Gun pod
Encyclopedia
Machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
s or automatic cannon and ancillaries, mounted externally on a vehicle
Vehicle
A vehicle is a device that is designed or used to transport people or cargo. Most often vehicles are manufactured, such as bicycles, cars, motorcycles, trains, ships, boats, and aircraft....
such as a military aircraft
Military aircraft
A military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type. Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat:...
which may or may not also have its own guns.
A gun pod typically contains one or more guns, a supply of ammunition, and, if necessary, a power source. Electrically powered cannon, such as the M61 Vulcan
M61 Vulcan
The M61 Vulcan is a hydraulically or pneumatically driven, six-barreled, air-cooled, electrically fired Gatling-style rotary cannon which fires 20 mm rounds at an extremely high rate. The M61 and its derivatives have been the principal cannon armament of United States military fixed-wing aircraft...
, may be powered from the aircraft's electrical system or by a ram-air turbine.
Gun pods increase a vehicle's firepower without occupying internal volume. When not required for a specific mission they can be omitted to save weight. On some vehicles they isolate delicate internal components such as radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
from the weapon's recoil and gases, and for jet
Jet engine
A jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet to generate thrust by jet propulsion and in accordance with Newton's laws of motion. This broad definition of jet engines includes turbojets, turbofans, rockets, ramjets, pulse jets...
aircraft allow the weapons to be mounted away from the intakes of the engines, reducing problems of gun-gas ingestion.
When designed to be suspension-mounted on a hardpoint
Hardpoint
A hardpoint, or weapon station, is any part of an airframe designed to carry an external load. This includes a point on the wing or fuselage of military aircraft where external ordnance, countermeasures, gun pods, targeting pods or drop tanks can be mounted.-Rail launchers:Large missiles and...
on a typical post-WW II aircraft, gun pods are inherently less accurate than integral guns, or the type of "conformal" gun pods that are faired smoothly into or onto the nearby surfaces of an aircraft, because the "hardpoint" mounting is necessarily less rigid, so that the weapon's recoil produces more deflection. This problem is particularly acute with powerful cannon like the 30mm GPU-5 gun pod
GAU-13 cannon
The General Electric GAU-13/A is a 30 mm electric Gatling Gun derived from the GAU-8 Avenger cannon.-Description:The GAU-13 was developed in the late 1970s for use in gun pod applications for fighter aircraft and attack aircraft use, primarily for air-to-ground and anti-tank attacks.The GAU-13/A is...
. Both hardpoint-mounted and conformal-mount gun pods also cause substantial drag
Drag (physics)
In fluid dynamics, drag refers to forces which act on a solid object in the direction of the relative fluid flow velocity...
on fast-moving vehicles such as fighter aircraft
Fighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...
.
Gun pods are commonly carried on military helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
s, and are often fitted to light aircraft to equip them for counter-insurgency operations. Some air arms use gun pods for fighter bombers for use in strafing
Strafing
Strafing is the practice of attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft using aircraft-mounted automatic weapons. This means, that although ground attack using automatic weapons fire is very often accompanied with bombing or rocket fire, the term "strafing" does not specifically include the...
attacks. Since the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
policy has been that the use of multi-million dollar aircraft for strafing is not economically justified, but the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and subsequently Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, have remained proponents of strafing, and have continued to develop systems for this purpose. Soviet experience in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
in the 1980s led to an unusual innovation in the form of the SPPU series of gun pods, which have traversable barrels allowing them to continue to fire on a fixed target as the aircraft passes overhead.
In World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
the Third Reich's Luftwaffe made use of many different, and most often rigidly mounted, conformal and suspended-mount gun pod systems usually called Waffenbehälter (literally 'weapon container') or Waffenträger (literally 'weapon carrier'), and carrying anything from rifle caliber MG 81 machine gun
MG 81 machine gun
The MG 81 was a German belt fed 7.9 mm machine gun, used in flexible installations in World War II Luftwaffe aircraft, replacing the older drum magazine-fed MG 15....
s, all the way up to the enormous Bordkanone anti-tank cannon based ordnance weapon series, ranging from 37 to 75mm in caliber, though the usual underwing conformal gun pods fitted to Bf 109
Messerschmitt Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109, often called Me 109, was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser during the early to mid 1930s...
and Fw 190
Focke-Wulf Fw 190
The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Würger was a German Second World War single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed by Kurt Tank in the late 1930s. Powered by a radial engine, the 190 had ample power and was able to lift larger loads than its well-known counterpart, the Messerschmitt Bf 109...
single engined fighters used either the MG 151/20
MG 151 cannon
The MG 151 was a 15 mm autocannon produced by Waffenfabrik Mauser starting in 1940. It was in 1941 developed into the 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon which was widely used on many types of German Luftwaffe fighters, fighter bombers, night fighters, ground attack and even bombers as part of or as...
or MK 108
MK 108 cannon
The MK 108 was a 30 mm caliber autocannon manufactured in Germany during World War II by Rheinmetall-Borsig for use in aircraft.-Development:...
in gun pod mounts.
US
GPU-2/A: Gun pod with M197M197 Gatling gun
The M197 electric cannon is a three-barreled electric Gatling gun developed primarily for use by United States Army helicopter gunships.Development of the M197 began in 1967 after experience in the Vietnam War revealed the inadequacy of the 7.62 mm Minigun for gunship use...
cannon.
GPU-5/A: Gun pod with GAU-13/A cannon.
M18/SUU-11/A: Gun pod with M134/GAU-2/A
Minigun
The Minigun is a 7.62 mm, multi-barrel heavy machine gun with a high rate of fire , employing Gatling-style rotating barrels with an external power source...
machine gun.
M12/SUU-16/A: Gun pod with M61A1 cannon.
M25/SUU-23/A: Gun pod with GAU-4/A cannon.
For more info see:
USSR/Russia
GUV-8700 Gun Pod (9A624) 2x GshG 7.62mmGShG-7.62 machine gun
The Shipunov GShG-7.62 is a four-barreled rotary machine gun, similar to firearms such as the M134 "Minigun". It is a gas operated, self-powered weapon which is in contrast with most other rotary guns , and has been used only in gun pods and flexible mounts on Kamov Ka-29 prototypes.-See...
& 1x Yak-B 12.7mm
Yak-B 12.7mm machine gun
The Yakushev-Borzov YakB-12.7 mm is a remotely controlled 12.7x108mm caliber four-barrel Gatling gun developed by the Soviet Union for the Mil Mi-24 attack gunship and low-capacity troop transporter with 1470 rounds, which can also be mounted in GUV-8700 machine-gun pods with 750 rounds.It has a...
GUV-8700 Gun Pod (9A669) AGS-17 30mm automatic grenade launcher
AGS-17
The AGS-17 Plamya is a Soviet-designed automatic grenade launcher currently in production in the Russian Federation and in service worldwide.-Description:...
UPK-23-250 Gun Pod GSh-23L twin barreled 23mm
SPPU-22 Depressible Gun Pod GSh-23L twin barreled 23mm
SPPU-6 Fully Mobile Gun Pod GSh-6-23 six barreled 23mm
SPPU-687 Depressible Gun Pod (9A-4273) GSh-30-1 high velocity 30mm (prototype)
In fiction
Gunpods are a mainstay in many science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
franchises, especially in anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
mecha
Mecha
A mech , is a science fiction term for a large walking bipedal tank or robot, including ones on treads and animal shapes.-Characteristics:...
shows. In Macross
Macross
is a series of science fiction mecha anime, directed by Shōji Kawamori of Studio Nue in 1982. The franchise features a fictional history of Earth/Humanity after the year 1999. It consists of three TV series, four movies, six OVAs, one light novel and five manga series, all sponsored by Big West...
, many transformable vehicles have gunpods that detach and can be held in the mecha
Mecha
A mech , is a science fiction term for a large walking bipedal tank or robot, including ones on treads and animal shapes.-Characteristics:...
's robotic hand. Such gunpods may look like gigantic assault rifles. In the video game Einhänder
Einhänder
is a scrolling shooter developed by Square for the PlayStation console. It was released in Japan on November 20, 1997 and in North America on April 30, 1998. It was also re-released for the Japanese PlayStation Network on June 25, 2008...
, the player's fighter was equipped with a manipulator arm capable of picking up gunpods from destroyed enemies.