Posted on 02/15/2018 5:29:02 AM PST by w1n1
You can run, but you can’t hide from an A-10 Thunderbolt II and its technological advanced GAU-8 30mm weapon system.
U.S. Air Forces Central Command released a un-classified footage of an engagement between an A-10 and what looks to be "a Taliban vehicle fleeing the scene of an attack in Kandahar, Afghanistan."
The short video display a light-colored car speeding down a dusty desert road only to be stopped by a hail storm of 30mm rounds from the A-10. Zooming in on the stopped vehicle you can see four basketball-sized holes punched in the top of the vehicle before another wave of shells is applied for good measure. Unfortunately, the video has no sound, but you can imagine the many “brrrt” pounding the vehicle.
According to Centcom, the Taliban-mobile was armed with a DShK heavy machine gun, which they had been using to attack the Afghan people,” said the Air Force.
The General Electric GAU-8/A Avenger is a 30 mm hydraulically driven seven-barrel Gatling-type auto cannon.
It is 19-foot long 7-barreled rotary cannon that fires huge 30x173mm shells— each about the size of a ketchup bottle at 3,900 rounds per minute. Unloaded, the gun weighs more than 600-pounds.
For most grunts on the ground its a blessing to see the A-10's come in for air support or in this case direct action monitored by drones. See the full A-10 Taliban footage here.
Never drive into a sudden cloud of dust.
It was a rare Afghan autonomous vehicle.
The A-10 has always been one of the Infantryman’s best friends. Why the Air Force has tried to get rid of them is beyond me.
The A-10 is a essentially a very maneuverable aircraft wrapped around a canon.
“technological advanced”?
First, no editor to check basic grammar? And second, in a shooting magazine no less, what’s so advanced about a rotary cannon? Other than the motor, it uses the same mechanism that guns in the 19th century used.
This gun can also fire HE rounds.
It (HE) may be the primary loading in this theater since there aren't many enemy armored vehicles around anymore not to mention the DU environmental "ick" factor.
If that was the case here, perhaps a fuse or two functioned relatively late putting the projectile inside the car when it detonated blowing the sheet metal out instead of in.
Good shoot, anyway you slice it since no one walked away.
yep
Look at those pie plate sized holes from the 30mm shells.
The driver was ok. They missed him.
“Still... I wouldn’t want to be hit by these “smaller” bottles!”
Had a friend who was in Desert Storm - he said when they opened up a tank that had been hit by a single round of the depleted Uranium the bodies inside were like bloody mashed potatoes and even their clothing couldn’t hold them together enough for easy extraction - generates a lot of heat passing through the metal and sprays a mist of super-hot metal as it passes into the chamber....
Projectiles from an aircraft cannon create tremendous percussion on a target, leaving the car looking puffed outward. An F-16 accidentally lit up a Suburban with two airmen sitting in it on the bombing range in Utah, hitting it a few times. It left bowling ball size holes and the airmen were treated for concussion injuries.
Overall cartridge length is 290mm (=11.4 inches)
Nice.....
Well, they want to die for allah....
Got their wish.
Yes they did - for their sake, one might hope Allah proves to be as loving as God.....or not - out of our hands but us Christians are supposed to lament souls lost even if we weren’t especially fond of them.
Thanks for that answer. I had no idea.
“Was anyone injured?”
Thank you! I read this and then laughed so hard I had to go get a kleenex!
I agree with you, I can’t explain those big holes. I don’t know if all GAU-8 rounds are identical; perhaps there is a mixture of solid DU (which might ignite and burn away metal on the big holes and explosive (which would blow out & up the rear of the car) I’ve never heard that there is a mixture but I’m not an expert.
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