Charley C
Member
I have always been fascinated by weapons of all kinds, and especially guns, and the ammunition that guns use. I can spend hours reading about the ballistics of various calibers, the muzzle velocity of various rounds, the amount of energy expended by various sizes and weights of projectiles, etc. etc. etc. I have probably spent more time in the last year or two reading up on these things than I ever have before, even though until fairly recently I haven't even owned a gun for a few years.
Also being quite interested in military aircraft and the weapons used on them, I just recently noticed a news article telling that the A-10 Warthog close air support plane is to be used again in the middle east. I've studied the A-10 ever since it was first brought into the USAF inventory, but when I read this article, I got to thinking about the huge 30mm, GAU-8 Avenger canon that the A-10 uses, and this caused me to look up the GAU-8 on Wiki and re-study it a bit more.
Now, after the last few months of intensively studying the 9X19 round and the .40 S&W in order to make an informed buying decision, (and being somewhat familiar with the muzzle velocities of hand gun and rifle calibers ), here I am reading about a projectile which weighs 14 oz. (or 6,096 grains ), that has a muzzle velocity of 3,250 fps, (with a 3,900 rounds per min firing rate ), and having a recoil force of 10,000 lbs.! (Which as it turns out, is just slightly more "force" than one of the A-10 Warthog's two TF-34 jet engines! )
My question is.......how much energy would be expended by a round of this mass that's mostly depleted uranium, and one that has in excess of 3,200 fps of muzzle velocity? The link provided will take you directly to a very good discussion of this awesome weapon on Wiki if you'd like to read about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAU-8_Avenger
Charley C
Also being quite interested in military aircraft and the weapons used on them, I just recently noticed a news article telling that the A-10 Warthog close air support plane is to be used again in the middle east. I've studied the A-10 ever since it was first brought into the USAF inventory, but when I read this article, I got to thinking about the huge 30mm, GAU-8 Avenger canon that the A-10 uses, and this caused me to look up the GAU-8 on Wiki and re-study it a bit more.
Now, after the last few months of intensively studying the 9X19 round and the .40 S&W in order to make an informed buying decision, (and being somewhat familiar with the muzzle velocities of hand gun and rifle calibers ), here I am reading about a projectile which weighs 14 oz. (or 6,096 grains ), that has a muzzle velocity of 3,250 fps, (with a 3,900 rounds per min firing rate ), and having a recoil force of 10,000 lbs.! (Which as it turns out, is just slightly more "force" than one of the A-10 Warthog's two TF-34 jet engines! )
My question is.......how much energy would be expended by a round of this mass that's mostly depleted uranium, and one that has in excess of 3,200 fps of muzzle velocity? The link provided will take you directly to a very good discussion of this awesome weapon on Wiki if you'd like to read about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAU-8_Avenger
Charley C
Mount one on a couple of 463L pallets, then when a Flanker unexpectedly shows up, you drop the ramp, roll the gun to the end, and blast 'em.
