Hellish “Gatlings” for armored vehicles: what are multi-barreled machine guns used for

«	Seven hundred meters per second bullet speed, We have three thousand joules on the muzzle, Five thousand rounds per minute - OH, A LOT!!! It will tear you apart - at least three times you are Revan, even Malak!	»
— S. Pykhtin “Krupp’s Answer” (known by Alcor)

Multi-barreled machine gun

(often called the Gatling gun after its inventor) is an extremely fast-firing type of heavy or aircraft machine gun. It is distinguished by a rotating block of barrels, or a stationary block in which the barrels work alternately. Most models of such machine guns are non-automatic, and fire in bursts by cranking the mechanism with an electric motor (although fully automatic models using powder gases were developed in the USSR).

The multi-barreled machine gun is often mistakenly called "Chaingun". In fact, the Chaingan is also a non-automatic machine gun (or even a rapid-fire cannon), but with only one barrel. In it, the operation of the mechanism is also carried out due to an external source of energy, but this is where the similarity with the “Gatling” ends.

The most famous multi-barreled machine gun is the American M134 Minigun, which is why any such machine gun can be called a minigun. It is “mini” only in comparison with the naval and aviation cannons “Vulcan-Phalanx”, “GAU-Avenger” and similar Gatlings of completely non-human sizes.

Historical background[edit]

The ancestor of all multi-barrel shooting things are “organs” - structures consisting of a certain number of barrels (from 3 to 20 or more), connected together on one frame. They were named so for their resemblance to the wind instrument of the same name made from many pipes. The “organs” made it possible to spit at the enemy with a fairly good (at that time, of course) accuracy with a targeted salvo, mowing down a whole row at once - but they were extremely slow to load and required very non-trivial maintenance. However, they were used somewhere from the 14th century and finally died out only with the advent of good buckshot.

The next step was the appearance at the end of the 18th century of English pepperboxes (“pepperboxes”) - multi-barreled muzzle-loading pistols with a rotating barrel block and one trigger. To reload, the shooter grabbed the barrels with his hand and turned the block in much the same way as a hand-held pepper mill—hence the name. At first, pepperboxes were classified as exotic weapons, but then, with the advent of primers and a mechanism for rotating the barrel block (about the same as in a revolver), they turned out to be suitable self-defense weapons for civilians. The military "pepper shakers" were disappointed: a high rate of fire - but a long and cunning reload, as well as heavy weight and an inconvenient sight. In addition, revolvers have already begun to appear - and a drum with six chambers is still lighter and more convenient than six full-fledged barrels.

Then the product of the gloomy French genius appeared - mitrailleuse (literal translation - “cardbox”). It was born already in the 19th century, when it turned out that a rifled bullet flies further than buckshot - and impudent enemy infantry and cavalry can only be nailed with cannonballs with impunity, and at the distance of a grape shot, vile enemies are already starting to shoot back and mow down the gunners in vain. The mitrailleuse was a block of a certain number of barrels (usually 25), connected together and loaded from the breech with unitary rifle cartridges, previously inserted into a single clip. The result was a modernized version of the medieval organ instrument. However, the combat use of mitrailleuses did not particularly impress anyone, and soon the shrapnel charges that appeared buried this design as well. Mitrailleuse batteries were somewhat more effective at sea as a way to teach politeness to overly brave destroyers, mine boats and other naval trifles with torpedoes - however, even there, “segment shells” for conventional guns turned out to be more useful. However, the word was not forgotten: to this day the French use the word “mitrailleuse” to call any type of machine gun[1].

But then in 1862, Dr. Richard Jordan Gatling patented the “revolving battery gun.” This thing had six barrels, which one of the crew members turned with a special handle, the cartridges themselves fell from the bunker - and the result was an unimaginable rate of fire at that time of 200 rounds per minute (later it was possible to increase it to 1000 when firing in short bursts, and with the introduction of an electric drive - and up to 3000). The weapon fired until the cartridges ran out or the mechanism jammed due to a skewed cartridge case, and while the block was rotating, the fired barrel had time to cool down - and therefore fire could be conducted continuously until the ammunition was completely exhausted.

The weapon turned out to be powerful, fast-firing... and not very convenient on the battlefield. Nobody really needed the monstrous rate of fire at that time; 300-400 rounds per minute were easily enough for a battle - and the machine guns of Maxim and other designers that soon appeared were more compact and were serviced by only two machine gunners. Nevertheless, Gatlings have not completely died out: as it turned out, they are very convenient in aviation and air defense - where it is necessary to send more lead gifts to the enemy as soon as possible, before he flies off somewhere on his own business. They also found a place in the navy - and there the caliber began to grow to the point that the Gatlings turned from machine guns into fast-firing naval guns.

In short, multi-barrel systems are still in demand where speed of fire is more important than weight and the need for external power for the engine. But there were no hand-held Gatling guns, no, and no need for them. Let's see why further.

Multi-barreled machine guns in culture and reality[edit]

The Gatling, with its bunch of rotating barrels and frantic rate of fire, looks much more brutal and cooler than any single-barreled machine gun. And that means the rule of cool simply orders you to shove it anywhere. And if the hero shoots a multi-barreled weapon from his hands, then the viewer is simply obliged to squeal with delight, without thinking about how realistic such a picture is.

In reality, the Gatling as a hand weapon has many problems:

The mechanism operates not due to the energy of powder gases, but from external power - so the shooter will have to carry not only a backpack with cartridges, but also a backpack with batteries. The only exception is the Soviet multi-barreled guns (Slostin, Gryazev-Shipunov, Yakushev-Borzov), which operate on powder gases.
Insane return. Even if you make a multi-barreled light machine gun for a relatively small caliber, the only possible pose for the shooter will be “spread your legs and lean on the butt with all your might, praying that this enraged fool does not knock you over on your back.”
No less insane weight. Alas, you have to pay for everything - and several full-fledged barrels, together with the rotation and reloading mechanisms in the iron, weigh a little less than a fig. It is characteristic, by the way, that on the set of the film “Terminator 2” there was only one person on the entire set who was truly capable of single-handedly holding such a machine gun aloft - Arnold Schwarzenegger himself.
The rate of fire leads to the fact that any conceivable ammunition that an infantryman is physically capable of carrying will run out in the very first seconds of the battle. And if the rate of fire is reduced, then why bother with rotating barrels? Any single-barrel light machine gun is simpler, more reliable, more compact and lighter.
Vibration of barrels during rotation - and, as a result, dispersion of bullets. It doesn’t matter when firing from a machine gun or a turret, but a machine gunner holding a multi-barreled rifle in his hands is unlikely to hit anything at all - unless by accident.
The need to pre-twist the barrels before shooting.

Almost all of these problems can be solved with the help of power armor, which increases not only the strength, but also the weight of the wearer, up to 400 kilograms. In such equipment, it may make sense to shoot with a gatling gun. But until active [2] combat exoskeletons appear on the battlefield, multi-barreled light machine guns will only be found in science fiction.

Actually, this is what an attempt to shoot a GAU-2 handheld looks like in real life. Trying to hit something almost point-blank, to hold the fiercely struggling prodigy in his hands and not to go a couple of meters back along the sand. Not very practical, right?

Belarusian berserker

One of the country's first ground-based robotic combat systems with the sonorous name "Berserk" and no less loud weapons - two twin four-barreled aircraft machine guns GShG-7.62 - was presented in the Belarusian regions.

This is the second version of a ground-based drone. The first - "Mantis" - was armed with four ATGMs. "Berserker", apparently, should cover its anti-tank counterpart.

According to the developers, the combat robot will not only be able to fire at enemy infantry at a distance of up to two kilometers, but also shoot down drones at an altitude of up to three. True, the maximum range of the GShG has always been stated to be a thousand meters... but let’s not quibble. In wartime, the sine value can reach three.

Anton Zheleznyak Technical and engineering expert
The GShG (Gryazev-Shipunov-Glagolev) aviation rapid-fire machine gun with a movable barrel block was developed at the Tula Instrument Design Bureau and put into service in 1979. Currently installed on the Ka-29 helicopter, it is also used in the GUV-8700 suspended gondolas (two 7.62 mm GShG and one 12.7 mm YakB are installed in them), which can be suspended from the Mi-8 and Mi-8 helicopters. 24.

Where to admire[edit]

Literature[edit]

Avalanche is a Gatling rail gun the size of a pistol, but with a suitcase of batteries powered by a portable nuclear reactor.
“Line of Dreams” by S. Lukyanenko - laser emitter “Chance”. Rotating barrels, deviated from the center line and turning on chaotically, in theory, should produce a sheaf of rays that burns out everything in front of the shooter. In principle, the weapon of an untrained militia during the War of Troubles, when everyone capable of holding a weapon went to fight the alien landing, was not intended for targeted shooting.

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“And the machine gun will tear them all apart and calm them down. And let them not reach for swords - it’s not worth it!”

Cinema[edit]

“The Magnificent Seven” (dir. A. Fuqua 2016) - in a fierce battle for the town of Rose Creek, a multi-barreled Gatling gun almost tips the scales in favor of Baugh’s mercenaries. Sacrificing himself, he and his crew are undermined by Chris Pratt's character, Joshua Faraday.
“The Matrix” - it was with the help of a multi-barreled helicopter machine gun (powered by a cable and a sleeve for supplying ammunition) that Neo cleared the way with fire for the captured Morpheus.
“Resident Evil 2” - the filmmakers gave this bandura to Nemesis in addition to the canonical rocket launcher. And the super mutant knows how to shoot accurately from it, mowing down a dozen STARS fighters without catching a non-combatant.
“Witch Hunters” is an anachronistic minigun in a setting that looks like it’s from the seventeenth century, and is clearly there for the sake of it. Well, but with his help they mowed down a whole bunch of witches effectively and efficiently.
“Paragraph 78” - Bomba carries a hand-held multi-barreled weapon... sorry, Lyuba. And he uses it once per film - to break through a wall. Even the rule of steepness doesn’t apply here.
"Pirates of the Caribbean" is a three-barreled naval gun with rotating barrels. Why it is needed and how to recharge this thing is pointless to ask.
“The Last Samurai” - and here are historical “Gatlings” and a completely realistic picture of what they can do with attacking cavalry.
“Rise from the Depths” - pirates use five-barreled machine guns with a rotating block of barrels. The props appeared in several more films and TV series.
"Terminator 2: Judgment Day" - and again a hand-held Gatling! It’s worth repeating: even in its fake form, the thing was so heavy that only Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose muscles were not completely bulging, was able to hold this crap up. But here it is justified, the cyborg T-800 performed by Schwarzenegger acts as military equipment rather than personnel. Moreover, in his hands, the Gatling is capable of conducting targeted fire: the enemy (policemen) were all wounded, but zero were killed. The cyborg clearly follows the order “Do not kill.”
“Predator” (1987) and “Predators” (2010) - it is from a hand-held multi-barreled gun that the heroes, played by Jesse Ventura and Oleg Taktarov, respectively, mow down the jungle. In the latter case, it is even pointless to ask where the filmmakers saw at least some kind of multi-barreled machine gun in the Russian army - the rule of cool in its purest form, a stern, powerful and brutal Russian is simply obliged to carry with him something terribly cool, powerful and rapid-fire!

Video games[edit]

Traditionally, a machine gun is depicted as a minigun in so-called shooters. “Old school” (Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM, Quake, Unreal, Serious Sam). Somewhere this is available as a weapon for the protagonist, somewhere - for enemies, or both.
Bioshock Infinite - Motorized Patriots are armed with Gatling guns. You can take it away and shoot, the main thing is not to think about how Booker manages to hold it and turn the handle at the same time.
Borderlands 2 - “spinigans”, ordinary machine guns with sector magazines, to which for some reason a rotating block of barrels was stuck in the most stupid way.
Brigador - the GAU-8 cannon has successfully survived into the future and, instead of attack aircraft, is now installed on loyalist tanks and Corvid self-propelled car dumps. And the Loyalists foolishly developed a Gatling mortar!
Command and Conquer: Generals is a favorite feature of China, which places such guns on tanks, helicopters, and simply as a separate building. The general, who specializes in infantry, also has foot soldiers with hand-held miniguns.
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge - used by Yuri's army as anti-aircraft guns, they accelerate quite slowly to full speed.
Fallout - a bunch of regular miniguns of varying degrees of lethality, as well as a laser gatling. A gauss minigun has appeared in Fallout Tactics. In the fourth part, a randomly generated artifact is especially valued: an explosive minigun, each bullet of which produces the effect of a small bomb. Owning such a gun makes the game elementary even on Survival difficulty.

Hitman - a minigun can be picked up in two missions: in the one where you kill the drug lord Ochoa, and in the final one, where it is highly recommended to pick it up in light of the fact that the 47th is being hunted by a whole platoon of his evil clones of the 48th. Our protagonist is a super-soldier (more precisely, a super-killer), so he is clearly strong enough to use this fool as a hand weapon.

Red Dead Redemption - in several story missions the player is given the opportunity to shoot with a Gatling gun. In the second part, "Gatling" can be found only in the epilogue, when visiting Fort Mercer.

Resident Evil 5 - at the last levels, hefty black Majinis with hand-held miniguns appear as minibosses. Included with the weapon itself is a hefty iron armored “backpack”, to which a sleeve extends from the gun and in which endless ammunition and, presumably, batteries are located. And the best part is that Chris Redfield, who has almost superhuman strength, can also use this prodigy, along with a shoulder safe, which will also protect him from shots in the back and grabs from behind - however, Chris still lacks mass, so that the recoil will significantly raise the sight with each shot. You can unlock the minigun by upgrading the first machine you encounter all the way.

Team Fortress 2 is the Heavy's favorite weapon, oddly enough.

Vermintide - The Skaven have a machine gunner who shoots heroes with a Ratling
. Among the heroes, multi-barreled weapons are available to the soldier Markus Kruber with his pepperbox gun, the witch hunter Victor Halzpir, who has a multi-barreled pistol for this purpose, and the dwarf Bardin Goreksson, who, when choosing the engineer class, can take a very steampunk-looking grapeshot as a long-range weapon.

“Cossacks” is a classic “organ”, a meat grinder for infantry. You can forget this unit on the outskirts of an enemy base during a sortie, and then find a burning base (even anti-personnel weapons nearby have an effect on buildings, and a heavily damaged structure will burn until it is destroyed or repaired by peasants) and a pile of corpses (from peasants to the grenadiers) in the fire zone. True, if the enemy manages to build long-range artillery or at least dragoons (with a long-range attack and fast movement), the multi-barreled gun is destroyed very quickly.

"Reality 4.13" - a family of heavy machine guns "Wolf", hand-held gatling guns with electric drive and the favorite weapon of police punitive forces in the Lower City. Why? The enormous rate of fire and significant firepower make it possible not to bother when clearing out syndicate dens, destroying criminals along with the shelters behind which they are hiding. In gameplay, this manifests itself in the unique area damage that this weapon inflicts when firing explosive cartridges. Military-caliber multi-guns are also used on police spider robots, which is why they are one of the most unpleasant opponents in the game.

Aliens vs predator 2 is a three-barrel, large-caliber weapon designed to destroy large armored aliens such as Praetorians (according to the plot, you need to find it to clear the landing pad for the rescue ship) or the Queen herself. It’s very heavy, inconvenient, the recoil knocks the sight off, and you also have to wait for the barrels to spin up. But wearing a combat exoskeleton is a real weapon of victory.

X-com Apocalypse - if loaded with explosive or incendiary ammunition, it will cause death to all living things. Another thing is that the owners of the building will not appreciate the collateral damage from the destruction.

Board games[edit]

Warhammer Fantasy Battles - despite the fact that the game takes place in a setting reminiscent of approximately the 15th-16th centuries, some in this world use similar weapons. The Empire uses a nine-barrel organ cannon. The Skaven use a full-fledged Rat
Ling canister with an electric drive using warp stone energy. Of course, this weapon, like all Skaven equipment, is extremely unstable and dangerous even for the owners themselves.
Warhammer 40,000 - here the Imperium is mainly fond of guns with a rotating block of barrels. Sizes range from "hand-held" assault cannons for heavy power armor to giant cannons for Titans. The Tau have multi-barrel plasma cannons that are mounted on armored suits, armored vehicles and drones. Orcs usually don’t indulge in such garbage (if there are six guns, let them all shoot at once), but they do put “supa-gattlers” on stomp mechs.

Notes[edit]

However, their infantry still runs with fuses (le fusil). Moreover: the Belgian FN FAL, “the right hand of the free world”, the third most common machine gun in the world is the “light automatic fusee of the national factory” (“Fabrique Nationale Fusil Automatique Leger”)
Active - that is, with their own energy sources and motors. Passive exoskeletons, designed to shift the weight of the load from the stunted soldier’s joints to strong, easily replaceable bearings, are already appearing here and there.

[ + ] Firearms

The rebirth of Vulcan

The Chinese also decided to take the slippery six-barrel path.

On the basis of the ZBL-09 family armored vehicle, China created the CS/SA5 anti-aircraft missile and gun system. On the sides of the turret there are four KHY-6 (FN-6) anti-aircraft missiles in containers, and in the turret itself there is an easily recognizable 30-mm automatic cannon from the Soviet naval AK-630 complex.

If there are good means of detection and target designation, such an infernal mower can even shoot down cruise missiles - which, in principle, is what ships are designed to do. Hello to Vulcan and LAV-AD!