XM214 minigun
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| XM214 Six-Pak | |
|---|---|
| Type | Minigun |
| Place of origin | United States |
| Service history | |
| In service | US Army |
| Production history | |
| Designed | 1970s? |
| Specifications | |
The XM214 was a prototype 5.56 x 45 mm NATO rotatary barreled machine gun designed to be man-portable. It was designed and built by General Electric, but it never reached mass production. Also known as the Microgun, the XM214 was a scaled-down version of the M134 "minigun", firing standard NATO 5.56 x 45 mm ammunition.
Contents |
[edit] History
The XM214 was first developed for aircraft applications. Later General Electric developed it into a man-portable weapon system, known as the GE Six-Pak. The complete Six-Pak system weighed 85 pounds (38.5 kg) with 1,000 rounds of ammunition, comparable in weight to some heavy machine guns. The XM214 itself weighed nearly 27 pounds, or 12 kg. The system could be carried by a team of two soldiers and mounted either to a M122 tripod or a vehicle's pintle mount.
The Six-Pak consisted of the XM214, the ammunition package, and the power module, and the ammunition module consisted of two 500 round cassettes mounted to a holding rack. Linked ammunition was fed through a flexible chute to the gun; when the first cassette was empty, ammunition would then feed from the second cassette, tripping a visible signal that a new cassette needed to be added to the rack. The power module contained a 24 volt nickel-cadmium battery, a 0.8 horsepower motor, and solid state electronic controls. Unless the battery were plugged into a vehicle's power supply, the battery's charge would be depleted with 3,000 rounds.
Using the electronic controls, the weapon's rate of fire could be adjusted from 400 rpm all the way up to 4,000 rpm. Later editions of Jane's Infantry Weapons claimed a theoretical cyclic rate of up to 6,000 rpm. The electronic controls also contained a burst limiter and handled the automatic clearing of the gun after bursts.
[edit] Depictions in video games and films
The PC video game Serious Sam depicts the use of the XM214-A as a weapon capable of accurately firing 1,200 rounds per minute. As well, the two-dimensional multiplayer shooter video game Soldat depicts the XM214-A. Other video games, such as Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, depict minigun-style weapons such as the M134 and the XM214. In these games, these guns are referred to as chain guns; although they are externally-powered they are NOT chain guns. The 1980s action film Predator depicts a character who is firing a rotating-barrel miniguns similar to the XM214 (the M134) 'from the hip,' while standing up, a feat that would be impossible unless the rate of fire was slowed down to 1000 rounds per minute. (Indeed, the actor playing the character, former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura, stated that, even though he was only firing blanks, the forces of the weapon's rotation alone made it nearly impossible for him to hold on to while firing.)[citation needed] The 2002 movie Resident Evil: Apocalypse also features a character using a hand held and cut down mini-gun as a side arm while standing up.[citation needed]
[edit] Comparable weapons
More conventional weapons such as the CETME Ameli and the FN M249 SAW possess a practical cyclic rate that is not much slower than the rotating-barrel minigun, due to the need to constantly reload the rapid-firing minigun. Moreover, these weapons are smaller and lighter, and do not require heavy batteries to operate, and require less ammunition for the same duration of fire, allowing a single operator or small team to provide suppressive fire for a longer period with the amount of ammunition that they can carry.
[edit] See also
- GShG-7.62 machine gun
- M197 Gatling gun
- Meroka Machine Gun
- GAU-17
- Nordenfelt Gun
- Gast Gun
- Chain gun
- Gatling gun, the 1860s weapon that originated the rotating-barrel concept
