Anyone ever heard of a GAUSE-17/A?

[thatguy96]

I'm in the process of working on the Wikipedia's Minigun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minigun) entry, and something interesting has come up: GAUSE-17/A. I can only find reference to this in two pictures from the USN, and I just cannot wrap my head around why they would use a modified USAF designation rather than a Mk/Mod one. Not to mention, I cannot fathom what GAUSE would stand for.

Does anyone have any information for GAUSE-17/A?

Furthermore, from somewhere information is being perpetuated that GAU-17/A is a USN/USMC designation, which from the basic format it is obviously not. They may be the primary end users of this weapon, but it is definitly a USAF designation.

As an interesting side note the Defensive Armament System (DAS) for the UH-1N has a USAF designation, A/A49E-11, and sounds a hell of a lot like a variant of the XM93/E1 armament subsystem heavily used by the USAF. The USAF also designated another system for the UH-1N, but specifically with a GAU-2 type minigun, as the A/A49E-3, and one for UH-1s in general again for a GAU-2 type minigun as A/A37B-9. Does anyone have any information on any of this and any possible connection to US Army subsystems?

[Creeper]

I am not sure if I can help > GAU - i thought was a specfic designator the USAF uses to separate the weapons from other services ?

GAU > General Armament Utility ? I think that was their acroymn (sp)

However , the ****unciation may come out to sound as the spelling "Gause".

Sorry, that is all I have to offer , if that was any help at all.

[Michael RVR]

thatguy i'm really surprised you off all people didn't try google.. ;)


The Air Force GAU-2B/A (Army M134) 7.62mm "minigun" was designed to provide a light weight high rate of fire armament package for use on helicopters and light fixed-wing aircraft. The basic M61 Vulcan has been simplified and redesigned to fire percussion primed 7.62mm ammunition. The basic M134 can be readily modified to fire other smaller caliber ammunition, such as the XM214 5.56mm "mini-minigun".

The GAU-17/A utilized on the UH-1N, H-3, and H-60 aircraft, is a crew served, electrically driven, 6 barreled, rotary action, percussion fired weapon, with a maxi-mum rate of fire of 6000 rounds per minute. In the current crew served application the rate of fire is selectable at either 2000 or 4000 rounds per minute. In the UH-1N DAS configuration the gun can be fixed forward and remotely fired by the pilot. The components that make up the GAU-17/A gun system consist of a gun control assembly with electrical cables, gun drive motor, a MAU-201/A or a MAU-56 delinking feeder, flexible ammunition feed chutes and an ammunition storage system. The ammunition storage system has a capacity of 4000 rounds of linked 7.62mm percussion primed ammunition.

The M134 minigun was used on the M21, M27, XM50, and Emerson MINI-TAT on the UH-1 "Huey", OH-6A Cayuse, and OH-58A Kiowa, XM18E1, M28 series, and XM64 on the AH-1G and MOD AH-1S "Huey" Cobra, XM53 on the AH-56A Cheyenne, and on a wide variety of U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force light fixed-wing aircraft. The M134 is also used on a number U.S. Army special operations aircraft.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/equip/m134.htm

[Creeper]

:cantbeli: :cantbeli: :cantbeli: :cantbeli: :cantbeli: :cantbeli: :cantbeli: :cantbeli: :cantbeli: :cantbeli: :cantbeli:
I really like these icons !

[thatguy96]

No offense, but it looks like only one person read my actual post. The fas and globalsecurity.org pages have no mention of a GAUSE-17/A, both refer to it as a "USN/USMC" designation (which I have just explained why it isn't), and don't really answer my question.

And for reference GAU is Gun, Aircraft Unit

[HCV]

GAUSE-17/A, both refer to it as a "USN/USMC" designation (which I have just explained why it isn't), and don't really answer my question.

GAUSE is bogus. And the gun IS, in fact, called the GAU-17/A by the USN, nonwithstanding the USAF pattern.

Cheers

HANS

[thatguy96]

That's what I thought too, because of the USN doesn't develop the system or have any part in it, they just use the designation given by the service that did. However, there are two pictures of ship-board miniguns released by the USN with captions mentioning "GAUSE-17/A."

[HCV]

However, there are two pictures of ship-board miniguns released by the USN with captions mentioning "GAUSE-17/A."

Remember the document you recently cited that said "M1SA1"? Just because it comes from an official source doesn't mean it is correct -- and that's especially true for proper spelling and designations . . . ;)

Cheers

HANS

[thatguy96]

Yes, the M1GA1 thing is very true, but I wasn't the person who brought the GAUSE-17/A designation out of a hat. I'm simply gathering evidence and support to change it back again, because of all the reasons that have been stated here.

[Creeper]

I am not sure if I can help > GAU - i thought was a specfic designator the USAF uses to separate the weapons from other services ?

GAU > General Armament Utility ? I think that was their acroymn (sp)

However , the ****unciation may come out to sound as the spelling "Gause".

Sorry, that is all I have to offer , if that was any help at all.

^^^^^ reread previuos post.

[thatguy96]

I did, I'm just trying to cover all the bases. It is a very good theory of wher GAUSE came from.

[D.E. Watters]

My thought is that a spell-checking program changed 'GAU' to 'GAUSE'.