Orbital ATK Demonstrates MK44 Bushmaster Chain Gun in 30mm and 40mm Configurations
June 27 2017 - 8:22AM
Business Wire
Company’s Advanced Ammunition Initiative
Making Rapid Progress
Demonstration to be Featured on Outdoor
Channel’s “GunnyTime with R. Lee Ermey”
Orbital ATK (NYSE: OA), a global leader in aerospace and defense
technologies, provided its customer and partner base a live
demonstration of its MK44 Bushmaster® Chain Gun® firing a variety
of both 30mm and 40mm ammunition during the company’s Bushmaster
User Conference at Big Sandy Range, Arizona. The gathering of
domestic and international attendees watched as the MK44 guns hit
targets before and after a rapid changeover from a 30mm to a 40mm
configuration. The MK44 Chain Gun will be featured on the 2017
season premiere episode of “GunnyTime with R. Lee Ermey” on Outdoor
Channel beginning Wednesday, June 28, featuring Ermey firing the
MK44 Chain Gun with Orbital ATK’s 30mm and 40mm Airbursting
Ammunition.
“The MK44 is quickly becoming the most sought after
medium-caliber cannon,” said Dan Olson, Vice President and General
Manager of the Armament Systems Division of Orbital ATK’s Defense
Systems Group. “Today’s battlefield call for greater standoff and
increased firepower is driving new combat vehicle platforms to
include larger guns and advanced ammunition types. The same is true
for upgrade programs.”
Attendees of the live-fire demonstration saw the MK44 Chain Gun,
mounted to a Kongsberg Protector Turret and General Dynamics Land
Systems Light Armored Vehicle, engage a variety of adobe, concrete
block and steel panel targets in 30mm configuration using
high-explosive incendiary ammunition. Additionally, the MK44 was
set up with Orbital ATK’s proprietary air-bursting munition
fuze-setting equipment to demonstrate the gun’s ability to
precisely fire several rounds in rapid succession with
point-bursting accuracy, both horizontally and vertically across
the target.
In addition to the air-bursting capability, Orbital ATK is
developing other precision technologies for its medium-caliber
ammunition, including proximity detonating and command guidance
that are compatible with its medium-caliber cannons. These two new
advanced capabilities will be demonstrated at the Bushmaster Users
Conference in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
The MK44 Bushmaster Chain Gun is available new as a 30mm or 40mm
weapon. At the completion of the 30mm demonstration, the system was
easily “upgunned” in about an hour’s time and readied to fire 40mm
ammunition. The demonstration in the 40mm configuration showed the
increased firepower that the 40mm cannon and ammunition provided
engaged against similar target panels. The weapon also fired
Orbital ATK’s newly developed 40mm Programmable Air Burst Munitions
(PABM) with dramatic effects on a replicated target set in a
combat-defilade position.
Industry partners General Dynamics Land Systems, Kongsberg and
Orbital ATK are upgrading the U.S. Army’s Second Cavalry Regiment’s
Stryker fleet with a similar system integrating the Protector
MCT-30 turret and a variant of the MK44 30mm Bushmaster Chain Gun,
designated the XM813. Once fielded, the complete Stryker system
will offer combat crews greater protection as they will be able to
fight under armor with a leap ahead in firepower, reliability and
effectiveness through the addition of a vehicle main gun.
Orbital ATK is developing and qualifying an entire Super 40mm
family of ammunition to include Target Practice with Tracer, High
Explosive Incendiary with Tracer and an Armor Penetrating Fin
Stabilized Discarding Sabot with Tracer round, as well as the PABM
showcased during the Bushmaster User Conference.
Orbital ATK’s Defense Systems Group is an industry leader in
providing innovative and affordable precision and strike weapons,
advanced propulsion and hypersonics, missile components across
air-, sea- and land-based systems, ammunition and related energetic
products.
About Orbital ATK
Orbital ATK is a global leader in aerospace and defense
technologies. The company designs, builds and delivers space,
defense and aviation systems for customers around the world, both
as a prime contractor and merchant supplier. Its main products
include launch vehicles and related propulsion systems; missile
products, subsystems and defense electronics; precision weapons,
armament systems and ammunition; satellites and associated space
components and services; and advanced aerospace structures.
Headquartered in Dulles, Virginia, Orbital ATK employs
approximately 12,500 people in 18 states across the U.S. and in
several international locations. For more information, visit
www.orbitalatk.com.
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Orbital ATKMedia Contact:Jarrod Krull,
763-744-5371Defense Systems Group
Communicationsjarrod.krull@orbitalatk.comorInvestor
Contact:Barron Beneski, 703-406-5528Public and Investor
Relationsbarron.beneski@orbitalatk.com
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