Wednesday, March 14, 2012
M134 Minigun
The M134 Minigun is a 7.62 mm,
multi-barrel machine gun with a high rate of fire (2,000 to 6,000 rounds per
minute), employing Gatling-style rotating barrels with an external power
source. In popular culture, the term "Minigun" has come to refer to
any externally-powered Gatling gun of rifle caliber, though the term is
sometimes used to refer to guns of similar rates of fire and configuration,
regardless of power source and caliber. Specifically, minigun refers to a
single weapon, originally produced by General Electric.
The "Mini" of the name
is in comparison to designs that use a similar firing mechanism but larger
shells, such as General Electric's earlier 20 mm M61 Vulcan, and
"gun" referencing the delineation between a cannon, that of a caliber
higher than 20 millimeters—and gun—within certain ranges.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
FAMAS Bullpup
The FAMAS (French: Fusil d'Assaut de la Manufacture d'Armes
de Saint-Étienne or "Assault rifle of the Saint-Étienne weapon
factory") is a bullpup-styled assault rifle designed and manufactured in
France by MAS located in Saint-Étienne, which is now a member of the French
government-owned Nexter group. It is the service rifle of the French military.
History
The first French bullpup rifles were developed between 1946
and 1950 at the AME (Atelier Mécanique de Mulhouse) and MAS, testing rounds
such as .30 US Carbine, 7.92x33mm Kurz, 7.65x38mm (Made by Cartoucherie de
Valence) and some other intermediate calibers[citation needed]. Since France
was engaged in the First Indochina War at the time, and was also the
second-largest contributor to NATO, the budgets for new types of weapons were
reduced and priority was given to the modernisation and production of existing
service weapons. Nevertheless, approximately forty different prototypes were
developed between 1952 and 1962, most of which were designed for the 7.62x51mm
NATO round notably the FA-MAS Type
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Arquebus Rifle
The arquebus (play /ˈɑrkɨbʌs/ ark-ə-bus or /ˈɑrkwɨbʌs/
ar-kwə-bus) (sometimes spelled harquebus, harkbus[1] or hackbut; from Dutch
haakbus, meaning "hook gun"), or "hook tube", is an
early muzzle-loaded firearm used in the 15th to 17th centuries. The word was
originally modeled on the German hakenbüchse; this produced haquebute. It then
copied the Italian word archibugio, which gave arquebuse (French), arcabuz
(Spanish), arcabus (Portuguese), and arquebus (English). In distinction from
its predecessor the hand cannon, it has a matchlock. Like its successor the
musket, it is a smoothbore firearm, but lighter and easier to carry[citation
needed].
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