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> They also don't have weapons like the A-10 does, nothing else in the world short of warships does. That gun is absolutely berserk. Actually the GAU-8's ammu

> They also don't have weapons like the A-10 does, nothing else in the world short of warships does. That gun is absolutely berserk. Actually the GAU-8's ammunition was derived from that of the ( non-Gatling ) Oerlikon KCA cannon, mounted by the SAAB JA-37 Viggen. Six times the energy of most other 30mm aircraft rounds. Hughes developed a podded KCA that was tested on a wide range of aircraft, down to little Broncos! Later, a cut-down four-barrel but still full-power version of the GAU-8 was fitted in a pod as the GPU-5 and briefly carried by F-16s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE1S95Cy7wg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE1S95Cy7wg

astrodust 11y ago
Interesting. That's a similar weapon, but it's also single barrel, so it's certainly comparable, but doesn't fire nearly as quickly, and carries far fewer rounds: 126 vs. 1100. The weapon I was thinking of is the Phalanx (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS), a naval weapon, though even that fires smaller shells at a slower rate. The GAU-13 slower, smaller pod version of the GAU-8 is an interesting test, but it doesn't seem to have caught on. That video you linked to had a related video on the A-10 reloading procedure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnSpkL1InuA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnSpkL1InuA That is a lot of bullets.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > The weapon I was thinking of is the Phalanx (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS), a naval weapon, though even that fires smaller shells at a slower rate. The Phalanx CIWS uses the a version of the M61 Vulcan 20mm gatling gun, as have lots of Air Force fighters (from the 1950s through current fighters like the F-22 and F-18.) So, its not exactly a weapon that "nothing in the world short of warships" has.
  - astrodust 11y ago
    Still not sure what you're saying here. Is there a 30mm gatling gun with over 1000 rounds of ammunition on anything other than a warship? Tanks have larger bore primary weapons, but given how the gun inside the A-10 is too huge to fit in any normal tank, I doubt they're ever equipped with one.

astrodust 11y ago

Interesting. That's a similar weapon, but it's also single barrel, so it's certainly comparable, but doesn't fire nearly as quickly, and carries far fewer rounds: 126 vs. 1100. The weapon I was thinking of is the Phalanx (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS), a naval weapon, though even that fires smaller shells at a slower rate. The GAU-13 slower, smaller pod version of the GAU-8 is an interesting test, but it doesn't seem to have caught on. That video you linked to had a related video on the A-10 reloading procedure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnSpkL1InuA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnSpkL1InuA That is a lot of bullets.

dragonwriter 11y ago
> The weapon I was thinking of is the Phalanx (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS), a naval weapon, though even that fires smaller shells at a slower rate. The Phalanx CIWS uses the a version of the M61 Vulcan 20mm gatling gun, as have lots of Air Force fighters (from the 1950s through current fighters like the F-22 and F-18.) So, its not exactly a weapon that "nothing in the world short of warships" has.
- astrodust 11y ago
  Still not sure what you're saying here. Is there a 30mm gatling gun with over 1000 rounds of ammunition on anything other than a warship? Tanks have larger bore primary weapons, but given how the gun inside the A-10 is too huge to fit in any normal tank, I doubt they're ever equipped with one.