Here's How the A-10 Warthog's Legendary Gatling Gun Really Works

Here's How the A-10 Warthog's Legendary Gatling Gun Really Works

the A-10 Thunderbolt II is, basically, an airplane built around the GAU-8 Avenger 30-mm hydraulically driven seven-barrel Gatling-type cannon.

The Avenger cannon is the Hog primary weapon and is able to fire 3,900 bullets per minute.

"It's a highly-accurate point-and-shoot weapon that grants our pilots superior firepower and flexibility in a close-combat ground fight," a Warthog pilot once told us. The GAU-8 is rated at "5 mil, 80%," meaning that 80% of rounds will hit within a 5-mil circle, with mils being milliradiants (at 1,000 feet five mils would be 5 m hence 80% of rounds would hit within a 5-m circle and that's at 70 rounds a second.

a-10a-10 warthogus air force