Posted on 04/17/2006 5:09:25 PM PDT by Flavius
That's fairly typical of modern fighter cannon loadouts. F-15E, comparable to the Ground attack Su-34, has 500 rounds, but rate of fire is about 6,000 rpm, so the F-15's M61 Vulcan 20 mm cannon is empty in about 5 seconds. (The 20 mm projectiles are much lighter than the 30 mm ones). The A-10s GAU-8, a 30 mm but firing longer and heavier rounds than the Russian cannon, carries 1174 rounds and fires them at around 4,000 rpm. However if do it all in one 17.6 second burst, you'll likely burn out barrels. It's supposed to fire max of 2 second burst with 1 minute between bursts. Of course the ammo drum is the size of a Volkswagon Beetle. :)
Depends on the opponent. The latter model SU's are about as capable as the F-15, (although the F-15 hasn't got it's electronically steerable phased array radar yet (and this is not the first Russian/Soviet fighter to have one, the Mig-31, more of an interceptor really, had one was back in the 1970s and '80s.
I'm consistantly impressed by foriegn military's and design firms who make do with less. Sometimes they produce junk (North Korean Airframes), and sometimes they produce things which must be taken very seriously indeed (Russian Airframes, or Indian fighter doctrine and training).
Gradually, it seems to me we're seeing more of the second than the first. Nothing to panic about, but certainly something to factor into our worldview. Changing world out there.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.