ShKAS (7.62 mm)
Contents
Description
The ShKAS (7.62 mm) (Shpitalny-Komaritski Aviatsionny Skorostrelny or Shipitalny-Komaritski rapid-fire for aircraft – Russian: ШКАС - Шпитального-Комарицкого Авиационный Скорострельный) is a 7.62 mm caliber machine gun which was first produced in 1933 for usage in Soviet aircraft which saw action all the way through World War II in many of the fighters, attackers and bombers of the day. The ShKAS is a single chamber, gas-operated revolver-type machine gun in which a firing pin strikes the primer of the bullet in the chamber to fire the round.
Vehicles equipped with this weapon
General info
The designers Boris Shpitalniy and Irinarkh Komaritsky departed from traditional methods of feeding belt linked ammunition into the ShKAS and utilised a feed design nicknamed "bird-cage" or "squirrel-cage".[1] Even declassified documents regarding the United States' evaluation of the feed system stated, "…an interesting departure was made from the heretofore orthodox practice of feeding ammunition to a gun of this caliber [sic]." [2]
The ammunition belt enters the feed cage forward of the firing chamber. When the gun is fired, a gas piston actuates an arm connected to the cylindrical feed cage, rotating it one position to introduce the new bullet. As the feed cage (holding ten rounds) rotates a helical groove and guides the bullets rearward. Through this process of working the bullets rearwards, they are automatically delinked from the metal disintegrating link belt. The rounds make it to the final position at the bottom of the drum where they are then chambered into the receiver, ready to be fired.
One of the benefits of this feed system is during the camming of the rounds; there is relatively no drag on the ammunition allowing the gun to be fired at high rates of speed; however, prolonged actuation can provoke these guns to jam. Rates of fire could be regulated through changing of the holes in the gas regulator, three different hole sizes going from largest to smallest would slow down the rate of fire to a more moderate rate.
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The ShKAS machine gun had a high rate of fire but it also had 48 ways of jamming. Some of them could be fixed immediately, some could not. And 1,800 rounds a minute was an insanely high rate of fire. If you pulled the trigger too long, the ShKAS would fire all its ammo in one go and that would be it!![3]
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Available ammunition
- Default: T · Ball · Ball · AP-I · AI
- Universal: AP-I · AI · API-T
- Tracers: AP-I · API-T
- Stealth: AP-I · AP-I · AP-I · AI
- Armored targets (turret): AP-I · AP-I · AP-I · API-T
- Universal (turret): API-T · API-T · API-T · AI
Comparison with analogues
| Comparable machine guns to ShKAS (7.62 mm) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Year of Creation | Mass | Rounds Per Minute | Ammunition | Feed Type | |
| ▃ | Browning (7.62 mm) | 1919 | 14 kg | 600 RPM | 7.62 x 63 mm | Belt |
| ▅ | Type 92 navy (7.7 mm) | 1932 | 8 kg | 600 RPM | 7.7 x 56 mm R | Drum |
| ▄ | Darne 1933 (7.5 mm) | 1916 | 8.4 kg | 1,100 RPM | 7.5 x 54 mm MAS | Belt |
| ▄ | Breda-SAFAT (7.7 mm) | 1935 | 12.5 kg | 850 RPM | 7.7 x 56 mm R | Belt |
| ▀ | MG 17 (7.92 mm) | 1934 | 10.2 kg | 1,150 RPM | 7.92 x 57 mm | Belt |
| ▄ | MAC 1934 (7.5 mm) | 1934 | 10.7 kg | 1,450 RPM | 7.5 x 54 mm MAS | Belt/Magazine |
Usage in battles
Describe the cannon/machine gun in the game - its distinctive features, tactics of usage against notable opponents. Please don't write a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- The fastest firing rifle-calibre machine gun in WWII
- Every belt is extremely effective at causing fires on enemy aircraft (tracers and stealth are the most effective)
- Incredibly easy to knock out gunners and pilots on enemy aircraft (or exposed crew members on ground and naval forces)
- If fired in short bursts, most aircraft can make a belt last an entire game in realistic battle
Cons:
- Can easily jam. It is recommended to fire in bursts lasting no longer than one second
History
Shpitalny - Komaritsky Aircraft High-Speed Machine Gun. The first production ShKAS guns were made in 1933, and its first combat use was in the Spanish civil war.
By 1941, more than 34,000 ShKAS machine guns had been produced, and acquitted themselves very well in the field. They were made in several variants, including wing-mounted, flexible, and synchronized for different applications. Several other versions were experimented with or made in small quantity like the reciprocating-barrel UltraShKAS (rate of fire: 3000rpm) and a mechanical linking of two ShKAS guns to achieve a combined rate of 6400rpm. These were not widely used, though, as the 7.62m cartridge was unable to keep up with improvements in aircraft armor. Instead, the basic design was scaled up to produce the 20mm ShVAK cannon.
Media
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- shVAK
External links
References
- ↑ Hogg, I. V. (1991). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Firearms. Secausus, NJ: Chartwell Books. ISBN:978-0-906286-41-8 p. 279.
- ↑ Chinn, G. M. (1952). The Machine Gun (7th ed., Vol. 2). Washington D.C: U.S. Department of the Navy. p. 78-79.
- ↑ Drabkin, A. (2007). Red air force at war Barbarossa and the retreat to Moscow - recollections o. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, U.K.: Pen & Sword Books. ISBN:1-84415-563-3.
| Aircraft machine guns | |
|---|---|
| USA | |
| 7.62 mm | Browning · M134 Minigun |
| 12.7 mm | GAU-19 · M2 Browning · M3 Browning |
| Germany | |
| 7.62 mm | MG3 |
| 7.92 mm | MG 15 · MG 17 · MG 81 |
| 12.7 mm | FN M3P |
| 13 mm | MG 131 |
| USSR | |
| 7.62 mm | DA · GShG-7.62 · PKT · PV-1 · ShKAS |
| 12.7 mm | A-12.7 · Berezin UB · TKB-481 · YaK-B |
| Britain | |
| 7.62 mm | FN 60.30 · L8A1 |
| 7.7 mm | Browning · Lewis · Vickers E · Vickers K |
| Japan | |
| 7.7 mm | Te-1 · Type 89 · Type 89 'special' · Type 92 · Type 97 navy |
| 7.92 mm | Type 1 · Type 98 |
| 12.7 mm | Ho-103 · Ho-104 |
| 13 mm | Type 2 |
| 13.2 mm | Type 3 |
| China | |
| 12.7 mm | QJK99-12.7-1 |
| Italy | |
| 7.7 mm | Breda-SAFAT · Lewis |
| 7.92 mm | FN Browning |
| 12.7 mm | Breda-SAFAT · FN M3M · Scotti |
| France | |
| 7.5 mm | Darne 1933 · Fabrique Nationale Mle 38 · FN Browning · MAC 1934 · MAC 1934T · Mle 33 · Mle 1923 |
| 7.62 mm | PKA |
| 7.92 mm | FN-Browning M.36 No.3 · FN-Browning M.36 No.4 |
| Sweden | |
| 7.7 mm | FN-Browning M.36 No.3 |
| 8 mm | Ksp m/22 · Ksp m/22 Fh · Ksp m/22 Fv · Ksp m/22-37 R |
| 12.7 mm | Akan m/39A · Akan m/40 · Akan m/45 · LKk/42 |
| 13.2 mm | Akan m/39 · Akan m/39A |
