The Chinese Pastoral Eagle uses Gatling, and China finally has a reliable door machine gun
On a promotional poster for a helicopter, outside the door of the Z-20 helicopter, There is a door machine gun that I have never seen before!
You know, China’s lack of reliable door machine guns has always been a complaint among military fans. Many people will wonder, isn’t it just a machine gun installed on the helicopter door? Helicopters are ready-made, and machine guns are also ready-made. Can't we just install them? In fact, the helicopter door machine gun is not simple at all.
Many people say that the AC130 is an artifact for ground fire support. In fact, in actual combat applications, helicopters are. After all, helicopters do not need a runway, can be deployed in large numbers, and can become the main fire support force for small units. In order to provide sufficient firepower support on the ground, France first installed machine guns on the door of Sikorsky's Corsair helicopter, which was tailor-made to deal with Algerian guerrillas, a ground force without anti-aircraft firepower.
Soon after, when the Americans were mired in the Vietnam War, they also began to install machine guns on the hatches. The pilot no longer has to think about strafing and only needs to focus on flying the aircraft.
Gradually, the Americans figured out three ways to install hatch-type machine guns.
The first is the fixed type in the cabin, that is, a bracket is welded on the cabin floor to support the machine gun. This method is the simplest, but its shortcomings are also obvious. The range is limited, and the left and right swing of the machine gun is restricted by the door frames on both sides, so it takes up a lot of space when standing at the door. It is very inconvenient for people to enter and exit. I could only come over and stuff it in, so I kept getting complaints from the frontline troops.
In response, the US military launched a second type of swing gun mount. The longitudinal axis is no longer placed in the center of the hatch, but on the side of the hatch, and is linked to the machine gun through the L-shaped beam.
This kind of gun rack can not only be placed on the side of the hatch when someone comes in and out without affecting entry and exit, but can also be directly extended out of the cabin when shooting, so that the gun barrel is no longer restricted by the hatch. Incubator, which doubles the range.
The disadvantage is that when the machine gunner approaches the side target and shoots, half of the body is outside the cabin and is easily killed by ground fire. and can be easily thrown when maneuvering.
So the United States made improvements. There is a machine gun hanging directly outside the small hatch behind the cockpit of the Black Hawk helicopter. This is the third type of gun mount: an external gun mount. The small hatch is specially used for shooting, and the large hatch is specially used for personnel and materials to enter and exit, each performing its own duties.
Set the machine gun outside the small hatch. Open the hatch to get a larger shooting range, close the hatch to get armor protection, and because the hatch is relatively small, even in the face of ground firepower, the shooter can Easier protected by hatch armor than shooting through large hatches.
When China developed the Z-20, it also retained this small hatch, but did not install a machine gun.
Does the door machine gun smell good? fragrant. But the birth of China's hatching machine gun was very late.
Many people say that China’s door machine guns began in 2008 when they were escorting the Gulf of Aden. In fact, not so. As early as the 1980s and 1990s, China had developed machine guns on Black Hawk helicopters.
In 1985, when our army was using helicopters to transport daily supplies to the Tibetan border defense forces, it was discovered that the Indian army was targeting our helicopters with portable air defense missiles. In response, China specially organized forces to install door machine guns and infrared decoy bombs on Black Hawk helicopters.
Interestingly, the position of the machine gun installed on the Chinese Black Hawk helicopter is exactly the same as that of the American outboard machine gun. It is a small hatch between the cockpit and the larger hatch, but unfortunately there is no swing bracket. It is a fixed Y-shaped bracket. It's not fancy, but it's better than nothing.
In 2008, when the Chinese navy was patrolling Somalia, helicopters needed to monitor, track and identify targets for a long time before launching an attack. However, the helicopter does not have side firepower, so it is difficult to shoot in the air against groups of pirate ships alone. Therefore, during the second escort, a fixed gun mount was welded to the helicopter hatch and a hatch machine gun was installed. The Army was even worse. They could only open the machine gun tripod at the hatch and make do with shooting.
However, the power and range of this infantry machine gun obviously cannot meet the needs.
Later, the Army directly launched the Type 88 general-purpose machine gun, but this machine gun still used a fixed gun mount and had a limited range.
Then, the Type 86 tank side-by-side machine gun and the QJC88 type 12.7mm machine gun were also installed on the helicopter. Unfortunately, in addition to the performance improvement, the gun mount has not been substantially changed, and the restricted shooting range has not changed. .
This situation did not change until the release of the movie "Sky Hunter". In this movie, our army's Z-8 helicopter was equipped with a swing type with almost no dead ends for the first time. Door machine gun.
But this is just a prop for the crew after all. In reality, there is no such gun stand.
In 2021, China’s revolutionary hatch machine gun was finally unveiled at the Zhuhai Air Show. Judging from the published pictures, this hatch machine gun adopts the same design as the American Black Hawk helicopter. There is a swinging gun rack outside the small hatch. Open the hatch and pull the machine gun over to shoot. Close the hatch to be bulletproof. The external machine gun will not occupy the space in the cabin. China finally has something that will make all military fans happy. Extravehicular gun mount! Not only has the gun mount been improved, but the machine gun has also evolved from the previous single-barreled machine gun to a six-barreled Gatling machine gun. Although the official name of this machine gun has not been announced, it is most likely a domestic CS/LM12 7.62mm rotating barrel machine gun.
Relying on the inherent advantages of the rotating barrel machine gun, the CS/LM12 has a rate of fire far exceeding that of the existing single-barreled machine gun. It can rely on the density of firepower to make up for the lack of accuracy in dynamic-to-action shooting. The theoretical rate of fire is generally 2,500 rounds/minute, and the maximum rate of fire is 6,000 rounds/minute. The firepower is almost equivalent to the firepower of a heavy machine gun platoon. As a helicopter that needs to output intensive firepower, it is a perfect match.
What? Rabbits have a phobia of lack of firepower? It doesn't matter, another 12.7mm three-barreled machine gun - CS/LM5 - was unveiled at the air show. This machine gun is fed ammunition through a flexible belt. It has an effective range of 1,500 meters and kills people with its high rate of fire and powerful "barrage". Apart from tanks, there is probably nothing it can't take out, including enemy personnel, light vehicles, light ships and even helicopters.
It seems that China’s hatch machine gun has kept up with the world trend, and there is no need to complain that China does not have a reliable hatch machine gun. I believe that in the future, this machine gun will be unveiled soon. Military reports, raining fire in the air, becoming a nightmare for enemy infantry!