Soldier Armed M134D Minigun

By Scott R. Gourley said the company did not know much examples designed to debunk what he about ground vehicles at that time: “In characterized as “common misconcep - round the time these pages go to the early years, we developed some in - tions about the system.” The minigun Apress, selected U.S. Army ele - tegration kits. They worked well, they is frequently mischaracterized as an ments in Afghanistan should be receiv - got integrated overseas and customers aviation-specific piece of equipment ing the first several dozen integration were happy. We knew we could do that is not suited for ground purposes, kits designed to equip their Common better, so we got more and more into he said. Remotely Operated Weapon Stations the ground vehicle market. We did it “That myth has been busted now that (CROWS) with the M134D minigun. because we had customers who had we have fielded them, used them, got - “The M134D is a very, very small ground vehicle requirements. We knew ten into gunfights with them, and suc - family of weapons,” said Chris Dillon, we could do a better job, but we had ceeded tenfold at suppressing and elim - vice president at manufacturer Dillon no idea that ground vehicles were go - inating the enemy with the weapon Aero, Inc. “The M134 is a six-barreled, ing to be a big deal. system,” said a former Army Special electrically operated Gatling-type ma - “The ground environment has re - Forces NCO who has employed Hum- chine gun that fires at a fixed rate of ally adopted the weapons system be - vee-mounted M134Ds in combat. “The 3,000 rounds per minute.” cause they are starting to see what potential applications for this weapon The basic gun design involves belts kind of effect it has and how valuable will absolutely not decrease; they will of linked 7.62 mm ammunition fed into a tool it is,” he said. Noting that the only expand.” a “de-linker,” which separates the com - initial ground applications were with “[The idea that] the weapon system ponents, feeding bullets into the gun special operations Humvees, he said had reliability issues was also a myth,” housing while belt link elements are the demonstrated capabilities soon led Dillon said. “It was based on the fact ejected through a link exhaust. Spent to applications on selected MRAPs— that it used to be true a long time ago brass is expelled after firing through a ”and now they are expanding to wide - with earlier iterations of miniguns, but brass exhaust port on the gun housing. spread use on the CROWS II.” it isn’t anymore. Today, the gun is ex - The current M134D design represents a Dillon asserted that ground applica - tremely reliable. It has an average battle-proven evolution through earlier tions have the most to gain from em - mean time between a jam—not a fail - minigun designs that have included fir - ploying the M134D and offered several ure, but a jam—of 30,000 rounds, and ing rates as high as 6,000 rounds per minute. In addition to the basic M134D steel design, the introduction of a titanium rotor has created a new M134D-H [Hy - brid] version that weighs 42 pounds, versus 62 pounds for the M134D steel version. A third version of the weapon family, the M134D-T, features both tita - nium rotor and titanium housing and weighs 41 pounds. The M134D-H is the most commonly used system on aircraft platforms to - day, Dillon said. Citing the hybrid de - sign’s 1.5 million round lifespan, he said, “It will last basically forever.” Since the gun was accepted into ser - vice in 2003, the M134D family has o evolved, with tactical applications ex - r e A

panding from aviation platforms to n o l l i

include specialized naval craft and D ground vehicle applications by specific The M134D minigun, a six-barreled, electrically operated Gatling-type machine gun, shown elements within the U.S. Army. Dillon here on a Humvee mount, has evolved and expanded from use on aviation platforms.

June 2013 I ARMY 53 Users quickly devel - oped an appreciation for the effectiveness of the M134D in ground applications. Initially, the minigun was used on special operations Humvees. They soon found applications on selected MRAP vehicles and are now in use on Common Remotely Operated Weapon Stations. o r e A

n o l l i D that’s totally ammunition-dependent. rate of 3,000 rounds per minute for the “That’s the most important thing to If you have good ammo, then you’re weapon is only 500 rounds per minute understand,” a former Special Forces not going to have a jam. All the ammo for each barrel, which is less than the operator said. “When I was in charge of that the U.S. operators use is pretty slowest firing machine gun in the cross-training my peers, the biggest good. The average time between an ac - Army inventory: the .50 cal.” thing I would tell them at the start of tual part failure is in the hundreds of He continued, “One more myth that every class was: ‘Stop what you think thousands of rounds; stuff just doesn’t has yet to be broken is … that, since the about every weapon system that you’ve break. The system may appear compli - minigun shoots a lot of ammo, it must ever fired in your life, because they’re cated on the surface, but it’s really very be very expensive to operate and any - all recoil-operated.’ This gun isn’t re - simple, and the way it operates is very one who deploys in a vehicle is going coil-operated and that changes every - low-intensity.” to have a hard time maintaining a suf - thing. Yes, it shoots 3,000 rounds a ficient supply of ammo to keep the gun minute, but achieving the same amount e offered a comparison to a stan - up and running. That’s a total myth. of suppression with an M240 and a Hdard .50 caliber gas-operated gun, The gun shoots 3,000 rounds a minute, minigun is where the comparability is - which fires approximately 550 to 750 but everything else after that is a myth sues fall apart.” rounds per minute: “When it fires it because it shoots much denser shot “A minigun may shoot a whole goes ‘bang’; the bolt goes back several groups and therefore is much more ef - bunch of bullets,” Dillon said, “but it inches and stops abruptly; then the fective. We have demonstrated that it accomplishes what you are trying to bolt goes forward several inches and has an increased rate of hit over some - accomplish in a massively reduced stops abruptly; then it goes ‘bang’ thing like an M240 [7.62 mm machine amount of time. This gun is amaz - again. It does that 12–15 times every gun] at ranges beyond 300 meters—at ingly effective at convincing people second. Hence they go through parts, least 10-to-1. The .50 cal is a fantastic not to mess with you. It is by far more they break and they wear themselves weapon, too: It has very specific capa - effective against a target than many of out. It’s just to be expected. A minigun bilities and units have to have them. the conventional weapons out there. is like a Rotax aircraft engine that goes They shoot very far and they carry a A wider distribution of the guns and a around in a little circle. The only things very big bullet. They have a bunch of better understanding of how to oper - in the gun that take any stress are the different bullet choices to work with, ate them, along with training in using locking lugs on the bolt heads—and and they can knock out big stuff that a them properly, would save more lives, those things are beefy. Barrels are bar - 7.62 cannot. When we’re suppressing prevent more soldiers from being am - rels, but even they take less stress than soft-skinned targets with the minigun bushed and give those who are am - you will see on a traditional machine versus the .50 cal at 1,000 meters, we bushed a much better weapon reaction gun because you have six of them. So a also kill it.” to break that ambush.” (

54 ARMY I June 2013