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47-557: The concept of the gun pod came into its prime during and after World War II . "Package gun" installations on US medium and light bombers, such as the B-25 Mitchell and A-26 Invader , were likely the first pods used by the United States military. One of its primary tasks was to suppress ground defenses during attack runs while conducting maritime interdiction, and the extra armament provided additional firepower. With

94-435: A ram-air turbine . Gun pods increase a vehicle's firepower without occupying internal volume. When not required for a specific mission they can be omitted to save weight. On some vehicles they isolate delicate internal components such as radar from the weapon's recoil and gases, and for jet aircraft allow the weapons to be mounted away from the intakes of the engines, reducing problems of gun-gas ingestion, which may cause

141-642: A few clusters of vacation homes. The Cedar Point community included several churches, a post office, and a gas station. Some of the old homes now serve as quarters for Navy personnel stationed there. In 1937, the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics sought to consolidate aviation test programs, previously being conducted at several stations, including Dahlgren and Norfolk , the Washington Navy Yard , Naval Air Station Anacostia in Washington, D.C. , and

188-545: A living reminder of that debt." Since the end of the Cold War , the Pentagon 's Base Realignment and Closure measures have migrated research and testing facilities for both rotary and fixed-wing aircraft to NAS Patuxent River from decommissioned bases. The complex now hosts over 17,000 people, including active-duty service members, civil-service employees, defense contractor employees, and military dependents . The base

235-531: A pod for high-speed fighter aircraft which lacked a gun, this pod was fitted with a single M61A1 20 mm cannon and 1,200 rounds of ammunition. This weapon is powered by a ram-air turbine , and fires at a fixed rate of 6,000 rpm. However, for this firing rate to be achieved the aircraft needs to fly over 300 mph (480 km/h), and the pod is designed to be optimal at speeds above 400 mph (640 km/h). Its weight, 1,650 lb (750 kg) loaded, also precludes it from many light aircraft. The pod

282-604: A single M3 .50 caliber machine gun. The pod carried 750 rounds of ammunition and provided a pneumatic charging system for the weapon. This system was used on the JOV-1A and UH-1 series of helicopters. The pod was designated XM14 by the US army and the same pod was designated SUU-12/A by the US Air Force. Perhaps the most widely used gun pod developed by the US military, fitted with a single GAU-2 7.62×51mm Minigun. This weapon

329-532: A small outlying field , NOLF Webster . Commissioned on April 1, 1943, on land largely acquired through eminent domain , the air station grew rapidly in response to World War II and continued to evolve through the Cold War to the present. The 6,400 acres (26 km ) Naval Air Station Patuxent River site is located in Lexington Park, Maryland , at the confluence of the Patuxent River and

376-683: A smaller version of the GAU-8/A, designated the GAU-13/A , with only four barrels. Podded, the system weights 1,900 lb (860 kg) loaded with 353 rounds of 30 mm ammunition in two helical layers surrounding the gun (for reduction of overall size). The pod is completely self-contained with a rate of fire of 3,000 rpm. Developed by the US Navy, this pod is fitted with the Mk 11 Mod 5 20 mm cannon, along with 750 rounds of ammunition. This pod

423-655: A solution by attaching rotary cannons in a cut-out fuel drop tank, creating an impromptu gun pod suitable for attacking ground targets. Since the Vietnam War, United States Air Force policy has been that the use of multimillion-dollar aircraft for strafing is not economically justified, but the Soviet Union , and subsequently Russia, have remained proponents of strafing, and have continued to develop systems for this purpose. Soviet experience in Afghanistan in

470-635: A weight restriction, weighing more than its predecessor at 1,730 lb (780 kg) loaded with 1,200 rounds of ammunition, and still has the fixed rate of 6,000 rpm. The pod was designated XM25 (possibly standardized as M25) by the US Army and the same pod was designated SUU-23/A by the US Air Force. A lightweight gun pod fitted with the M197 20 mm cannon, the unit weighs only 586 lb (266 kg) loaded with 300 rounds of ammunition. It has selectable fire rates of either 700 rpm or 1,500 rpm. The pod

517-459: A year of construction. Employing some 7,000 at its peak of construction, the area had a Gold Rush "boom town" feel as local residents were joined by workers from all over the country, eager to get on the high-paying jobs on station. On 20 October 1942, U.S. Marines first arrived and took over security. Today, the station utilizes Navy Masters-At-Arms (MA) and Navy Civilian Police Department of Defense Police for standard local law enforcement and

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564-621: Is a United States naval air station located in St. Mary’s County , Maryland , on the Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of the Patuxent River . It is home to Headquarters, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School , the Atlantic Test Range , Patuxent River Naval Air Museum , and serves as a center for test and evaluation and systems acquisition relating to naval aviation . The station also operates

611-682: Is particularly acute with more powerful cannons like the 30mm GPU-5 gun pod . Both hardpoint-mounted and conformal-mount gun pods also cause substantial drag on fast-moving vehicles such as fighter aircraft . Gun pods are commonly carried on military helicopters , and are often fitted to light aircraft to equip them for counter-insurgency operations. Some air arms use gun pods for fighter bombers for use in strafing attacks. [REDACTED] Media related to Aircraft gun pods at Wikimedia Commons Naval Air Station Patuxent River Naval Air Station Patuxent River ( IATA : NHK , ICAO : KNHK , FAA LID : NHK ), also known as NAS Pax River ,

658-789: Is said to have been used on a variety of US Navy and Marine Corps aircraft including the A-4 Skyhawk , F-4 Phantom II , A-7 Corsair II , and OV-10 Bronco . Approximately 1200 Mk 4 Gun Pods were manufactured by Hughes Tool Company, later Hughes Helicopter, in Culver City, California. While the system was tested and certified for use on the A-4, the A-6, the A-7, the F-4, and the OV-10, it only saw extended use on

705-591: Is self-contained and powered by a Ni-Cad rechargeable battery, with sufficient charge to expend three complete loads before needing to be replaced. This weapon has been tested on the A-37 Dragonfly and OV-10 Bronco . Developed under Project Pave Claw, the GPU-5/A was designed to adapt the power of the A-10 Thunderbolt II and its GAU-8/A gun to smaller aircraft. The resulting weapon used

752-561: The Battle of the Coral Sea on 8 May 1942. The town's expansion had begun. The station was commissioned "U.S. Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland" on 1 April 1943. In a ceremony presided over by RADM John S. McCain, Sr. , then chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics , Patuxent River was referred to as "the most needed station in the Navy." The unofficial name had been Cedar Point or

799-398: The Chesapeake Bay on a peninsula known as Cedar Point. Naval Air Station Patuxent River (PAX) operated several landfills and other historical disposal areas. The landfills received solid and hazardous wastes . This included spent oil absorbents, solvents, paints, antifreeze, thinners, pesticides and photo lab wastes, sewage treatment plant sludge, cesspool wastes. In the late 1950s, DDT

846-637: The Naval Air Station at Cedar Point , but officials were concerned about possible confusion with the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point , North Carolina , so the new facility was named for the adjacent river. In 1945 the Test Pilot School was established with the Navy's Flight Test Group transferred from Naval Air Station Anacostia , Washington, DC to NAS Patuxent River. On June 16, 1945,

893-668: The Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . Cedar Point was selected due to its remote location on the coastline, well removed from air traffic congestion, with ample space for weapons testing. The onset of American involvement in World War II spurred establishment of the new air station. Rear Admiral John Henry Towers , Chief of Bureau of Aeronautics, requested approval and authorization to begin construction on December 22, 1941. Secretary of

940-578: The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) for high-profile criminal investigations. During construction, housing needs far outstripped supply, and barracks were built for workers on the station. Later, several housing areas were erected off station for workers and their families in Lexington Park , formerly Jarboesville , named in honor of the USS Lexington , the Navy's second aircraft carrier, lost during

987-609: The North African campaign armed with two 40 mm (1.57 in) Vickers S gun with 15 rounds mounted in gondola-style pods, one under each wing. Lessons learned during the Vietnam War showed the effectiveness of guns. Then expensive fighter jets such as the F-4 didn't even carry an internal cannon. Missiles (thought to be superior) -- in particular radar-guided missiles—had notoriously poor combat track records in air-to-air combat. Engineers and air crews quickly created

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1034-496: The Royal Air Force was a night fighter conversion of the twin engine light bomber equipped with airborne interception radar and armed with four .303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine gun in a special gun pack under the fuselage. The Mk.IVF was a long range fighter version armed with the same gun pack. The RAF Hawker Hurricane Mk.IID of 1942 was an early and extremely successful example of tank busting aircraft of

1081-626: The 1970s. The Grumman F-14 Tomcat , the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II jump jet, and the Lockheed P-3 Orion were just a few of the major aircraft programs undergoing the rigorous test and evaluation process at NAS Patuxent River. Helicopter programs also achieved major milestones during the 1970s. The Naval Air Test Center (NATC) at NAS Patuxent River took part in helicopter development and testing for new roles, such as minesweeping. The final flight of

1128-530: The 1980s led to an unusual innovation in the form of the SPPU series of gun pods, which have traversable barrels allowing them to continue to fire on a fixed target as the aircraft passes overhead. A gun pod typically contains one or more guns, a supply of ammunition, and, if necessary, a power source. Electrically powered cannon, such as the M61 Vulcan , may be powered from the aircraft's electrical system or by

1175-645: The A-4, the F-4, and the OV-10. In the case of the OV-10, the unit was used by VAL-4, a Navy squadron assigned to Bình Thủy District , Vietnam, and was used extensively for close air support missions. Gun pod In World War II the Third Reich's Luftwaffe made use of many different, and most often rigidly mounted, conformal and suspended-mount gun pod systems usually called Waffenbehälter (prefix of WB , literally 'weapon container') or Waffenträger (prefix of WT , literally 'weapon carrier'), and carrying anything from rifle caliber MG 81 machine guns , all

1222-627: The Air Combat Environment Test and Evaluation Facility, the Aircraft Test and Evaluation Facility, and the Captain Steven A. Hazelrigg Flight Test Facility. The physical plant was expanded by new construction: the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School academic building, an Aviation Survival Training Center pool facility and a new air-traffic-control tower . The base's social infrastructure has grown as well. In 2013,

1269-720: The M18 series. Of note, however, was the fact that this system was also tested with the S-2E Tracker by the US Naval Air Test Center, US Naval Air Station, Patuxent River , Maryland . There is no information as to the outcome of these tests, carried out in 1966, which apparently also involved the SUU-11A/A pod mentioned earlier. Similar to the XM12/SUU-16/A, this pod featured a self-powered variant of

1316-593: The M61A1, designated XM130 (may have been standardized as the M130) by the US Army and GAU-4/A by the US Air Force. This modification allowed its carriage on aircraft that could not meet the speed requirement of the previous unit, and reduced drag by removing the ram-air turbine requirement. This pod was popular for use on the F-4C and F-4D Phantom II aircraft, as well as British FG.1 and FGR.2 Phantom IIs . The pod still has

1363-611: The National Command Center and the ballistic missile submarine fleet. Two LTV A-7 Corsair II aircraft made the transatlantic crossing from NAS Patuxent River to Évreux, France, in 1967, racking up 3,327 nautical miles in just over seven hours, an unofficial long-distance, non-refueled flight by light attack jet aircraft. Cooperation with the British led to transatlantic visits to Pax River by RAF squadrons. Research and development at NAS Patuxent River forged ahead in

1410-759: The Naval Air Test Center was established as a separate entity, incorporating flight test and other test groups, at the Naval Air Station. The base became a center for testing as several facilities were constructed throughout the 1950s and 1960s, including the facilities for United States Naval Test Pilot School (1958), the Weapons Systems Test Division (1960), and the Propulsion System Evaluation Facility. The base also served as

1457-474: The Navy, Frank Knox , gave approval on 7 January 1942. Construction began on 4 April 1942. The original civilian residents had about a month, until 1 March 1942, to relocate, as the federal government purchased all the land at a cost of $ 712,287 for 6,412 acres (26 km ), which in 2013 dollars would be the equivalent of being paid $ 1,261 per acre. Many residents were forced to sell land that had been in their families for generations. Some families had roots in

List of U.S. aircraft gun pods - Misplaced Pages Continue

1504-652: The US Navy's OP-2E and AP-2H . It was also tested on the ACH-47A "Guns A-Go-Go" by the US Army and on the UH-1E Iroquois by the US Marine Corps, and were part of standard armament fits for the AH-1 Cobra with both services. A pod developed by the US Army, likely primarily for helicopters, fitted with two M60C 7.62×51mm machine guns. Does not appear to have been standardized, likely in favor of

1551-553: The air station. Known as the U.S. Government Railroad, the rail line was steam-powered and operated south of Brandywine for exclusive official use until 1954, when the Pennsylvania Railroad assumed operation of the line. Rail service ended in 1965, and the line was scrapped, although the right-of-way is still very visible. A highway extension to the new air station was required by the project—250,000 tons of material were transported by either truck or water routes during

1598-730: The area going back 300 years. These included traditional farming, crabbing and fishing families and there were protests. National wartime urgency was felt in Washington at the time to take precedence, and the process of eminent domain went through. A lack of transportation in Saint Mary's County led the Navy to acquire and revitalize a branchline called the Washington, Brandywine and Point Lookout Railroad , aka "The Farmers' Railroad", from Brandywine to Mechanicsville , Maryland , in June 1942 and build an extension south from Mechanicsville to

1645-592: The base rate of fire. The last set of subvariants were designated M18A1 (development of the M18E1) and SUU-11B/A. These featured a slightly higher set of selectable rates of fire, either 3,000 rpm or the high 6,000 rpm. These pods were used on a wide array of US aircraft, primarily during the Vietnam War , including the A-1 Skyraider , A-37 Dragonfly , AC-47 Spooky , AC-119G Shadow , the T-28 Trojan and

1692-407: The engine to stall. When designed to be suspension-mounted on a hardpoint on a typical post-WW II aircraft, gun pods are inherently less accurate than integral guns, or the type of "conformal" gun pods that are faired smoothly into or onto the nearby surfaces of an aircraft, because the "hardpoint" mounting is necessarily less rigid, so that the weapon's recoil produces more deflection. This problem

1739-514: The remaining areas, investigations and remedy selection activities continue. For example, in April 2021 the Navy disclosed at a NAS Patuxent River Restoration Advisory Board meeting that 84,757 ppt of PFOS were detected in the groundwater at Webster Field. Prior to 1937 the area was prime farmland , consisting of several large plantations, Mattapony , Susquehanna , and Cedar Point, as well as numerous tenant and sharecropper properties and

1786-460: The rise of missile usage in the post-WWII period many United States aircraft were produced without internal guns, but it was soon found that guns were still needed both for air-to-air combat and close air support . Gun pods offered a simple means of giving aircraft this capability, with no weight penalty on missions where guns were not required. The United States has developed systems for use both on fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. Developed as

1833-528: The service acceptance trials for the Bell AH-1 SuperCobra gunship was made at NATC Patuxent River. On 1 April 1976, Patuxent River's airfield was named after pioneering aviator VADM Frederick M. Trapnell , a former commander of the Naval Air Test Center at the station. Keynote address speaker, ADM Frederick H. Michaelis , Chief of Naval Material , noted: "All who fly in Navy blue remain indebted to Vice Admiral Trapnell. This field will serve as

1880-747: The testing facility for the V-22 Osprey . In addition to its role in testing naval aircraft, during the 1950s to 1970s Patuxent River served as an operational base for a Transport Squadron - VR-1, a TACAMO squadron - VQ-4, Airborne Training Unit Atlantic - AEWTULANT, and VW-11, VW-13 AN VW-15 and a number of Patrol Squadrons including VP-8 , VP-44, VP-49, VP-24, VP-30 and VP-68. By 1965, reconnaissance Squadron VQ-4, based at NAS Patuxent River, began using Lockheed C-130s equipped with special communications equipment to perform their around-the-clock Take Charge and Move Out (TACAMO) mission. VQ-4 provided long-range, very-low-frequency communications relay between

1927-537: The way up to the enormous Bordkanone anti-tank cannon based ordnance weapon series, ranging from 37 to 75mm in caliber, though the usual underwing conformal gun pods fitted to Bf 109 and Fw 190 single engined fighters used either the MG 151/20 or MK 108 in gun pod mounts. Other countries also used gun pods on their aircraft; the U.S. SBD Dauntless could be equipped with two gun pods on each wing, each with two M2 Browning machine guns . The Bristol Blenheim Mk.1F of

List of U.S. aircraft gun pods - Misplaced Pages Continue

1974-573: Was a branch of the Naval Air Warfare Center, created in 1991, and located in Washington, DC. Its mission was the development and improvement of weapons. The partnership of these two units led to a "flourishing" of aircraft research and development at Patuxent. A number of new laboratory facilities on the forefront of research were created: a manned flight simulator, the Aircraft Anechoic Test Facility,

2021-546: Was designated XM12 (possibly standardized as M12) by the US Army and the same pod was designated SUU-16/A by the US Air Force. It was sometimes mounted on F-4 Phantom aircraft as a stopgap until internal-gun models entered service. A pod developed, likely for helicopters, fitted with a single M75 40 mm grenade launcher. Some sources also mention this as a system tested on the JOV-1A Mohawk . A pod developed for both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, fitted with

2068-504: Was desired. The second set of subvariants, designated XM18E1 (and standardized as the M18) and SUU-11A/A, featured an aircraft-to-pod electric connection, allowing aircraft internal power to be used in providing better starting torque, a de-energized solenoid allowing for better round clearing at low rates of fire, and circuitry that allowed for selectable rates of fire. The options were either 2,000 rpm or 4,000 rpm, both significantly lower than

2115-456: Was produced in three generations, with separate designations applied by both the US Army and US Air Force. The first was the XM18 and SUU-11/A, which featured a standard version of the weapon encased in an aerodynamic pod. This weapon was unmodified and fired at a rate of 6,000 rpm. The fact that the weapon only fed from a drum containing 1,500 rounds of ammunition meant that a slower rate of fire

2162-661: Was sprayed and from 1962–1989 various pesticides, including fungicides and insecticides and herbicides, were used, contaminating the ground surface water and groundwater. Base residential housing was within a quarter mile. In May 1994, PAX was added to the Superfund program's National Priorities List . As of 2022, several areas were considered "cleaned up" after removing contaminated soil, but there are ongoing maintenance activities such as monitoring and treatment of landfill gas , groundwater, and using land use controls and institutional controls, eg. restricting fish consumption. At

2209-679: Was used as a filming location for the Harrison Ford film Random Hearts (1999). Ford and director Sydney Pollack both visited Naval Air Station Patuxent River. Ford, a certified pilot, flew the aircraft himself. In January 1992, the Pax River Station acquired the Aircraft Division of the Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWCAD). The Naval Test Wing Atlantic (NTWL) was already located there, which

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