#Vulcan

Montana-based Olympus Arms returns to SHOT Show’s Industry Day at the Range with their Vulcan rifle. James saw it last year and made a very popular video about it, but there are some changes that have been made and also, James wanted to know about the accuracy of this platform.

Montana-based Olympus Arms returns to SHOT Show’s Industry Day at the Range with their Vulcan rifle. The company has been busy refining the design of the weapon and has decided to bring the bulk of its parts manufacturing in-house, making a significant investment in new machine tools.

In yesterday’s article, we took a look at examples of two different methods of design, which I called “preference-driven” and “process-driven”. For these examples, I supposed two engineers from two different cultures – called “Romulan” and “Vulcan” after the aliens from the Star Trek universe.* In the “Romulan” example, we explored preference-driven design, where a final product is outlined by amalgamating preferred characteristics from previous works to create a desired whole. For the “Vulcan” example, we examined the more elaborate method of developing processes that can be fed data to procedurally generate characteristics as an example of process-driven design.

If you were designing the next small arms round, how would you do it? What methods would you use to determine its physical characteristics and performance attributes? How would you know what was too large or too small, too powerful or too weak? Perhaps more critically, how do different methods for answering these questions compare to one another? Could some methods be better or worse than others?

Creating improvised firearms is one thing, but a recent propaganda video released by the Yemeni rebel and terrorist group Ansar Allah (better known as the Houthis) threw the spotlight on some weapons that take this to the next level. 20mm, 23mm, and even 30mm caliber improvised cannons are being produced by the Houthis in makeshift workshops, representing some of the largest and most powerful improvised small arms ever produced. Footage of the cannons firing, as well as their manufacture was included in the video. Despite their large caliber, the cannons appear to be quite crude indeed, with many parts shown being ground with dremel tools, and with scope bases and muzzle brakes simply being welded together. The barrels for the cannons appear to come from military autocannons. The barrels of 20mm Hasem cannon bear the distinctive “hump” towards the muzzle of M61 Vulcan cannon barrels, for instance – which may be an indication that the barrels are being supplied to the Houthis by the Iranians, who have stockpiles of Vulcan barrels for their F-4 and F-14 fighter aircraft.

A military group requested a heat shield on the barrels to protect slings, cables and pouches. Since the Micro Gun is so short it would be easy to swing it and have it touch something. Here is what Empty Shell came up with. It looks slick.

The Navy’s USS Boxer has a Phalanx Close In Weapon System (CIWS). It is nicknamed R2-D2 for its similar dome shaped top and automatic nature. Actually if you watch the video below, the supports are somewhat shaped like R2-D2 legs. Watch the tower pivot and spin. It really resembles an R2 Astromech droid. Just with a large gun protruding from the crotch.

You can never get tired of seeing or hearing about the A-10 Thunderbolt and the weapon it was built around. The GAU-8 Avenger. “It is essentially a flying cannon providing 30mm worth of American air power”
Here is a video released by the 127th Wing giving us some great eye candy of the A-10 and the GAU-8 Avenger.

TA Vision Studios and LEGOVulcan made a working replica of a M134D Vulcan. It has a ROF of 2500 RPM. It does not really fire but it spits out yellow technic pieces like spent brass.

An owner of a Vulcan V50 .50 BMG rifle was seriously injured after a round detonated while he was loading it into the gun. The Vulcan V50 is a single shot shell holder. Shell holders are loaded by removing the bolt, inserting a cartridge into the bolt, then inserting both the bolt and cartridge into the chamber. This is normally a very simple, safe and cheap to manufacture action.

Wyn Boniface was quick off the mark in spotting a pre-solicitation request from the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the purchase of two Anzio Ironworks 20mm magazine fed rifles (cannons) with suppressors.

The nearly 7 feet tall Anzio 20mm rifle (or cannon) is one amazing gun!