gunpods on Phantoms

John S. Shinal wrote:
(Rob van Riel) wrote:

Navy Phantoms were capable of carrying a 20mm gunpod, but there is an
abundance of references stating this weapon was worse than useless
for
air to air use, and thus not carried. However, I can't really find
any
reference on the use of the gun in air to ground work. I know Air
Force Phantoms used gunpods for this, but did the Navy?

They may not exactly have been 'useless' for air-to-air, the
USAF's 366th TFW "Gunfighters" scored a number of times with the pod.

There were actually three different pods in play here, I believe. THe Air
Force had the SUU-16 and SUU-23, both based on Gatling guns and both, I
belive, using linkelss feeds.

The Navy was using a different pod, the Mk 4, with the rather unusual
dual-barrel Mk 11 revolver canon. I've heard some rather unfavorable
remarks about the MK 4, that it was no good at all for air-to-air becuase it
jammed if you pulled G while firing (it was belt-fed, not linkless). But I
don't know this as a fact.

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