OT: What is this weapon?

[Groomlakearea51]

Very impressive weapon. However, it's designed to be stand mounted and isn't really practical for handheld use. Even mighty Jesse Ventura was leaning against a hidden post because he couldn't stand up to the recoil. As well, you can't see the car battery on the ground that's powering the gun. It's a chain gun and needs electricity to feed the chain's electric motor.

The particular one I refer to is the "man-portable" XM-214. in 5.56mm. The military did not procure very many of these, and only for special operations folks. The battery used is a NiCad about the same as two PRC-77 batteries stuck together (tac radio bats) in a pouch that is worn with the "rig". We referred to the batteries as the "1M" battery (one mission...) the heavy part of the system is the ammunition. The gun itself only weighs about 30 pounds, not really much more than an M-60. The whole system if you want to lug one around is about ~90 pounds. The backpack container in the movie is/was correct, and yes it's a heavy beast when loaded up. Rise is not that bad. It has a variable rate selector and usually it's set for ~1600 rpm. The large "bar" on the top (looks like a chainsaw holding bar) is what controls the rise. Recoil is not very bad due to the nature of the firing mechanism, the use of the 5.56 mm round, and the overall weight of the weapon itself. I fired one. Once.... to become familiar with what it could do. It's impressive, but... simply not very practical due to ammunition consumption and sheer weight of the system including ammo required (full container is 1000 rounds and weighs ~45 pounds), and the fact that we pretty much discovered that we would have to be deployed via a helicopter because the weapon cannot be carried on a para drop. It has to be "containerized" and can be damaged in the drop. The poor fool who carries it also cannot carry much of anything else. It is seldom seen or used as the manpack version anymore, but the few around are generally deployed with a tripod for "special occasions". Normally it's used with a two man fire support team. Other drawback was that the second guy had to carry another ammo pack, and usually at least one or two other's ended up with ammo packs and at least one spare battery so the fire team (between 4 and 6 folks, dependent on the mission) would have at least 4000 rounds. Together with the M18 "Claymore", the M214 on it's M122 tripod and two guys feeding it's voracious appetite.... is the "ambush" weapon 'par-excellence'.

Made by General Electric - "We Bring Good Things To Life"....... [H]

[Groomlakearea51]

In the hand held artillery department..... the venrable "punt" gun. It's real!!!

[Groomlakearea51]

The ammo....

[Groomlakearea51]

http://www.rpgfirearms.com.au/SHOOTISTS/big%20bang.jpg'>.

A happy camper....

[Cal Blacksmith]

Here is an old picture of myself aboard one of the DDG-79 (USS Oscar-Austin), an Arleigh Burke class Aegis destroyer (check out that mullet I used to have at the time).

Nice shot with the Enterpirse in the background, was the event an "open house"?

[BigStewMan]

when i was in the coast guard, i had the privilege of going onboard the uss missouri when she was in long beach, ca. i had to deliver some documents to the OOD of the Missouri. I didn't ask for a tour or anything, just went to the quarterdeck and waited for the OOD to show up; but, it was still cool.

[JJkizak]

UUMMMM. Is that a 5" 54 cal 40 rounds per minute on the can?

JJK

[skonopa]

Nice shot with the Enterpirse in the background, was the event an "open house"?

It was a commissioning ceremony. They were holding it at the Norfolk Naval Base. A bunch of us from work took off to go down to attend it. Was quite an interesting experience, plus cool to get to see the stuff that I've worked on actually aboard a ship.

[skonopa]

UUMMMM. Is that a 5" 54 cal 40 rounds per minute on the can?

JJK

Are you refering to the Aegis Destroyer picture? Yes, that is a 5 inch gun. Those things are pretty darn cool to see firing. Also, that white thing above it that looks like R2-D2 is a Phalanx gun. A 20MM approx 3,000 rounds per minute beast! Wicked!

[Islander]

Very impressive weapon. However, it's designed to be stand mounted and isn't really practical for handheld use. Even mighty Jesse Ventura was leaning against a hidden post because he couldn't stand up to the recoil. As well, you can't see the car battery on the ground that's powering the gun. It's a chain gun and needs electricity to feed the chain's electric motor.

The particular one I refer to is the "man-portable" XM-214. in 5.56mm. The military did not procure very many of these, and only for special operations folks. The battery used is a NiCad about the same as two PRC-77 batteries stuck together (tac radio bats) in a pouch that is worn with the "rig". We referred to the batteries as the "1M" battery (one mission...) the heavy part of the system is the ammunition. The gun itself only weighs about 30 pounds, not really much more than an M-60. The whole system if you want to lug one around is about ~90 pounds. The backpack container in the movie is/was correct, and yes it's a heavy beast when loaded up.

I stand corrected. I hadn't realized there was a smaller-bore version of that gun. Those very-high-rate-of-fire guns really get the job done, but sure would be ammo-hungry. On a longer mission, you'd pretty well need a mule train to carry enough. In Afghanistan, that might not look so out of place...