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The Hughes M230 Chain Gun is a 30mm, single-barrel automatic cannon developed by Hughes (McDonnell Douglas) (Boeing) and now manufactured by Alliant Techsystems. It is an electrically operated chain gun, a weapon that uses external power instead of recoil to load its rounds.
Part of the Area Weapon System on the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, the M230 is mounted in the lower section of the chin gun turret. It uses a three-horsepower electric motor to load 30mm linkless ammunition at a rate of 625 ± 25 shots per minute. The gun has a positive cook-off safety (open bolt clearing) and double ram prevention.
On 20 August 1998, the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command Armament and Chemical and Logistics Activity (TACOM-ACALA) and McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems (MDHS) signed a first-of-its kind contract for spare parts for the M230 30mm Gun and Area Weapon System (AWS) for the Apache attack helicopter. The contract allows for parts to be ordered directly from a catalog instead of through the traditional contracting process. The Government can also order parts when the Army needs them, instead of buying quantities in advance. In addition, delivery is directly to the troops in the field instead of to the storage depot, where delays are incurred in shipping to the field. This contracting effort decreases administrative and production lead times, reduces ordering time from nine months to less than a month, reduces administrative costs, and minimizes the strain on manpower resources including those of the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), as well as TACOM-ACALA and MDHS, while maintaining reasonable prices for spare parts requirements.
[edit] Specifications
30-mm rounds being loaded into an AH-64D Apache Longbow
- Caliber:30x113mmB
- Weights:
- Receiver: 28.6 kg
- Barrel: 15.9 kg
- Linked or linkless transfer unit: 5.9 kg
- Total gun system: 55.9 kg
- Dimensions:
- Length: 1638 mm
- Width: 254 mm
- Height: 292 mm
- Barrel life: to 10,000 rounds
- Rate of fire: single to 625 rounds/minute
- Time to rate: 0.2 s
- Time to stop: 0.1 s
- Clearing method: open bolt
- Power required: 6.5 hp
- Maximum range: 4,000 m
- Effective range: 1,500 m
- Shells
- M788 Target Practice (TP) rounds
- M789 High Explosive Dual Purpose (HEDP) rounds for anti-armor and anti-personnel
- M799 High Explosive Incendiary (HEI) rounds for anti-personnel and anti-materiel
[edit] Aircraft
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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