RAPID FI Kl
Chinn, G. M. The Machine Gun. 5 volumes Bureau of Ordnance, Department of the Navy USA, 1951-87 Hoffschmidt, E. J. Know Your Antitank Rifles. Blacksmith Corp USA, 1977 Musgrave, D. D. German Machineguns. Greenhill Books London,1992 Allsop, D. F. Cannons. Brassey's UK, 1995 Anon. 100 Jahre Eidg. Waffenfabrik Bern. ND Anon. Technisches Reglement No. 16 Die schwere Tankb sche Tb. 41. 1941 Chamberlain, P. and Gander, T. WW2 Fact Files Ami-Aircraft Guns. Macdonald and Jane's London,1975 Chamberlain,...
Weapons For Air F I 1
arrangements because of the distance from the engine. The traditional inter-war twin-RCMG equipment was almost invariably mounted in the engine cowling and synchronised to fire through the propeller disc. As the number and size of guns increased, differences in national preferences began to emerge. Soviet, German and Japanese practice generally continued to favour cowling-mounted synchronised guns and Soviet, German and French air forces also used aircraft with engine-mounted cannon. In...
T Ii E C A T K
Office Design Department to remove some shortcomings in De Wilde s design. However, such small projectiles are barely able to contain enough chemicals to make the effort worthwhile. The heavy machine gun is really the smallest calibre in which incendiary shells are common, with HE shells being more common in cannon 20 mm calibres. During the Second World War, it was discovered that adding aluminium dust to HE compounds not only improved the strength of the explosion but also had an incendiary...
INTRO IJ C TIONf
time. Essentially it was a weapon which used rifle-calibre ammunition but was intended for sustained weapons have remained important in army and naval applications throughout their existence, their fire. It was therefore tripod-mounted, usually water- period of major development occurred in the mid- cooled, belt-fed and served by several men. The Maxim was the first of these, with the Vickers die years of the twentieth century, especially for aircraft installations. The constant pressure for...
Info Cgi
Method of Cartridge Rate of operation feed fire rpm post-war AFV 15 x 115 first pattern TABLE5 ANTI-TANK AND CURRENT HEAVY RIFLES Barrel Method of Cartridge cm operation feed rounds
Weapons For Air F I
attempts to produce an effective air-fighting gun, followed by more successful use as airborne anti-tank guns. In the lead-up to the Second World War, aircraft designers had a wide choice of rifle-calibre 7.5-8mm and heavy machine guns and large-calibre cannon from which to choose. Trying to decide which combination of weapons would be best was not easy, even with war experience, because the circumstances kept changing. The basic characteristics which had to be taken into account when drawing...
The Naval Antiaircraft Gunnery Committee
Even at the beginning of the 1930s there was some concern about the adequacy of the British weapons. The problem was considered by the Naval Anti-aircraft Gunnery Committee, which produced a report in April 1932. The committee went into great technical detail in calculating the effectiveness of different guns. They took into consideration such matters as the nature of the threats, the time during which aircraft could be brought under effective fire by different weapons, the range and rate of...
Index
The index is divided into five different parts in order to facilitate browsing as well as locating specific items Cartridges and guns, by metric calibre Gun index by designation designer, manufacturer and name Gun mountings, self-propelled guns amp vehicles Aircraft index Warship index General index The following conventions have been followed 123 numbers in bold are page references to significant information about the item 123 ordinary numbers indicate other references to the item 123 numbers...
Rapid Fire 1
a pivoting lever inside a short-recoil mechanism which acts to accelerate the rearward movement of the bolt armoured fighting vehicle automatic grenade launcher advanced hit efficiency and destruction a proprietary Oerlikon ammunition development armoured infantry fighting vehicle also known as MICV a weapon which achieves barrel cooling by radiation direct to the atmosphere collective name for cartridges or equivalent armour-piercing a projectile designed to penetrate armour, or a cartridge...
It A F K
most complex and troublesome areas are those concerned with ammunition handling the mechanisms for loading, firing, extracting, ejecting, and reloading. All such guns can be divided into four classes according to the motive power used to achieve this externally powered, blowback-operat-ed, recoil-operated and gas-operated. Each of these major categories has sub-groups, for example recoil-operated weapons may have short- or long-recoil mechanisms, and in some cases elements of two or more...
Unpublished Documents
mainly held in the Ministry of Defence Pattern Room Ackers, T. General Survey of Main Problems Connected with Installation, Functioning and Accuracy of Aircraft Gun Armament During the War. Technical Note Arm. 383, A amp AEE Monograph No. 4.08 Royal Aircraft Establishment, 1947 Anon. The Second World War 1939-1945 Royal Air Force Armament Volume II Guns, Gunsights, Turrets, Ammunition and Pyrotechnics. S.D. 737 Air Ministry 1954 Anon. Me 410 A-1 U4 Flugzeug-Handbuch 1944 Anon. Development of...
Info Noz
as the Mauser-Signaal MIDAS , which uses four of Mausers BK27 aircraft revolver cannon, giving a maximum rate of fire of some 6,800 rpm. A special FAPDS loading of the 27 X 145B ammunition has been developed for this purpose. The total weight of the mounting, with ammunition, is 4,600kg. At the time of writing, this had been developed for service but not adopted. A simpler system is also offered, using a single BK27, which is also remotely controlled. A more powerful anti-missile CIWS operating...
Air Force Equipment Key Texts
Chant, C. World Encyclopaedia of Modern Air Weapons. Patrick Stephens UK, 1988 Chinn, G. M. The Machine Gun. 5 volumes Bureau of Ordnance, Department of the Navy USA, 1951-87 Gunston, W. Encyclopedia of Aircraf t Armament. Salamander Books London, 1987 Price, A. Combat Development in World War Two Fighter Aircraft. Arms and Armour Press UK, 1989 Richardson, D. The History of the Revolver Cannon. Oerlikon-Contraves Zurich, 1994 Woodman, H. Early Aircraft Armament. Arms amp Armour Press London,...
A II FI It F
Ml AA M9 aircraft Ml M9 loaded to 853 m s, 317,000 joules M9 only RhB FlaK M 42 WW2 naval AA. M M-Geschoss cartridge also used in KwK AFV PaK 36 AT gun see Table 2 for loadings 40mm HV for AGLs MDHC Ml29, Mark 19, CIS 40-AGL, LAG-40, Vektor Striker, HKGMG. -Vickers 2 pdr Pom-pom A A -Vickers High Velocity AA -Vickers Class S aircraft -Vickers Class S MkVI AP shot 57mm Bofors m 54 army and naval SAK-57 AA Molins 6 pdr 7 cwt aircraft naval AFV and AT TABLE2 MISCELLANEOUS MILITARY CARTRIDGES This...
14.5 Mm 15mm Ww2 Heavy Machine Guns
WW2 SI 8-1100 full auto. Italy main user
Gun Design Key Texts
Allsop, D. F. Cannons. Brassey's UK, 1995 Chinn, G. M. The Machine Gun. 5 volumes Vols I IV Bureau of Ordnance, Department of the Navy USA, 1951-55 Vol V RAMP Inc. 1987 Musgrave, D. D. German Machineguns. Greenhill Books London, 1992 Richardson, D. The History of the Revolver Cannon. Oerlikon-Contraves Zurich, 1994 Anon. Oerlikon Pocket Book. Oerlikon-Biihrle AG Zurich, 1981 Hobart F.W.A., Pictorial History of the Machine Gun. Ian Allan Shepperton, 1971 Gander, T. The Machine Gun A Modern...
Other Publications
Bruderlin, E. B. and Nelson, R. S. Research, Development and Production of Small Arms and Aircraft Armament of the Japanese Army. Ordnance Technical Intelligence Report Number 19, 1946 reprinted in USA, 1971 Elks, K. Japanese Ammunition 1880-1945 Labbett, P. and Brown, F. A. British Anti-Tank Rifle Ammunition 1917-1945 Labbett, P. and Brown, F. A. British Service .50 inch Bro wn ing A mm un it ion Labbett, P. and Brown, F. A. German 2cm Cannon A mmunition 1935-1945 Labbett, P. and Brown, F. A....
Manuallyaimed light cannon
Heavy machine guns are still fitted to some light naval vessels, but only on the simplest of mountings with virtually no technical changes since the Second World War. In contrast, several new 20mm, 25mm, 30mm and 40mm cartridges and weapons have been introduced and are used in mountings under local control - that is, with the gunner standing behind or sitting on the mounting in order to aim the gun. One of the few points they share in common is that they are all air-cooled. The main points of...
A Fif
cartridge Oerlikon-Contraves production FAPDS 26mm at l,000m 60 APDS 31mm and APFSDS 37mm. A unique light cannon variant currently applied to Russian aircraft ammunition for ground-attack purposes is the CC, or cargo-carrying, projectile. This contains sub-projectiles which are discharged from the body of the projectile at a set distance after firing in order to saturate the target area. It is designed to cause significant damage to such targets as aircraft parked in the open, but would also be...
Comparative Drawings of Postwar Fighter Guns
The following drawings represent fighter aircraft guns which have been introduced into service since World War 2. As with the drawings in Appendix 4, they are not all drawn to precise scale so measurements should not be scaled from them. The approximate scale used is the same as in Annex 4, so the general size of the guns may be compared. Particular thanks are expressed to the Russian Aviation Research Trust for making material available from which most of the Soviet guns have been drawn. 1....
RAPID Filil 1
IJA 20mm Type 1 Ho-5 aircraft these are final loadings earlier ones were c. 820 m s, ShVAK, B-20 aircraft subcalibre training , Helenius rifle M39, M61 Vulcan , Ml97, GIAT M 621, Ford Tigerclaws, APDS is M149 Phalanx round M50 series ammunition Solothurn Short SI8-100 ATR amp SI8-350 aircraft, Lb MG 204 early Oerlikon FFS SS series, Polsten AA, SSG-36 ATR-750m s HS404 804 AN M2 M3 US , m 45 49 S , M1955 YU , G 360 IS RT20 rifle Croatia . 850 m s UK Mark V short barrel 945 m s US M24 electric...
Il A F I FI llR
aircraft e . GSh-30K has longer barrels post-war naval AA e w PRC Type 69, Romanian Army A A
Gun design
The current emphasis in gun design is on externally powered weapons for arming light AFVs and helicopters, as this provides several advantages compactness, reliability and a rate of fire which can be varied to suit the tactical circumstances. The introduction of new ammunition concepts such as those described above does, however, have implications for gun mechanisms. In particular, caseless cartridges offer the promise of considerable simplification. The Russians have experimented with guns...
A I I N l I X T W
Solothurn Long FlaK 30 38 AA, KwK 30 38 AFV, MG C 30 L air, Breda M 35, Scotti and Lahti L40 AA. plus SI8-1000 1100 and Lahti ATRs 134g loading was for WW2 FMK aircraft and WW2 post-war Flab Kan 38 AA. Rim 2.6mm thick HS 820 0erlikon KAD US Ml39 , Rheinmetall Rh 202, GIATM 693, Mauser MK20, HS 827 exp. Rim 3.5mm thick 20mm Bofors m 40 A A AT sub-calibre training 23mm NS NR 23 690 m s loading 23mm AM GSh23 6-23, Norinco Type 2 740 m s R-23 aircraft post-war frontloading revolver Oerlikon KBA,...
RAPID Fill
Mk 12 USN T3, A5, 73, 185 20X113 Lahti L34 T1,T3, A3, 69, 20 x 120 Madsen Tl, T3, T5, A3, 129, 92, 125, 146, 179,218 20 x 125 T , A3,181,220, 174,220 Ho-1, Ho-3 T3, A4, 73, 146, 174, Type 97 IJA T5, 215, 73, 174, 20 x 128 Tl, A3, 14, 138, 25, 71, 78, Meroka T3, C, 82-3, 133 1 67, 76, 165, 171, 185 20 x 138B Tl, A3, 96, 129,220, 58, 92, 94, 122, 161,217 Breda M35 T3, 69, 124 KwK30, KwK 38 T3, 58, 90 MG C 30L T3, A4, 58, 161-2, 164 Scotti T3, 93, 73, 124 Solothurn SI8-1000 1100 T5, 215, 20 x 139...
Journal and Magazine Articles
Anon. 'Die 3,7-cm-Flak M 42 der Deutschen Kriegsmarine', Waffen-Revue 106-107 Anon. 'Paths of Destruction - NWM De Kruithoorn Demonstration of Frangible Medium Calibre Ammunition', Military Technology 12 94 Barnes, S. 'Helicopter Gunnery Options and Tactics', Military Technology 8 94 Boulay, P. Comment L'Helicoptere de combat naquit en France1, Le Fana de VAviation 2 96 Broden, D. 'Revolutionising Combat Capability', Global Defence Review, 1999 Bustin, I. 'Getting to the Point - Cased...
I I I X
ZSU AA 103, 131, 71, 93, 103, 109, 131 Su-11, Su-15, Su-21, Su-24, Su-25 194, Bf 109 36, 161, 162, 165, 166, 167, 168, Japan Allied code names in brackets
Early beginnings
The first heavy machine guns were designed for naval use. The main tactical problem at that time the late nineteenth century was the introduction of the self-propelled torpedo, which had led to the development of small, fast craft to carry them. These vessels were too large to be damaged by rifle-calibre machine gun fire and too agile to be hit by slow-firing, manually-loaded naval cannon, so an intermediate weapon was sought. The first response was simply to scale up the existing...
Il A PI F Ii
WW2 aircraft P-39, P-63 PT boats
T II li C A T K ti li
Sub-calibre 35mm projectiles for Oerlikon-Contraves ammunition Left FAPDSfor air defence. Middle APDS-Tfor anti-armour use. RIGHT APFSDS-Tfor enhanced anti-armour use Courtesy Oerlikon-Contraves called arrow projectiles, notably by the Germans reduce the amount who developed this Pfeil-geschoss concept in the Second World War with HE projectiles in order to achieve very long range in large-calibre artillery weapons. APFSDS penetrators with an L D ratio of between 10 1 and 20 1 are in common use...
M242 25mm Machine Gun
offered a better combination of weight and performance than the equivalent .50 Browning and was one of the best guns in its class. The 20mm ShVAK was also an impressive weapon which first became famous in the Polikarpov 1-16 fighter which saw action in the Spanish Civil War, outclassing other aircraft until the arrival of the Bf 109. It was fitted to a wide range of aircraft including Lend-Lease Hurricanes. In late 1944 the ShVAK was replaced in production by the B-20, which used the same...
A ckn owledgem en ts
This book would not have been possible John Carrier, Ron Wallace Clarke, Dr J. R. without the generous co-operation and assistance Crittenden Schmitt, Eugene Dvurechenski, Nigel of Herbert Woodend, the curator, and the staff of Eastaway of the Russian Aviation Research Trust the Ministry of Defence Pattern Room, whose RART , Urban Frederickson, Dr Ian Gooderson, unique library and weapon collection was exten- Jack Green of the US Naval Historical Centre, sively consulted. Particular thanks are...
R Api Fire
OE OTO mounting with twin 35mm Oerlikon guns Courtesy Oerlikonlhm Hogg the Italian OE OTO mounting, both introduced in the early 1970s. The latest Oerlikon development is the Millennium system, being developed in conjunction with Royal Ordnance, who are supplying the gun mounting. It is designed around Oerlikon's new 35 1,000 gas-operated revolver cannon which fires at 1,000 rpm via a linkless feed. The associated AHEAD ammunition system previously referred to has a greater effective range than...
Cartridge design
A cartridge is a unit or round of ammunition consisting of a projectile, propellant to thrust the projectile from the gun, a primer to ignite the propellant and a cartridge case to hold it all together. For as long as it has been used, the cartridge has been the heart of all automatic weapons. It is almost invariably designed first and the gun configured around it. This particularly applies to gas- or recoil-operated automatic and semi-automatic weapons because their functioning depends upon...
British weapons
During the early 1930s the Royal Navy Perhaps less evident were questions of power selected two weapons to fulfil the short-range AA requirements. Powered mountings offered much roles the .5 Vickers Mk III heavy machine gun and faster training and elevation rates but were more the 2pdr which has already been mentioned. Both expensive and vulnerable to loss of power through guns were belt-fed and water-cooled. The .5 was originally intended for all three services, but only the RN made extensive...
The German arsenal
German plans for air-fighting and aircraft armament went through a dramatic series of changes from the mid-1930s to the end of the Second World War, and resulted in a far greater variety of weapon projects than in any other nation, although many of the most technically interesting were still under development at the end of the war. While Germany was among the first to introduce one of the new breed of monoplane fighters with retractable undercarriage and enclosed cockpits the Messerschmitt Bf...
Modern Soviet and Russian armament
cannon, is also available in a variety of different guns. The GSh-6-30 is an air-cooled version of the The Soviet Air Force also went through a navy cannon, developed in parallel with the GSh-6-crisis in confidence over guns or perhaps a bout of 23 and also accepted into service in 1974. It equips over-confidence in the capabilities of missiles and the Su-9, -11, -15 and -21, the Yak-28P and the the MiG-27 ground-attack aircraft and reportedly some versions of the Su-25 and MiG-31. There is...
Postwar developments in the Soviet Union
The post-war Soviet designers agreed with the British and French that the priority was the ability to shoot down nuclear-armed heavy bombers and thus chose to develop large-calibre cannon. The NS-23 Nudelman-Suranov , which first appeared in 1944, was a logical replacement for the 20mm ShVAK and the B-20 it was effectively an NS-37 scaled-down to use a new 23 x 115 cartridge. This short-recoil gun was very light at 37kg, but could fire at only 550 rpm. It saw initial use in propeller-driven...
The cartridge case
The cartridge case has two major functions. First, it holds together all the active components of the cartridge - the projectile, propellant and primer -ina waterproof container which is rugged enough to withstand rough handling, especially in automatic weapons. Second, when the gun is fired, the cartridge case is expanded by the pressure against the walls of the firing chamber, forming a gas-tight seal which prevents any propellant gas from seeping back into the gun mechanism - and possibly...
American weapons 1
While the USAAF and USN aircraft started the Second World War with the .30 Browning as their primary weapon, the story of American air armament is dominated by the .50 Browning M2 HMG. The big Browning has already been described so it is unnecessary to say more than that it was a belt-fed gun weighing in light-barrelled aircraft form 29kg. Although prototypes were tested in the 1920s the gun saw little use until the introduction of the M2 in the mid-1930s. In pre-war form the rate of fire was...
AP Cartridge
Today, they are not only highly effective long-range anti-personnel weapons, with the ability to punch through walls and other types of cover favoured by infantrymen, but with the use of advanced ammunition types are also effective against soft-skinned or lightly armoured vehicles. An alternative approach to the anti-personnel role is represented by the OCSW objective crew served weapon programme which is intended to enter US Army service by 2008. The 25mm gun, which fires at 220 rpm, weighs...
Other projectiles
Most projectiles are variants or combinations of those already described. 'MultibalT rounds have been developed for heavy machine guns as well as infantry rifles. As the name suggests, two or more short projectiles are stacked on top of each other in the cartridge case and all fired at once, with the aim of increasing the hit probability against infantry. These are also known as duplex or triplex loadings, when they have two or three projectiles respectively. The problem is that, being light...
Ballistics
Ballistics is a complex and highly technical subject. In this book, it will be covered only in sufficient detail to enable the reader to grasp the essentials. The subject is generally divided into internal and external ballistics. The first deals with the passage of the projectile up the gun barrel, the second with what happens to the projectile between the gun muzzle and the target. There is a third category -terminal ballistics - concerning what happens when the projectile hits the target,...
It A I II FI Ii
of a vee-engine to fire forwards through the hollow propeller hub. There is some confusion about identification of the gun and ammunition most sources list the gun as a Puteaux but there were in fact two guns the first was developed from the Modele 1885 naval gun and was a single-shot weapon fitted with a smooth-bore barrel to fire shotshells canister . The other was the SAMC which featured a five-round vertical feed ammunition hopper and had a conventional rifled barrel for firing HE shells....
Modern Western Weapons
There was a period in the 1950s and 1960s when most nations felt that guns would no longer be required, and several fighters were designed to use only missiles. Most of these, such as the USAFs F-102A and F-106A, were intended for intercepting strategic bombers. Naval fighters such as the RNs Sea Vixen and the USNs F-4 Phantom II were also introduced without guns. The US realised its mistake in the Vietnam War and accordingly fitted the USAF s F-4E with an M61A1 cannon. This version achieved...