What gun is used on the a10 Warthog?
The A-10 is perhaps best known for its fearsome GAU-8 Avenger 30mm gatling gun mounted on the nose. The GAU-8 is designed to fire armor-piercing depleted uranium and high explosive incendiary rounds.
What caliber is the Gatling gun on a warthog?
30-mm
Dubbed Warthog, Hog or just Hawg, the A-10 Thunderbolt II is, basically, an airplane built around the GAU-8 Avenger 30-mm hydraulically driven seven-barrel Gatling-type cannon.
What uses the GAU-8 Avenger?
The AN/GAU-8 is used exclusively by the United States Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II, a dedicated Close Air Support aircraft which was essentially designed around the Avenger gun system.
What does the GAU-8 shoot?
The 30mm API is mixed with 30mm High Explosive Incendiary (HEI) at the factory and is called Combat Mix Ammunition. The ratio of API to HEI rounds in the Combat Mix is 4:1. Combat mix is a sequential mixture of DU and HEI rounds in which 1 HEI round followed by 4 DU rounds are fired by the AN/GAU-8 gatling gun.
What is Gau gun?
The M134 GAU-17 “Vulcan” cannon is a six-barreled, air cooled, medium machine gun used primarily as a fire suppression weapon in aircraft for the U.S. military. The so-called “Gatling” design relies on electric motors to power the barrels resulting in a firing rate as much as 6,000 rounds per minute.
What bullet does the A-10 Warthog shoot?
Although the A-10 can carry a considerable amount of munitions, its primary built-in weapon is the 30×173 mm GAU-8/A Avenger autocannon. One of the most powerful aircraft cannons ever flown, it fires large depleted uranium armor-piercing shells.
How big is the A-10 gun?
The system’s overall length is 18 feet and its ammunition drum is three feet in diameter. The GAU-8’s magazine can hold up to 1,174 rounds, but the Air Force usually loads only 1,150. Two independent hydraulic motors, which together produce 77 horsepower, power the ammunition drum feed and the gun itself.
What caliber is a-10 Warthog?
30 mm
GAU-8 Avenger
| GAU-8/A Avenger | |
|---|---|
| Cartridge | 30×173 mm |
| Caliber | 30 mm |
| Barrels | 7-barrel (progressive RH parabolic twist, 24 grooves) |
| Action | Electrically controlled, hydraulic-driven |
What is a Gau 21 machine gun?
The FN® M3M (GAU-21) is a . 50 caliber (12.7x99mm) single barrel rapid-fire machine gun suitable for rotary-wing aircraft applications providing defensive firepower ranging out to nearly 2000 meters. The FN M3M™ was designated by the U.S. Navy as the GAU-21 in 2004.
Is a Gatling gun a machine gun?
The original Gatling Gun is a rapid-firing, hand-operated weapon. The rate of fire is regulated by the rapidity of the hand-cranking movement, manually controlled by the operator. It is not a “machinegun” as that term is defined in 26 U.S.C. 5845(b} because it is not a weapon that fires automatically.
What kind of gun is a Gau 8 Avenger?
GAU-8 Avenger. The General Electric GAU-8/A Avenger is a 30 mm hydraulically driven seven-barrel Gatling-style autocannon that is typically mounted in the United States Air Force’s Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II. Designed specifically for the anti-tank role, the Avenger delivers very powerful rounds at a high rate of fire.
What weapons does the A-10 Warthog have?
The A-10 Warthog’s massive 30mm cannon, the GAU-8/A Avenger, is one of the most iconic weapons ever designed and is as famous as the plane that carries it into battle.
What kind of ammunition was used in the GAU-8?
General Electric developed a prototype, designated the GAU-8. In addition to the weapon, the government contract also called for the development of four types of ammunition that would be used with the cannon and these included Armor Piercing Incendiary, High Explosive Incendiary, Semi-Armor Piercing High Explosive, and Target Practice.
Who invented the Air Force’s GAU-8 cannon?
(U.S. Air Force photo) The development of the weapon dates back to the early 1970s when the United States Air Force issued a request for proposal (RFP) for a 30mm rapid-fire cannon that could be used with its A-X Close Air Support aircraft. General Electric developed a prototype, designated the GAU-8.