Free Republic

General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products said it will produce additional 20mm gun systems for use on U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft. The order for the weapons came under a contract modification from the Naval Air Systems Command worth $7.8 million, the company said. "General Dynamics has successfully produced the weapon system for the F/A-18 for more than 25 years," said Steve Elgin, vice president and general manager of armament systems for General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products. "The M61A2 F/A-18 gun system continues to be relevant, affordable and extremely effective." The M61A2 gun system is a six-barrel Gatling...

Word that Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will install a battery of machine guns capable of spitting out 66 rounds a second with a range of nearly a mile was met by relief by some who think the weapons will deter terrorists but fear by others who worry they'll be caught in the line of fire. The guns, which the lab unveiled to much ado Thursday but has not yet installed, are meant to protect the laboratory's cache of radioactive plutonium, which terrorists might try to steal or destroy, sending a plume over much of the Livermore Valley. The weapons, called...

The history of the Gatling Gun Detachment, Fifth Army Corps, is to a certain extent the history of the Santiago campaign. The detachment was organized on the spur of the moment, to utilize material which would otherwise have been useless, and was with the Fifth Corps in all the campaign. It participated in all the fighting of that campaign, except the fight at La Guasimas, and was disbanded upon the return of the Fifth Corps to Montauk. Whatever hardships were endured by the Fifth Corps were shared by this detachment; whatever dangers were faced by the Fifth Corps were faced...