| NAVAL ORDNANCE AND GUNNERY, VOLUME 1 CHAPTER 9 AUTOMATIC WEAPONS |
| HOME INDEX Chapter 9 Automatic Weapons A. Introduction B. 20-mm aircraft gun C. 40-mm guns and mounts D. 3"/50 rapid-fire guns and mounts |
| A. Introduction 9A1. General Automatic guns are case guns in which part of the energy of explosion is used to eject the empty cases and to activate a device which reloads and continues to fire the gun as long as the trigger is operated and the ammunition supply is maintained. All short-range (3,000 yards) AA guns aboard ship are automatic weapons. The short-range automatic weapons used by the Navy include 20-mm and 40-mm guns, both of which were used in destroying the enemy’s air power in World War II. The United States Navy’s medium-range (8,000 yards) AA weapon is the semiautomatic 3”/50 gun, with a separately powered automatic loader making it in effect an automatic gun. This weapon has been developed from the old semiautomatic 3-inch gun which was still used in World War II. This chapter takes up the 20-mm aircraft gun, the 40-mm AA gun, and the new 3”/50 gun, as representative of present aircraft and AA machine guns. It does not take up the 20-mm AA gun or the old 3”/50 without automatic loader. |