The Su-27’s Gatling Gun Was Too Powerful for Its Own Good

Video Report: Army Research Lab Develops AI-Enabled Robot Tanks

By Sebastien Roblin,The National Interest

On December 27, 2019, the Indian Air Force bade farewell to the last of the beefy MiG-27 attack jets it had dubbed the Bahadur (“Valiant”) in a ceremony held by No. 29 squadron at Jodhpur air station.

This article first appeared earlier in 2019 and is being reposted due to reader interest.

The powerful swing-wing jets were a Soviet warplanes license-built by India and upgraded with 2000s-era avionics. Armed with unguided bombs, rockets and an earth-shattering six barreled Gatling guns, the type had seen extensive action during the 1999 Kargil War, blasting Pakistani troops on Himalayan peaks at 18,000 feet above sea level.

Distinguished by its flattened ‘duck bill’ nose leading some pilots to nickname it ‘the Platypus,’ the MiG-27 was not widely exported like the MiG-23 fighter it was spun off from. But aside from combat service in India and Sri Lanka, perhaps it best ought to be remembered for mounting a huge Gatling cannon that threatened to shake the armored warplane apart.

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