The General Electric GAU-13/A is a 30 mm electric Gatling-type

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 r ...

derived from the GAU-8 Avenger cannon.

Description

The GAU-13 was developed in the late 1970s for use in

gun pod A gun pod is a detachable pod or pack containing machine guns, autocannons, revolver cannons, or rotary cannons and ancillaries, mounted externally on a vehicle such as a military aircraft which may or may not also have its own guns. Descriptio ...

applications for

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

and

attack aircraft An attack aircraft, strike aircraft, or attack bomber is a tactical military aircraft that has a primary role of carrying out airstrikes with greater precision than bombers, and is prepared to encounter strong low-level air defenses while pre ...

use, primarily for air-to-ground and

anti-tank Anti-tank warfare originated from the need to develop technology and tactics to destroy tanks during World War I. Since the Triple Entente deployed the first tanks in 1916, the German Empire developed the first anti-tank weapons. The first dev ...

attacks. The GAU-13/A is a four-barreled rotary cannon based on the mechanism of the larger GAU-8, sharing the same massive 30 mm ammunition. Like the Avenger, it has a double-ended feed system with reverse clearing to remove unfired rounds. Unlike the GAU-8, however, it is pneumatically driven, giving it a rate of fire of 2,400 rounds per minute. Minimum time between stoppages is estimated at 32,000 rounds, making it a very reliable weapon. The GAU-13/A uses the same range of ''PGU-13'' High Explosive Incendiary (HEI) and ''PGU-14'' Armor-Piercing Incendiary (API) rounds (which contain a

depleted uranium Depleted uranium (DU; also referred to in the past as Q-metal, depletalloy or D-38) is uranium with a lower content of the fissile isotope than natural uranium.: "Depleted uranium possesses only 60% of the radioactivity of natural uranium, hav ...

penetrator) as the Avenger. Despite its somewhat lower rate of fire compared to the seven-barreled Avenger, it is an immensely powerful weapon. The principal application for the GAU-13/A was the GPU-5/A gun pod (originally marketed as the ''GEPOD 30''). The pod is 4.3 m (14 ft 2 in) long and can be mounted on any standard

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 N ...

762 mm (30 in) suspension lugs. It holds 353 rounds of ammunition, enough for approximately nine seconds of continuous fire. The GPU-5/A weight is 600 kg (1,325 lb) empty and 841 kg (1,854 lb) fully loaded. The pod is completely self-contained. The GPU-5/A was intended for carriage on a wide range of U.S. tactical aircraft, including the

F-15 Eagle The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American Twinjet, twin-engine, all-weather Air combat manoeuvring#Tactics, tactical fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). Following reviews of proposals, the United States ...

and

F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successf ...

. In the mid-1980s the

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

considered a specialized variant of the F-16 for the

close air support In military tactics, close air support (CAS) is defined as air action such as air strikes by fixed or rotary-winged aircraft against hostile targets near friendly forces and require detailed integration of each air mission with fire and movemen ...

(CAS) mission, using the GPU-5, as a substitute to or adjunct for the

A-10 Thunderbolt II The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II is a single-seat, twin-turbofan, straight-wing, subsonic attack aircraft developed by Fairchild Republic for the United States Air Force (USAF). In service since 1976, it is named for the Republic ...

. The GPU-5 pod, however, proved unsatisfactory in service. It was briefly tried on some

Air National Guard The Air National Guard (ANG), also known as the Air Guard, is a federal military reserve force of the United States Air Force, as well as the air militia of each U.S. state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the ter ...

s during the 1991

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

, but was removed from service after barely a day of combat use because of its very poor accuracy. Despite the cannon's impressive ballistic characteristics, the pylon mounting was not sufficiently rigid to prevent deflection, and the weapon's heavy recoil exacerbated the problem by causing pylon misalignment. Further, the GPU-5 was not integrated into the F-16's sighting system. The GPU-5 is no longer in U.S. service, although some Thai

F-5E Tiger II The Northrop F-5 is a family of supersonic light fighter aircraft initially designed as a privately funded project in the late 1950s by Northrop Corporation. There are two main models, the original F-5A and F-5B Freedom Fighter variants and the ...

aircraft still carry the weapon; it was also tested on the F-20 Tigershark. In mid/late 1995, the U.S. Marine Corps conducted a trial of the GPU-5 on the LCAC-66, as a potential weapon to provide

suppressive fire In military science, suppressive fire is "fire that degrades the performance of an enemy force below the level needed to fulfill its mission". When used to protect exposed friendly troops advancing on the battlefield, it is commonly called cove ...

for landing forces. The pod was mounted on a standard MAU-12 bomb rack, itself mounted in a standard cargo container. It was believed that four such containers could then be carried on the LCAC. The resulting combination was referenced as the Gun Platform Air Cushion (GPAC). By 1997, the Marines had reportedly acquired the USAF's entire stock of GAU-13/A cannons and GPU-5 pods as surplus. Besides the GPAC, the GAU-13/A was also touted as possible armament on ships and ground vehicles such as the

LAV-25 The LAV-25 is a member of the LAV II family. It is an eight-wheeled amphibious armored reconnaissance vehicle built by General Dynamics Land Systems and used by the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army. History During the 1980s ...

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Fas.org.

Citations

General and cited sources

* Friedman, Norman (1997). ''The Naval Institute Guide to World Naval Weapon Systems''. Naval Institute Press. . * Polmar, Norman (2004). ''The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet''. Naval Institute Press. . {{Modern Gatling Guns 30 mm artillery Aircraft guns Military equipment introduced in the 1970s Rotary cannon