DEFA 551 (30 mm)

Description

The DEFA 551 is a French 30 mm revolver cannon based on the German Mauser MG 213C, an experimental cannon designed for Luftwaffe. Its production started in early '50s and was used on some French made planes like the S.O.4050. In War Thunder it has many sub-versions that are used on other French jet fighters.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• S.O.4050 Vautour IIA
• Vautour IIA
• Vautour IIA IDF/AF
• S.O.4050 Vautour IIN
• Vautour IIN

General info

The DEFA 551 cannons can fire up to 1,200 rounds per minute, the AP bullets velocity is 790 m/s and for the HE bullets it is 810 m/s. The one second burst mass is 5.21 kg. Every HE shell carries 27 grams of explosive, enough to heavily damage any plane with a single hit. The only drawback of this cannon is poor accuracy, much worse than in 20 mm cannons, hitting any small target from more than 800 m away can be a problem.

Available ammunition

• Default: API-T · HEI · HEF
• Air targets: HEF · HEI · HEF · HEI · API-T
• Ground targets: HEI · API-T · API-T · API-T
• Stealth: HEF · HEI

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
	10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
HEI	4	4	4	4	4	4
HEF	4	4	3	3	3	3
API-T	35	32	21	13	8	5

Shell details
Ammunition	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
						0%	50%	100%
HEI	820	0.24	0.2	0.1	85	79°	80°	81°
HEF	820	0.24	0.2	0.1	47.6	79°	80°	81°
API-T	760	0.28	-	-	-	47°	60°	65°

Comparison with analogues

The other cannons with similar characteristics are the Russian NR-30, the British ADEN and other subversions of the DEFA cannon. All of them share similar shell velocity close to ~800 m/s and the damage amount they cause, landing a few hits on the other plane will end up very badly for it. Bullet types used by the ADEN and DEFA cannon are basically the same, available belts too. The NR-30 has lower rate of fire, but much better accuracy, also its bullets have considerably more of explosive mass.

Usage in battles

Since it can carry only 100 bullets per magazine it can fire for only a few seconds, so it is the best to fire at the target when the chance of hitting it is the highest, so basically when it is flying at low speed and when it cannot perform any high speed high G manoeuvres. The other aspect that can make it difficult against the other jets is mediocre shell velocity speed compared to machine guns like the M3 Browning or the FMC T-160 revolver cannon. The AP shell penetration is quite high so it also can be used against the ground units, especially those used in air battles and tanks from the top, or the wheeled vehicles ones like the Centauro.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• High rate of fire
• Very high one-second burst mass
• Can be used in many roles, good penetration against ground units
• Mediocre accuracy at longer range
• Good damage output

Cons:

• Mediocre shell velocity
• Very low amount of bullets in magazine

History

Examine the history of the creation and combat usage of the weapon in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the weapon and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Weapon-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />.

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

• ADEN (30 mm)
• DEFA 541 (30 mm)
• DEFA 552 (30 mm)
• DEFA 552A (30 mm)
• DEFA 553 (30 mm)
• NR-30 (30 mm)
• Akan m/55 (30 mm)

External links

• Historical Development Summary of Automatic Cannon Caliber Ammunition: 20-30 Millimeter