The main purpose of the M134 Minigun is to lay down a lot of bullets in a short period of time in a relatively small area. If it concerns autocannons or machine guns, write about different ammo belts and what is inside (which types of shells). Overheating is almost non-existent as with the rotating barrels are air-cooled.ĭescribe the shells that are available for the weapon and their features and purpose. The ammunition is belt fed and the gun will continue to fire as long as the firing trigger is depressed or the gun runs out of ammunition. A speed regulator prevents run-away operation and conforms firing output between 2,000 and 6,000 rounds per minute. The M134 Minigun is a rotary six-barreled machine gun which is driven by an electric motor. Fixed wing aircraft also found a place for the M134 such as the A-37 Dragonfly, A-1 Skyraider, Douglas AC-47, Fairchild AC-119 and the Lockheed AC-130 where the ability to mount multiple Miniguns turned these aircraft into potent aerial firing platforms which could spray an area of the ground below with a hail of bullets.ĭue to the versatility of this weapon also found its way to being mounted on tanks and ships as a force multiplier.Ī view of an M134 Minigun mounted on an external hardpoint of a RAAF UH-1B Huey. So reliable was the M134 Minigun, it found many applications, but not just on helicopters inside mounted pods such as the OH-6 Cayuse, AH-1 Cobra and UH-1 'Huey'. The Minigun alleviated this problem with the air-cooled rotating barrels and could sustain fire longer when necessary, especially in hotter environments. The Minigun was designed and developed in the early '60s and was first used in the Vietnam War where it was primarily outfitted on helicopters which had issues with overheating barrels on their machine guns.

The M134 can either be mounted to a hard point on a vehicle for remote firing or can be put on a pedestal which allows a human to directly aim and fire the machine gun at will. The M134 utilises rifle calibre 7.62 x 51 mm NATO rounds instead of the 20 mm autocannon shells the M61 uses. The term minigun is in reference being smaller compared to the original and larger 20 mm M61 Vulcan cannon of which the M134 is based on. This gun can be plugged into an electric motor or a vehicle such as a UH-1 helicopter to receive power. The M134 Minigun (7.62 mm) is a six-barrel rotary machine gun which is powered by an external source to rotate the barrel allowing for a high rate of speed when it comes to firing the weapon.

Why are they called miniguns