Girish Mahajan (Editor)

EX 17 Heligun

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Type
  
Machine gun

Length
  
760 mm

Caliber
  
7.62 mm

Weight
  
13,6– 15 kg

Cartridge
  
7.62×51mm NATO

Barrels
  
2

The EX-17 Heligun is a two-barrel 7.62 mm calibre machine gun. The weapon is gas-operated and was developed by Hughes Aircraft for use in the OH-6 recon helicopter.

Overview

The Heligun was developed by Hughes Aircraft as part of a complete package for the OH-6 recon helicopter. It offered a number of significant advantages over the Minigun – it was half the weight, self-powered (not electrically driven), and had a higher 6000RPM firing rate. Ultimately, it was not adopted because the reliability (mean time between stoppages) couldn’t quite be brought up to par, and US Army officials decided that it didn’t offer enough improvement over the already adopted M134 Minigun to be worth the switch.

References

EX-17 Heligun Wikipedia