Flying Guns – The Modern Era
Amendments and Additions

On this page additions to the book and error corrections will appear.

Updated on: 18 February 2004, 27 March 2004, 17 May 2004, 22 May 2004, 12 June 2004, 9 July 2004, 16 September 2004, 1 January 2005, 22 June 2005, 8 October 2005, 17 June 2006, 27 December 2006, 6 January 2007, 2 April 2008.

Page 12 (17 May 2004)

The Hispano stayed in service for longer than decade after the war. The Canberra retained a capability to carry four Hispano cannon until the later 1960s. (Dave Everest)
Additional comment (2 April 2008)
The B(I)8 aircraft of 3 and 16 Squadrons at RAF Laarbruch were still flying as late as 1971 – I'm not sure when they finally left; however, it was after 31 Squadron (PR7s) disbanded in March 1971. (Geoff Cox)

Page 16 (1 January 2005)

News has emerged of two experimental Russian aircraft guns dating from the 1950s or 1960s, both designed by Makarov whose name is now associated with the standard Russian Army pistol. Both guns can be seen HERE: TKB 539 is on the left. The second image HERE is of two unidentified experimental Russian aircraft guns from the same period.
The Makarov TKB 539 was a 30mm 4-chamber revolver cannon, with an unusual action in which the cylinder was allowed to recoil via the gas system action in order to unlock from the barrel, rotate 90 degrees and then relock. Obturation was achieved by inserting the case neck into the barrel for about 25mm. The cylinder was loaded from the front with special cartridges having a reduced-diameter head (a similar arrangement to the R-23). Fired cases were ejected from the front using gas pressure from the next shot. The gun weighed 73 kg (the feed system another 16.8 kg), was 184.5 cm long and fired at 2,000 rpm. The ammunition generated a muzzle velocity of 1,000 m/s.
The Makarov TKB 532 was a 23mm gun using an entirely different mechanism. It is unclear from the description whether the breech was unlocked by recoil or gas, but ejection of the fired case was purely due to blowback (no extractor or ejector fitted) with fresh rounds being catapulted into the breech by a short-stroke spring-loaded rammer. The breech was also unusual, consisting of two sideways-sliding elements like dual sliding doors. (Posted as a comment on Rapid Fire)

Page 20 (16 June 2006)

The following information on the Vektor 55C5 aircraft cannon was provided by Gert Rossouw, who kindly gave permission to post it here:
I was the chief designer on the project and was responsible for all design and project management during the final phases.
As is the case worldwide the pilots of our air force needed a higher rate of fire due to the short time on target. The basic requirement for the upgrade was thus an increase in firing tempo. For obvious reasons the Defa 553 was used as technology carrier.
The design focused on the feeding of the cartridge in three phases. (I believe the same principle used in the Defa 544.) The XDM was designed to eject the links on top of the feed cover but as this will result in changes to the aircraft, the approach was changed and the links were ejected in the same path as the Defa 553. Development went well and a firing rate of 2200 rpm was achieved on a firing range. However the high rate caused excessive component wear and reduced reliability. Changes were effected to bring the rate down to about 2000 rpm. Very good reliability and acceptable component life was achieved.
Integrating into the aircraft brought some new challenges which all were overcome in the end. During the final acceptance tests performed by out air force the cannon was subjected to an flight envelope of -3 and +7g force with excellent results. An entire week of evaluation was complete without a single stoppage and in-flight firing rate of 1900 were measured. Furthermore the new cannon gave the pilots higher accuracy and increased pipper control.
Several production cannons were manufactured and integrated into the air force but during the late nineties major changes took place in our defense force resulting in the replacement of the Cheetah aircraft with the SAAB Grippen. With the phasing out of the Cheetah the project was shelved. A very sad string of events for me personally but unfortunately that the way it goes.

Page 26 (9 July 2004)

More detailed information about the reasons for the failure of the Aden 25 has emerged. The first problem was 'light strikes' on the primer by the firing pin, causing a failure to fire. A percussion ignition system has to work very hard in a revolver cannon as it has only a very small fraction of a second in which to work. After much effort it appears that this problem was solved, only to be replaced by a more serious one; the ammunition feed. The design of the gunpods intended to fit under the Harrier aircraft required the ammunition belt to be curved more or less on the limit of tolerance. The shape of the round and the design of the link also may have played a part in the feed problems, which proved insoluble.

Page 45 (27 December 2006)

The 20×102 PGU-28/B "multipurpose" ammunition used in the US M61 aircraft guns has reportedly suffered from an unacceptable degree of premature detonations so the M50 series remains in service, with the PGU-28/B for emergency use only.

Page 60 (8 October 2005)

From Tony Williams: “ Russia has produced ammo for both 23mm and 30mm aircraft guns in which the shell is stuffed full of chaff. It is detonated a short distance after firing. I have just acquired one of these 23mm rounds, deactivated but still full of chaff.
I could understand the purpose of the 23mm version for use in bomber defensive guns to decoy incoming missiles, but I couldn't understand why a 30mm version was developed, as this calibre has only been used in fighters. However, I met a former USAF officer the other day, who explained it to me.
It seems that at one stage the USAF enjoyed the benefit of longer-ranged AAMs than the Russian fighters were equipped with. So the Russians developed the tactic of loading the first dozen or so rounds in their ammo belts with chaff. In a head-on clash, USAF fighters were expected to fire their missiles first. The plan was that the Russians would then fire their chaff rounds to set up a decoy cloud in front of them, using that to move out of the line of flight of the missiles. By the time this manoeuvre had been completed, the Russians would be within range and could fire their own missiles.
The rest of the ammo in the belts would be the usual HEI/AP mix for serious work.” (Tony Williams, on his military guns and ammunition forum.)

Page 60 (12 June 2004)

Right column, line 8: “Luftwaffe's Rüstsatze” should be “Luftwaffen Rüstsätze”. (Dirk Paulfeuerborn)

Page 69 (17 May 2004)

Transsonic wind tunnels. To clarify this a bit: Windtunnels capable of supersonic speeds did exist. Problems occured in the transsonic region, between about Mach 0.8 and 1.2. Later tunnels with slotted walls were designed to overcome this.

Page 82 (16 September 2004)

The Brigand operated over Malaya, not Burma.
(Wing Commander C J Jefford MBE BA, in his review for the RAF Historical Society Journal 32 (2004).)

Page 86 (16 September 2004)

Boeing Washingtons were B-29s, not B-50s.
(Wing Commander C J Jefford MBE BA, in his review for the RAF Historical Society Journal 32 (2004).)

Page 97 (17 May 2004)

A Vampire could be re-armed in 12 minutes, a shorter time than required by refuelling, which took 15 minutes. (Dave Everest)

Page 105 (27 March 2004)

The photo captioned as an illustration of the "GP-9" gun pod in fact illustrates the later, more streamlined installation of the GSh-23 gun, with the magazine (200 rounds) internal to the fuselage. The GP-9 was a conformal pod which contained 250 rounds external to the fuselage, and was much bulkier. (Weaver, on The Forum of the 1.Jagdmoroner Abteilung)

Page 109 (1 January 2005)

During development of the MiG-27 fighter-bomber, the onboard GSh-23L gun of the MiG-23 was replaced by more a powerful one. The energy of the GSh-23L is not enough to guarantee a successful engagement of armoured vehicles and ground targets. NATO already had a new tanks with armour that the 23-mm shell can't penetrate. The problem was sharpened by an unsettling lag in aircraft artillery development.
The Military were interested in an aircraft weapon capable of effective engagement of all types of armoured vehicles, including APCs, light tanks and modern MBTs, such as the American M1 Abrams. To achieve this, a transition to higher caliber and more powerful ammunition was necessary. The Soviet government ordered the development of a 45-mm aircraft cannon with an active-reactive, rocket-boosted high armour-piercing shell. However, development of a new cannon and ammunition required a lot of time. Therefore it was decided to install in the MiG-27 a 30-mm Gatling-type multi-barrel cannon with a high rate of fire and high per-second burst weight. The initiator of the transition to 30-mm cannon was the Vice-Minister of Defence of Army Armament, general V.Ya. Shabanov, who supported the idea of unification of ammunition, based on a standard high-power shell for Army, Navy and Air Force.
The transition from 23-mm to 30-mm shells resulted in a doubling of shell mass (175-185 g. against 400 g.) and a tripling of the weight of explosives contained in it. Better ballistics provide high armour-piercing capability, with the possibility to engage different targets, and high accuracy. The rate of fire with a multibarrel layout is 3-4 times higher than with a traditional single barrel gun.
As basis of the new cannon the 30-mm six barrel naval cannon AO-18 was selected, constructed by V.P. Gryasev and A.G. Shipunov. Development of this cannon was started on 15 June 1963 by a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, which described the task to a construct Gatling-type multibarrel cannon with a high rate of fire for naval artillery installation, the AK-630. The cannon was designed to fire a new 30-mm shell. However, this naval cannon was too heavy and too powerful for aircraft use.
Before it was installed on the MiG-23BN, the cannon was greatly modified. The weapon was lightened as much as possible. The heavy water-cooling case was removed, and the barrel length was shortened. The size of cannon decreased from 2176 × 295 × 336 mm (length × width × height) to 1877.5 × 252 × 285 mm. The new gun was named the GSh-6-30, and had a weight of about 145 kg (AO-18 - 205 kg) with a rate of fire of 5000-6100 rpm. The muzzle velocity of shell is about 850 m/s. The ammunition load consists of 300 rounds of OFZ (high-explosive incendiary), OFZT (high-explosive incendiary tracer), FZ (high-explosive) or BZ (armour-piercing incendiary) shells with a weight of 400 g. Effective firing range against ground targets is about 1200-1600 meters, against airborne targets - 200-600 m. (Estafiev Denis)

Page 117 (27 December 2006)

It is reported that the GSh-6-23 has been withdrawn from service in the Su-24 because of an unacceptable level of premature detonations in the barrels. After two Su-24 were lost because of shell detonation in 1983, plus some different problems with gun usage (system failures and etc., very similar to the situation with GSh-6-30 and MiG-27) usage of the GSh-6-23 was stopped by a decision of the Soviet AF Command. But for now all aircraft in the Russian AF are flying with fully operational guns, but without ammunition.

Page 118 (16 September 2004)

The length of the linear magazine of the M61A2 in the F/A-22 is almost 2m: Of course 2m is 6.6ft (6ft 7in), not 6.6in.
(Wing Commander C J Jefford MBE BA, in his review for the RAF Historical Society Journal 32 (2004).)

Page 119 (6 January 2007)

The latest development (mid-2006) is that a unique, four-barrel version of the GAU-12/U has been designed specifically for the F-35: the GAU-22/A. The first model was assembled in January 2006 and commenced testing in February. The gun appears to have a maximum RoF of 2,700 rpm. It will be fitted as an hydraulically powered internal gun to the F-35A (Air Force CTOL model), with a total system weight of 406 lb, and can be carried in a conformal pod in the F-35B (STOVL) and F-35C (USN) versions, with a weight of 980 lb.

Page 132 (22 June 2005)

It has been reported recently that the armament of at least some AC-130H and AC-130U gunships will be changed again. By the end of this year, the first modified aircraft will be delivered on which the 25 mm GAU-12 and 40 mm M2A1 Bofors (erroneously described by that source as the M61A1) are replaced by two 30 mm Mk44 Bushmaster II cannon. The reason for the replacement of the GAU-12 is cited as the high cost of maintenance of this weapon; no reason is given for the replacement of the Bofors gun.
Longer-term plans (2008) to equip the gunships with guided weapons are also being evaluated. Apart from Maverick, Hellfire II and guided 2.75 in rockets, one option under study is a 120 mm breech-loading mortar, which could also fire the Army's M-395 Precision Guided Mortar Munition.

Page 151 (1 January 2005)

“four fixed .60 MGs and two rocket pods, plus two more M60s firing from side windows” — probably the fixed guns were M60s as well! (Posted by Do335 on the Military Guns and Ammunition forum.)

Page 160, 170, 180 (12 June 2004)

On 23 February 2004, the cancellation of the RAH-66 Comanche programme was announced. (Dirk Paulfeuerborn)

Page 165 (12 June 2004)

On the Ka-50 and Mi-28: The Ka-50 has won the first combat helicopters in 1986 and 1994 and entered service in limited numbers. A later competition for a combat helicopter with a night fighting capability was won by the Mi-28N, against the opposing Ka-52. The Mi-28N was ordered in production, again in limited numbers, but the Ka-52 is entering service as well, for "special operations." (Dirk Paulfeuerborn)

Page 174 (12 June 2004)

The correct rendering of the designation “Bo.105” appears to be “Bo 105” or “BO 105”. German Bo 105 helicopters are not equipped with the Stinger missile. There was a plan to convert 54 Bo 105VBH (the unarmed utility version) to Bo 105BSH-1 configuration, armed with 4 Stinger missiles. One helicopter was modifed and tested in 1989, but after the reunification of Germany the project was stopped. (Dirk Paulfeuerborn)

Page 199 (22 May 2004)

More data has become available about the gun installation of the F-35.

The GAU-12/U has a number of modifications over previous models. It fires at a fixed 4,000 rpm using a linear linkless ammunition handling system, featuring reverse clearing (i.e. it reloads unfired ammo back into the magazine at the end of each burst).

The CTOL version has an internal gun, mounted within the port LEX, fitted with a retractable muzzle cover. It has a capacity of 182 rounds.

The CV/STOVL versions have a 'Missionized Gun System' (a conformal pod which may be fitted or removed as required) and this holds 220 rounds.

Page 212 (17 May 2004)

For the .303 in and .50 in Browning cartridges a complementary system was used of colours in the annulus, between the cartridge cap and the base of the catridge.
For the .303 in: Ball, purple. AP, green. Night or day tracer, Red.
For the .50 in: Tracer, red.
(Dave Everest)