The U.S. Air Force’s HH-60G Pave Hawk is switching out its GAU-18 machine gun for the GAU-21. A HH-60G is now at Edwards Air Force Base for the 412th Test Wing and 418th Flight Test Squadron to verify the ballistics qualities of the new machine gun on the Pave Hawk.
By U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Nicholas Hall [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
James Cooley, the technical director for Det. 1, 413th FLTS, said the closed-bolt GAU-18 has a short barrel life (3,000 rounds), relatively low cyclic rate of fire (550 rounds per minute), high recoil, and is vulnerability to unsafe ammunition “cook-offs.”
In comparison, the new GAU-21, is an open bolt system with a barrel life of 10,000 rounds, a cyclic rate of fire of up to 1100 rounds per minute, and reduced recoil over standard .50-caliber weapons due to the use of a soft mount.