"Tony Williams" wrote:
| A few comments on recent posts:
|
| The M61 is an extremely reliable and long-lasting gun. However, the
| little 20mm shells only weigh 102g compared with 180g for the 25mm
| GAU-12/U, 260g for the 27mm BK 27, 270g for the 30mm GIAT 30M791 and
| 390g for the Russian 30mm guns. This means that the M61 has to score
| many more hits than 30mm guns to have the same effect on the target (I
| have read an estimate of around 20 hits needed to bring down a modern
| fighter).
|
| This lack of hitting power was recognised by the USAF as early as the
| 1960s and led to the development of the 25mm GAU-7/A, which was
| intended to replace the M61 as the standard fighter gun, and was
| planned for installation in the F-15. This fired 200g projectiles for
| a considerable increase in effectiveness. However, the advanced,
| combustible-cased ammo ran into technical difficulties which could not
| be solved in time so the gun was scrapped and the M61 soldiered on.
| Its survival for so long can only be put down to the fact that fighter
| guns are much less important nowadays with the development of better
| missiles, so it hasn't been worth the cost of developing a new one.
|
| More recently, as has been pointed out, the 27mm Mauser was selected
| by both of the JSF contenders as providing the optimum balance of
| characteristics for an aircraft gun, despite being a foreign design
| produced by a country which is not even a member of the JSF consortium
| - that tells you how good it must be compared with the home-grown
| product.
|
| Incidentally, there is still some mystery about the current situation
| - I have it on good authority that GD (given the job of integrating
| the BK 27 to the F-35) have proposed using the GAU-12/U instead
| (allegedly for cost reasons), but every publication I have seen on the
| F-35 still mentions the BK 27. Can anyone point to a definitive
| reference?
GD's web site? "The 25mm GAU-12/U system produced by General Dynamics
Armament and Technical Products (GDATP) was recently selected for the
Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)..."
http://www.gdatp.com/products/lethal...12u/gau-12.htm