GSh-30-1 (30 mm)

Description

The Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-30-1 autocannon (GRAU 9A-4071K), aka Type 30-4 after reverse-engineered by CSGC Xi'an Kunlun Industry, is currently the most common 30 mm single-barrel autocannon used by Soviet/Russian jets and their PLAAF derivatives. With its high caliber for its era, enemy jets will face very severe damage from short bursts from GSh-30-1.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• MiG-29
• ◊MiG-29
• ◄MiG-29G
• MiG-29SMT
• Yak-141
• Su-27
• J-11

General info

Gun characteristics
Caliber	30x165 mm w/electric-fired primer
Mass	46 kg
RoF	1800 RPM
Principle	Gas operated short-recoil

Available ammunition

• Default: AP-T · HEF-I
• Universal: AP-T · HEF-I · APHE · HEF-I
• Ground targets: AP-T · APHE · AP-T · APHE
• Air targets: AP-T · HEF-I · HEF-I
• Stealth: APHE · HEF-I · HEF-I

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
	10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
APHE	42	40	34	28	23	19
HEF-I	7	6	6	5	4	3
AP-T	55	53	45	37	31	25

Shell details
Ammunition	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
						0%	50%	100%
APHE	860	0.39	1.2	1	22.48	47°	60°	65°
HEF-I	860	0.39	0.2	0.1	74.69	79°	80°	81°
AP-T	860	0.4	-	-	-	47°	60°	65°

Comparison with analogues

GSh-30-2 - The Gast-principle 30 mm autocannon for Su-25 series or post-Mi-24P helicopters; having almost double RoF while maintain similar firepower.

GSh-6-30 - The rotary (Gatling) 30 mm autocannon exclusively for MiG-27 series at almost tripled RoF but with similar firepower.

Mauser BK27 - German revolver at similar RoF while having slightly higher penetration.

Usage in battles

The designer duo V. Gryazev and A. Shipunov, who could be said as the most well-known autocannon designers of Soviet Union, developed the GSh-30-1 to replace previous NR-30 developed way back in 1950s; thanks to the well refined design of GSh-30-1 and its short-recoil action, it can achieve sufficiently high than all its predecessors in Soviet service (for comparison, NR-30 is topped at 1000 RPM while GSh-30-1 can go up to 1500-1800 RPM) albeit slower than most of its competitors in NATO services with rotary cannons. While the damage is more than enough to tear down enemy jets with a short burst, be sure to make every ammo counts as the gun only has at most 150 shells, sometimes even lower such as Yak-141 with only 120 shells; utilizing the radar (both radar and IRST) or HMD is a good idea to maximize efficiency as it can calculates the trajectory of cannon against designated targets.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Devastating firepower against enemy aerial targets
• Sufficient penetration for occasional ground-attack operations

Cons:

• Low ammo pool (up to 150 shells)
• Relatively less RoF than Gast/rotary autocannons (i.e. GSh-30-2; M61A1)

History

Soviet Union has been an user of 30 mm caliber autocannons for decades since 1950s with their introduction of NR-30 for MiG-19 series; while the gun has been proved reliable, debates for the existence of autocannons onboard interceptors were also a major consideration during the development of MiG-29 and Su-27 series to further reduce weight. The NR-30 was too large to be fitted into the fuselage while the "smaller caliber" GSh-6-23 rotary cannon is also too large for both aircraft (which was the gun for MiG-31), thus Vasily Gryazev and Arkady G. Shipunov cooperated yet again for a compact gun with higher RoF; the newly-developed GSh-30-1 completed its development in 1977 and were installed on the aforementioned jets as their spare weapon (Note: according to tests, the barrel life is only at 2000 rounds while continuous fire and emptying the ammo chamber will further reduce its life).

Soon after the deal for licensing Su-27SK for domestic assembly/production in Mainland China as the J-11 Flanker-B, PLAAF also introduced the license for domestic production of GSh-30-1 as the Type 30-4 autocannon installed on the J-11B Flanker-L since 2007, produced by Factory 847 (CSGC Xi'an Kunlun Industry).

Media

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

See also

30x165 mm autocannons developed by Vasily Gryazev and Arkady G. Shipunov

• GSh-30-2 - Gast-gun with no technological connection with GSh-30-1
• GSh-6-30 - Rotary gun

Comparable autocannons

• Mauser BK27 - Revolver gun used on JAS39 series and Tornado
• NR-30/Type 30-1 - 30x155 mm autocannon, the predecessor used by VVS and PLAAF

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.