I made a bar bet last night with a military type last night.  He thought a dumb civilian like me wouldn't know how big the gun is, and that sources like Jane's are unreliable for classified info like the caliber of the A-10's gun.

So please edify me, military types. Is the A-10's gun 30mm or 50mm?

30MM.

Oh yeah, he told me the only saboted round were for the the M1A1 Abrams and A-10 50mm gatling gun, and that by saboted they meant depleted uranium rounds.

Before joining Kulis I was a weapons loader out at Elmendorf.  The A-10 has a 30mm Gatling style cannon on it.  

Raven, if ya have any other questions about what weapons are carried on AF jets just let me know.

The A-10 has a GAU-8 Avenger in 30MM.  He is right about the slugs of uranium.  Great penatration from their weight.  Nasty cause they are designed to go in a tank but not have enough energy to get out so they bounce around.

If you see him again, ask him how many barrels it has (7).
Ice

[img]http://www.photovault.com/Link/Military/AirForce/MYFVolume01-02/MYFV02P10_17.1699.jpg[/img]

[Robert De Niro accent on]
You talking to ME!
[Robert De Niro accent off]

Depleted Uranium

I know the A-10's gun normal rounds are DU.

This guy was saying that ONLY M1A1 tanks and A-10's shot saboted rounds.

I know M1 tanks have sabot rounds.  Have never heard of A-10's using saboted rounds.  My beef was that he said ONLY A-10's and M1's used saboted rounds.  I knew differently and contradicted him, and he got all condescending.  That's when I made a bet so he could put money where his mouth was.

I never make bets unless I know I'm absolutely right.

30mm GAU-8 cannon, dual rate of fire (but I don't remember the rates offhand).  It is NOT a saboted round.

"Sabot" is french for "shoe", and in cannon shells it's the sleeve that goes over the smaller diameter projectile.  The sabot peels away upon firing.  Sabor rounds usually contain a tungsten penetrator "spike" projectile.

Depleted uranium was not origninally designed to penetrate tank armor.  Instead, the kinetic energy of the rounds basically beat the tank to pieces.  Plus, depleted uranium ignites on impact, so it's an incendiary round.  Apparently (see above) they have an armour-piercing version now.  Footage of a tank being hit by an A-10 is pretty spectacular.
[sniper](Edited because I learn something new every day.)

That's it!  And at 4,200 rounds/min the recoil of the GAU-8 cannon equals the full forward thrust of the turbofan engines.

(I live in Tucson, where the A-10 is based at Davis-Monthan AFB.)[sniper]

An extract on armor performance written by Andrew Jaremkow
"Depleted uranium is for several reasons. First, it is cheap. The US has thousands of tons of it lying around as a result of the nuclear industry, so material costs are minimal, unlike tungsten which is significantly more expensive. Second, it is dense so it maintains velocity well down range and excellent penetrating power. Third, it is pyrophoric. When small fragments of uranium are exposed to air they burst into flames spontaneously, creating a useful incendiary effect inside target vehicles. The fourth reason has to do with the way uranium acts under pressure. When it is alloyed with small amounts of titanium, depleted uranium becomes susceptible to adiabatic shear, it forms very narrow bands of weakness under pressure and shears off along those lines. As a result, the front of a depleted uranium rod tends to flake off in small fragments during penetration, self sharpening leaving a sharp tip to face the oncoming armor. Tungsten alloys, on the other hand, do not fail by adiabatic shear. Although much research has been done to make them do so. Instead, the front end of a tungsten alloy rod squashes out into a broad mushroom shape during penetration. Since the tungsten alloy rod forms a wide nose, it has to force a more armor aside to penetrate. The narrow point of a depleted uranium rod makes a narrower, more energy efficient penetration. Thus, a depleted uranium rod can make a narrower deeper hole in the target than a tungsten alloy rod can with the same amount of kinetic energy."

That sounds a little slow but I never worked on the A-10.  I know the M61A1 on the F-15 is selectable at 4000 to 6000 rounds a min.  I'd have to look in my CDC's to find the rate of fire for the GAU-8.  The GAU-2 I shoot now is 2000 to 4000 rounds a min in 7.62.

I check the two books I have that cover the GAU-8/A.

"Warthog" by William Smallwood lists the rates of fire as 3000-4000 rpm.

"The Gatling Gun" by Joseph Berk lists the rates as 2100-4200 rpm.

Quite a bit of difference on the low end. Drat.

I have witnessed an A-10 "spew" it's awsome cannon at Poinsett Weapons range near Shaw AFB.  It is a truly awsome sight to see and hear. The first time you hear it, it blows you away!