Why can you install such a big gun?

Why can you install such a big gun?

It is mentioned that the 75mm gun on the B-25G/H is not the largest caliber gun on the plane. At least there is a 15mm gun on the AC-13 aerial gunboat, which is the "largest caliber gun".

So, talk about the gunboat represented by AC-13, and what is this 15mm gun and how to use it.

The appearance of gunboats was mainly needed in the battlefield of Vietnam War. During the Vietnam War, the US military needed an aircraft that could stay in the air for a long time and have strong firepower to continuously fire. Neither the traditional fixed-wing attack aircraft nor the helicopter with weapons seemed to be able to meet such requirements, so it was necessary to modify the eliminated C-47 transport aircraft into AC-47 gunboats.

the us military installed three 7.62mm m134minigang machine guns on the fuselage side of the AC-47, of which two were installed on the porthole of the original C-47, and the third was installed on the side door of the original C-47. The machine guns were fired by the pilots in a unified remote control mode, aiming at a simple aiming device installed on the side of the cockpit.

In order to sweep the ground targets at night, AC-47 is also equipped with a flare launcher. After the plane flies over the target area, it first throws the flare, and then, with the light of the flare, it uses the machine gun to circle the ground while shooting.

In actual combat, the US military found that this modified AC-47 gunboat is very useful in dealing with the Viet Cong guerrillas who infiltrated at night. It stays in the air for a long time and flies faster than a helicopter. Unlike the traditional fixed-wing attack aircraft, it has to pull up, turn around and come back for a second attack after a dive attack, but it can hover and shoot continuously over the target, and its suppression ability is unnecessary!

Although the aiming accuracy with the simple sight on the side of the cockpit is not high, after all, this is to cover the target with bullets and rain from the rapid-fire machine gun, and the accuracy is almost acceptable. Therefore, since then, the US military has repeatedly dispatched AC-47 gunboats to strafe the assembly areas, transportation routes and water targets at night.

after all, converting the old C-47 into AC-47 is only a stopgap measure, which has the color of actual combat testing. After proving the feasibility of this attack mode, the US military chose to refit the newer aircraft into gunboats, such as the C-119, which is a double-engine light tactical transport aircraft designed by fairchild Company and has a frame-type double tail. On the C-119, the U.S. military added two 2mm M61-1 six-tube Vulcan cannons and four M134 Miningang machine guns, and also installed strong light searchlights and flare launchers, which were converted into AC-119 Shadow gunboats and continued to be used in the battlefield in Vietnam.

AC-119 Shadow is too small, and the weapons it carries are still limited. The US military, which tasted the sweetness of gunboats, further developed a larger gunboat. They converted the C-13 Hercules transport plane into AC-13, a large gunboat with four engines.

compared with previous generations of gunboats, AC-13 is more powerful than ever. Take the AC-13H, which was put into service earlier, as an example. There are two M61 six-tube Vulcan guns and a 4mm Bofors automatic gun on the side of the fuselage, and the most striking thing is that this machine actually has a 15mm gun!

This 15mm gun is not a specially developed aviation gun, but an airborne version of the Army M12 15mm light howitzer. M12 howitzer is a kind of light howitzer developed by the U.S. military in 196s. Its symbolic feature is that aluminum alloy material is widely used, and the bird-breasted large frame drives the whole artillery to rotate and adjust the firing direction with the tail roller of the large frame. The high and low machine is integrated into the balancing machine, so it can be lifted by helicopter or towed by a 2-ton truck. It used to be the artillery of the U.S. light quick reaction force.

AC-13 is to remove the barrel of M12 howitzer together with anti-recoil device, and install it on a side-shooting gun frame by using the ample cargo hold of the transport plane. The gun, like its army prototype, is still a vertical bolt, which is manually unlatched and manually loaded. The gun loader in the cargo hold fills the gun, and the ammunition is loaded on the ammunition rack in the cargo hold, and one shot is loaded and one shot is fired.

the AC-13 gunboat is equipped with a 15mm gun, in order to strengthen its ability to deal with large targets, such as enemies in buildings and ships. Small caliber cannon has limited effect, and at this time, a 15mm howitzer can be smashed in a few shots.

So it is reasonable that AC-13 is loaded with 15 guns, although it is a bit out of the circle. Moreover, it is modified by a transport plane, with a spacious cargo compartment and great redundancy in installing large weapons. The loading is directly done by manpower, and there is no need to consider the reliability of automatic loading of large-caliber guns. So you said that "the largest caliber gun is the 15 guns of AC-13", right? That's right, but it's really a special case.

What's more, gunboats like AC-13 have fierce firepower, but they can't replace traditional attack planes and helicopter gunships. This kind of aircraft is the specialized product of anti-guerrilla warfare, and it is used to bully guerrillas who have no decent air defense firepower. If they are faced with regular troops, the survivability of this large and slow gunboat in the face of modern air defense weapons is very low.