General Dynamics to produce Gatling gun systems and spares
General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products was recently awarded two contracts with a combined value of $12.9 million to produce 22 Gatling gun systems for the US Navy and to supply various Gatling gun spare items to the US Army. General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products is a business unit of General Dynamics.
Under the first award, worth $7.8 million, General Dynamics will deliver 22 M61A2 20mm Gatling gun systems to the Navy for use on the F/A-18E/F aircraft. The gun system is mounted in the nose of an F/A-18 aircraft and can fire up to 6,000 rounds per minute. This award modifies a contract issued in May 2010 by Naval Air Warfare Center, Aircraft Division, in Patuxent River, Md., and brings the total value of that contract to $17.7 million for the production of 52 gun systems.
Under the second contract, General Dynamics also will deliver GAU-19/A Gatling gun spare items to the Army. The Army Tank Automotive Armament Command in Rock Island, Ill., awarded the gun spares order. The GAU-19/A is a lightweight 12.7mm three-barrel Gatling gun that is used on a variety of air, land and sea platforms.
Mike O'Brien, vice president and general manager of gun systems for General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products, said, "General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products has a distinguished history supplying combat pilots and aviators with affordable, reliable weapons, such as the M61A2 and the GAU-19/A."
Delivery of the M61A2 systems is expected to be completed in April 2013, and delivery of the GAU-19/A spares will be completed by fall 2014. Production work for both awards will be performed at General Dynamics' facility in Saco, Maine, which employs approximately 420 people, and the programs will be managed at General Dynamics' Williston Technology Center in Williston, Vt. The Williston Technology Center work force includes approximately 400 employees.
Source: General Dynamics
More from Land Warfare
-
![Romania opens the chequebook and reorganises as it watches Russian aggression]()
Romania opens the chequebook and reorganises as it watches Russian aggression
Romania is retiring old systems, some Soviet, and replacing them with western equipment from countries such as Sweden and Turkey and boosting existing modern fleets.
-
![Milrem picks Texelis for partnership in drive to develop large UGV]()
Milrem picks Texelis for partnership in drive to develop large UGV
Milrem has delivered or is building a total of 200 Tracked Hybrid Modular Infantry System UGVs and has chosen Texelis as partner in its effort to develop a UGV.
-
![Sweden takes delivery of first M3 amphibious bridge and ferry system]()
Sweden takes delivery of first M3 amphibious bridge and ferry system
The most recent nation to join NATO has joined other member nations in using the M3 system.
-
![CV90 delivery to Slovakia imminent]()
CV90 delivery to Slovakia imminent
Slovakia is undergoing a radical refresh of its equipment, like many central and eastern European countries, and the arrival of new vehicles will form a substantial part of this.
-
![Mortar mobility: Patria’s TREMOS takes aim at the modern battlespace]()
Mortar mobility: Patria’s TREMOS takes aim at the modern battlespace
In conversation... Patria’s Lauri Pauniaho talks to Shephard's Gerrard Cowan about how high mobility levels are essential for mortar systems in the face of modern counter-battery fire, and how a new platform-agnostic module can combine existing vehicles and mortar barrels into a cost-effective new weapon system.
