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Helo to get Gatling gun

A rapid-fire gun is crucial for a scout helicopter, which is likely to encounter fast-emerging enemies, an Army official said.

The Army is negotiating a price for the first 490 GAU-19/As, which can fire 1,300 12.7mm rounds a minute. The weapon will be externally mounted.

“We are working internally on some projects to make the gun lighter,” said John Binkley, GD ATP’s senior director of business development, at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Winter symposium here.

Developed by General Dynamics in the 1980s, the GAU-19/A is being used in Turkey and on Black Hawk helicopters in Colombia by counternarcotics forces, Binkley said.

GD ATP will build the barrels for the Army’s GAU-19/A at its facility in Saco, Maine.

The ARH, a replacement for the OH-58 Kiowa Warrior, is expected to be fielded by 2011.

New grenade launcher

The Army is wrapping up testing of its new XM 320 grenade launcher, a weapon designed to be safer than the 68,000 M203 launchers it will replace in the next few years.

Manufactured by Heckler & Koch, the XM 320 is expected to enter full production in September after design and durability tests in March and April at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., and Fort Bragg, N.C., said Lt. Col. Tim Chima, product manager for individual weapons at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.

“The mounting bracket needed to be ruggedized so as to better handle the operational environment,” Chima said.

The XM 320 features a side-loading breech, tougher mounting bracket and night-vision sights.

“The 320 provides a day/night sight capability that we did not have before,” Chima said. “You now have a sight with a laser pointer, so at night, if you know the range of your target, you can then orient your weapon on your target.”

The breech allows a wider variety of 40mm ammunition, such as nonlethal and illumination rounds, he said.

Each XM 320 with laser range finder costs about $3,500.

The launcher, which can be attached to an M4 or M16 rifle, provides an indirect-fire capability for suppression or area fire out to 300 meters.

Off-road in Afghanistan

The Army’s Rapid Equipping Force is testing three high-speed, lightweight, off-road vehicles in Afghanistan that are designed to move soldiers and equipment through mountainous terrain.

The Specialized Reconnaissance Assault Transport System vehicles were delivered to Force units in Afghanistan in December; after testing, the vehicles are expected to join operational units there.

Developed by BAE Systems, the 3- to 4-ton vehicles can carry four soldiers and 1 ton of cargo on- and off-road at speeds up to 100 mph.

“It is an interim light tactical vehicle designed to meet a specific mission profile space. It is low weight, high mobility and has lots of speed,” said Jeffrey Earley, a BAE business-development director. “Speed is important because of the need to escape and deal with the kinds of missions that are going on in Afghanistan. [The vehicle] is more lightly protected than a Humvee because of the speed and mobility it has.”

The vehicle has a litter carrier for ambulance work, and future models likely will be built with weapon stations, Earley said. It also has an Allison transmission, a 400-amp alternator and a 6.5 V8 turbodiesel engine.

“The Humvee has a rigid suspension in a flexible cab. This is the reverse; it has a flexible suspension in a rigid cab,” Earley said. h