Akan m/39A (12.7 mm)

Description

The 12.7 mm Akan m/39A is a Swedish aircraft machine gun. It is equipped on some of their early jet fighters.

The Akan m/39A, originally based on the Browning machine gun, was a conversion of the license-produced 13.2 mm Hotchkiss-cartridge chambered Akan m/39A back into the original 12.7x99 mm (or .50 BMG) cartridge.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• A21RB
• J21RA

General info

The 12.7 mm Akan m/39A was basically a rebarrelled version of the 13.2 mm Akan m/39A. The gun had all the same proportions and technical details but was rebarrelled to the more common Browning .50 cal (12.7 x 99 mm) ammunition instead of the worldwide less common Hotchkiss calibre of .52 in (13.2 x 99 mm). Since 12.7 mm ammunition was cheaper to buy than the cost to produce new 13.2 mm ammunition, all 13.2 mm weapons were re-chambered during the post-war era, and after 1950 basically all Swedish weapons fired the new cartridge. Other specifications remained unchanged.

Commonly mistaken with the Browning M2 (due to the same calibre) the Akan m/39A featured a modified electrical firing mechanism rating it from 600 rpm to 1500 rpm. The gun was used as secondary armament for tanks with a reduced rate of fire (720 rpm) as well as standard armament for a variety of Swedish late- and post-WW2 aircraft such as the Saab 18, Saab 21, and the predecessor FFVS J22B with a rate of 1080 rpm.

Available ammunition

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Comparison with analogues

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Usage in battles

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Pros and cons

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History

The 13.2 mm FN Browning was developed by FN as an improved version the Browning .50 in (12.7 mm) air-cooled MG53 aircraft machine gun. Improvements to the original design included: making the weapon lighter, increasing the rate of fire and offering it in not just 12.7×99mm Browning, but also 13.2×99mm Hotchkiss,[10] the latter cartridge effectively being a 12.7×99mm Browning cartridge but with a caliber of 13.2 mm (0.52 in).[11] The 13.2×99mm Hotchkiss cartridge was the initial cartridge developed for the 13.2 mm Hotchkiss machine gun, being replaced by the 13.2×96mm Hotchkiss cartridge in 1935,[11] and was thus used and produced by a wide variety of countries in Europe. To further improve on the design, FN developed a high-explosive shell against air targets for the 13.2×99mm Hotchkiss cartridge, purpose built for the 13.2 mm FN Browning.

Media

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See also

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External links

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