The M61 Vulcan aircraft gun is the rebirth of the Gatling system. Carousel of death: Gatling machine gun And what about us

Today we have another Hollywood bestseller on review - the M-134 six-barreled Gatling machine gun or the Magic Dragon. In general, this machine gun has many names, it is called both “Jolly Sam” and “Meat Grinder”, but the most appropriate nickname is still “Magic Dragon”, received by the machine gun not only for its characteristic “roar”, but also for its strong fiery flash when firing.

For the first time, an order for this type of weapon for the infantry was received in 1959 from the US armed forces, since the machine guns of that time did not allow creating a high density of fire at distances over 500 meters. The General Electric company, which already has a decent experience in creating systems of this kind, undertakes to fulfill the order. In 1960, the company began to develop the first prototype of a multi-barreled machine gun system for a caliber of 7.62 mm. The six-barreled 20-millimeter Vulkan M-61 air gun, which this company had previously created by order of the US Air Force, was taken as the basis.

Initially, the order indicated a caliber of 12.5 millimeters, but the recoil with a power of more than 500 kgf at 6000 rounds per minute brought the idea to naught. The first tests are being carried out in Vietnam on the AC-47 Spooky fire support aircraft (the predecessor of the "Finger of God" - the Lockheed AC-130 aircraft). The machine gun turned out to be so good that a couple of months later it was put into service and began to be massively installed on the UH-1 Iroquois and AH-1 Cobra.

The ability to switch the rate of fire and low weight made it possible to install the M-124 even in sparks; when firing, this led to the fact that the target being fired at was covered with lead. These machine guns terrified the North Vietnamese rebels for a very long time, when fired from which the "green" simply mowed down another hundred meters. By the 1970s, more than 10,000 machine guns had been produced, the lion's share of which was used by transport and attack helicopters, as well as by light ships and ships as a means of combating low-flying targets and boats.

For some time, M-134 machine guns were installed on cars, but in the event of a car engine failure from the battery, the machine gun worked for no more than three minutes until it was completely discharged. By the mid-seventies "Magic Dragon" becomes popular among the civilian population, especially in the "armed" states such as Texas, he sold more than a thousand copies. The machine gun was used on infantry bipods with a box for a thousand rounds, firing required a constant power source of 24 volts and consumes about three thousand kilowatts per hour at six thousand per minute.

For the defense of stationary structures, this was acceptable, but as an offensive weapon it was useless. The weight of the machine gun itself is about 30 kilograms with a battery, and the weight of the ammunition load of 1500 rounds is almost 60 kilograms, this amount of rounds is enough for a minute of battle. The optimal ammunition load is 4,500 rounds (weighing 136 kg) or 10,000 rounds (290 kilograms).

The operation of the machine gun mechanisms is extremely interesting: the M-134 uses automation with an external drive mechanism from an electric motor direct current. Through three gears and a worm shaft, an electric motor drives a block of six barrels. The cycle of loading, firing and unloading is divided into several operations performed at various points of connection of the barrel block with the receiver.

When the barrel moves up in a circle, the spent cartridge case is removed and ejected. The locking of the barrel is carried out by turning the combat larva of the shutter, the movement of the shutters is controlled by a closed curved groove on the inner surface of the machine gun casing, along which the rollers placed on each shutter move. Food is produced in two ways: the first is by means of a mechanism without a link supply of cartridges or by means of a tape.

To control the rate of fire, an electronic fire control unit is used, which has a rate of fire switch, a fuse, a button for starting the rotation of the barrel unit and a button for opening fire, placed on the handle. The modern version of the M134D machine gun has only two firing options - 2000 and 4000 rounds per minute. The recoil when firing is directed only backwards, no tossing of the barrel or pulling to the side.

The machine gun also has diopter sights, which, in general, are not needed when using tracer cartridges in the tape for adjustment, when firing from a machine gun there is a pronounced tracer trace, more like a stream of fire.

I want to note that the M-134 machine gun has never been used in films, the huge weight and very strong recoil just knocks a person down when trying to shoot from the hip. For the filming of some cult films ("Predator", "Terminator", "Matrix"), an experimental XM214 machine gun of 5.45 mm caliber and having a return of 100 kilograms was used. Despite its relatively small size and “weak” recoil, its rate of fire of 10,000 rounds per minute was simply not acceptable for the army, and the machine gun did not go into series, although it was actively advertised until the nineties of the last century.

/Alexander Martynov, especially for "Army Bulletin"/

The idea of ​​a multi-barreled rapid-fire weapon arose in the 15th century and was embodied in some samples of that time. With obvious merit, this type of guns did not take root and was rather an exotic illustration of the design process than a real effective firing system.

In the XIX century, the inventor R. Gatling from Connecticut, who was engaged in agricultural machinery, and later became a doctor, received a patent for a "revolving battery gun." He was kind person and believed that, having received such a terrible weapon, humanity would come to its senses and, fearing numerous victims, would completely stop fighting.

The main innovation in the Gatling multibarrel was the use of gravity to automatically feed cartridges and extract cartridge cases. The naive inventor could not even imagine that his offspring would become the prototype of a super-rapid machine gun of the middle and second half of the 20th century.

The development of technical thought after Korean War led to the emergence of new weapons for aviation. The rapid speeds of the MiGs and Sabers left the pilots too little time for careful aiming, and the number of cannons and machine guns could not be very large. The rate of fire was limited by the fact that the barrels overheated. The way out of this engineering impasse was the M61 six-barreled Vulkan machine gun, which was in time for a new massacre, the Vietnam War.

With each decade, the duration of combat contact between opponents is reduced. The one who managed to release more charges and started shooting first has a better chance of surviving. Mechanical devices in such an environment simply cannot cope, so the Vulkan machine gun is equipped with a 26 kW electric drive that rotates the barrels, releasing 20-mm shells in turn, and also electrical system ignition of the capsules. This solution allows you to fire at a speed of up to 2000 rounds per minute, and in the "turbo" mode - 4200.

The Vulkan machine gun is quite massive and is intended primarily for aviation, although it can also be used in ground-based air defense systems. Initially, it was installed on Lockheed Starfighters, but later they began to equip A-10 attack aircraft. As an additional artillery container, it was also hung under the fuselage of the F-4 Phantom, after it turned out that missiles alone were not enough in maneuverable air combat. The weight of 190 kg is not a joke, and this is without ammunition, which, with such a rate of fire, requires a lot, so children's toys, the nerf machine gun "Volcano", which shoots arrows, have little in common with the prototype.

In service, this weapon is relatively simple, the design is made as practical as possible. To load the Vulkan machine gun, you need to remove it, but this is easy to do. Problems arose in the 1950s when survey work was carried out. A large number of shells create a powerful return, which resulted in difficulties with piloting.

In the USSR, the creation of multi-barreled aircraft weapons began a good ten years later than in the United States. Anti-aircraft automatic guns 6K30GSh, AK-630M-2 and other samples became the answer to the Vulkan machine gun artillery mounts, with a high density of fire. Some improvements regarding the creation of the initial and working torques provide certain technical and operational advantages, but the design is still based on the same Gatling principle.

7.62-mm six-barreled aircraft machine gun M134 "Minigan" (in the US Air Force it has the designationGAU-2 B/ A) was developed in the early 1960s by General Electric. When it was created, a whole range of unconventional solutions were applied that were not previously used in the practice of designing small arms.

Firstly, in order to achieve a high rate of fire, a multi-barrel weapon scheme with a rotating block of barrels was used, which is used only in aircraft guns and high-speed anti-aircraft guns. In a classic single-barreled weapon, the rate of fire is 1500 - 2000 rounds per minute. In this case, the barrel is 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 movement of parts of automation 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 case is removed from another, a cartridge is sent to the third, and so on), which allows you to make the interval between shots minimal 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 carrier is not set in motion by the energy of the shot, as in traditional automation engines (with 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 unloading ammunition during strong impacts of automation links that occur in high-temperature weapons. In the 1930s, the developers of the ShKAS rapid-fire machine gun faced 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 device of the weapon itself, in which there are no return springs, a gas regulator and a number of other mechanisms. In an externally driven weapon, it is much easier to regulate the rate of fire, which is extremely important for aircraft weapons, which often have two firing modes - both at a low rate (for firing at ground targets) and at a high rate (for combating air targets). And, finally, the advantage of the circuit driven by an external source is that in the event of a misfire, 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 block of barrels and reach the required speed of its rotation. Another disadvantage 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 automatic weapons. First, double-barreled, triple-barreled, four-barreled guns and pistols appeared, and in the middle of the 19th century, the so-called canisters were created - firearms obtained by imposing several barrels on one gun carriage. The number of shotgun barrels changed from 5 to 25, and their rate of fire reached an unprecedented figure for those times - 200 rounds per minute. Gatling's shotguns are best known, named after American inventor Richard Jordan Gatling. By the way, today in the USA all samples firearms, made according to a multi-barreled scheme with a rotating block of barrels, are called Gatling guns.

After the end of the Second World War, the rate of fire of the best examples of aviation single-barreled 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 twin mounts were used, which were twins of two conventional machine guns (DA-2, MG81z). The emergence of high-speed jet aviation in the post-war period required the creation of small arms and cannon weapons systems that had 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 were created for ammunition of various calibers: 60, 20 and 27 mm. After rigorous testing, a sample of 20 mm caliber was selected for further development and received the designation T171. In 1956, the T171 was put into service ground forces and the US Air Force under the name M61 "Volcano".

The gun was a model 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 constructive 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. The ignition of the powder charge in the ammunition was carried out by an electric primer.

Somewhat later, the Vulkan gun 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 the aircraft gun armament of the US Air Force and many other states.

Versions of the gun were developed for anti-aircraft towed (M167) and self-propelled (M163) installations, as well as the ship-based version of the Vulkan-Phalanx to combat low-flying aircraft and anti-ship missiles. To equip helicopters, General Electric developed lightweight versions of the M195 and M197 guns. The last of them had three, not six barrels, as a result, the rate of fire was halved - up to 3000 rounds per minute. The followers of the "Volcano" were the heavy 30-mm seven-barreled gun GAU-8 / A "Avenger" and its lightweight five-barreled 25-mm version of the GAU-12 / U "Equalizer", designed to arm the A-10 Thunderbolt attack aircraft and fighters, respectively. AV-8 Harrier VTOL bombers.

Despite the success of the Vulkan cannon, it was of little use for arming light helicopters, which became large quantities enter service american army during Vietnam War. Therefore, initially, the Americans included either slightly modified versions of the conventional 7.62-mm M60 infantry machine gun, or light 20-mm M24A1 aircraft guns and 12.7-mm Browning M2 heavy machine guns in the helicopter armament system. However, neither infantry machine guns, nor conventional cannon and machine gun installations made it possible to obtain the density of fire necessary for aviation weapons.

Therefore, in the early 1960s, the General Electric Company proposed in principle new sample aircraft machine gun, using the principle of Gatling. The six-barreled "Minigun" was developed on the basis of the proven scheme of the M61 gun and outwardly very much resembled its smaller copy. The rotating block of barrels was driven by an external electric drive, powered by three 12-volt batteries. The standard 7.62 mm NATO screw cartridge (7.62 × 51) was used as ammunition.

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.

The production of the M134 Minigun was launched in 1962 at the General Electric plant in Burlington, where the Vulcan gun was also produced.

Structurally, the M134 machine gun consists of a receiver unit, receiver, rotary unit and bolt unit. Six 7.62mm barrels are inserted into the rotary block, and each of them is fixed by turning 180 degrees. The barrels are interconnected by special clips that protect them from displacement and are also designed to reduce the vibration of the barrels when firing. The receiver is a one-piece casting, inside which is a rotating rotor block. 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 shutter rollers enter.

The rotor block is the main element of the weapon. It is mounted in the receiver with ball bearings. The front of the rotary block holds six barrels. In the side parts of the rotor there are six slots in which six gates are placed. Each groove has an S-shaped notch, which is designed to cock the drummer and fire 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 stem of the shutter.

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

Machine gun mechanisms operate as follows. Pressing the release button on the left side of the control handle causes the rotation of the rotary unit with the barrels in a counterclockwise direction (when viewed from the breech of the weapon). As soon as the rotor begins to spin, the roller of each shutter 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 receiver's feed fingers. Further, under the action of the roller, the shutter sends the cartridge into the chamber. The bolt head, interacting with the groove in the bolt, rotates and locks the barrel. The drummer under the action of the S-shaped groove is cocked and in the extreme forward position of the bolt is released, firing a shot.

The shot comes from the barrel, which is in the position corresponding to the 12 o'clock position of the hour 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 that, the shutter roller, moving in the groove of the receiver, returns the shutter back, unlocking the barrel. The shutter, when moving backwards, removes the spent cartridge case, which is reflected from the receiver. When the rotary block turns 360 degrees, the automation cycle is repeated.

The ammunition load of a machine gun is usually 1500-4000 rounds connected by a link belt. If the length of the hanging tape is large enough, an additional drive is installed to supply cartridges to the weapon. It is possible to use a chainless ammunition supply scheme.

Helicopter weapon systems using the M134 were extremely diverse. The "Minigun" could be installed both in the opening of the sliding side door of the helicopter, and on remotely controlled triangular installations (in the bow, as on the AN-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 Keyyus, OH-58A Kiowa and fire support helicopters AN-1, AN-56, ASN-47. During the Vietnam War, cases were known when the 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 of the A-1 Skyrader and A-37 Dragonfly type, designed for counterinsurgency operations. In addition, they were 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 guns "Volcano" and "Miniguns". Shooting from the onboard weapons of the "Ganship" is not carried out 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 5.56 mm caliber. The XM214 machine gun also had an external electric drive that provided 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 scheme with a rotating block of barrels was used to create larger caliber machine gun modules. In the mid-1980s, General Electric developed a new 12.7 mm multi-barreled aircraft machine gun, designated the Gecal-50. The machine gun was developed in two versions: six-barreled (basic) and three-barreled. 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 for replacement heavy machine gun A-12.7, which since the beginning of the 1950s was the only sample small arms helicopters (Mi-4, Mi-6, Mi-8 and Mi-24A), designers of 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 ().

YakB-12.7, like the "Minigan", 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, however, 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 nose mobile units of the Mi-24B, V and D combat helicopters, as well as in the GUV-8700 suspension units (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 cannon armament of infantry fighting vehicles. This is due to the fact that in order to defeat enemy armored vehicles on the battlefield, fire support helicopters needed more powerful weapon than machine guns. In tactics of action army aviation new concepts appeared: "air combat between helicopters", "air combat between a helicopter and an aircraft", which also required an increase in the firepower of helicopters.

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

Firstly, this is the armament of special forces aviation, designed to solve reconnaissance, sabotage, search and rescue and anti-terrorist 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 manpower and for self-defense tasks. Since operations of this kind are often carried out behind enemy lines, the interchangeability of ammunition for aviation and infantry weapons is also of no small importance.

The second task is self-defense. For this purpose, amphibious transport, 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 (Avenger anti-aircraft system with a 12.7-mm Gecal-50 machine gun), as well as to protect ships and vessels.

And, finally, a multi-barreled machine gun can be successfully used for installation on light training and combat training 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 performance characteristics cannon M61A1 and machine gun M134 "Minigan"

FROM THE EDITORIAL OF THE MAGAZINE

An inexperienced reader may have an opinion that Russia is lagging behind the West in the field of creating multi-barreled rapid-fire small arms. However, this is not the case. Back in 1937, the Kovrov Arms Plant deployed mass production 7.62-mm single-barrel Savin-Norov machine guns, which fired 3000 rounds per minute. The single-barreled 7.62-mm machine gun, developed by the designer Yurchenko and produced at the same factory in a small series, had a rate of fire of 3600 rounds per minute.

In World War II in german army the infantry machine gun MG-42 was used, the rate of fire of which was 1400 rounds per minute. The 7.62-mm ShKAS aviation machine gun, which was then in service with the Red Army, made it possible to fire 1600 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 is not the best rapid-fire machine gun those times. According to the automation scheme - the most common, but forced to the limit sample. Its rate of fire was restrained by the problem of "unpatronizing" *. Unlike the ShKAS, the Savin-Norov and Yurchenko machine guns were designed taking into account the high rate of fire, and the problem of "unpatronizing" them practically did not concern them.

By the beginning of World War II, 7.62 mm caliber aviation weapons were recognized as ineffective. On Soviet fighters of that era, automatic guns of 23, 37 and 45 mm calibers were installed. Aircraft of the German Luftwaffe were armed with three types of powerful 30-mm guns. American fighters"Cobra" - 37-mm automatic gun.

Multi-barreled weapons, characterized by a rotating block of barrels, were created back in the middle of the 19th century by the American Gatling. As time passes weapon the Gatling type was revived by Soviet designers in the mid-thirties, in particular, the Kovrov gunsmith I.I. Slostin. In 1936, a 7.62-mm machine gun was created with an eight-barrel block of barrels, 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, the 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 discharged from the barrel channels. Then this direction was abandoned by our designers, since the military did not show interest in it.

In the second half of the fifties, an American open magazine With brief message about some prototype American 20-mm weapon. It was also reported there that when firing bursts, individual shots were completely indistinguishable. This information was regarded as a foreign attempt to revive the Gatling system on modern level. Soviet gunsmiths - designer Vasily Petrovich Gryazev and scientist Arkady Grigoryevich Shipunov, then twenty-six-year-old leading engineers, and now academicians and professors, began to create a domestic analogue. At the same time, it was theoretically substantiated that such a weapon with a gas-operated automatic drive would be much lighter than an American electric one. Practice has proven the validity of this assumption.

A captured American air gun "Volcano" (20 mm) arrived from Vietnam. Experience proved that compared to 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 their various variants - aviation, sea and land transportable.

Under the 7.62-mm rifle cartridge in the USSR, only one helicopter four-barreled electric machine gun was created - GShG-7.62. Its sole designer is a friend of the youth of the author of this peer review, Evgeny Borisovich Glagolev, the leading designer of the Tula KBP.

Military customers did not show any interest in creating an infantry version of such weapons.

The record development of a weapon with a rotating block of barrels belongs to the senior engineer of NII-61 Yu.G. Zhuravlev. His model of a 30-mm air gun with a six-barrel unit driven by a jet engine showed a rate of fire of 16,000 rounds per minute! True, the block of trunks could not withstand such a regime. The centrifugal force of the untwisted block tore it apart already on the 20th shot.

Along with this, I would like to note that the opinion of the editorial staff of the journal does not completely coincide with the opinion of the author of the article.

Expert consultant Dmitry Shiryaev

* "Unpatronization" - dismantling or deformation of the cartridge as a result of impacts and inertial overloads when it moves within the weapon.

In the early 50s. The US government announced a competition for the development of a cannon for arming aircraft for the period up to 1975. General Electric won this competition, offering a six-barreled M61A1 Vulcan cannon. The first sample of the M61 gun of 20 mm caliber was released by General Electric in 1957. The M61A1 Vulcan gun 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 rds / mip. Some of the guns also had a reduced rate of fire - 4000 rds / mip for firing at ground targets. The time to reach the maximum rate of fire is 0.3 s.

The gun is fed from a cylindrical magazine with a capacity of about 1000 rounds. The store is connected to the gun by means of one or two conveyor belts located in elastic guide sleeves. With one conveyor belt, the spent cartridges were reflected outward, however, in cases where the reflection of the cartridges outward was unacceptable, the installations provided a return conveyor for spent cartridges. In a cylindrical magazine, the cartridges were located between the radial partitions. The central rotor, made in the form of an Archimedean screw, gradually moved the 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 - double-conveyor: spent cartridges are returned to the store. The total length of the guide sleeves is 4.6 m.

Shooting from the M61A1 gun was carried out with standard "20 x 102" cartridges, the same as the M39 gun. The cartridges are equipped with armor-piercing incendiary, sub-caliber, fragmentation-incendiary and fragmentation shells. Since the early 1990s most shells are supplied with plastic leading belts. The initial speed of the caliber projectile is 1030 m/s, the sabot 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 a disruption in the normal operation of on-board electronic equipment. So, for example, when firing from the M61A1 Vulkan cannon mounted on an F-16 aircraft (September 1979), the normal work navigation computer. During training flights at an altitude of 4200 m, when firing from a cannon, unauthorized turns of the aircraft were observed. The way out was found in a slight change in the rate of fire, which excluded the appearance of resonant oscillations.

The M61A1 gun has a GAU-4A variant, the main difference of which is the absence of an external gun drive. In the GAU-4A, powder gases discharged from three barrels are used to rotate the barrel block. The initial promotion of the block of barrels is provided by an inertial starting device with an electric motor. All of the listed characteristics of the M61A1 are identical for the GAU-4A gun.

The first aircraft equipped with the M61A1 Vulcan gun was the Thunderchief F-105 fighter-bomber. The gun was built into the fuselage of the aircraft. Since 1961, the Phantom F-4C fighters, which were originally armed only with missiles, began to equip the M61A1 guns. The F-4С fighter had two cannons in suspended mounts with 1200 rounds of ammunition each. However, when managing air combat the effectiveness of suspended installations was insufficient due to the effect of vibration on the accuracy of fire. It was concluded that the optimal placement of the gun along the longitudinal axis of the aircraft or near it. Therefore, a built-in cannon was adopted for arming the F-4E, F-14A, F-15 and F-16 fighters. F-111A, F-104 fighter-bombers, A-7D and A-7E carrier-based attack aircraft were armed with M61A1 guns.

The M61A1 gun was the last gun that was used in the aft defensive installations of American bombers. The stern (tail) installations of the B-52 and B-58 strategic bombers were equipped with Vulkan guns. In addition, on the basis of the Vulkan aircraft gun, ship-based 20-mm Vulkan-Phalanx mounts, as well as a number of self-propelled anti-aircraft mounts, were created.

For the 20-mm M61A1 and GAU-4 cannons, the SUU-23A and SUU-16A hanging containers were developed in the USA, designed for mounting on up to - 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 exclude the supply of electricity for the rotation of the block of barrels from the side of the aircraft carrier of the container, the automatics of the M61A1 gun is driven by an air turbine powered by an oncoming 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 limited rate of fire at aircraft speeds of 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 gun. An electric starter is used to accelerate the GAU-4 gun barrel block before each round of shots.

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

The unit is powered from the aircraft onboard network: alternating current - 208 V, 400 Hz, three-phase - current consumption of the SUU-16A container - 7A; container SUU-23A - 10 A. Installation of the container SUU-23A can also operate from DC voltage of 28 V; current consumption in this case is 3 A. Dispersion of projectiles: 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 1200 rounds. The weight of the container SUU-16A (SUU-23A) without cartridges is 484 kg (489 kg), with cartridges 780 kg (785 kg).

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

Creation works multi-barreled machine gun were started in the 1940s. This type of gun, with the highest rate of fire and high density fire, was developed as a weapon for jet tactical fighters of the US Air Force.

The prototype for the creation of the first standard of the six-barreled M61 Vulcan was the German 12-barreled Fokker-Leimberger machine gun, the design of which was based on the Gatling revolver-battery scheme. Using this scheme, an excellently balanced design of a multi-barreled machine gun with a block of rotating barrels was created, while all desired operations produced in one revolution of the block.

The M61 volcano was developed in 1949 and adopted by the US Air Force in 1956. The first aircraft in the fuselage of which was mounted a six-barreled M61 Vulcan machine gun was the F-105 Thunderchief fighter-bomber.

Design features of the M61 Vulcan gun

M61 Vulcan is a six-barreled aviation machine gun (cannon) with an air-cooled barrel and combat equipment with a 20 x 102 mm cartridge with an electro-primary ignition type.

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The system for supplying ammunition to the six-barreled Vulcan machine gun is without links, from a cylindrical magazine the capacity of which is 1000 rounds. The machine gun is connected to the magazine with a 2-way conveyor feed, in which the spent cartridges are returned back to the magazine with the help of a returnable assembly stream.

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

The entire array of cartridges in the store moves along its axis, while only the central guide rotor, made in the form of a spiral, rotates, between the turns of which the ammunition is placed. When firing, two cartridges are synchronized from the magazine, and with reverse side two spent cartridges are placed in it, 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.

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Cartridge equipment can be: caliber, fragmentation, armor-piercing incendiary, fragmentation incendiary, sub-caliber.

Video: Vulcan machine gun shooting

Mounted aircraft installations for the M61 gun

At the beginning of the 1960s, General Electric decided to make special mounted containers (mounted gun 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 not more than 700 m, and to equip them with subsonic and supersonic attack aircraft and fighters. In 1963-1964, the US Air Force received two variants of PPU - SUU-16 / A and SUU-23 / A.

The design of mounted gun mounts of both models has similar dimensions hull (length - 5.05 m, diameter - 0.56 m) and unified 762-mm attachments, allowing you to install such a machine gun in PPU on a variety of models of combat aircraft. The corresponding difference in the SUU-23 / A installation is the presence of a visor over the receiver unit.

As a mechanical drive for the SUU-16 / A PPU, for spinning and dispersing the barrel block of the Vulkan machine gun, an aircraft turbine is used, powered by an oncoming air flow. The full ammunition load consists of 1200 shells, the equipped weight is 785 kg, the weight without equipment is 484 kg.

The SUU-23/A unit is driven by an electronic starter for dispersing the barrels, the ammunition load consists of 1200 shells, the equipped weight is 780 kg, the weight without equipment is 489 kg.

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

The main tactical and technical properties of the Volcano M61

• The total length of the gun is 1875 mm.
• Barrel length - 1524 mm.
• The mass of the M61 Vulcan gun is 120 kg, with a supply system kit (without cartridges) - 190 kg.
• Rate of fire - 6000 rds / min. Copies were issued with rates of fire - 4000 rds / min.
• The initial speed of caliber / sub-caliber shells is 1030 / 1100 m / s.
• Muzzle power - 5.3 MW.
• The exit time to the highest rate of fire is 0.2 - 0.3 seconds.
• Vitality - about 50 thousand shots.

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

Automatic device-watch Nerf Vulcan

German student Michelson, using the popular Vulcan Nerf toy blaster cannon, constructed a rather funny but very useful automatic device, great for protecting the area.

With the help of several additional drives, conventional electronics and computer programs, the guard weapon Nerf is able to automatically recognize, track the target, and then hit it. With all this, the owner of the gun can be in cover.

The trigger mechanism of the mechanized device Nerf Volcano is connected to a laptop and a hardware and software tool (integrated circuit) Arduino Uno with processors. Its triggering occurs when the webcam tracking and scanning the area around the webcam captures the movement of an unnecessary object. With all this, the webcam is installed on the front panel of the laptop, and the computer program is configured for movement.