30 mm caliber is a specific size of popular autocannon ammunition. Such ammunition includes

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...

30×113mmB and 30×173mm (STANAG 4624),

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

30×155mmB, 30×165mm, and 30×210mmB, Yugoslav 30×192mm, Anglo-Swiss 30×170mm, and Czechoslovak 30×210mm rounds which are widely used around the world.

Usage

Thirty-millimeter ammunition is typically not used against personnel, but rather as an anti-

materiel Materiel (; ) refers to supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commercial supply chain context. In a military context, the term ''materiel'' refers either to the specif ...

armor-piercing Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate either body armour or vehicle armour. From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armour carried on many wars ...

round. Rounds of this size can be effective against lightly

armored vehicles Armour (British English) or armor (American English; see spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, especially direct contact weapons or projectiles during combat, or f ...

as well as fortified

bunker A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. T ...

s. It is also a popular caliber for shipboard

close-in weapons system A close-in weapon system (CIWS ) is a point-defense weapon system for detecting and destroying short-range incoming missiles and enemy aircraft which have penetrated the outer defenses, typically mounted on a naval ship. Nearly all classes of la ...

s, such as the Russian

AK-630 The AK-630 is a Soviet and Russian fully automatic naval, rotary cannon, close-in weapon system. The "630" designation refers to the weapon's six gun barrels and their 30 mm caliber. The system is mounted in an enclosed automatic turret and dir ...

and Dutch

Goalkeeper CIWS The Goalkeeper CIWS is a Dutch close-in weapon system (''SEE-wiz'') introduced in 1979. It is an autonomous and completely automatic weapon system for short-range defence of ships against highly manoeuvrable missiles, aircraft and fast-manoeuve ...

. The

Armed Forces of the Russian Federation The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (, ), commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military forces of Russia. In terms of active-duty personnel, they are the world's fifth-largest military force, with at least two m ...

use their 30 mm weapons in a variety of vehicles, including the Su-25 attack aircraft, Mi-24 helicopter,

Mi-28 The Mil Mi-28 (NATO reporting name "Havoc") is a Russian all-weather, day-night, military tandem, two-seat anti-armor attack helicopter. It is an attack helicopter with no intended secondary transport capability, better optimized than the Mil M ...

attack helicopter,

Ka-50 The Kamov Ka-50 "Black Shark" (russian: Чёрная акула, translit=Chyornaya akula, English: kitefin shark, NATO reporting name: Hokum A) is a Soviet/Russian single-seat attack helicopter with the distinctive coaxial rotor system of th ...

attack helicopter, and the

BMP-2 The BMP-2 (''Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty'', , literally "combat machine/vehicle (of the) infantry") is an amphibious infantry fighting vehicle introduced in the 1980s in the Soviet Union, following on from the BMP-1 of the 1960s. Development hist ...

, BMP-3, and BTR-90 infantry fighting vehicles. The most modern anti-aircraft gun systems in use by Russia are 30 mm. The U.S. military uses 30 mm weapons in their

A-10 Thunderbolt II The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II is a single-seat, twin-turbofan, straight-wing, subsonic attack aircraft developed by Fairchild Republic for the United States Air Force (USAF). In service since 1976, it is named for the Republic ...

ground-attack aircraft ,

AC-130 The Lockheed AC-130 gunship is a heavily armed, long-endurance, 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 sophisticated sensors, naviga ...

gunship (AC-130W Stinger II and AC-130J Ghostrider variants), and

AH-64 Apache The Boeing AH-64 Apache () is an American twin- turboshaft attack helicopter with a tailwheel-type landing gear arrangement and a tandem cockpit for a crew of two. It features a nose-mounted sensor suite for target acquisition and night v ...

attack helicopter. It was going to be used in the

Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle The Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) (formerly known as the Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAAV)) was an amphibious assault vehicle developed by General Dynamics during the 1990s and 2000s for use by the U.S. Marine Corps. It would ...

until the project was canceled.

Types of 30 mm ammunition

Thirty-millimeter ammunition generally comes in three varieties:

(AP),

high-explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...

(HE), and target practice (TP) rounds. Both AP and HE

cartridge Cartridge may refer to: Objects * Cartridge (firearms), a type of modern ammunition * ROM cartridge, a removable component in an electronic device * Cartridge (respirator), a type of filter used in respirators Other uses * Cartridge (surname), a ...

s commonly possess incendiary or tracer characteristics.

Examples of weapons using 30 mm ammunition

Historical weapons

Current weapons

References

{{Reflist

External links

FAS: 30 mm AmmunitionATK Products: M230ATK Products: M230LF
Large-caliber cartridges