MG 151 (20 mm)

This page is about the German autocannon MG 151 (20 mm). For the 15 mm version, see MG 151 (15 mm).

Description

The Mauser 20 mm MG 151/20 is a German 20 mm aircraft cannon converted from the 15 mm MG 151/15 cannon to a 20 mm after combat evaluation proved a larger high-explosive shell to be more effective than a high-velocity shell.

General info

The 20 mm MG 151 has a fire rate of 700 rounds per minute. The gun is reasonably accurate with decent shell trajectory.

Available ammunition

The key features of the MG 151 is the special Minengeschoß (lit. "mine shell") high-explosive ammunition. This Minengeschoß round was specifically made with a thin tungsten casing to contain more explosive filler (usually 50% more than regular HE shell) and thus were extremely effective against enemy aircraft.

Aircraft

• Default: IT · IT · APHE · HEI
• Universal: IT · HEI · HEI · AP-I
• Air targets: AP-I · HEI · HEI · HEI · HEI · IT
• Armoured targets: APHE · APHE · APHE · IT
• Tracers: FI-T · FI-T · FI-T · IT · IT
• Stealth: HEI · HEI · HEI · APHE · AP-I

• Default (turret): IT · HEI · APHE · AP-I
• Armoured targets (turret): AP-I · AP-I · APHE · IT · AP-I
• Universal (turret): IT · HEI · HEI

Penetration statistics
Belt	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
	10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
Default	27	25	18	12	8	6
Universal	27	25	18	12	8	5
Air targets	27	25	18	12	8	5
Armoured targets	27	25	18	12	8	6
Tracers	26	25	18	12	8	6
Stealth	27	24	18	12	8	6
Default (turret)	27	25	18	12	8	6
Armoured targets (turret)	27	25	18	12	8	6
Universal (turret)	26	25	18	12	8	5

Tanks

• Default: HEFI-T · AP-I

Penetration statistics
Belt	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
	10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
Default	26	24	17	11	7	5

Ships

• Universal: HEFI-T · API-T · API-T
• 20 mm HE belts: HEFI-T · HEFI-T · HEFI-T · API-T
• 20 mm AP belts: API-T · API-T · API-T · HEFI-T

Penetration statistics
Belt	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
	10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
Universal	26	24	18	12	8	6
20 mm HE belts	26	24	18	12	8	6
20 mm AP belts	26	24	18	12	8	6

Comparison with analogues

Give a comparative description of cannons/machine guns that have firepower equal to this weapon.

Usage in battles

The 20 mm MG 151 is very dangerous against air targets due to the Minengeschoß shell, which makes the MG 151/20 arguably the best 20 mm cannon against air targets. Unless other ammunition is needed for a specific reason, always choose the ammo belt with most Minengeschoß available.

With "air targets" belt, it usually take a short burst of 20 - 30 rounds to take down an average fighter, 30 - 50 rounds for a heavy fighter or a ground attack aircraft, and 100 - 150 rounds for a heavy bomber. Due to the gun's fast rate of fire, however, it is quite easy to empty all of the ammo before you managed to finish the targets without proper aiming, especially without the help of gun pods. Thus, the MG 151 will often requires trigger discipline for better results, with an ace being achiveable in a single sortle with a proper ammo conservation.

However, despite the MG 151's stellar characteristics, the gun is also infamous due to its poor stock performances. Owning to the fact that only 1/4 of its stock belt contains the "Minengeschoß" round, while the other rounds were a near-useless incendiary shell with a performance akin to that of a practice shell found on the Hispano autocannons, as well as a poor APHE rounds that often over-penetrates the enemy airframe and thus were unable not detonate. Due to this, it is best to treat the stock MG 151 like an oversized heavy machine guns. Firing a long burst to get more chance of hitting the enemy with Minengeschoß rounds until the upgraded belts is available.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Minengeschoß shell (an improved HEI shell) provides a lot of hitting power against aircraft
• Larger ammo count than the other German 20 mm cannons
• Higher muzzle velocity than the other German 20 mm cannons
• Faster firing and less prone to jamming than the Allied Hispano variants

Cons:

• Its stock belt is notoriously unreliable due to the ineffective incendiary and APHE shell
• Still lower muzzle velocity compared to most machine guns
• Ineffective against armoured ground targets, even with APHE shells
• Tracer and HEI (Minengeschoß) have slightly different trajectories which reiterate knowing your ammunition

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

Images

• 

  MG 151/20

Videos

Top 7 Autocannons discusses the MG 151 (20 mm) at 03:33 - War Thunder Official Channel

See also

• AN/M2 (20 mm)
• MG 151/15 (15 mm) - Gun from which the MG 151/20 cannon was adapted
• ShVAK (20 mm)
• Hispano Mk.I (20 mm) Hispano Mk.II (20 mm)
• Hispano 404 (20 mm)

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

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

Sweden aircraft cannons
20 mm	Akan m/41A · Akan m/45 · Akan m/47B · Akan m/47C · Akan m/49 · Oerlikon FF
27 mm	Akan m/85
30 mm	Akan m/55 · Akan m/75
57 mm	Akan m/47
	Foreign:
20 mm	MG FF (Germany) · MG 151 (Germany)
23 mm	GSh-23L (USSR)
30 mm	2A42 (USSR) · M230E-1 (USA) · MK 108 (Germany)