It looked like flowing balls of fire lighting up the air, accompanied smoke by a loud sound and also the sight of a fiery explosion on the other side of a desert canyon.
The backward thrust was strong, throwing me back exactly what felt like feet. All this appeared to occur simultaneously, when I tried to shoot an M230LF Lightweight 30mm Cannon Chain Gun, an lethal rapid fire rifle today arming the Army’s armored Stryker vehicle. The weapon reflects a brand new adaptation of this Chain Gun.
This weapon isn’t a little or rifle, shotgun arm in any way – it is. It was, by far, the greatest and strongest gun I had ever fired. I was amazed by what appeared to be its energy. It didn’t only”hit” or”go through” a goal – it exploded it, yet with precision targeting, placing multiple fast-moving Chain Gun rounds through precisely the same target hole, one after the other.
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“It is a lightweight tool. You can mount it on any vehicle that has a ring adapter. Goals are acquired by it . It’s reverse-acting hydraulic brakes similar to what you’d find on an ATV or bike. The winner releases the brake system and acquires the goal,” Vince Virga, product engineer, Nobles, told me in the scope – while showing me the way to safely fire and man the cannon.
Once my teacher showed me how to turn off the safety switch and arm the weapon, then I had been left to mount everything could be known as a”not-so-impressive” attempt to fire the weapon; My first two shots, in a balloon shooting range in Kingman, Ariz., were way off. I was amazed by how the rifle was. The firing took place at a Northrop Grumman-sponsored Bushmaster Users Conference evaluate, in the Arizona desert meant to test and demonstrate a number of the emerging firearms.
I used two grip handles move the sights onto the goal; I had to use a lot of power to move the gun. That is because I fired a 30mm the weapon is often controlled by a Remote Weapons Station which rotates the gun using human power. Targeting ability is vital – as I watched fire the weapon and if within a Stryker vehicle seeing a gunner lineup – obliterating a ground-robot drone object.
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“I launch a change and deliver a signal to the Remote Weapons System. I release my dead man’s change and cue the gun,” Willie Gabbard, Stryker gunner, Northrop Grumman, told me while sitting inside a Stryker at the gunner’s station.
The concept with all the weapon is to bring a great deal firepower and broader ammunition options than the .50-cal machine guns or grenade launchers arming battle vehicles.
“The M230LF has greater target effects against light-skinned armored vehicles. We are designing a multi-function proximity fuse to give you an air burst type capability,” Clay Bringhurst, VP Sales, Strategic Development, Nobles, told me in the firing range. “What Northrop has done is place a longer barrel onto it they have connected into the ammunition so it might be used on a floor platform.”
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String Guns, which may shoot an ammo”belt” draw electricity from an external source rather than diverting energy from the capsule to fire ammunition in a loop.
The gun looked like a horizontal rectangle to replicate a fire configuration from a combat vehicle, I envision. There were what seemed like binoculars – two eye holes in the back of the rifle. When I looked through, the target, set among shrubs growing on a brown hill, looked magnified crisp and closer than it was. I saw some time cross through the sights, suggesting the desired”hit” spot. Following tanking strikes, I was able to put a round. Goal was not far away – maybe a few hundred meters – and – honestly , it can be hard to miss targets , it appears, with an automatic gun with these sorts of firing and targeting technologies.
“The M230LF is not much heavier than a .50 caliber machine gun, but adds much more firepower and also is easily incorporated on to remote weapons stations. Additionally, the M230LF can easily be’man-fired’ too,” Jarrod Krull, Northrop Communications Manager, informed me.
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I needed to sit on a stool to approach the weapon. I was required to wear earplugs and body armor. My instructor told me to press against my chest so as not to be thrown back from the force of the cannon. The force of this shot is intense, especially when it rapid-fires multiple rounds in succession like a machine gun. The 30mm rounds, shooting from the gun with fire seem like balls of flame flying after another out of the end of the cannon. Then the fireballs disappear. I saw about three or four in a row, travel one after the other using a bit of distance between them.
