M134 Minigun
Machine Gun, High Rate, Caliber 7.62-mm, M134 | |
---|---|
Type | Rotary medium machine gun |
Place of origin | United States |
Service history | |
In service | 1963–present |
Used by | See Users |
Wars | |
Production history | |
Designer | General Electric |
Designed | 1960 |
Manufacturer |
|
Produced | 1962–present |
Variants | See Design and variants |
Specifications | |
Mass | 85 lb (39 kg), 41 lb (19 kg) lightweight mod. |
Length | 801.6 mm (31.56 in) |
Barrel length | 558.8 mm (22.00 in) |
Cartridge | 7.62×51mm NATO |
Barrels | 6 |
Action | Electrically driven rotary breech |
Rate of fire | Variable, 2,000–6,000 rpm |
Muzzle velocity | 2,800 ft/s (853 m/s) |
Maximum firing range | 3,280 ft (1,000 m; 1,090 yd) |
Feed system | Disintegrating M13 linked belt or linkless feed; dependent on installation [500-5,000-round belt] |
Sights | Dependent on installation; no fixed sights |
The M134 Minigun is an American
"Minigun" refers to a specific model of weapon that General Electric originally produced, but the term "minigun" has popularly come to refer to any externally powered rotary gun of rifle caliber. The term is sometimes used loosely to refer to guns of similar rates of fire and configuration, regardless of power source and caliber.
The Minigun is used by several branches of the U.S. military. Versions are designated M134 and XM196 by the United States Army, and GAU-2/A and GAU-17/A by the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy.
History
Background: electrically driven Gatling gun
The ancestor to the modern minigun was a hand cranked mechanical device invented in the 1860s by Richard Jordan Gatling. He later replaced the hand-cranked mechanism of a rifle-caliber Gatling gun with an electric motor, a relatively new invention at the time. Even after Gatling slowed the mechanism, the new electric-powered Gatling gun had a theoretical rate of fire of 3,000 rounds per minute, roughly three times the rate of a typical modern, single-barreled machine gun. Gatling's electric-powered design received U.S. Patent #502,185 on July 25, 1893.[3] Despite his improvements, the Gatling gun fell into disuse after cheaper, lighter-weight, recoil and gas operated machine guns were invented; Gatling himself went bankrupt for a period.[4]
During
Minigun: 1960s–Vietnam
In the 1960s, the United States Armed Forces began exploring modern variants of the electric-powered, rotating barrel Gatling-style weapons for use in the Vietnam War. American forces in the Vietnam War, which used helicopters as one of the primary means of transporting soldiers and equipment through the dense jungle, found that their helicopters were vulnerable to small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attacks when they slowed to land. Although helicopters had mounted single-barrel machine guns, using them to repel attackers hidden in the dense jungle foliage often led to overheated barrels or cartridge jams.[8]
To develop a more reliable weapon with a higher rate of fire, General Electric designers scaled down the rotary-barrel 20 mm M61 Vulcan cannon for 7.62×51mm NATO ammunition. The resulting weapon, designated M134 and known as the "Minigun", could fire up to 6,000 rounds per minute without overheating. The gun has a variable (i.e. selectable) rate of fire, specified to fire at rates of up to 6,000 rpm with most applications set at rates between 3,000 and 4,000 rounds per minute.
The Minigun was mounted on Hughes OH-6 Cayuse and Bell OH-58 Kiowa side pods; in the turret and on pylon pods of Bell AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters; and on door, pylon and pod mounts on Bell UH-1 Iroquois transport helicopters. Several larger aircraft were outfitted with miniguns specifically for close air support: the Cessna A-37 Dragonfly with an internal gun and with pods on wing hardpoints; and the Douglas A-1 Skyraider, also with pods on wing hardpoints. Other famous gunship airplanes are the Douglas AC-47 Spooky, the Fairchild AC-119, and the Lockheed AC-130.[8]
Dillon Aero minigun
The U.S. government had procured some 10,000 Miniguns during the
The core of the M134D was a steel housing and rotor. To focus on weight reduction, a titanium housing and rotor were introduced, creating the M134D-T which had reduced weight from 62 lb (28 kg) to 41 lb (19 kg). The gun housing had a 500,000-round lifespan before it wore out, which was far higher than a conventional machine gun's 40,000-round lifespan but lower than that of other rotary guns. A hybrid of the two weapons resulted in the M134D-H, which had a steel housing and titanium rotor. It was cheaper with the steel component and only 1 lb (0.45 kg) heavier than the M134D-T, and restored its lifespan to 1.5 million rounds.[9][11] The M134D-H is currently in use on various 160th Regiment platforms.[9]
Dillon also created specialized mounts and ammunition-handling systems. Initially, mounts were made only for aviation systems. Then from 2003 to 2005, the Navy began mounting Dillon miniguns on specialized small boats. In 2005, the
Garwood Industries minigun
Garwood Industries created the M134G version with several modifications to the original GE system. The optimum rate of fire was determined by Garwood to be around 3,200 rounds per minute (rpm). The M134G is being produced with this firing rate as well as 4,000 rpm and the previous standard 3,000 rpm rate.[12] Garwood Industries made several other modifications to the 1960s Minigun design in order to meet modern-day military and ISO standards.[12] This includes modifications to the drive motor, feeder and barrel clutch assembly.[13]
From 2015 to 2017 Garwood Industries CEO Tracy Garwood collaborated with firearms dealer Michael Fox and weapons smuggler Tyler Carlson to supply miniguns to Mexican drug cartels. Garwood submitted false paperwork to the ATF claiming that some M134G rotor housings had been destroyed when they were actually sold to the gun-running ring. In 2017 federal agents raided Fox's home and recovered two of the rotor housings that Garwood had reported destroyed. A number of the rotor housings were shipped to Mexico and a completed M134G using a reportedly destroyed rotor housing was recovered from a cartel by Mexican law enforcement.[14] Garwood claimed he did not know that the intended buyers were Mexican cartels although he was aware that they were to be used for illegal activity.[15]
Design and variants
The basic minigun is a six-barrel, air-cooled, and electrically driven rotary machine gun. The electric drive rotates the weapon within its housing, with a rotating firing pin assembly and rotary chamber.
While the weapon can feed from linked ammunition, it requires a delinking feeder to strip the links as the rounds are fed into the chambers. The original feeder unit was designated MAU-56/A, but has since been replaced by an improved MAU-201/A unit.[18]
The
Another variant was developed by the USAF specifically for flexible installations, beginning primarily with the Bell UH-1N Twin Huey helicopter, as the GAU-17/A. Produced by General Dynamics, this version has a slotted flash hider. The primary end users of the GAU-17/A have been the USN and the United States Marine Corps (USMC), which mount the gun as defensive armament on a number of helicopters and surface ships. GAU-17/As from helicopters were rushed into service for ships on pintle mountings taken from Mk16 20 mm guns for anti-swarm protection in the Gulf ahead of the 2003 Iraq War - 59 systems were installed in 30 days.[24] The GAU-17/A is designated Mk 44 in the machine gun series[24] and is generally known as the Mk 44 when installed on British warships.
The weapon is part of both the
US Army designation | US Air Force designation | US Navy designation | Description |
---|---|---|---|
XM134/M134 | GAU-2/A | N/A | 7.62×51mm NATO GE "Minigun" 6-barreled machine gun |
N/A | GAU-2A/A | N/A | GAU-2/A variant; unknown differences |
M134 | GAU-2B/A | Mk 25 MOD0[citation needed] | GAU-2A/A variant; unknown differences |
N/A | GAU-17/A | N/A | GAU-2B/A variant; can be mounted to a variety of different craft, uses either an MAU-201/A or MAU-56/A delinking feeder. |
N/A | N/A | Mk 44[27] | Unknown differences |
XM214 Microgun | N/A | N/A | Scaled-down variant of the XM134 firing the 5.56×45mm NATO round. The U.S. military lost interest in the project, and it never entered mass production.[28] |
XM196 | N/A | N/A | M134/GAU-2B/A variant; housing modified by addition of an ejection sprocket; for use in the AH-56 helicopter
|
Gun pods and other mounting systems
One of the first applications of the weapon was in aircraft armament pods. These
Initially on fixed-wing gunships such as the
The improved MXU-470/As were even being proposed for lighter aircraft such as the
In September 2013, Dillon Aero released the DGP2300 gun pod for the M134D-H. It contains 3,000 rounds, enough ammunition to fire the minigun for a full minute. The system is entirely self-contained, so it can be mounted on any aircraft that can handle the weight, rotational torque, and recoil force (190 lbf (850 N)) of the gun. The pod has its own battery which can be wired into the aircraft's electrical system to maintain a charge.[33]
US Army designation | US Air Force designation | Description |
---|---|---|
XM18 | SUU-11/A | Gun pod fitted with the GAU-2/A/M134 7.62 mm machine gun and fixed rate of fire of 4,000 RPM[34] |
XM18E1/M18 | SUU-11A/A | SUU-11/A/XM18 variant; various improvements including additional auxiliary power and selectable fire-rate capability (2,000 or 4,000 RPM)[35] |
M18E1/A1 | SUU-11B/A | SUU-11A/A/M18 variant; differences modified selectable fire-rate capability (3,000 or 6,000 RPM)[21] |
N/A | MXU-470/A | Emerson Electric module for mounting a GAU-2B/A minigun; used in AC-47, AC-119G/K, and AC-130A/E/H aircraft |
Various iterations of the minigun have also been used in a number of armament subsystems for helicopters, with most of these subsystems being created by the United States. The first systems utilized the weapon in a forward firing role for a variety of helicopters, some of the most prominent examples being the
US Navy designation | Description |
---|---|
Mk 77 MOD0[citation needed] | Machine gun mount for the GAU-2/Mk 25 MOD0/GAU-17 series of machine guns; deck mount applications |
Mk 16 MOD8, MOD9, or MOD11 | Mount for medium and heavy machine guns onto naval, ground, or air vehicles[36] |
Mk 49 MOD0 and MOD1
|
Remote weapon station mount[37] |
Users
- Afghanistan
- CH-47 Chinook helicopters[38]
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria[39]
- Brazil
- Brunei
- Canada
- Chile
- Colombia Used on UH-60L, Mi-17, and UH-1N helicopters.
- Czech Republic
- Egypt
- France
- Finland[40]
- Georgia[41]
- Germany[42]
- Indonesia
- Iraq
- Iran
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Jordan
- Malaysia
- Mexico[43]
- Morocco
- Netherlands
- New Zealand (Testing)
- Norway
- Pakistan
- Paraguay
- Peru[44]
- Philippines
- Poland[45]
- South Korea
- Saudi Arabia
- Serbia
- Sierra Leone
- Spain
- Sweden[46]
- Thailand
- Turkey
- United Kingdom
- United States
See also
- Multiple-barrel firearm – Type of firearm with more than one barrel
- List of multiple barrel firearms– List of weapons with multiple barrels
- GAU-19 – Electrically-driven heavy machine gun
- Glagolev-Shipunov-Gryazev GShG-7.62– 7.62 mm Gatling-type machine gun
- Komodo Armament Eli gun – Indonesian six-barrel rotary machine gun
- EX-17 Heligun – Two-barrel 7.62 mm calibre machine gun
- Hua Qing Minigun– Chinese Gatling-type machine gun
References
Notes
- ^ "M134 Minigun fun in Afghanistan". 30 March 2014. Archived from the original on 4 November 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2017 – via YouTube.
- ^ "Dillon Aero M134D Minigun Weapon System" (Press Video). Shooting Resources. Archived from the original on November 13, 2021.
- ^ "U.S. Patent 502185 Gatling Gun". Retrieved February 4, 2010.
- ISBN 978-1-4391-9653-3.
- ^ a b Weyl, A. R. (8 March 1957). "Motor-guns—a Flashback to 1914-18". Flight. 71 (2511): 313–314. Archived from the original on 2 October 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
- ^ Williams, Anthony G. (8 November 2005). "Split Breech Guns: The Nutcracker and the 40mm Mk 18". Archived from the original on 14 June 2007.
- ISBN 978-1-86126-655-2.
- ^ a b Jarvis, John Paul. "Brought to You By GE: The M134 Minigun". Archived from the original on 2012-02-19. Retrieved 2017-09-01.
- ^ a b c d e Gourley, Scott W. (30 May 2013). "The Evolution of the M134D Minigun". Defense Media Network. Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
- ^ Experience of Marine Corps Light Attack H-1 Squadrons
- ^ "Hybrid M134D-H: M134 Gun Systems". Dillon Aero. Archived from the original on 1 October 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
- ^ a b "Garwood Industries M134G Minigun". The Bang Switch. 7 June 2013. Archived from the original on 1 October 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
- ^ "M134G Gun Control Unit". Garwood Industries. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
- ^ Harp, Seth. "Arming the Cartels: The Inside Story of a Texas Gun-Smuggling Ring". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
- ^ "Austin Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Firearms Smuggling Scheme". justice.gov. United States Department of justice. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
- ^ United States, 1969. p. D-37-8
- ^ United States, 1969. p. B-2.
- ^ United States, 1969. p. C-31.
- ^ "Standard M134D". Dillon Aero. 2015. Archived from the original on 29 September 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
- ^ "Garwood Industries M134G Minigun". Garwood Industries. 2013. Archived from the original on 7 November 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
- ^ a b Jane's, 1986. pp. 453–4
- ^ Gunston, 1988. pp. 188–9.
- ^ "U.S. Army Helicopter Weapons". U.S. Army TACOM-RI. 24 February 2006. Archived from the original on 4 February 2008. Retrieved 8 January 2008.
- ^ ISBN 9781557502629.
- ^ DiGiulian, Tony (30 October 2006). "USA 0.30 caliber (7.62 mm) Minigun". NavWeaps.com. Archived from the original on 26 February 2008. Retrieved 3 April 2008.
- ^ Parsch, Andreas (23 June 2006). "Designations Of U.S. Aeronautical and Support Equipment". Designation-Systems.net. Archived from the original on 3 March 2008. Retrieved 3 April 2008.
- ^ "Department of Defense Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Budget Estimates Weapons Procurement, Navy" (PDF). Secretary of the Navy. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
- ^ Trevithick, Joseph (November 25, 2014). "The Minigun's Smaller Cousin Was a Flop". War Is Boring. Medium.
- ^ United States, 1969, p. G-1-3
- ^ Ballad, 1982. p. 57
- ^ Ballad, 1982. pp. 77, 251
- ^ Davis, 1982, p. 62
- ^ "You Call That High Capacity?". Thefirearmblog.com. 11 September 2013. Archived from the original on 30 September 2013. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
- ^ United States, 1969. p. G-1
- ^ United States, 1969. p. G-3
- ^ "Deck Mount" (PDF). Dillon Aero. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
- ^ Hatch II, William D.; Miller, Gregory (31 January 2007). "Unmanned Vehicles Systems; Unmanned Vehicle Tactical Memorandum (TM 3-22-5-SW): Report of Findings and Recommendation" (PDF). Defense Technical Information Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
- ^ "Albania Bought The CH-47 Chinook. The helicopter Used In the Iraq and Kosovo wars". YouTube.
{{cite web}}
: Check|url=
value (help) - ^ "RAL 7013 - Bell OH-58B Kiowa". doppeladler.com (in German). Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
- ^ Kammonen, Teemu (3 August 2012). "Puolustusvoimien uusi ase: M134D "Minigun"". Uusi Suomi (in Finnish). Archived from the original on 10 January 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
- ^ "Armament of the Georgian Army". geo-army.ge. Archived from the original on 9 March 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
- ^ "Der kleine Giftzwerg kann auch anders". Luftwaffe (German Air Force) (in German). 11 April 2018. Archived from the original on 1 August 2018. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
- ^ "En Enero el Ejercito Mexicano recibira 400 full Kits M-134 minigun para Hummvees y Cheyenne" (in Spanish). Todopormexico.foroactivo.com.mx. December 21, 2010. Archived from the original on August 16, 2011. Retrieved January 20, 2012.
- ^ "Perú inspecciona las ametralladoras M-134D adquiridas a Dillon Aero". Infodefensa.com (in Spanish). 25 April 2014. Archived from the original on 1 October 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
- ^ "Miniguny w końcu kupione". Altair Agencja Lotnicza (in Polish). 11 January 2013. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
- Försvarets Materielverk. 23 May 2023. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
Sources
- Ballad, Jack S. Development and Employment of Fixed-Wing Gunships, 1962–1972. Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force, 1982.
- Davis, Larry. Gunships: A Pictorial History of Spooky. TX: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1982. ISBN 0-89747-123-7.
- Gervasi, Tom. Arsenal of Democracy III: America's War Machine, the Pursuit of Global Dominance. New York: Grove Press, Inc, 1984. ISBN 0-394-54102-2.
- Gunston, Bill. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft Armament. New York: Orion Books, 1988. ISBN 0-517-56607-9.
- Jane's Weapon Systems, 1986–1987. Ronald T Pretty, Ed. London: Jane's Publishing Company, Ltd, 1986. ISBN 0-7106-0832-2.
- United States. Headquarters, Department of the Army. FM 1–40 Attack Helicopter Gunnery. Washington, D.C.: Headquarters, Department of the Army, 1969.
External links
- M134 Minigun: The Modern Gatling Gun Forgotten Weapons
- M134 page on Dillon Aero site Archived 2014-04-07 at the Wayback Machine
- M134 page on Garwood Industries site Archived 2015-11-07 at the Wayback Machine
- M134 page on Profense site
- Minigun page on DeGroat Tactical Armaments site
- U.S. Army TACOM Qualifications Report Archived 2015-02-10 at the Wayback Machine
- M134 Minigun at Modern Firearms
- Exploded diagrams and specifications
- GAU-17 info at NavWeaps.com
- Specs on a variety of minigun models
- 1985 Patent on a Handheld Minigun Design
- Video showing a CG animation of the firing process of a minigun
- Helicopter mounted applications video on Military.com