Machine guns introduction
Austria
 Schwarzlose M07 M07/12
 Steyr-Solothurn MG 30
 Steyr AUG /Hbar
Belgium
 FN Model D
 FN Minimi
 FN MAG
 FN BRG-15
China, People's Republic
 Type 67 GPMG
 Type 88 GPMG
 Type 95 LMG
 Type 77 HMG
 Type 85 HMG
 W-85 HMG
 Type 89 HMG
 Type 02 / QJG 02 HMG
Czech Republic
 ZB 26
 ZB 53 / Vz.37
 ZB 60 new
 Vz.52, Vz.52/57 upd
 UK Vz.59 upd
Denmark
 Madsen LMG
 Madsen-Saetter
Finland
 L/S-26
 Valmet KvKK 62
France
 Chauchat CSRG M1915
 Hotchkiss Portative
 Hotchkiss M1914
 Hotchkiss M1922 LMG
 Hotchkiss M1930 HMG
 MAC M1924/29
 AAT Mod.52
Germany
 MG 08, MG 08/15, MG 08/18
 MG 13
 MG 34
 MG 35/36 Knorr-Bremse
 MG 42 and MG 3
 HK 21 and 23
 HK MG 4
Great Britain
 Vickers Mk.I
 Hotchkiss Portable Mk.I
 Lewis
 Vickers-Berthier
 Bren
 L86A1 SA-80 LSW
Israel
 Dror
 Negev
Italy
 Fiat-Revelli M1914 M1935
 Breda M1930
 Breda M1937
Japan
 Type 03 & Type 92
 Type 11
 Type 96 & Type 99
 Type 62
Mexico
 Mendoza
Russia / USSR
 Maxim M1910/30
 Degtyarov DP DPM RP-46
 Degtyarov DS-39
 Degtyarov RPD
 Kalashnikov RPK
 Kalashnikov RPK-74
 Gorjunov SG-43 SGM
 Kalashnikov PK / PKM
 Pecheneg
 DShK DShKM 12.7
 NSV 12.7 'Utes'
 Kord 12.7
 KPV 14.5
Singapore
 STK Ultimax 100
 CIS .50 MG
South Africa
 Vector SS-77 / Mini-SS
South Korea
 Daewoo K3
Spain
 CETME Ameli
Sweden
 Knorr-Bremse m/40
Switzerland
 W+F Lmg 25
 SIG KE-7
 Steyr-Solothurn MG 30
 SIG MG 50
 W+F MG 51
 SIG MG 710
USA
 Benet-Mercie M1909
 Lewis
 Browning M1917 M1919
 Browning M1918 BAR
 Johnson M1941 M1944
 M60
 M16 LSW / LMG
 M134 Minigun
 XM214 Microgun
 Stoner 63
 M249 SAW
 M240
 Mk.48 mod.0
 Browning M2HB .50 cal
 XM312 .50 cal
 LW50MG

 Gatling, Minigun, Vulcan

all texts and some pictures
copyright © 1999-2009
by Max R. Popenker
and can not be used without author permission

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The old new Gatling: M134 Minigun, M61 Vulcan, GAU-8/A Avenger and others.

Note: hover the mouse pointer over images to get the description

Way back, in 1862, someone dr. Gatling of USA patented a manually operated, multi-barreled mechanical "machine gun", one of the most successful of such designs. Being gradually updated, this weapon, in many versions, served with number of armies around the world as an infantry support or a light artillery weapon. Usually chambered for the contemporary general issue rifle cartridge, the XIX century Gatling guns usually have 6 to 10 barrels, mounted around the single axis. Some naval Gatlings, thought, have had calibers up to 1 inch (25mm), and some derivatives, like the Hotchkiss, were up to 53mm in caliber. When crank at the back of the gun was rotated, the "bundle" of barrels rotated too. Each barrel had its own bolt, which completed full reloading circle per one turn of the barrels bundle. This resulted in the rate of fire as high as 200+ rounds per minute - quite an achievement in the era of the single-shot and even magazine fed rifles. While first successful "true" machine guns appeared by 1890, some Gatling guns seen use until World War 1, especially with the navies. 

As the automatically operated machine guns became more and more mature, Gatling guns were gradually forgotten, until the late 1940s. At that time, the speed of combat aircrafts became so high, so even most fast-firing conventional machine guns became too slow to achieve desirable number of hits during the very brief encounters. This spawned the famous "Project Vulcan", that was intended to develop a super-rapid firing weapon for US Air Forces. Project was handled by the General Electric Co. First tests were conducted with the late 19th century Gatlings, fitted with electrical drive instead of manually operated crank; this immediately resulted in the rate of fire of about 4 000 rounds per minute, which was very impressive (it must be noted, that such tests were first conducted in early 1890s, but lead to no practical results at that time - there were no need in the rate of fire of up to 3 000 RpM). Further development resulted in some experimental, electrically driven, .60 caliber machine guns with 6 barrels, and, in 1956, the 6-barreled 20mm T171 gun was officially adopted as the M61 aircraft gun. This gun could fire at the rate of 4 to 6 thousands rounds per minute. This achievement is possible due to the fact that gun has multiple barrels, and the rate of fire per one barrel is about 1 000 rounds per minute or even less, allowing them to not to overheat. M61 became the main aircraft gun for US AF, and also was used on M161 and M163 Vulcan ground anti-aircraft gun mounts. The navies also turned back to Gatlings with the Vulcan-Phalanx CIWS (Close-In Weapon System).

When USA entered the Indo-China troubles during early 1960s, they soon found that they need to arm their helicopters, to provide additional firepower against enemy infantry. These applications also required a lot of firepower delivered in the short periods of time, so General Electric designers simply scaled the M61 gun down, for 7.62x51mm NATO ammunition. The resulting weapon, known as the M134 Minigun, could fire up to 4 000 rounds per minute, and soon found its way to the various helicopter mounts. It was mounted on chin turrets and in wing pods on AH-1G "Cobra" attack helicopters, on door, pylon and pod mounts on UH-1 "Huey" transport helicopters, and on many other helicopters and aircrafts, including famous "Gunship" airplanes like A/C-47 and A/C-119. Usually, AH-1G "Cobra" carried one or two Miniguns in its chin turret, with the 2 or 4 thousands rounds of ammunition. The UH-1 could carry one or two (or even more) Miniguns on various mountings, with as much as 12 000 rounds of ammo available for "immediate delivery to enemy". With the introduction of the 5.56mm ammo into the military service, Americans attempted to scale the the Minigun further down, resulting in the weapon, known as XM-214 Microgun. This little beast had 6 5.56mm barrels, was electrically driven and could fire up to 10 000 rounds. But the 5.56mm was way too weak for air-to-ground or ground-to-air (anti-aircraft) applications - the key niches of the modern Gatling systems. For the infantry, the Microgun had almost no use, being to heavy, complicated and with too much rate of fire and recoil (recoil force was up to 110 kg / 240 lbs at the full rate of fire). Infantry simply does not needed an extremely rate of fire to deal with the enemy infantry, and for AA use (where such high RoF makes sense), the 5.56mm (.223mm) and 7.62mm (.308) ammo is way too weak.

Others than noted, US also developed a number of other Gatling-type designs chambered in .50BMG, 20mm, 25mm, and even 30mm (like the famous GAU-8/A "monster gun", shown at left,  mounted on the A10 Warthog attack planes). It also must be noted that the USA was not the only country to exploit Gatling ideas. USSR (and latter Russia) built several aircraft and AA guns and machine guns. For helicopter use, they made a 4-barreled machine guns in 7.62mm and 12.7mm, and for aircrafts - 23mm and 30mm 6-barreled guns. Some 6-barreled 30mm Gatling type guns also used by Soviet and Russian navy for shipborne AA installations, sometimes coupled with short-range AA missiles.

Modern Gatling guns - pros and cons.

Modern Gatling guns: some basic data

model	Country	caliber	number of barrels	Rate of fire, rounds per minute	weight, the gun itself	power source	length	peak recoil force (estimated)
XM214 Microgun	USA	5.56 mm NATO	6	up to 10 000	15 kg	electrical	0.69 m	110 kg (240 lbs)
M134 Minigun	USA	7.62 mm NATO	6	4 000 - 6 000	18.8 kg	electrical	0.8 m	120 kg (270 lbs)
GShG-7.62	Russia	7.62x54 mm R	4	6 000	19 kg	gas operated	??	120 kg (270 lbs)
YakB-12.7	Russia	12.7x108 mm	4	4 000 - 5 000	45 kg	gas operated	??	520 kg (1140 lbs)
GAU-19/A	USA	12.7x99mm	3	1 300	64 kg	electrical	1.37 m	120 kg (270 lbs)
M61 Vulcan	USA	20 mm	6	up to 6 000	114 kg	electrical or hydraulics	1.83 m	???
GSh-6-23M	Russia	23 mm	6	10 000	73 kg	gas operated	??	???
GAU-12/U	USA	25 mm	5	4 200	120 kg	pneumatics	??	???
GSh-6-30	Russia	30 mm	6	6 000	149 kg	gas operated	??	???
GAU-8/A	USA	30 mm	7	1 800 or 4 200	281 kg	hydraulics	2.9 m	> 4 ton

Hollywood Miniguns: Predator vs. common sense.

Want to know more? here's the further reading about Gatling guns, Vulcan cannons and Miniguns!

BOOK: The Gatling Gun: 19th Century Machine Gun to 21st Century Vulcan

VHS Video tape: the Gatling Gun

Story of the Gun DVD set From hand cannons to assault rifles, this is a thrilling tour through mankind's explosive history, a look at inventors from Colt to Kalashnikov and their revolutionary creations.

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