New M61A2 Gatlin Guns for U.S. Navy’s Super Hornet Jets

The U.S. Navy has placed an order for M61A2 Gatlin guns to be equipped on its F/A=18 E/F Super Hornet aircraft.

In a statement Wednesday, the Pentagon said it awarded General Dynamics a contract valued $28 million. “This contract provides obsolescence management and engineering support, as well as, procures 76 M61A2 20MM gun systems in support of Navy F/A-18 E/F production aircraft,” a statement by the military said.

Work is expected to be completed in November 2024.

The M61 Vulcan is a hydraulically, electrically or pneumatically driven, six-barrel, air-cooled, electrically fired Gatling-style rotary cannon which fires 20 mm (0.787 in) rounds at an extremely high rate (typically 6,000 rounds per minute). The M61 and its derivatives have been the principal cannon armament of U.S. military fixed-wing aircraft for sixty years.