Revolver cannon
A
revolver cannon is a type of mechanical gun. Automatic revolver cannons are a type of
autocannon, and they are typically found in aircraft applications. It uses a cylinder (like that of a
revolver) with multiple chambers to speed up the loading-firing-ejection cycle. It differs from a
Gatling gun in having only a single barrel. Automatic revolver cannons were developed by
Mauser late in
WW2 as aircraft guns, and have since been produced by many different European manufacturers (whereas the US, and to a lesser extent Russia, favour the Gatling gun).
The archetypal revolver cannon is the
Mauser MK 213, from which almost all current weapons were copied to one extent or another. In the immediate post-war era, both the British and French made outright copies of the 30mm versions of the MK 213 as the ADEN and DEFA, respectively. The US also created a series of revolver cannon, but generally stuck to the smaller 20 mm calibre. The leading current example is arguably the
Mauser BK-27. The Rheinmetall Millennium 35 mm Naval Gun System is the largest.
Automatic revolver cannons generally have a lower maximum sustained rate of fire than Gatling guns, as all the rounds are fired through a single barrel, which suffers from much higher heating loads. Cannon-calibre Gatling guns have a rate of fire of up to 10000 rounds per minute (
Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-6-23), while revolver cannon typically have less than 2000. On the other hand, revolver cannon generally have a high
initial firing rate due to the lower moving mass involved – only the chambers are being spun. Gatling type guns spin the whole multiple barrel and breech assembly which in equal calibre versions can weigh hundreds of kilograms. Also, the external power source of US gatling guns provides less power in a burst than the
gas-operation of a revolver cannon, so that about half a second of spin-up time is required until the maximum rate of fire is reached.
The
Hotchkiss Revolving Cannon of the late 1800s was not a revolver cannon in the modern sense, being of a Gatling type. The first revolver cannon was the
Puckle gun, which was a manual revolver cannon as opposed to automatic one.
*
Mauser MK 213*
Skyshield*
Rheinmetall RMK30*
ADEN cannon*
DEFA cannon*
M39 cannon*
List of Military Gatling & Revolver cannons
