XM-301 - has it returned?

[norseman]

Looking at the Bell 360 mock up and potentially also the KAI Surion armed combat and LCH, has the XM301 project been re-started as these 3 barrel 20mm guns look much more compact and lighter than the usual M197 but I haven't seen anything stating as such?

 

[TomS]

Looking at the Bell 360 mock up and potentially also the KAI Surion armed combat and LCH, has the XM301 project been re-started as these 3 barrel 20mm guns look much more compact and lighter than the usual M197 but I haven't seen anything stating as such?

FARA has the XM915 as Government Furnished Equipment. This seems to be a further development of the XM301.

Future recon aircraft competition moves forward featuring a 20mm Gatling gun developed at Picatinny

As two industry teams develop prototypes that will go head-to-head in a competition for the Army’s Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft, both teams wil...

www.army.mil

 

[norseman]

Looks like a bit of re-inventing the wheel. From what I can see looks like a slightly less hi-tech (cheaper) version of the xm301. I know there was a bit of engineering twiddling on s compact 3 barrel 25mm as well, a lot lighter but similar rpm as the 4 barrel hack in the F-35 (but again, it was cheaper to mod the current GAU-12 than build around xm301 tech). The GAST 25mm looked interesting and even made it to prototype, fast, light and reliable. Would have been nice to see the tech behind the xm301 morph into lightweight 12.7mm, 25x137mm and 30x173mm variants.

 

[isayyo2]

I understand the need for lightness in FARA, but why was the M230 dismissed from consideration? I would have assumed that commonality in production, ammo, maintenance, etc outweighed any weight penalty?

 

[timmymagic]

I understand the need for lightness in FARA, but why was the M230 dismissed from consideration? I would have assumed that commonality in production, ammo, maintenance, etc outweighed any weight penalty?

Quite surprised by that as well. Its still difficult (and expensive) to fit in more advanced fuses to 30mm shells, and given the space for the explosive remaining just about worth it. But doing so for 20mm is an exercise in futility. Given the proliferation of UAV's I would have thought that the ability to fire airburst shells is a must for any autocannon fielded on any platform.

 

[norseman]

The universal turret for the Cobra was designed to be able to take the 30mm chain gun so can't see why this would be an integration issue, especially as all clean slate designs. Maybe just because they have massive stocks of 20x102mm ammo. I think that was the logic behind the AW-249 (as well as being cheap and reusing the old M197 turrets they have).

 

[TomS]

The XM301 is about 20kg lighter than the M230. Current 20mm ammo weighs about 80% as much as the LW30 ammo. At 500 rounds on board (a guess) that's another 35 kg saved. And it's possible that they could resurrect the aluminum-cased 20mm from Commanche for even more savings. Add weight savings from a smaller feed mechanism and ammo box, lighter turret, etc. you could be looking at 100kg across the whole system. That's not nothing.

 

[norseman]

And also the polymer cased stuff that was tested. For a recon platform as well maybe the flatter trajectory of the 20x102mm is useful for longer range plinking and anti helicopter work though some of the newer "hot" 30x113mm and airburst mode ammo is very interesting indeed and the 30x113 standard has been included as a platform for next gen guided rounds. Maybe worth asking the South Africans , they have flown the Rooivalk with 20x82/84, 20x139 and 30x113 that I know about.