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Watch: See what it’s like to be on the receiving end of an A-10 Warthog strafing run

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The 30 mm General Electric GAU-8/A Avenger rotary canon first entered into service in 1977. The 619 pound monster Gatling gun measured just shy of 2 feet wide and 20 feet long when completed, but more than compensating for its gargantuan size by boasting a terrifying fire rate of 3,900 rounds per minute, fired from its rotating array of seven barrels. That means the GAU-8/A releases a whopping 65 rounds per second when unleashed onto a target.

Oh, and just in case that wasn’t impressive enough, each of those rounds in its shell measures nearly a foot in length.

A 30mm round fired from the GAU-8/A Avenger rotary canon as compared to a standard NATO 5.56 mm round.

Of course, you may be more familiar with the GAU-8/A Avenger rotary canon thanks to the air frame engineers wrapped around it in order to get this massive weapon platform aloft: the legendary Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, affectionately known to many as the A-10 Warthog, or just “Hog” for short.

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Comments

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  • Avatar
    Hannibal

    Terrifyingly awesome!

  • Avatar
    Slack Man

    The sight and sound of an A-10 conjures up thoughts of blue-on-blue incidents and mass casualty situations... much respect to those pilots though, most of the time, it's really not their fault...

  • Avatar
    EternalChampion

    Apache support is a close second.

  • Avatar
    Chad D

    That is exactly how I have always described that sound to people. That's how I hear it "A choir of Angels singing". There never was another aircraft I would want overhead.

  • Avatar
    Ronald B

    I swear I heard an eagle scream right at the end!