The M134 Minigun is an American
7.62×51mm NATO six-barrel
rotary machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) ar ...
with a high rate of fire (2,000 to 6,000
rounds per minute
Round or rounds may refer to:
Mathematics and science
* The contour of a closed curve or surface with no sharp corners, such as an ellipse, circle, rounded rectangle, cant, or sphere
* Rounding, the shortening of a number to reduce the numbe ...
). It features a
Gatling
The Gatling gun is a rapid-firing multiple-barrel firearm invented in 1861 by Richard Jordan Gatling. It is an early machine gun and a forerunner of the modern electric motor-driven rotary cannon.
The Gatling gun's operation centered on a cy ...
-style rotating barrel assembly with an external power source, normally an
electric motor
An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate for ...
. The "Mini" in the name is in comparison to larger-caliber designs that use a rotary barrel design, such as General Electric's earlier
20 mm
20 mm caliber is a specific size of popular autocannon ammunition. It is typically used to distinguish smaller-caliber weapons, commonly called "guns", from larger-caliber "cannons" (e.g. machine gun vs. autocannon). All 20 mm cartridges h ...
M61 Vulcan
The M61 Vulcan is a hydraulically, electrically, or pneumatically driven, six- barrel, air-cooled, electrically fired Gatling-style rotary cannon which fires rounds at an extremely high rate (typically 6,000 rounds per minute). The M61 and i ...
, and "gun" for the use of rifle ammunition as opposed to
autocannon shells.
"Minigun" refers to a specific model of weapon that
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...
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
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
, and ''GAU-2/A'' and ''GAU-17/A'' by the
U.S. Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...
and
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
.
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
Richard Jordan Gatling (September 12, 1818 – February 26, 1903) was an American inventor best known for his invention of the Gatling gun, which is considered to be the first successful machine gun.
Life
Gatling was born in Hertford County, Nort ...
. He later replaced the hand-cranked mechanism of a rifle-caliber
Gatling gun with an
electric motor
An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate for ...
, 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. 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.
During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, several
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
companies were working on externally powered guns for use in aircraft. Of those, the best-known today is perhaps the
Fokker-Leimberger
The Fokker-Leimberger was an externally powered, 12-barrel rifle-caliber rotary gun developed in Germany during the First World War. The action of the Fokker-Leimberger differed from that of a Gatling in that it employed a rotary split-breech de ...
, an externally powered 12-barrel rotary gun using the
7.92×57mm Mauser round; it was claimed to be capable of firing over 7,000 rpm, but suffered from frequent cartridge-case ruptures
due to its "nutcracker"
rotary split-breech design, which is fairly different from that of conventional rotary gun designs.
None of these German guns went into production during the war, although a competing
Siemens prototype (possibly using a different action), which was tried on the
Western Front, scored a victory in aerial combat.
The British also experimented with this type of split-breech during the 1950s, but they were also unsuccessful.
Minigun: 1960s–Vietnam
In the 1960s, the
United States Armed Forces
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is ...
began exploring modern variants of the electric-powered, rotating barrel Gatling-style weapons for use in the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
. American forces in the Vietnam War, which used
helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
s as one of the primary means of transporting soldiers and equipment through the dense jungle, found that the thin-skinned helicopters were very 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.
![HH-3-minigun-vietnam-19681710](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/HH-3-minigun-vietnam-19681710.jpg)
To develop a more reliable weapon with a higher rate of fire,
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...
designers scaled down the rotary-barrel 20 mm
M61 Vulcan
The M61 Vulcan is a hydraulically, electrically, or pneumatically driven, six- barrel, air-cooled, electrically fired Gatling-style rotary cannon which fires rounds at an extremely high rate (typically 6,000 rounds per minute). The M61 and i ...
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.
![Huey M134](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Huey_M134.jpg)
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
The Cessna A-37 Dragonfly, or Super Tweet, is an American light attack aircraft developed from the T-37 Tweet basic trainer in the 1960s and 1970s by Cessna of Wichita, Kansas. The A-37 was introduced during the Vietnam War and remained in pe ...
with an internal gun and with pods on wing
hardpoints; and the
Douglas A-1 Skyraider
The Douglas A-1 Skyraider (formerly known as the AD Skyraider) is an American single-seat attack aircraft in service from 1946 to the early 1980s. The Skyraider had an unusually long career, remaining in front-line service well into the Jet Age ...
, also with pods on wing hardpoints. Other famous
gunship airplanes are the
Douglas AC-47 Spooky
The Douglas AC-47 Spooky (also nicknamed "Puff, the Magic Dragon") was the first in a series of fixed-wing gunships developed by the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War. It was designed to provide more firepower than light and mediu ...
, the
Fairchild AC-119
The Fairchild AC-119G Shadow and AC-119K Stinger were twin-engine piston-powered gunships developed by the United States during the Vietnam War. They replaced the Douglas AC-47 Spooky and operated alongside the early versions of the AC-130 Sp ...
, and the
Lockheed AC-130
The Lockheed AC-130 gunship is a heavily armed, long-endurance, attack aircraft, ground-attack variant of the C-130 Hercules transport, fixed-wing aircraft. It carries a wide array of ground-attack weapons that are integrated with sophisticate ...
.
Dillon Aero minigun
The U.S. government had procured some 10,000 Miniguns during the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
.
Around 1990,
Dillon Aero Dillon Aero, Inc. is an armament manufacturer in Scottsdale, Arizona
, settlement_type = City
, named_for = Winfield Scott
, image_skyline =
, image_seal = Seal of Scottsdale (Arizona).svg
, ...
acquired a large number of Miniguns and spares from "a foreign user". The guns kept failing to shoot continuously, revealing that they were actually worn-out weapons. The company decided to fix the problems encountered, rather than simply putting the guns into storage. Fixing failure problems ended up improving the Minigun's overall design. Dillon's efforts to improve the Minigun reached the
160th SOAR
The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), abbreviated as 160th SOAR (A), is a special operations force of the United States Army that provides helicopter aviation support for special operations forces. Its missions have include ...
, and the company was invited to
Fort Campbell, Kentucky
Fort Campbell is a United States Army installation located astride the Kentucky–Tennessee border between Hopkinsville, Kentucky and Clarksville, Tennessee (post address is located in Kentucky). Fort Campbell is home to the 101st Airborne Divi ...
, to demonstrate its products. A delinker, used to separate cartridges from ammunition belts and feed them into the gun housing, and other parts were tested on Campbell's ranges. The 160th SOAR were impressed by the delinker's performance and began ordering them by 1997. This prompted Dillon to improve other design aspects including the bolt, housing and barrel. Between 1997 and 2001, Dillon Aero was producing 25–30 products a year. In 2001, it was working on a new bolt design that increased performance and service life. By 2002, virtually every component of the minigun had been improved, so Dillon began producing complete weapons with improved components. The guns were purchased quickly by the 160th SOAR as its standardized weapon system. The gun then went through the Army's formal procurement system approval process, and in 2003 the Dillon Aero minigun was certified and designated ''M134D''.
Once the Dillon Aero system was approved for general military service, Dillon Aero GAU-17s entered Marine Corps service and were well received in replacing the GE GAU-17s serving on Marine UH-1s.
The core of the M134D was a steel housing and rotor. To focus on weight reduction, a
titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resista ...
housing and rotor were introduced, creating the ''M134D-T'' which had reduced weight from to . 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 heavier than the M134D-T, and restored its lifespan to 1.5 million rounds.
The M134D-H is currently in use on various 160th Regiment platforms.
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
Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division
Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division (NSWC Crane Division) is the principal tenant command located at Naval Support Activity Crane (NSA Crane). NSA Crane is a United States Navy installation located approximately southwest of Bloomingt ...
procured guns to mount on
Humvee
The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV; colloquial: Humvee) is a family of light, four-wheel drive, military trucks and utility vehicles produced by AM General. It has largely supplanted the roles previously performed by the ...
s. In Iraq,
US Army Special Forces
The United States Army Special Forces (SF), colloquially known as the "Green Berets" due to their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations force of the United States Army.
The Green Berets are geared towards nine doctrinal mis ...
units on the ground were frequently engaged by opposition forces, so they mounted M134D miniguns on their vehicles for additional firepower. After several engagements the attackers seemed to avoid vehicles with miniguns. Later, the Special Forces units began concealing their weapons so opposition troops would not know they were facing the weapon; the regular Army units did the opposite, creating minigun mock-ups out of painted
PVC pipe
Plastic pipe is a tubular section, or hollow cylinder, made of plastic. It is usually, but not necessarily, of circular cross-section, used mainly to convey substances which can flow—liquids and gases (fluids), slurries, powders and masses of sm ...
s tied together to resemble barrels to intimidate enemies.
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.
Garwood Industries made several other modifications to the 1960s Minigun design in order to meet modern-day military and ISO standards.
This includes modifications to the drive motor, feeder and barrel clutch assembly.
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
A drug cartel is any criminal organization with the intention of supplying drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. The term was applied when the l ...
. 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. Garwood did not know that the intended buyers were Mexican cartels although he was aware that they were to be used for illegal activity.
Design and variants
![Royal Navy Minigun](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Royal_Navy_Minigun.jpg)
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. The minigun's multi-barrel design helps prevent overheating, but also serves other functions. Multiple barrels allow for a greater capacity for a high firing rate, since the serial process of firing, extraction, and loading is taking place in all barrels simultaneously. Thus, as one barrel fires, two others are in different stages of shell extraction and another three are being loaded. The minigun is composed of multiple closed-bolt rifle barrels arranged in a circular housing. The barrels are rotated by an external power source, usually electric,
pneumatic, or
hydraulic
Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counte ...
. Other rotating-barrel cannons are powered by the gas pressure or recoil energy of fired cartridges. A gas-operated variant, designated
XM133, was also developed.
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.
The
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...
minigun is used in several branches of the U.S. military, under a number of designations. The basic fixed armament version was given the designation ''M134'' by the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
, while the same weapon was designated ''GAU-2/A'' (on a fixed mount) and ''GAU-17/A'' (flexible mount) by the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...
(USAF) and
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
(USN). The USAF minigun variant has three versions, while the US Army weapon appears to have incorporated several improvements without a change in designation. The M134D is an improved version of the M134 designed and manufactured by
Dillon Aero Dillon Aero, Inc. is an armament manufacturer in Scottsdale, Arizona
, settlement_type = City
, named_for = Winfield Scott
, image_skyline =
, image_seal = Seal of Scottsdale (Arizona).svg
, ...
, while Garwood Industries manufactures the M134G variant.
Available sources show a relation between both M134 and GAU-2/A and M134 and GAU-2B/A.
[Jane's, 1986. pp. 453–4] A separate variant, designated ''XM196'', with an added ejection sprocket was developed specifically for the
XM53 Armament Subsystem on the
Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne
The Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne was an attack helicopter developed by Lockheed for the United States Army. It rose from the Army's Advanced Aerial Fire Support System (AAFSS) program to field the service's first dedicated attack helicopter. Lock ...
helicopter.
Another variant was developed by the USAF specifically for flexible installations, beginning primarily with the
Bell UH-1N Twin Huey
The Bell UH-1N Twin Huey is a medium military helicopter designed and produced by the American aerospace manufacturer Bell Helicopter. It is a member of the extensive Huey family, the initial version was the CUH-1N Twin Huey (later CH-135 Twin ...
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
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
(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
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror
, image ...
- 59 systems were installed in 30 days.
The GAU-17/A is designated Mk 44 in the machine gun series
and is generally known as the Mk 44 when installed on British warships.
The weapon is part of both the
A/A49E-11 armament system on the UH-1N; and of the A/A49E-13 armament subsystem on the USAF
Sikorsky HH-60H Pave Hawk helicopter. The weapons on these systems feature a selectable fire rate of either 2,000 or 4,000 rpm. There is mention of a possible GAUSE-17 designation (GAU-Shipboard Equipment-17), in reference to the system when mounted on surface ships, though this would not follow the official ASETDS designation system's format.
Gun pods and other mounting systems
![SUU-11 in AC-47](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/SUU-11_in_AC-47.jpg)
One of the first applications of the weapon was in aircraft armament pods. These
gun pod
A gun pod is a detachable pod or pack containing machine guns, autocannons, revolver cannons, or rotary cannons and ancillaries, mounted externally on a vehicle such as a military aircraft which may or may not also have its own guns.
Descriptio ...
s were used by a wide variety of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft mainly during the Vietnam War, remaining in inventory for a period afterward. The standard pod, designated ''
SUU-11/A'' by the Air Force and ''
M18'' by the U.S. Army, was a relatively simple unit, completely self-contained, with a 1,500-round magazine directly feeding delinked ammunition into the weapon. This means the Minigun fitted to the pod does not require the standard MAU-56/A delinking feeder unit. A number of variants of this pod exist.
Initially on fixed-wing gunships such as the Douglas AC-47 Spooky and Fairchild AC-119, the side-firing armament was fitted by combining SUU-11/A aircraft pods, often with their aerodynamic front fairings removed, with a locally fabricated mount. These pods were essentially unmodified, required no external power, and were linked to the aircraft's fire controls. The need for those pods for other missions led to the development and fielding of a purpose-built "Minigun module" for gunship use, designated the ''MXU-470/A''. These units first arrived in January 1967 with features such as an improved 2,000-round drum and electric feeder allowing simplified reloading in flight. The initial units were unreliable and were withdrawn almost immediately. By the end of the year, however, the difficulties had been worked out and the units were again being fitted to AC-47s, AC-119s, AC-130s, and even being proposed for lighter aircraft such as the
Cessna O-2 Skymaster
The Cessna O-2 Skymaster (nicknamed "Oscar Deuce") is a military version of the Cessna 337 Super Skymaster, used for forward air control (FAC) and psychological operations (PSYOPS) by the US military between 1967 and 2010.
Design and develo ...
. A fit of two MXU-470/As was also tested on the
Fairchild AU-23A Peacemaker, though the
Royal Thai Air Force
"Royal Thai Air Force March"
, mascot =
, anniversaries = 9 April 1937 (Royal Thai Air Force Day)
, equipment =
, equipment_label =
, battles ...
later elected to use another configuration with the
M197 20 mm cannon.
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 () of the gun. The pod has its own battery which can be wired into the aircraft's electrical system to maintain a charge.
![Douglas AC-47D Spooky M134 miniguns, circa in 1968](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Douglas_AC-47D_Spooky_M134_miniguns%2C_circa_in_1968.jpg)
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
M21 armament subsystem for the
UH-1
The Bell UH-1 Iroquois (nicknamed "Huey") is a utility military helicopter designed and produced by the American aerospace company Bell Helicopter. It is the first member of the prolific Huey family, as well as the first turbine-powered helic ...
and the
M27 for the
OH-6. It also formed the primary turret-mounted armament for a number of members of the Bell AH-1 Cobra family. The weapon was also used as a pintle-mounted door gun on a wide variety of transport helicopters, a role it continues to fulfill today.
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See also
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References
Notes
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. .
* Gervasi, Tom. ''Arsenal of Democracy III: America's War Machine, the Pursuit of Global Dominance''. New York: Grove Press, Inc, 1984. .
* Gunston, Bill. ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft Armament''. New York: Orion Books, 1988. .
* ''Jane's Weapon Systems, 1986–1987''. Ronald T Pretty, Ed. London: Jane's Publishing Company, Ltd, 1986. .
* 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 Garwood Industries site
M134 page on Profense site
Video showing a CG animation of the firing process of a minigunHelicopter mounted applications video on Military.com
{{USAF weapons
7.62 mm machine guns
7.62×51mm NATO firearms
Aircraft guns
American inventions
Multi-barrel machine guns
Military equipment introduced in the 1960s
Rotary machine guns