(Kingman, Ariz.) It looked like streaming balls of fire lighting up the air, accompanied by a very loud noise, smoke and the sight of a large fiery explosion on the other side of a desert canyon.
The backward thrust was very powerful, throwing me back what felt like several feet. All this seemed to happen at once, when I first tried to fire an M230LF Lightweight 30mm Cannon Chain Gun, an extremely lethal rapid fire gun now arming the Army’s armored Stryker vehicle.
The weapon represents a new adaptation of the 30mm Chain Gun now arming the Apache attack helicopter.
This weapon is not a rifle, shotgun or small arm in any way – it is a combat-vehicle mounted war cannon engineered to take out enemy vehicles, convoys or troop concentrations. It was, by far, the largest and strongest gun I had ever fired. I was shocked by what seemed to be its destructive power. It did not just “hit” or “go through” a target – it exploded it, yet with precision targeting, placing multiple fast-moving Chain Gun rounds through the same target hole, one after the other.
“It is a lightweight application. You can mount it on any vehicle that has a turret ring adapter. It acquires targets through an operator behind the weapons system. It has reverse acting hydraulic brakes similar to what you would find on an ATV or motorcycle. The gunner releases the brake system and acquires the target,” Vince Virga, product engineer, Nobles, told me at the range – while showing me how to safely man and fire the cannon.
