Accuracy
This thing is as accurate as it gets. When you’re at the range, you want tight groupings with your 9mm or 45mm (or BB, if that’s your thing). That equates to inches or millimeters at 15, 25, or 50 meters. When the GAU-8 goes BRRRRRRTTTTT, its range is a bit longer. At 4,000ft, the GAU-8 Avenger will put 80 percent of its rounds into a 20 feet radius. When the target is a tank, armored vehicle, or bunker, a 20 feet spread is a pretty tight grouping.
Operation of the GAU-8
The GAU-8 is an aircraft-mounted Gatling gun. The same basic type you may have seen on the History Channel, with one guy feeding rounds in while the other turns the crank. Rather than tasking a couple of Airmen to do the job, the GAU-8 uses aircraft hydraulics to rotate the seven barrels and feed ammunition.
The ammunition drum is located just forward of the wings to more effectively distribute weight and maintain weight and balance when rounds are spent. The spent casings are collected back in the drum to compensate for some of the weight differential and maintain center-of-gravity. The gun system is 19.5ft from the muzzle to the “stock” and only the tip of the muzzle protrudes from the nose.
I’ll Have the Gun and Aircraft Combo, Please
Because of the power contained in the GAU-8 Avenger, the A-10 is set up differently than most aircraft. The muzzle of the gun is located just below the aircraft’s center of gravity to compensate for pitch problems when the gun is fired. The gun is also mounted at the centerline of the jet to overcome yaw when fired. Considering that the muzzle velocity of the cannon is about the same as one engine’s thrust, pitch, and yaw considerations are important.
The recoil force from the GAU-8 is around 10klbs. Each of the A-10’s two engines produces around 9,500lbs of thrust. So, when the gun fires in the air, the rough equivalent of another jet engine is now working against the aircraft. Nevertheless, because the bursts are short, airspeed is not really affected by the gun’s recoil. Lt. Col Matthew Shelly told Business Insider that firing the cannon “[F]eels like driving over railroad tracks… You’re sitting right on top of the gun, so it shakes the whole airplane.” Pilots had to wear double hearing protection due to the extra noise.
Gee Whiz!
Since the GAU-8 Avenger is mounted at centerline, the A-10’s nose wheels are offset slightly to allow for the barrel. Because of this, the A-10 has a tighter turn-radius to the right. That may not sound like a big deal, and it’s not, but does make following the marshaler’s instructions and taxi lines a little more exciting.
While the U.S. Army makes good use of the A-10 in its CAS role, it does not own any. The USAF is the only operator of the A-10 in the world.
With a price tag of roughly nine million dollars in today’s money, these are expensive for the common man but downright economical in the defense world. The U.S. military does not sell these to private citizens, so you have to join the Air Force if you want to fly an A-10.
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