This Is How The Air Force Gets Its New Survival Rifle To Fit Under An Ejection Seat
the U.S. Air Force has offered the
first good look at how its new-ish
GAU-5/A carbines squeeze in with other items inside a survival
kit that the service's pilots are now flying with under their ejection seats.
The guns are converted
standard M4 carbines with various new features, most notably a
special locking system that allows users to break it down into two halves in 30
seconds or less and reassemble when necessary just as fast.
The Air Force Life Cycle Management
Center released
the picture of the carbine broken down inside its kit, along
with four tan-colored 30-round magazines and other items, along with additional
images of the gun assembled and disassembled on Feb. 14, 2020. Air Force
gunsmiths at the Air Force Security Forces Center, situated at Joint Base San
Antonio-Lackland in Texas, assembled 2,700 of these GAU-5/As, also known as
Aircrew Self Defense Weapons (ASDW), to units across the service between
February 2018 and January 2020, when it reportedly completed all of the planned
deliveries. It's interesting to note that this is 600 more guns than the Air
Force expected
to produce as of June 2018.
"We were asked to design a
stand-off weapon that was capable of hitting a man-size target at 200
meters," Richard Shelton, Chief of the Gunsmith Shop, said
in a statement for the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center's
Feb. 2020 story on the GAU-5/A. "It disconnects at the upper receiver, is
located inside the seat kit [of ACES II ejection seats], and can be put
together within 30 seconds if needed."
USAF
The
GAU-5/A assembled.
USAF
The
GAU-5/A broken down for storage in the survival kit.
USAF
The
GAU-5/A, four magazines and other items packed into the survival kit.
Cry Havoc Tactical supplied
the unique locking system that is at the heart of the converted carbines. They
also feature a pistol grip that folds backwards to make them even more compact
when stored inside the survival kit.
The space limitations under the ACES
II seat to mean that the survival kit isn't big enough to accommodate a carbine
with an optical sight mounted on it, meaning that pilots would only have the
gun's iron sights to aim with in an emergency situation. The gun otherwise
handles almost identically to a standard M4 carbine.
The fact that the GAU-5/A, which
should not be confused with the Vietnam
War-era AR-15/M16 variant with the same designation, is so very
similar to the
M4 and uses the same ammunition helps reduce training and
logistics requirements. This appears to be one the core factors in Air Force's
decision to go with this gun over a more purpose-built personal
defense weapon or survival rifle, which might have additional
capabilities within the limitations of the space available. This is
something The War
Zone has
discussed in-depth regarding this carbine in the past.
Regardless, the Air Force had a clear
requirement to give pilots additional firepower in the event that they got shot
down after Jordanian Air Force pilot Moaz Al Kasasbeh bailed out over a
then-ISIS-controlled area of Syria in December 2014. The terrorists captured
and murdered Kasasbeh, which prompted the service to begin squeezing
Vietnam-era GAU-5/As into
certain survival kits. Before then, pilots only had their standard
M9 pistols to rely on if they had to bail out over hostile territory. Other
members of the international coalition fighting ISIS followed suit, with the
Dutch Air Force notably issuing a
9mm machine pistol to its pilots.
USAF
An
airman assembles a GAU-5/A.
The Air Force says that it spent
approximately $2.6 million to both craft the complete conversion and field the
guns. While we don't know what the base unit price per gun was without the
development costs factored in, this works out to just under $963 each. It's not
clear whether or not the service purchased entirely new guns to convert or used
existing M4s, but the latter course of action seems much more likely and cost
effective.
Cry Havoc's website says
the price of a basic conversion kit to add the takedown locking system to any
AR-15/M16 type gun, which offers for sale the public, as well, is $349. The
full cost of the complete GAU-5/A "weapon system" may factor in the
four magazines and other items that go along with them into the survival kit,
too.
We also don't know all of the units
that have received GAU-5/As and what aircraft they are flying now with the new
survival kits. United Technologies Aerospace Systems' ACES
II seat is used in the F-15C/D Eagle, F-15E Strike Eagle, F-16
Viper, and F-22 Raptor Combat jets, as well as the A-10 Warthog ground-attack
aircraft and the B-1B Bone and B-2 Spirit bombers.
In May 2019, the 366th Fighter Wing,
which is based Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho and flies F-15E Strike
Eagles, announced that
it had begun flying with the new survival kits containing GAU-5/As. We also
know that F-22 pilots from the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in
Alaska began training
with the guns last year.
USAF
A
member of the 3rd Wing trains with a GAU-5/A in 2019.
In addition, we know that 2,700 of
these guns are now in service across the Air Force, tucked away inside compact
survival kits under pilots' ejection seats
The fact that the GAU-5/A, which should not be confused with the Vietnam War-era AR-15/M16 variant with the same designation, is so very similar to the M4 and uses the same ammunition helps reduce training and logistics requirements. This appears to be one the core factors in Air Force's decision to go with this gun over a more purpose-built personal defense weapon or survival rifle, which might have additional capabilities within the limitations of the space available. This is something The War Zone has discussed in-depth regarding this carbine in the past.
Regardless, the Air Force had a clear requirement to give pilots additional firepower in the event that they got shot down after Jordanian Air Force pilot Moaz Al Kasasbeh bailed out over a then-ISIS-controlled area of Syria in December 2014. The terrorists captured and murdered Kasasbeh, which prompted the service to begin squeezing Vietnam-era GAU-5/As into certain survival kits. Before then, pilots only had their standard M9 pistols to rely on if they had to bail out over hostile territory. Other members of the international coalition fighting ISIS followed suit, with the Dutch Air Force notably issuing a 9mm machine pistol to its pilots.
Contact
the author: joe@thedrive.com
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