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EX-17 Heligun
Type Machine gun
Specifications
Mass 13,6– 15 kg
Length 760 mm

Cartridge 7.62x51mm NATO
Caliber 7.62mm
Barrels 2
Action Gas operated
Rate of fire 4000-6000 rpm
Feed system Belt

The EX-17 Heligun is a two barrel 7.62x51mm NATO calibre machine gun.[1][2][3] The weapon is gas-operated and was developed by Hughes Aircraft for use in the OH-6 recon helicopter.[1]

Overview[]

The Heligun was developed by Hughes Aircraft as part of a complete package for the OV-6 recon helicopter. It offered a number of significant advantages over the Minigun – it was half the weight, self-powered (not electrically driven), and had a higher 6000RPM firing rate. Ultimately, it was not adopted because the reliability (mean time between stoppages) couldn’t quite be brought up to par, and Army officials decided that it didn’t offer enough improvement over the already adopted M134 Minigun to be worth the switch.

References[]

All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
The original article can be found at EX-17 Heligun and the edit history here.
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