragmentation, armor-piercing incendiary, fragmentation incendiary, sub-caliber.

Video: shooting from a Vulcan machine gun

Suspended aircraft installations for the M61 gun

In the early 1960s, General Electric decided to create special suspended containers (suspended cannon mounts) to accommodate the six-barreled 20 mm M61 Vulcan. It was supposed to use them for firing at ground targets with a range of no > 700 m, and equip them with subsonic and supersonic attack aircraft and fighters. In 1963-1964, two variations of the PPU entered service with the US Air Force - SUU-16/A and SUU-23/A.

The design of the suspended gun mounts of both models has the same dimensions housing (length - 5.05 m, diameter - 0.56 m) and standardized 762-mm suspension units, allowing such a machine gun to be installed in the PPU at the most various models combat aircraft. A characteristic feature of the SUU-23/A installation is the presence of a visor above the receiver block.

The SUU-16/A PPU uses an aircraft turbine powered by an incoming air flow as a mechanical drive for spinning and accelerating the barrel block of the Vulcan machine gun. The full ammunition load consists of 1200 shells, the loaded weight is 785 kg, the unloaded weight is 484 kg.

The drive of the SUU-23/A installation for accelerating the barrels is an electric starter, the ammunition load consists of 1200 shells, the loaded weight is 780 kg, the weight without equipment is 489 kg.

The machine gun in the hanging container is fixed and fixed motionless. An on-board fire adjustment system or a visual shooting sight is used as a sight when shooting. Extraction of spent cartridges during firing occurs outside, over the side of the installation.

Main tactical and technical characteristics of the Vulcan M61

• The total length of the gun is 1875 mm.
• Barrel length - 1524 mm.
• The mass of the M61 Vulcan cannon is 120 kg, with the feed system kit (without cartridges) - 190 kg.
• Rate of fire - 6000 rounds/min. Instances with a firing rate of 4000 rounds/min were produced.
• The initial speed of caliber/sub-caliber projectiles is 1030/1100 m/s.
• Muzzle power - 5.3 MW.
• The time to reach the maximum rate of fire is 0.2 - 0.3 seconds.
• Vitality - about 50 thousand shots.

The Vulcan M61 rapid-fire submachine gun is currently installed on fighters - Eagle (F-15), Corsair (F-104, A-7D, F-105D), Tomcat (F-14A, A- 7E), "Phantom" (F-4F).

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In the early 50s. The US government announced a competition to develop a cannon for arming aircraft for the period until 1975. This competition was won by General Electric, which proposed the six-barreled M61A1 Vulcan cannon. The first sample of the M61 cannon of 20 mm caliber was produced by General Electric in 1957. The M61A1 Vulcan cannon had a simple design, the feeding and firing mechanism was driven by an external drive with a power of 26 kW (according to other sources - 14.7 kW). Barrel length 1524 mm, total length of the gun 1875 mm. The weight of the gun itself is 120 kg, the weight of the gun with the feed system, but without cartridges is 190 kg. Rate of fire 6000 rounds/mip. Some of the guns also had a reduced rate of fire - 4000 rounds/mip for firing at ground targets. The time to reach the maximum rate of fire is 0.3 s.

The gun is fed linkless from a cylindrical magazine with a capacity of about 1000 rounds. The magazine is connected to the gun using one or two conveyor belts located in elastic guide sleeves. With one conveyor belt, spent cartridges were reflected outward, however, in cases where reflection of cartridges outward was unacceptable, the installations provided a return conveyor for spent cartridges. In a cylindrical magazine, the cartridges were located between radial partitions. The central rotor, made in the form of an Archimedean screw, gradually moved cartridges from the magazine to the conveyor.

The external drive for feeding cartridges is a shaft connected to the hydraulic drive of the gun. Feed type - two-conveyor: spent cartridges are returned to the magazine. The total length of the guide sleeves is 4.6 m.

The M61A1 cannon was fired with standard “20 x 102” cartridges, the same as the M39 cannon. The cartridges are equipped with armor-piercing incendiary, sub-caliber, fragmentation incendiary and fragmentation shells. Since the early 1990s. Most projectiles are equipped with plastic driving belts. The initial speed of a caliber projectile is 1030 m/s, a sub-caliber projectile is 1100 m/s, the effective firing range is up to 1000 m. A sub-caliber projectile with a steel core at a distance of 800 m normally penetrates 16 mm armor.

When firing from an aircraft gun, resonant vibrations occur, sometimes leading to disruption of the normal operation of on-board electronic equipment. For example, when firing an M61A1 Vulkan cannon installed on an F-16 aircraft (September 1979), vibrations disrupted the normal operation of the navigation computer. During training flights at an altitude of 4200 m while firing from a cannon, unauthorized turns of the aircraft were observed. A solution was found in a slight change in the rate of fire, which eliminated the appearance of resonant oscillations.

The M61A1 gun has the GAU-4A variant, the main difference of which is the absence of an external gun drive. The GAU-4A uses powder gases exhausted from three barrels to rotate the barrel block. The initial spin-up of the barrel block is ensured by inertial starting device with electric motor. All of the listed characteristics of the M61A1 are identical to the GAU-4A gun.

The first aircraft equipped with the M61A1 Vulcan cannon was the F-105 Thunderchief fighter-bomber. The cannon was built into the fuselage of the aircraft. Since 1961, M61A1 guns began to be equipped with Phantom F-4C fighters, which were initially armed only with missiles. The F-4C fighter carried two cannons in suspended mounts with 1,200 rounds of ammunition each. However, during air combat, the effectiveness of suspended installations turned out to be insufficient due to the influence of vibration on shooting accuracy. It was concluded that the optimal placement of the gun is along the longitudinal axis of the aircraft or close to it. Therefore, a built-in cannon was adopted to arm the F-4E, F-14A, F-15 and F-16 fighters. F-111A, F-104 fighter-bombers and A-7D and A-7E carrier-based attack aircraft were armed with M61A1 cannons.

The M61A1 gun was the last gun to be used in the rear defensive installations of American bombers. Vulcan cannons were equipped on the aft (tail) installations of the B-52 and B-58 strategic bombers. In addition, on the basis of the Vulcan aircraft cannon, shipborne 20-mm Vulcan-Phalanx installations, as well as a number of self-propelled anti-aircraft installations, were created.

For the 20-mm M61A1 and GAU-4 guns, the USA developed suspended containers SUU-23A and SUU-16A, intended for mounting on sub- and supersonic fighters and attack aircraft. The main purpose of the guns is to fire at ground targets at a distance of up to 700m.

To eliminate the supply of electricity for rotating the block of barrels from the aircraft carrying the container, the automation of the M61A1 cannon is driven by an air turbine operating from the oncoming air flow. The turbine is mounted on a hinged panel of the container, which, when lowered, exposes the turbine to the air flow. The use of an air turbine results in a rate of fire limitation at aircraft speeds less than 650 km/h and an increase in air resistance compared to the air resistance experienced by the SUU-23A container with the GAU-4 cannon. An electric starter is used to accelerate the GAU-4 gun barrel block before each burst of shots.

The guns in the containers are fixed motionless. If desired, on the ground the cannon can be given an angle of “1” horizontally and vertically from the axis of the container. During firing, containers (guns) are aimed using a gun sight or fire control system. Spent cartridges are thrown out. After releasing the firing button, the gun discharges automatically, so self-ignition of cartridges is practically excluded. When the cannon is unloaded, a small amount of live ammunition is ejected.

The installation is powered from the aircraft's on-board network: alternating current - 208 V, 400 Hz, three-phase - current consumption of the SUU-16A container - 7A; SUU-23A container - 10 A. Installation of the SUU-23A container can also operate on 28 V DC; the current consumption is 3 A. Projectile dispersion: 80% fit into a circle with a diameter of 8 milliradians.

The dimensions of the SUU-16A and SUU-23A containers are the same. Length 560 mm, diameter 560 mm. Ammunition capacity: 1200 rounds. The weight of the SUU-16A (SUU-23A) container without cartridges is 484 kg (489 kg), with cartridges 780 kg (785 kg).

Caliber, mm 20
Number of trunks 6
Rate of fire, rds/min 4000-6000
Gun weight, kg 190
Cartridge weight, g 250
Projectile weight, g 1100
Initial bullet speed, m/s 1030-1100
Length, mm 1875
Barrel length, mm 1524

In machine gun mode With the advent and constant modernization of aviation weapons, including missiles, part of the nomenclature of which today belongs to a full-fledged class precision weapons, the need for traditional small arms and cannon weapons on aircraft has not disappeared. Moreover, this weapon also has its advantages. These include the ability to be used from the air against all types of targets, constant readiness to fire, immunity to electronic countermeasures. Modern types of aircraft guns are actually machine guns in terms of rate of fire and at the same time artillery pieces by caliber. The principle of automatic firing is also similar to the machine gun. At the same time, the rate of fire for some models of domestic aviation weapons is a record even for machine guns. For example, the GSh-6-23M aircraft gun developed at TsKB-14 (the predecessor of the Tula Instrument Design Bureau) is still considered the fastest-firing weapon in military aviation. This six-barreled gun has a rate of fire of 10 thousand rounds per minute! They say that during comparative tests of the GSh-6-23 and the American M-61 “Vulcan”, the domestic gun, without requiring a powerful external energy source for its operation, showed almost twice as much rate of fire, while having half the own mass. By the way, in the six-barreled gun GSh-6-23, an autonomous automatic gas exhaust drive was used for the first time, which made it possible to use this weapon not only on an aircraft, but also, for example, on ground firing installations. A modernized version of the GSh-23-6 with Su-24 front-line bombers are still equipped with 500 rounds of ammunition: this weapon is installed here in a suspended movable cannon container. In addition, the MiG-31 supersonic all-weather long-range fighter-interceptor is armed with the GSh-23-6M cannon. The six-barreled version of the GSh cannon was also used for the cannon armament of the MiG-27 fighter-bomber. True, a 30-mm cannon is already installed here, and for a weapon of this caliber it is also considered the fastest-firing in the world - six thousand rounds per minute. A barrage of fire from the sky It would not be an exaggeration to say that aviation weapons bearing the “GS” brand have essentially become the basis of this type of weapon for domestic combat aviation. In single-barrel and multi-barrel versions with the use of innovative technologies for ammunition of various calibers and purposes - in any case, the Gryazev-Shipunov guns have earned their recognition among pilots of many generations. The development of aviation small arms and cannon weapons in our country has become 30 mm caliber guns. Thus, the famous GSh-30 (in a double-barreled version) is equipped with the no less famous Su-25 attack aircraft. These are machines that have proven their effectiveness in all wars and local conflicts, starting from the 70-80s of the last century. One of the most acute disadvantages of such weapons - the problem with the “survivability” of the barrels - was solved here by distributing the burst length between the two barrels and reducing the rate of fire per barrel. At the same time, all the main operations for preparing fire - feeding the tape, chambering the cartridge, preparing the shot - occur evenly, which provides the gun with a high rate of fire: the rate of fire of the Su-25 reaches 3500 rounds per minute. Another project of the Tula aviation gunsmiths is the GSh-30- gun 1. It is recognized as the lightest 30 mm gun in the world. The weight of the weapon is 50 kilograms (for comparison, a “six-wolf” of the same caliber weighs more than three times more). Unique Feature This gun is equipped with an autonomous water evaporative cooling system for the barrel. There is water in the casing here, which turns into steam during the firing process when the barrel is heated. Passing along the screw groove on the barrel, it cools it and then comes out. The GSh-30-1 gun is equipped with the MiG-29, Su-27, Su-30, Su-33, Su-35 aircraft. There is information that this caliber will also be the main one for the small arms and cannon armament of the fifth generation fighter T-50 (PAK FA). In particular, as the KBP press service recently reported, flight tests of the modernized rapid-fire aircraft gun 9A1-4071 (this is the name this gun received) with testing of the entire ammunition load in various modes were carried out on the Su-27SM aircraft. After completion of the tests, development work is planned to test this gun on the T-50. "Flying" BMP Tula KBP (TsKB-14) became the “Homeland” of aviation weapons for domestic rotary-wing combat vehicles. It was here that the GSh-30 cannon appeared in a double-barreled version for Mi-24 helicopters. main feature This weapon is the presence of elongated barrels, due to which the initial speed of the projectile is increased, which is 940 meters per second. But on the new Russian combat helicopters - Mi-28 and Ka-52 - a different cannon armament scheme is used. The basis was the well-proven 30 mm caliber 2A42 gun, mounted on infantry fighting vehicles. On the Mi-28, this gun is mounted in a fixed movable gun mount NPPU-28, which significantly increases maneuverability when firing. Shells are fired from two sides and in two versions - armor-piercing and high-explosive fragmentation. Lightly armored targets on the ground can be hit from the air at a distance of 1500 meters, air targets (helicopters) - two and a half kilometers, and manpower - four kilometers. The NPPU-28 installation is located on the Mi-28 under the fuselage in the bow of the helicopter and operates synchronously with the sight (including the helmet-mounted one) of the pilot operator. The ammunition is located in two boxes on the rotating part of the turret. The 30-mm BMP-2 gun, also placed in a movable cannon mount, is also adopted for service on the Ka-52. But on the Mi-35M and Mi-35P, which became, in fact, a continuation legendary series Mi-24 helicopters, returned to the GSh cannon and the 23rd caliber. On the Mi-35P the number of firing points can reach three. This happens if the main guns are placed in two universal cannon containers (placed on pylons on the sides of the vehicle), and another gun is installed in a non-removable bow movable cannon mount. The total ammunition load of aircraft cannon armament for 35-series helicopters in this version reaches 950 rounds. Shooting...with a break for lunch They do not abandon cannon weapons when creating combat vehicles in the West. Including ultra-modern fifth generation aircraft. Thus, the F-22 fighter is equipped with the above-mentioned 20-mm M61A2 Vulcan with 480 rounds of ammunition. This rapid-firing six-barreled gun with a rotating block of barrels differs from the Russian gun in a more primitive cooling system - air rather than water, as well as pneumatic or hydraulic drives. Despite all the shortcomings, including, first of all, a small caliber, as well as an archaic link feed system shells and limited ammunition at a very high rate of fire (four to six thousand rounds per minute), the Vulcan has been the standard armament of US combat aircraft since the 50s. True, the American military press has reported that delays in the ammunition supply system have now been dealt with: a linkless ammunition supply system seems to have been developed for the M61A1 cannon. The AH-64 “Apache”, the main one, is also equipped with an automatic cannon. attack helicopter US Army. Some analysts call it the most common rotorcraft of its class in the world, without, however, citing any statistical data. On board the Apache is an M230 automatic cannon with a caliber of 30 millimeters and a rate of fire of 650 rounds per minute. A significant drawback of this weapon is the need to cool its barrel after every 300 shots, and the time of such a break can be 10 minutes or more. For this weapon, the helicopter can carry 1200 shells, but only if the vehicle does not have an additional fuel tank installed. If it is available, the volume of ammunition will not exceed the same 300 rounds that the Apache can fire without the need for a “break” for mandatory cooling of the barrel. The only advantage of this weapon can be considered the presence in its ammunition of shells with an armor-piercing cumulative element. It is stated that with such ammunition the Apache can hit ground targets equipped with 300 mm of homogeneous armor. Author: Dmitry Sergeev Photo: Russian Ministry of Defense/Russian Helicopters/
Instrument Design Bureau named after. Academician A. G. Shipunov

7.62-mm six-barrel aviation machine gun M134 “Minigun” (in the US Air Force it has the designationGAU-2 B/ A) was developed in the early 1960s by General Electric. During its creation, a number of unconventional solutions were used that had not previously been used in the practice of designing small arms.

Firstly, to achieve a high rate of fire, a multi-barrel weapon design with a rotating block of barrels was used, which is used only in aircraft guns and rapid-fire anti-aircraft guns. In a classic single-barreled weapon, the rate of fire is 1500 – 2000 rounds per minute. In this case, the barrel becomes very hot and quickly fails. In addition, it is necessary to reload the weapon in a very short period of time, which requires high speeds of movement of the automation parts and leads to a decrease in the survivability of the system. In multi-barreled weapons, the reloading operations of each barrel are combined in time (a shot is fired from one barrel, a spent cartridge is removed from another, a cartridge is sent to the third, and so on), which makes it possible to keep the interval between shots to a minimum and at the same time prevents the barrels from overheating.

Secondly, to drive the automation mechanisms, the principle of using energy from an external source was chosen. With this scheme, the bolt frame is driven not by the energy of the shot, as in traditional automatic engines (with the recoil of the bolt, barrel or removal of powder gases), but with the help of an external drive. The main advantage of such a system is the high survivability of the weapon, due to the smooth movement of the moving parts of the automation. In addition, there is practically no problem of ammunition discharging during strong impacts of automatic components, which occur in high-temperature weapons. In the 1930s, the developers of the ShKAS rapid-firing machine gun encountered this problem, as a result of which a 7.62-mm cartridge with a reinforced design was created and adopted specifically for it.

Another advantage of an external drive is the simplification of the design of the weapon itself, which lacks return springs, a gas regulator and a number of other mechanisms. In externally driven weapons, it is much easier to regulate the rate of fire, which is extremely important for aircraft weapons, which often have two firing modes - both with a low rate (for firing at ground targets) and with a high rate (for combating air targets). And finally, the advantage of a circuit driven by an external source is that if it misfires, the cartridge is automatically removed by the bolt and ejected from the weapon. However, it is impossible to instantly open fire from such a weapon, since it always takes some time to spin up the barrel block and reach the required rotation speed. Another drawback is that a special device is needed to prevent a shot when the bolt is not completely locked.

The idea of ​​creating multi-barrel systems is far from new. Their first samples appeared even before the invention of automatic weapons. First, double-barreled, three-barreled, four-barreled guns and pistols appeared, and in the middle of the 19th century, the so-called grapeshots were created - firearms obtained by placing several barrels on one carriage. The number of grapeshot barrels varied from 5 to 25, and their rate of fire reached an unprecedented figure at that time - 200 rounds per minute. The most famous are Gatling guns, named after the American inventor Richard Jordan Gatling. By the way, today in the USA all samples firearms, made according to a multi-barrel design with a rotating block of barrels, are called Gatling guns.

After the end of World War II, the rate of fire of the best examples of aviation single-barrel machine guns reached 1200 rounds per minute (Browning M2). The main way to increase the firepower of aviation was to increase the number of firing points, which reached 6–8 on fighters. To arm the bombers, bulky dual installations were used, which were a pair of two conventional machine guns (DA-2, MG81z). Appearance in post-war period high-speed jet aviation required the creation of small arms and cannon weapons systems with a higher rate of fire.

In June 1946, the American company General Electric began work on the Vulcan project. By 1959, several prototypes of the T45 multi-barrel gun had been created for ammunition of various calibers: 60, 20 and 27 mm. After careful testing, a 20 mm caliber sample was selected for further development and designated T171. In 1956, the T171 was adopted by the US Army and Air Force under the name M61 Vulcan.

The gun was a sample of an automatic weapon driven by an external source. To unwind a block of 6 barrels and drive the automation mechanisms, a hydraulic drive or compressed air was used. Thanks to this design scheme, the maximum rate of fire from the cannon reached 7200 rounds per minute. A mechanism was provided to regulate the rate of fire from 4,000 to 6,000 rounds per minute. Ignition powder charge in ammunition was carried out with an electric primer.

Somewhat later, the Vulcan cannon was modernized - a linkless ammunition supply system appeared. A 30 mm version of the 6-barrel gun was also developed under the designation M67, but it was not further developed. The fate of the M61 turned out to be more successful; the gun soon became (and still serves) the main model of aircraft cannon armament for the US Air Force and many other countries.

Versions of the gun were developed for towed anti-aircraft (M167) and self-propelled (M163) installations, as well as a ship version of the Vulcan-Phalanx to combat low-flying aircraft and anti-ship missiles. To equip helicopters, General Electric has developed lightweight versions of the M195 and M197 guns. The last of them had three rather than six barrels, as a result the rate of fire was halved - to 3000 rounds per minute. The followers of the Vulcan were the heavy 30-mm seven-barreled gun GAU-8/A "Avenger" and its lightweight five-barrel 25-mm version GAU-12/U "Equalizer", intended for arming the A-10 Thunderbolt attack aircraft and fighters, respectively. AV-8 Harrier vertical take-off bombers.

Despite the success of the Vulcan cannon, it was of little use for arming light helicopters, which became increasingly large quantities enter service with the US Army during vietnam war. Therefore, initially the Americans included in the helicopter armament system either slightly modified versions of the conventional 7.62-mm M60 infantry machine gun, or light 20-mm M24A1 aircraft cannons and 12.7-mm Browning M2 heavy machine guns. However, neither infantry machine guns nor conventional cannon and machine gun installations made it possible to obtain the density of fire required for aircraft weapons.

Therefore, in the early 1960s, the General Electric company proposed a fundamentally new model of an aircraft machine gun that used the Gatling principle. The six-barreled Minigun was developed based on the proven design of the M61 cannon and looked very much like its smaller copy. The rotating block of barrels was driven by an external electric drive, powered by three 12-volt batteries. The ammunition used was a standard 7.62 mm NATO screw cartridge (7.62×51).

The rate of fire from a machine gun could be variable and usually ranged from 2000 to 4000–6000 rounds per minute, but if necessary could be reduced to 300 rounds per minute.

Production of the M134 Minigun began in 1962 at the General Electric plant in Burlington, where the Vulcan gun was also produced.

Structurally, the M134 machine gun consists of a barrel block, a receiver, a rotor block and a bolt block. Six 7.62 mm barrels are inserted into a rotary block, and each of them is locked by rotating 180 degrees. The barrels are connected to each other by special clips that protect them from displacement and are also designed to reduce vibration of the barrels when firing. The receiver is a one-piece casting, inside of which there is a rotating rotor unit. It also houses the receiver, mounting pins and control handle. On the inner surface of the receiver there is an elliptical groove into which the bolt rollers fit.

The rotor block is the main element of the weapon. It is mounted in the receiver using ball bearings. The front of the rotor block holds six barrels. In the side parts of the rotor there are six grooves into which six gates are placed. Each groove has an S-shaped cutout, which is intended for cocking the firing pin and firing a shot. The barrel bore is locked by turning the bolt head. The role of the extractor is played by the combat larva and the bolt stem.

The drummer is spring-loaded and has a special protrusion that interacts with an S-shaped cutout on the rotor block. The valves, in addition to translational movement along the grooves of the rotor block, rotate together with the rotor.

The machine gun mechanisms operate as follows. Pressing the trigger button on the left side of the control handle causes the rotor block with barrels to rotate in a counterclockwise direction (as viewed from the breech of the weapon). As soon as the rotor begins to spin, the roller of each bolt is driven by an elliptical groove on the inner surface of the receiver. As a result, the shutters move along the grooves of the rotor block, alternately capturing the cartridge from the feed fingers of the receiver. Then, under the action of the roller, the bolt sends the cartridge into the chamber. The bolt head, interacting with a groove in the bolt, rotates and locks the barrel. The firing pin is cocked under the action of the S-shaped groove and released in the extreme forward position of the bolt, firing a shot.

The shot is fired from the barrel, which is in a position corresponding to the 12 o'clock position of the clock hand.

The elliptical groove in the receiver has a special profile that does not allow unlocking until the bullet leaves the barrel and the pressure in the barrel reaches a safe value. After this, the bolt roller, moving in the groove of the receiver, returns the bolt back, unlocking the barrel. When the bolt moves backward, it removes the spent cartridge case, which is reflected from the receiver. When the rotor unit rotates 360 degrees, the automation cycle repeats.

The machine gun's ammunition capacity is usually 1,500–4,000 rounds connected by a link belt. If the length of the hanging tape is long enough, an additional drive is installed to supply cartridges to the weapon. It is possible to use a linkless ammunition supply scheme.

Helicopter weapon systems using the M134 were extremely varied. The “Minigun” could be installed in the opening of the helicopter’s sliding side door, and on remote-controlled triangular installations (in the bow, as on the AH-1 “Hugh Cobra”, or on the side pylons, as on the UH-1 “Huey”), and in fixed hanging containers. The M134 was equipped with multi-purpose UH-1, UH-60, light reconnaissance OH-6 Keyus, OH-58A Kiowa and fire support helicopters AN-1, AN-56, ASN-47. During the Vietnam War, there were known cases when Minigun in field conditions converted into easel weapons.

In the US Air Force, the 7.62-mm Minigun machine gun was used to arm light attack aircraft such as the A-1 Skyraider and A-37 Dragonfly, intended for counter-insurgency operations. In addition, it was equipped with fire support aircraft special purpose"Ganship", which are converted military transport aircraft (S-47, S-119, S-130), equipped with a whole artillery battery, including a 105 mm infantry howitzer, a 40 mm cannon, 20 mm Vulcan and Minigun cannons. Firing from the Gunship's on-board weapons is carried out not as usual - along the course of the aircraft, but perpendicular to the direction of flight ().

In 1970–1971 a small-caliber modification of the Minigun was created chambered for a 5.56 mm caliber cartridge. The XM214 machine gun also had an external electric drive, providing a rate of fire of 2000–3000 rounds per minute and resembled a smaller copy of the M134. However, this sample did not turn out to be as successful as its prototype, and was not further developed.

The Minigun design with a rotating block of barrels was used to create machine gun modules for more than large caliber. In the mid-1980s, General Electric developed a new aircraft multi-barreled machine gun caliber 12.7 mm, designated Gecal-50. The machine gun is designed in two versions: six-barreled (basic) and three-barrel. The maximum rate of fire is 4000 rounds per minute with link feed and 8000 with linkless feed. Shooting is carried out with standard 12.7 mm American and NATO cartridges with high-explosive fragmentation incendiary, armor-piercing incendiary and practical bullets. Unlike the Minigun, the Gecal-50 is used not only to arm helicopters, but also ground combat vehicles.

In the USSR, to replace the A-12.7 heavy machine gun, which had been the only model since the early 1950s small arms helicopters (Mi-4, Mi-6, Mi-8 and Mi-24A), designers TsKIB SOO B.A. Borzov and P.G. Yakushev created a new multi-barreled machine gun. The sample, designated YakB-12.7, entered service in 1975 ().

The YakB-12.7, like the Minigun, had a rotating block of four barrels, providing a rate of fire of 4000–45000 rounds per minute. Special two-bullet cartridges 1SL and 1SLT were developed for the machine gun, but conventional 12.7 mm ammunition with B-32 and BZT-44 bullets can also be used for firing. The YakB-12.7 could be installed in the NSPU-24 bow mobile installations of Mi-24B, V and D combat helicopters, as well as in the GUV-8700 suspended installations (Mi-24, Ka-50 and Ka-52).

Today, machine guns have given way on board combat helicopters to automatic cannons of 25–30 mm caliber, often unified with the cannon armament of infantry fighting vehicles. This is due to the fact that in order to destroy enemy armored vehicles on the battlefield, fire support helicopters required more powerful weapon than machine gun installations. New concepts appeared in the tactics of army aviation: “air battle between helicopters”, “air battle between a helicopter and an airplane”, which also required an increase in the firepower of helicopters.

However, it is too early to talk about the demise of aircraft machine gun weapons. There are several areas of combat use of multi-barrel aircraft machine guns where they have no competition.

Firstly, it is the armament of special forces aviation intended for reconnaissance, sabotage, search and rescue and anti-terrorism operations. A light multi-barreled machine gun of 7.62–12.7 mm caliber is an ideal and highly effective tool for combating unprotected enemy personnel and for self-defense tasks. Since operations of this kind are often carried out behind enemy lines, the interchangeability of ammunition for aircraft and infantry weapons is also important.

The second task is self-defense. For this purpose, transport-landing, multi-purpose, reconnaissance, search and rescue helicopters are armed with machine guns, for which fire support is not main task. Multi-barreled machine guns can be used not only in aviation, but also on ground vehicles ( anti-aircraft system"Avenger" with a 12.7-mm Gecal-50 machine gun), as well as for the protection of ships and vessels.

And finally, a multi-barreled machine gun can be successfully used for installation on light training and combat trainer aircraft carrying a limited combat load. By the way, many developing countries who are unable to purchase modern expensive combat aircraft, are showing great interest in purchasing such aircraft. Equipped with light weapons, they are used as fighters and attack aircraft.

Comparative tactical specifications M61A1 cannon and M134 Minigun machine gun

FROM THE EDITORIAL OF THE MAGAZINE

An inexperienced reader may have the opinion that Russia lags behind the West in the development of multi-barreled rapid-fire small arms. However, this is not the case. Back in 1937, the Kovrov Arms Plant launched serial production of 7.62-mm single-barreled Savin-Norov machine guns, firing 3,000 rounds per minute. The single-barrel 7.62 mm machine gun, developed by designer Yurchenko and produced at the same plant in a small series, had a rate of fire of 3600 rounds per minute.

In World War II in German army An MG-42 infantry machine gun was used, the rate of fire of which was 1,400 rounds per minute. The 7.62-mm ShKAS aircraft machine gun, which was then in service with the Red Army, allowed it to fire 1,600 rounds per minute. The popularity of this machine gun was facilitated by the assertiveness of its authors and the personal sympathy of Stalin and Voroshilov for them. In fact, the ShKAS machine gun was not the best rapid-fire machine gun of those times. According to the automation scheme, this is the most common, but forced to the limit sample. Its rate of fire was limited by the problem of “unloading”*. Unlike the ShKAS, the Savin-Norov and Yurchenko machine guns were designed taking into account a high rate of fire, and the problem of “unloading” practically did not concern them.

By the beginning of World War II, 7.62 mm aircraft weapons were considered ineffective. On Soviet fighters of that era, automatic guns of 23, 37 and 45 mm calibers were installed. The aircraft of the German Luftwaffe were armed with three types of powerful 30-mm cannons. American Cobra fighters - 37 mm automatic cannon.

Multi-barreled weapons, characterized by a rotating block of barrels, were created in the middle of the 19th century by the American Gatling. As time passed, Gatling-type small arms were revived by Soviet designers in the mid-thirties, in particular by Kovrov gunsmith I.I. Slostin. In 1936, a 7.62-mm machine gun was created with an eight-barreled barrel block, which was rotated by gases removed from the barrels. The rate of fire of the Slostin machine gun reached 5000 rounds per minute.

At the same time, Tula designer M.N. Blum developed a machine gun with a block of 12 barrels. Soviet models of multi-barreled weapons were distinguished by the fact that instead of an external manual or electric drive they were powered by powder gases vented from the barrels. Then this direction was abandoned by our designers, since the military showed no interest in it.

In the second half of the fifties, the NIISPVA (Research Institute of Small and Cannon Weapons of Aviation) received an American open magazine with a short message about a certain experimental American model of 20 mm weapons. It was also reported there that when firing in bursts, individual shots are completely indistinguishable. This information was regarded as a foreign attempt to revive the Gatling system at a modern level. Soviet gunsmiths- designer Vasily Petrovich Gryazev and scientist Arkady Grigorievich Shipunov, then twenty-six-year-old leading engineers, and now academicians and professors, began to create a domestic analogue. At the same time, they theoretically substantiated that such a gas-operated weapon would be much lighter than an American electric weapon. Practice has proven the validity of this assumption.

A captured American Vulcan air gun (20 mm) arrived from Vietnam. We were convinced from experience that in comparison with our more powerful six-barreled AO-19 (23 mm), the American Vulcan looked like a bulky crocodile.

V.P. Gryazev and A.G. Shipunov developed new models of 23-mm and 30-mm multi-barreled guns, creating various versions of them - aviation, sea and land transportable.

Only one helicopter-mounted four-barreled electric machine gun was created in the USSR for the 7.62 mm rifle cartridge - GShG-7.62. Its sole designer is the youth friend of the author of this expert assessment, Evgeniy Borisovich Glagolev, the leading designer of the Tula KBP.

Military customers never showed any interest in creating an infantry version of such a weapon.

The record development of weapons with a rotating barrel block belongs to the senior engineer of NII-61 Yu.G. Zhuravlev. His mock-up of a 30-mm air cannon with a six-barrel block drive jet engine showed a rate of fire of 16 thousand rounds per minute! True, the barrel block could not withstand this regime. The centrifugal force of the spinning block tore it apart already on the 20th shot.

Along with this, I would like to note that the opinion of the magazine’s editors does not entirely coincide with the opinion of the author of the article.

Expert consultant Dmitry Shiryaev

* “Uncartridgement” – dismantling or deformation of a cartridge as a result of impacts and inertial overloads when it moves within the weapon.

For decades, one of the few examples rapid fire weapons was . This cumbersome multi-barreled system with manually operated automation was used with varying success in various wars of the second half of the 19th century, and was quickly replaced by Maxim machine guns.

But the Gatling system was revived already in the middle of the 20th century, when the need arose to create aircraft and anti-aircraft guns with ultra-high rates of fire. One of the first Gatlings of the new generation was the 20mm M61 Vulcan cannon. For more than 50 years, it has remained the weapon of most American combat aircraft.

History of creation

First jet fighters The US Air Force retained the weapon system typical of American piston aircraft - a battery of six 12.7mm Browning machine guns. War experience, however, showed that “cannon” aircraft could hit the enemy from a greater range. At that time, the only aircraft cannon in the United States was a licensed copy of the 20mm HS.404 weapon, and its rate of fire was insufficient for promising aircraft.

One of the options for solving the problem of creating a rapid-firing automatic cannon was a revolving design. Another option involved the revival of the seemingly irrevocably outdated Gatling system. Although Dr. Gatling himself pointed out the prospects for the development of his brainchild, who in 1893 patented a version of a machine gun in which the barrels rotated using an electric motor.

At that time, finding a source of electricity to power weapons was possible only on ships, but in the mid-20th century this was no longer a problem.

Work on the “Vulcan project” began already in 1946.

The caliber was initially supposed to be increased slightly - to 15mm. It was believed that high initial speed and rate of fire would ensure sufficient efficiency even with this caliber. The first firing using the 15mm Vulcan prototype (under the symbol T45) took place in 1949, and a rate of 2500 rounds per minute was developed.

In 1950, the figure rose to 4,000 shots. But then the task changed - they decided that the 15mm caliber would no longer be enough, and decided to increase it. By 1952, the T171 and T150 were prepared - guns of 20 and 27 mm caliber, respectively. As a result, the 20mm gun was considered more balanced.

The first aircraft to carry the T171 cannon, later renamed the M61, was the F-104 Starfighter. And already during trial operation, unreliability of power supply was revealed. The links of the cartridge belt thrown out could damage the aircraft, and feeding a shot into the chamber was accompanied by failures. The modernized gun with a linkless shot feed received the M61A1 designation and found application not only on fighters.

Design and modifications

M61 is a multi-barreled gun with a rotating barrel block. The design of the gun, despite the number of barrels, is quite simple. Each of the Vulcan's six barrels has its own bolt and chamber.

During a full rotation of the block, the barrel manages to go through a cycle that includes a shot, ejection spent cartridge case and sending a new projectile.

The bolts are moved using rollers attached to them, which move along a special groove in the receiver.

Locking the barrels is done by turning the bolt cylinder. The ignition of the cartridge case is electrical. The automation of the basic modification of the Vulcan operates due to an external drive from the hydraulic system of the carrier aircraft. On other versions, the barrel block could be spun by an electric motor from the on-board network.

Modifications

The barrel drive system may vary depending on the modification, but in most cases it is external, hydraulic.

M61A2 is a lightweight version installed on later F/A-18s. Due to thinner barrels and replacement of metal parts, the weight of the gun was reduced to 92 kg.

M130 (GAU-4) - “Vulcan”, which does not require external power supply. The block of barrels is rotated by the exhausted powder gases. This modification was used for installation in suspended cannon nacelles.

M197 is a three-barreled Vulcan with a rate of fire reduced to 1500 rounds per minute. Intended to arm AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters.

M195 is a version designed for installation on helicopters with six shortened barrels. As a result, it was not accepted into service.

XM301 – the most lightweight “Vulcan” with two barrels, which was supposed to arm helicopters.

M168 – anti-aircraft gun artillery installations.

Even more famous than the above-mentioned Vulcan variants is the six-barreled M134 Minigun machine gun of 7.62mm caliber, designed for arming helicopters. This is, in fact, a smaller version of the M61 cannon.

Ammunition

Initially, two types of projectiles were developed for the Vulcan cannon: the armor-piercing incendiary M53 and the high-explosive fragmentation M56. The first is a simple steel blank with an aluminum ballistic tip, weighing 100 grams. The incendiary composition is located between the steel body and the aluminum tip. Initial speed – 1030 m/s. High-explosive fragmentation projectile equipped with 10 grams of explosive (“composition B”), the damage radius is estimated at 2 meters.

The M246 projectile was developed for anti-aircraft guns. It is distinguished by the presence of a self-liquidator. Since the end of 1980, “semi-armor-piercing” shells such as PGU-28 or M940 began to spread. Their difference is a body made of heat-strengthened steel and the absence of a fuse as such.

When a cannon shell hits a target, it ignites incendiary composition, and its flash detonates the explosive charge. Due to the slow action of this process and the durable casing, the projectile explodes inside the target. Armor penetration - about 12 mm at a distance of 500 meters.

Specialized projectiles with high armor penetration were developed for naval anti-aircraft Vulcans.

The Mk.149 projectile is a sub-caliber projectile, with a detachable tray. The core was originally made from depleted uranium. Later, tungsten carbide was used for this purpose. The Mk.244 projectile has an increased core mass.

Application

The first aircraft armed with the M61 Vulcan cannon entered service at the end of the 50s. They were the F-104 fighter, the F-105 fighter-bomber, and the gun appeared on the B-52 and B-58 bombers as a defensive weapon. And then senior officials The Air Force felt that the rapid development of guided missiles would make guns unnecessary, and new aircraft were designed without built-in weapons.

The Vietnam War showed the fallacy of such conclusions. Armed with the Vulcan, the F-105, even after firing all its missiles, could successfully fight off the North Vietnamese MiG-17s.

But the newest “Phantoms” turned out to be helpless in such situations. As a temporary solution to this problem, the SUU-16/Ac suspended container with an M61 cannon and 1200 shells was developed for the Phantoms. The rotor of the gun in it was spun by the incoming air flow. An improved model with a gun without external power was designated SUU-23/A. Sometimes up to 5 such containers were hung on the Phantoms.

Late-model Phantoms and next-generation fighters once again received the built-in Vulcan.

During the Vietnam War, 39 North Vietnamese fighters were shot down using M61 cannons.

In 1967 they adopted anti-aircraft installation M167, armed with the Vulcan, and in 1969 - the M163 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun on the M113 armored personnel carrier chassis. Both anti-aircraft guns were considered a temporary measure, but failures in the development of a more advanced system led to the fact that the Vulcan anti-aircraft guns remained in service until the 90s, and are still used locally.

In 1980, the US Navy received anti-aircraft complex"Phalanx", armed with an M61 cannon and designed to protect ships, mainly from anti-ship missiles. In 2004, its ground version “Centurion” appeared, shooting down shells with cannon fire and mortar mines.

Specifications

Let's compare the Vulcan with some of its “contemporaries” - the Soviet GSh-23 cannon and the British ADEN.

When developing a new aircraft gun, the British relied on the power of a single projectile. The relatively low rate of fire was compensated for by the installation of several guns. Soviet gun inferior to M61 in rate of fire and initial speed projectile, but slightly exceeds its mass.

As the main weapon of fighters, unlike the Vulcan, competitors did not stay long - late soviet planes guns of 30mm caliber were received, and in Europe the Mauser cannon of 27mm caliber became widespread. Interestingly, all three guns are made according to different designs. The ADEN system is built on a revolver design, and the GSh-23 uses a Gast design, in which one barrel is reloaded at the moment the second is fired.

Without having any record-breaking or simply impressive characteristics, the M61 Vulcan cannon turned out to be a completely successful model, coping with its tasks even 60 years after its appearance.

She also managed to demonstrate that the design of a weapon with a rotating barrel block is not at all outdated and can compete on equal terms with more modern developments.

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