I guess the opposite of sniping is machine gunning from an unsteady platform? Well, here we are on board an MH-60S Knighthawk behind a fully-loaded GAU-21 and I assume that anyone on the dangerous side of it dare to call it inaccurate.

This is the topic for our Photo Of The Day and we have a Naval Air Crewman assigned to the “Black Knights” of Helicopter Sea Combat (HSC) Squadron 4, manning a GAU-21 machine gun. This was part of a live fire training exercise near the Naval Air Station Fallon.

The GAU-21 is capable of producing up to 1,100 empty cases of brass per minute, using an open-bolt operation and a dual recoil buffer system. Tax dollars at work, that at least I’d be willing to pay.

The training conducted during Air Wing Fallon drives air wing integration and ensures that all CVW-2 squadrons are ready to conduct the full range of military operations when they deploy later this year. HSC 4 provides vertical lift search and rescue, logistics, anti-surface warfare, special operations forces support, and combat search and rescue capabilities.

These photos are from U.S. Navy and the man behind the lens was Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ryan M. Breeden.