Revolver Cannon
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A revolver cannon is a type of
autocannon An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-caliber ( or more) armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary shells, as opposed to the smaller-caliber kinetic projectiles (bull ...
, commonly used as an aircraft gun. It uses a cylinder with multiple chambers, like those of a
revolver A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six roun ...
handgun, to speed up the loading-firing-ejection cycle. Some examples are also power-driven, to further speed the loading process. Unlike a
rotary cannon A rotary cannon, rotary autocannon, rotary gun or Gatling cannon, is any large-caliber multiple-barreled automatic firearm that uses a Gatling-type rotating barrel assembly to deliver a sustained saturational direct fire at much greater rate ...
, a revolver cannon only has a single barrel, so its spun weight is lower. Automatic revolver cannons have been produced by many different manufacturers.


History


Precursors

An early precursor was the
Puckle gun The Puckle gun (also known as the defence gun) was a primitive crew-served, manually-operated flintlock revolver patented in 1718 by James Puckle (1667–1724), a British inventor, lawyer and writer. It was one of the earliest weapons to be ref ...
of 1718, a large
flintlock Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint-striking lock (firearm), ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism its ...
revolver gun, manually operated. The design idea was impractical, far ahead of what 18th century technology could achieve. During the 19th century,
Elisha Collier Elisha Haydon Collier (1788–1856) of Boston, USA, invented a flintlock revolver around 1814. His weapon is one of the earliest true revolvers, in contrast to the earlier pepperboxes which were multi-barreled guns. Collier's revolver was not self ...
and later
Samuel Colt Samuel Colt (; July 19, 1814 – January 10, 1862) was an American inventor, industrialist, and businessman who established Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company (now Colt's Manufacturing Company) and made the mass production of r ...
used the revolver action to revolutionize
handgun A handgun is a short- barrelled gun, typically a firearm, that is designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun (i.e. rifle, shotgun or machine gun, etc.), which needs to be held by both hands and also braced ...
s. The
Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...
used a single 2-inch, 5-shot revolver cannon with manually rotated chambers during the
Siege of Petersburg The Richmond–Petersburg campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 9, 1864, to March 25, 1865, during the American Civil War. Although it is more popularly known as the Siege of Petersburg, it was not a cla ...
. The gun was captured in
Danville, Virginia Danville is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States, located in the Southside Virginia region and on the fall line of the Dan River. It was a center of tobacco production and was an area of Confederate activity ...
by Union forces on April 27, 1865. The Hotchkiss revolving cannon of the late 19th century was not a revolver cannon in the modern sense, more similar to a
Gatling gun 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 cyc ...
. In 1905, C. M. Clarke patented the first fully automatic, gas-operated rotary chamber gun, but his design was ignored at the time. Clarke's patent came as reciprocating-action automatic weapons like the
Maxim gun The Maxim gun is a recoil-operated machine gun invented in 1884 by Hiram Stevens Maxim. It was the first fully automatic machine gun in the world. The Maxim gun has been called "the weapon most associated with imperial conquest" by historian M ...
and the Browning gun were peaking in popularity. In 1932, the Soviet
ShKAS machine gun The ShKAS (Shpitalny-Komaritski Aviatsionny Skorostrelny, Shpitalny-Komaritski rapid fire for aircraft; Russian: ШКАС - Шпитального-Комарицкого Авиационный Скорострельный) is a 7.62 mm calibre ...
, 7.62 mm calibre aircraft ordnance used a twelve-round capacity, revolver-style feed mechanism with a single barrel and single chamber, to achieve firing rates of well over 1800 rounds per minute, and as high as 3,000 rounds per minute in special test versions in 1939, all operating from internal
gas-operated reloading Gas-operation is a system of operation used to provide energy to operate locked breech, autoloading firearms. In gas-operation, a portion of high-pressure gas from the cartridge being fired is used to power a mechanism to dispose of the spent ...
. Some 150,000 ShKAS weapons were produced for arming Soviet military aircraft through 1945. Around 1935, Silin, Berezin and Morozenko worked on a 6000 rpm 7.62 mm aircraft machine gun using revolver design, called SIBEMAS (СИБЕМАС), but this was abandoned.


Modern

It was not until the mid-1940s that the first practical revolver cannon emerged. The archetypal revolver cannon is the Mauser MK 213, from which almost all current weapons are derived. In the immediate post-war era, Mauser engineers spread out from Germany and developed similar weapons around the world. Both the British and French made outright copies of the 30 mm versions of the MK 213, as the
ADEN Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...
and
DEFA DEFA (''Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft'') was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) throughout the country's existence. Since 2019, DEFA's film heritage has been made accessible and licensable on the PRO ...
, respectively. Switzerland produced the Oerlikon KCA. The American
M39 cannon The M39 cannon is a 20 mm caliber single-barreled revolver cannon developed for the United States Air Force in the late 1940s. It was used on a number of fighter aircraft from the early 1950s through the 1980s. Development The M39 was developed ...
used the 20 mm version, re-chambered for a slightly longer 102 mm cartridge, intermediate between the MK 213's 82 mm and
Hispano-Suiza HS.404 The HS.404 is an autocannon originally designed and produced by Spanish/French company Hispano-Suiza in the mid-1930s. It was widely used as an aircraft, naval and land-based weapon by French, British, American and other military services, par ...
's 110 mm case lengths. Several generations of the basic ADEN/DEFA weapons followed, remaining largely unchanged into the 1970s. Around that time, a new generation of weapons developed, based on the proposed
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 ...
25 mm caliber standard and the Mauser 27 mm round. A leading example is the
Mauser BK-27 The BK 27 (also BK27 or BK-27) (German abbreviation for ''Bordkanone'', "on-board cannon") is a caliber revolver cannon manufactured by Mauser (now part of Rheinmetall) of Germany. It was developed in the late 1960s for the MRCA (Multi Role Comba ...
. In the 1980s, the French developed the
GIAT 30 The GIAT 30 is a series of 30 mm cannon developed to replace the DEFA 550 series weapons on French military aircraft. Introduced in the late 1980s, the GIAT 30 is a revolver cannon with electric ignition and automatic recocking. Unlike the DE ...
, a newer generation power-driven revolver cannon. The
Rheinmetall RMK30 The RMK 30 (''Rückstoßfreie Maschinenkanone 30''; recoilless autocannon) is a recoilless 30 mm caliber autocannon firing caseless 30 × 250 mm ammunition cartridges. The gun was developed by the German company Mauser, ...
modifies the GIAT system further, by venting the gas to the rear to eliminate recoil. Larger experimental weapons have also been developed for anti-aircraft use, like the Anglo-Swiss twin barrel but single chamber 42 mm
Oerlikon RK 421 Oerlikon may refer to: Companies *OC Oerlikon (former ''Unaxis''), a Swiss technology conglomerate, or one of its business units: ** Oerlikon Solar ** Oerlikon Balzers ** Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum *Oerlikon-Bührle, a company in Zürich, Switzerland ...
given the code name "Red King" and the related single-barrel "Red Queen" - all of which were cancelled during development. The largest to see service is the Rheinmetall Millennium 35 mm Naval Gun System. Soviet revolver cannon are less common than Western ones, especially on aircraft. A mechanism for a Soviet revolver-based machine gun was patented in 1944. The virtually unknown
Rikhter R-23 The Rikhter R-23 is an aircraft autocannon developed for the Soviet Air Force starting in the late 1950s. It was designed to be as short as possible to avoid problems found on high-speed aircraft when the guns were pointed into the airstream. The ...
was fitted only to some
Tu-22 The Tupolev Tu-22 (NATO reporting name: Blinder) was the first supersonic bomber to enter production in the Soviet Union. Manufactured by Tupolev, the Tu-22 entered service with the Soviet military in the 1960s. The aircraft was a disappointme ...
models, but later abandoned in favor of the two-barrel,
Gast gun The Gast gun was a German twin barrelled machine gun that was developed by Karl Gast of Vorwerk und Companie of Barmen and used during the First World War. Its unique operating system produced a very high rate of fire of 1,600 rounds per minute ...
Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-23 The Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-23 ( rus, ГШ-23) is a twin-barreled 23 mm autocannon developed in the Soviet Union, primarily for military aircraft use. It entered service in 1965, replacing the earlier Nudelman-Rikhter NR-23 and Rikhter R-23. ...
in the
Tu-22M The Tupolev Tu-22M (russian: Туполев Ту-22М; NATO reporting name: Backfire) is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing, long-range strategic and maritime strike bomber developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the 1960s. According to some s ...
. The Rikhter R-23 does have the distinction of being fired from the space station
Salyut 3 Salyut 3 (russian: Салют-3; en, Salute 3; also known as OPS-2 or Almaz 2Portree (1995).) was a Soviet space station launched on 25 June 1974. It was the second Almaz military space station, and the first such station to be launched successf ...
. The Soviet navy has also adopted a revolver design, the NN-30, typically in a dual mount in the AK-230 turret.


Characteristics

With a single barrel mated to a cylinder with multiple chambers, this type of
autocannon An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-caliber ( or more) armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary shells, as opposed to the smaller-caliber kinetic projectiles (bull ...
uses the revolver principle to accelerate the cycle of loading, firing and ejecting multiple rounds of ammunition, achieving a very high rate of fire compared to conventional cannon of the same calibre.


Compared to rotary autocannon

Automatic revolver cannons generally have a lower maximum sustained rate of fire than that of
rotary cannon A rotary cannon, rotary autocannon, rotary gun or Gatling cannon, is any large-caliber multiple-barreled automatic firearm that uses a Gatling-type rotating barrel assembly to deliver a sustained saturational direct fire at much greater rate ...
s because their barrel suffers from much higher heating loads, as it alone must fire every round. Rotary autocannons are capable of a rate of fire of up to 10,000 rounds per minute (such as the
Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-6-23 The Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-6-23 (russian: Грязев-Шипунов ГШ-6-23) (GRAU designation: 9A-620 for GSh-6-23, 9A-768 for GSh-6-23M modernized variant) is a six-barreled 23 mm rotary cannon used by some modern Soviet/Russian military ...
), while revolver cannons are capable of a rate of fire of up to 2,000 rounds per minute. However, revolver cannons are generally able to be made much lighter than rotary autocannons, requiring less support and mounting hardware—rotary autocannons spin the whole multiple barrel and breech assembly, which, in equal caliber versions, can weigh hundreds of kilograms more in comparison (though the weight per rounds fired is lower for the rotary). The firing rate of a rotary autocannon is directly related to the rotational speed of the barrel cluster. The need to accelerate this cluster generally requiring a large, external power supply means that the maximum attainable rate of fire is not immediately available. In addition, rotaries suffer from lower accuracy, a consequence of dispersion caused by multiple barrels rotating at a varying speed. As a result of their design, revolver cannons lack these issues altogether.


Examples

*
ADEN cannon The Royal Small Arms Factory ADEN cannon (ADEN being an acronym for "Armament Development, Enfield") is a 30 mm revolver cannon used on many military aircraft, particularly those of the British Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm. Developed po ...
* DEFA cannon *
GIAT 30 The GIAT 30 is a series of 30 mm cannon developed to replace the DEFA 550 series weapons on French military aircraft. Introduced in the late 1980s, the GIAT 30 is a revolver cannon with electric ignition and automatic recocking. Unlike the DE ...
*
M39 cannon The M39 cannon is a 20 mm caliber single-barreled revolver cannon developed for the United States Air Force in the late 1940s. It was used on a number of fighter aircraft from the early 1950s through the 1980s. Development The M39 was developed ...
*
Mauser BK-27 The BK 27 (also BK27 or BK-27) (German abbreviation for ''Bordkanone'', "on-board cannon") is a caliber revolver cannon manufactured by Mauser (now part of Rheinmetall) of Germany. It was developed in the late 1960s for the MRCA (Multi Role Comba ...
* Mauser MK 213 * Oerlikon KCA *
Rheinmetall Oerlikon Millennium Gun The Rheinmetall Oerlikon Millennium Gun or Rheinmetall GDM-008 is a close-in weapon system designed by Rheinmetall Air Defence AG (formerly known as Oerlikon Contraves) for mounting on ships. It is based on the 35/1000 revolver gun land-based a ...
*
Rheinmetall RMK30 The RMK 30 (''Rückstoßfreie Maschinenkanone 30''; recoilless autocannon) is a recoilless 30 mm caliber autocannon firing caseless 30 × 250 mm ammunition cartridges. The gun was developed by the German company Mauser, ...
*
Rikhter R-23 The Rikhter R-23 is an aircraft autocannon developed for the Soviet Air Force starting in the late 1950s. It was designed to be as short as possible to avoid problems found on high-speed aircraft when the guns were pointed into the airstream. The ...


See also

*
MANTIS Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. The largest family is the Mantidae ("mantids"). Mantises are distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. They ha ...
*
ShVAK cannon The ShVAK ( ru , ШВАК: Шпитальный-Владимиров Авиационный Крупнокалиберный, Shpitalnyi-Vladimirov Aviatsionnyi Krupnokalibernyi, "Shpitalny-Vladimirov Aviation Large-calibre") was a 20 mm autocann ...
*
ShKAS machine gun The ShKAS (Shpitalny-Komaritski Aviatsionny Skorostrelny, Shpitalny-Komaritski rapid fire for aircraft; Russian: ШКАС - Шпитального-Комарицкого Авиационный Скорострельный) is a 7.62 mm calibre ...
*
Skyshield Skyshield Air-defence system is a modular, light weight, Short Range Air Defense (SHORAD) system developed by the Swiss corporation Oerlikon Contraves (now a subsidiary of Rheinmetall of Germany). The successor to the Skyguard defense syste ...


References


External links


List of Military Gatling & Revolver cannon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Revolver Cannon Autocannon Firearm actions