UNCLASSIFIED

476th vFighter Group

Weapon Fact Sheet 1: GAU-8/A Avenger
INTRODUCTION DESIGN
The gun subsystem consists of a seven-barrel The GAU-8/A itself weighs 620 pounds
GAU-8/A 30mm Gatling gun and a double- (280 kg), but the complete weapon, with feed
ended link less feed system with a capacity up system and drum, weighs 4,029 pounds
to 1,174 rounds of percussion primed (1,828 kg) with a maximum ammunition load.
ammunition. The gun system retains all spent It measures 19 ft. 5  1⁄2  in (5.931 m) from the
cases or dud rounds. muzzle to the aft point of the ammunition
system, and the ammunition drum alone is 34.5
The gun system is electrically controlled and inches (88   cm) in diameter and 71.5 inches
hydraulically driven. The gun-drive motors (1.82 m) long. Power for operating the gun is
normally provide a single firing rate and are provided by twin 77 hp. electric motors. The
pressurized from the two independent magazine can hold 1,174 rounds, although
hydraulic systems. If one aircraft hydraulic 1,150 is the typical load due to the 575 round
system fails or one hydraulic drive motor is capacity of the loading cart. Muzzle velocity
inoperable, the gun will operate at a reduced when firing Armor-Piercing Incendiary rounds
rate. It fires large armour-piercing shells at a is 3,250 feet per second (990 m/s), almost the
rate of 3,900 rounds per minute. same as the substantially lighter M61 Vulcan's
20 mm round.
The GAU-8/A is the primary weapon of the
A-10. With over 1,150 rounds of 30mm high A very important innovation in the design of
explosive incendiary (HEI) and armor piercing the GAU-8/A shells is the use of aluminum
incendiary (API) rounds, combined with a alloy cases in place of the traditional steel or
sustained rate of fire of 62 rounds per second, brass. This alone adds 30% to ammunition
the A-10 pilot is provided unsurpassed staying capacity for a given weight. The shells also
power and flexibility. The GAU-8/A have plastic driving bands to improve barrel
characteristics of increased standoff, high life. They are imposing to examine and handle,
accuracy, and sustained firepower make strafe measuring 11.4 inches (290 mm) in length and
the most reliable and effective method for the weighing 1.53 pounds (0.69 kg) or more.
A-10 to deliver firepower against a ground
target. The GAU-8/A was built with the specifications
that 80 percent of the bullets must fall within a
5-mil diameter of the desired aim point and
100 percent must fall within 13 mils.
Dispersion, however, does increase as the gun
heats up. After six to eight passes of 150
rounds each with only 1.5 minutes between
bursts, gun dispersion can increase to 30 mils
for 100 percent and 18 to 20 mils for 80
percent of rounds fired. Dive angle does not
affect dispersion, only the bullet footprint.

476th vFighter Group

UNCLASSIFIED
 UNCLASSIFIED

The Avenger's rate of fire was originally selectable, 2,100 rounds per minute (rpm) in the low
setting, or 4,200 rpm in the high setting. Later this was changed to a fixed rate of 3,900 rpm. Each
barrel is a very simple non-automatic design having its own breech and bolt. Like the original
Gatling gun, the entire firing cycle is actuated by cams and powered by the rotation of the barrels.

The GAU-8/A ammunition is link-less, reducing

weight and avoiding a great deal of potential for
jamming. The feed system is double-ended,
allowing the spent casings to be recycled back into
the ammunition drum, instead of ejected from the
aircraft, which would require considerable force to
eliminate potential airframe damage. The feed
system is based on that developed for later M61
installations, but uses more advanced design
techniques and materials throughout, to save
weight.

FIRING SYSTEM
Each barrel fires when it reaches roughly the 9 o'clock position, as viewed from the front of the
aircraft. Because the gun's recoil forces could push the entire plane off target during firing, the
weapon itself is mounted off-center in the other direction, so that the firing barrel lies directly on the
aircraft's centerline. The firing barrel also lies just below the aircraft's center of gravity; being bore
sighted 2 degrees below the aircraft's waterline. This arrangement centers the recoil forces, helping
to prevent changes in pitch and/or yaw when fired. This configuration also provides space for the
front landing gear, which is mounted slightly off-center on the right side of the nose.

The recoil force of the GAU-8/A is 10,000 pounds feet (45 kN), which is slightly more than the
output of one of the A-10's two TF34 engines. While this recoil force is significant, and despite
myths to the contrary, gun firing does not slow the aircraft.

The GAU-8/A goes through a barrel clearing cycle within 0.5 seconds after every firing. The goal
when designing the gun was to have no unfired or “wasted” rounds in the barrel. Additionally, the
gun can detect a broken firing pin (resulting in a live round). The cockpit gun unsafe light will
illuminate if the clearing cycle is not completed in 2.5 seconds. If two broken firing pins are
detected, a gun unsafe indication will result. If the clearing cycle is interrupted by safing the gun, a
gun unsafe indication will result.

The cooling cycle was designed to eliminate increased bullet dispersion due to barrel heating and
rotates the barrels under a schedule following trigger release. To cool the barrel, the GAU-8/A will
automatically cycle at 24, 60, 100, and 150 seconds after firing. The cycle can be interrupted at any
point by squeezing the trigger. Barrel cooling also stops when the master arm or rotate switch is set
to the safe position.

476th vFighter Group

UNCLASSIFIED
 UNCLASSIFIED

COMBAT CONSIDERATIONS
The GAU-8/A is highly effective against all Despite its effectiveness however, pilots must
types of ground vehicle and infantry, and can consider the fact that employing the gun will
also be effective against certain types of almost always bring them into range of
building/fortification. It is often the first choice SHORAD and other ground fire threats that
weapon for the A-10C pilot and any FAC(A) or can be avoided with the use of other weapons.
JTAC calling in fire. While other weapons may A good assessment of risk vs. results must be
have a higher probability of kill, they almost made before any attack. Although it must also
always come with a larger risk estimate be said that, at low level, the GAU-8/A is one
distance and therefore a high probability of of the longest reaching weapon systems
causing collateral damage. available to the A-10C. The only weapons
exceeding the reach of the GAU-8/A at low
In addition to its lethality, the A-10C’s ability level are the AGM-65 Maverick and the Hydra
to deliver GAU-8/A round on target with a 70 FFAR series.
high degree of accuracy combines to make it a
highly lethal weapon.

Armour penetration (PGU-14 API):

•69 mm at 500 meters (1,600 feet/0.25 NM)

•38 mm at 1,000 meters (3,300 feet/0.5 NM)

AMMUNITION TYPES

PGU-15 TP – Ball practice round used for training

PGU-14 API – Armor Piercing Incendiary round. Loaded

along with HEI in a 4:1 ratio as “combat mix”

PGU-13 HEI - High Explosive Incendiary round. Can be

loaded alone where anti-armor capability is not necessary to
increase gun effectiveness against soft skinned targets.

476th vFighter Group

UNCLASSIFIED
 UNCLASSIFIED

A-10C AVIONICS INTEGRATION

A/G Gun Attack Modes
Air-to-surface gun attacks can be accomplished in GUNS and CCIP master modes. GUNS mode offers
CCIP reticle, CCIP guns cross, 4/8/12 reticle, and wind corrected 4,000 foot gun cross. If a fixed sight (wind
corrected fixed gun cross or 4/8/12 reticle) is selected in guns, then in CCIP the 4K wind corrected gun cross
will be displayed (when the gun is armed). In HARS with the gun armed, a fixed, non-wind corrected 4K gun
cross is displayed.

Strafe Symbology
CCIP Gun Reticle
The default sight for the gun is the CCIP gun reticle. The CCIP reticule is corrected for all forces influencing
the bullets after the gun has reached full speed (approximately 0.5 second). Some of these factors include
deceleration, gravity drop, aircraft angle of attack, gun barrel rotation, and winds. The gun reticle consists of
a 1 mil sized pipper at the center of a 50-mil circular reticle with range marks at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock.

An analog range bar with a 5-mil tab indicates the slant range to the computed
point of impact in thousands of feet. The analog range bar is located just
inside the reticle and moves counter clockwise from the 12 o’clock position as
slant range to the target decreases. A hash mark at the end of the analog range
bar indicates current slant range in thousands of feet as read from the reticle
clock position. For example, with the hash mark at the 6 o‟clock position,
current slant range is 6,000 feet.

Slant ranges can be displayed from 0 to 12,000 feet. Outside of 12,000 feet,
the range bar remains fixed at the 12 o‟clock position but the range numeric
remains as long as a valid solution exists.

The 2-digit range numeric shows the range in nautical miles beginning at 0.1
and increasing in 0.1 increments to 9.9. A IFFCC option configurable by the pilot is to display the range
numeric in kilometers. In this case, a “K” will follow the range numeric, and the maximum range that will be
displayed is 99K.

The CCIP gun reticle includes two moving target indicators (MTI).The
two vertical, 5-mil lines to the left and right of the pipper can be used
to estimate the lead required for a moving target. These lines expand or
contract as the slant range and bullet time of flight is changed. The
MTI assumes the target is moving perpendicular to the aircraft at a rate
of 20 knots. By placing the target under the MTI with the gun pipper in
front of the direction of motion, the target and bullets should arrive at
the same point at the same time. Use the MTI to estimate movement
and deliver a burst of sufficient length and dispersion to increase the
probability of a hit.

476th vFighter Group

UNCLASSIFIED
 UNCLASSIFIED

When combat mix ammunition (CM) is loaded, the CCIP gun reticule will contain two pippers. The pipper in
the center of the CCIP gun reticule indicate the impact point for API rounds, the impact point for the HEI
rounds is indicated by the second pipper which will change position relative to the center of the reticule.

HEI rounds are lighter, and have a higher muzzle velocity initially, but due to higher
drag they decelerate quicker than API. Consequently at long ranges HEI will land short
of API rounds. Since the CM setting for bullet type optimizes the CCIP sight for API,
notice that HEI rounds impact short at long ranges. The API will be on target and
slightly later than the HEI impacts. This divergence becomes prevalent at slant ranges
greater than 12,000 feet in dives of 30 degrees or less; greater than 15,000 feet S/R for
45 degrees of dive and almost negligible in 60-degree HAS.

CCIP Gun Cross

The IFFCC CCIP gun cross displays the same computed impact point as the CCIP gun reticle, using
more compact symbology. The gun cross consists of a 2-mil pipper and a 4-mil gap, and each line
segment of the cross is 5 mils long making the cross a total of 20 mils across. The horizontal line at
the top of the cross helps to distinguish it from a non-computed gun sight.

Gun Minimum Range Symbology

A minimum range caret (MRC) is available in Guns and CCIP master modes
for the CCIP gun reticle and CCIP gun cross. This gun MRC defines a
minimum recovery altitude that is calculated using the minimum altitude
entered in the IFFCC 30 MM submenu. The MRC also provides a time-to-go
indication before aircraft recovery from guns pass must begin (four Gs in 2
seconds WINGS LEVEL is the assumed recovery).

• The caret is clamped vertically next to the top of the 12 o’clock tick when
there are 5 seconds or more until recovery must begin. The caret begins descending vertically
when the time-to-go to the minimum recovery altitude (at current rate and angle of descent)
decreases below 5 seconds.
• When the aircraft is less than 5 seconds above the minimum recovery altitude (at current rate and
angle of descent), the caret will be displayed below the top of the 12 o‟clock tick and above the 3
o‟clock tick.
• When the aircraft is at the minimum recovery altitude, the caret will be next to the 3 o‟clock tick.
• When the aircraft is less than 5 seconds past (or below) the minimum recovery altitude (at current
rate and angle of descent), the caret will be displayed below the 3 o‟clock tick and above the
bottom of the 6 o‟clock tick.
• The caret will be clamped at the 6 o‟clock tick when the aircraft is 5 seconds or more below the
minimum recovery altitude.
• Setting the minimum altitude in the 30 MM submenu to 0 feet deselects the gun CCIP minimum
range cue display.

476th vFighter Group

UNCLASSIFIED
 UNCLASSIFIED

Bullets at Target Altitude

IFFCC also incorporates a valuable training tool for feedback on dry strafe passes. The bullets at
target altitude (BATA) is a small flashing circle that appears in the HUD at the point on the ground
where the IFFCC computer predicts the bullets will impact. This estimation is based on aircraft
altitude above the target and bullet TOF for the calculated slant range. The BATA appears, after the
gun trigger is depressed, at the end of the first bullet’s TOF expiration when Master Arm is not safe.

4/8/12 Gun Reticle

Toggling the SEL rocker on the UFC or cycling DMS L/R
with HUD-SOI will display the 4/8/12 gun reticle. IFFCC
corrects for crosswinds and the pilot elevates the sights
for slant range. The 4/8/12 gun reticle displays three
wind-corrected fixed- range pippers representing 4000,
8000, and 12000 feet slant range solutions; the analog
range bar is not present. The 4/8/12 reticule can be useful
when accurate target elevation data is not available.

476th vFighter Group

UNCLASSIFIED
 UNCLASSIFIED

Wind Corrected Gun Cross

The wind-corrected gun sight (WCGS) is similar in appearance to the CCIP gun cross, except it has
no horizontal bar at the top and no range numeric. The WCGS is a cross fixed at 41 mils depression
from the ZSL. Elevation of the gun sight for targets inside or beyond 4,000 feet slant range must be
estimated by the pilot, and corrections made by moving the aircraft. Like the 4/8/12 gun reticle, this
sight is useful when target elevation is unavailable.

476th vFighter Group

UNCLASSIFIED