I read a novel several years ago, called "The Devil's Footprint" by Victor Flynn.  This novel has quite a bit of action in it, including a terrorist attack on Ft Bragg, and a combat jump by the entire 82nd Airborne Division into a giant terrorist training camp in Mexico.

Sounds great I know, but the book is kind of poorly written, with unrealistic characters, and wasn't quite as good as I had hoped.

Anyway, to get to the point, there is a vehicle mounted weapon used in this book that I have never heard of since, although I have searched the internet for it several times.

It is called (in the book) 'Dilger's Baby', and it is a single 30mm barrel removed from the GAU-8 Avenger cannon of an A-10 Thunderbolt.  Fitted with a six round clip, it is mounted on dune buggies and other very light vehicles to give them anti-armor punch.

This system sounded pretty dang cool to me, but I don't know if it is real, or a figment of the author's imagination.  Any ideas?

I've never heard of it before.  IMO it was a creation of the author.  Sometimes I'd like to have something like that when the traffic is heavy- we have a LOT of stupid drivers around here!  

i have not heard about that specific thing but there are a lot of 30mm cannons that could do the job.

one example is this

Never heard of such an animal.  However, I believe the writer doesn't know much about weapons and ammunition characteristics.  Mind you, I haven't read the book, but the GAU8/A uses depleted uranium ammunition which is very dense.  DU also self-sharpens and burns as it penetrates armor.  Anyway, this round works on heavy armor so well because it does not penetrate the frontal armor, but the rear, top and sides.  If this barrel is ground mounted and the round is fired against the frontal armor of a tank, don't expect much success.  However, if the round is fired against the sides or rear, it may penetrate.

Well, it may be made up, but he got a lot of other things in the novel correctly researched, including Calico subguns, Chenowth (sp?) light vehicles, and a "supergun" like the one that Hussein had built way out in the desert, capable of hitting targets on the other side of the earth.  That is why I wondered if this was real or not, since it fit in with everything else I had read in the novel.

I first heard of Metal Storm Weapons in a cheap paperback in 1998, a loooong time before I read about them in Popular Mechanics.

Quoted: ...and a "supergun" like the one that Hussein had built way out in the desert, capable of hitting targets on the other side of the earth.

What the hell?

Please elaborate.

Are there any pics or specs on this thing? Ive never even heard of that. Sounds interesting

Posted by Troy:Saddam was building a big-ass gun on a hillside that was capable of shooting several hundred miles. A bigger version of a WWII "Paris Gun". We found it after DS-1 and made him torch-cut the flanges off of the barrel sections.

-Troy


HBO made a good movie about the guy who designed the gun for Saddam, he was later killed by the Mossad in the flick. I don't know if it true or not. The gun was capable of firing a shell that weighed as much as a Volkswagon Bettle to Israel from Iraq!

Gerald Bull, and the big points of the HBO story are true. Mossad never took credit but the hit was their style, multiple small calibre suppressed rounds to the back.

Bull was in interesting character. He started with the idea to launch satellites into orbit using a cannon. It was pretty much downhill from there.

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There are two single barrelled 30mm cannon that come to mind, both are Bushmaster series from ATK/Oerlikon/Boeing, the Mk 230 as used on the Apache and the Mk 44 intended for use on the USMC AAAV. The Mk 44 also turns up aboard other ships, esp lighter patrol craft. Neither feed from clips, that sounds like the 40mm cannon.

The M230 uses linkless feeding.

There is also a longer barrelled variant, the M230LF, that can run linked ammo.

The Mk 44 readily converts to 40mm and runs linked ammo from a dual feed system.

There was also a 30mm cannon that was headed for use on HMMWVs but I can't find much info on it.

For anti-armor? Doesn't sound that great to me. We already have TOW guided missles to give light vehicles anti-armor capability

Quoted: I read a novel several years ago, called "The Devil's Footprint" by Victor Flynn.  This novel has quite a bit of action in it, including a terrorist attack on Ft Bragg, and a combat jump by the entire 82nd Airborne Division into a giant terrorist training camp in Mexico. Sounds great I know, but the book is kind of poorly written, with unrealistic characters, and wasn't quite as good as I had hoped. Anyway, to get to the point, there is a vehicle mounted weapon used in this book that I have never heard of since, although I have searched the internet for it several times. It is called (in the book) 'Dilger's Baby', and it is a single 30mm barrel removed from the GAU-8 Avenger cannon of an A-10 Thunderbolt.  Fitted with a six round clip, it is mounted on dune buggies and other very light vehicles to give them anti-armor punch. This system sounded pretty dang cool to me, but I don't know if it is real, or a figment of the author's imagination.  Any ideas?

Yes, I have seen it.  It is in the same hanger they keep the Vindicator bombers from Fail Safe.  It is right next to the dock where they keep the Red October.  They call that style of writing fiction for a reason.

Quoted: For anti-armor? Doesn't sound that great to me. We already have TOW guided missles to give light vehicles anti-armor capability

But a TOW doesn't have the suppression capabilities that an autocannon does.  Not to mention the $$$$$ of a guided rocket.  

An A-10 cannon on a dune buggy? I think not. The 30mm on an A-10 is like 11 feet long and removing one from an A-10 requires the A-10 to be moored to the ground to keep it from tipping over.

There is a mod to the 25mm Bushmaster to fire 30mm from a 10 round clip. Don't know much about that though.

Quoted: There is a mod to the 25mm Bushmaster to fire 30mm from a 10 round clip. Don't know much about that though.

Well, maybe that is what the author based this weapon on.  

But a TOW doesn't have the suppression capabilities that an autocannon does.  Not to mention the $$$$$ of a guided rocket.  

When I was a TOW gunner, we paired up TOW mounted vehicles with a heavy guns vehicle (MK19 or 50 cal) for suppresion, fire support or soft sided targets, not requiring a TOW.  Usually 4 vehicles per squad, TOW/MK19 and a TOW/50 cal.  When you consider that every vehicle also has a radio to call for fire, M203 or SAW, etc..it's a staggering amount of firepower for 8 men.