Miniguns in the Movie Black Hawk Down

J

Joe Taylor

New member
Does anybody out there know what sort of guns that were used in the motion picture, "Black Hawk Down?" They are these really wicked, mulit-barreled machine guns that spit many-a-rounds. For what I have been able to gather, they were/are Miniguns. Is this coorect? What caliber are they? What are/were their mian uses?
 
According to the director Ridley Scott, on the DVD making of featurette, the Black Hawks were actual Army helos and the miniguns were the real McCoy. 7.62mm Nato caliber, c. 6,000 rounds per minute.

The Apaches (Advanced Attack Helo) my brother had in his company were equipped with a chain gun, can't remember the caliber but it was 20 or 30mm. My guess is if the Rangers had had the AAH there would have been a large grease slick in Bokara Market, rather than the raging mob. :eek:
 
I think they are the M134, but I could be mistaken. Very effective, though. :D

I believe the AH-64 uses the 30mm. I have one ( a dud) upstairs in my room. You thought a .50 was big, wait till you wrap your hands around this! Take a direct hit, and I'm pretty certain the back half of you would be gone (due to the exit wound). Then again, they were made for taking out tanks, not as Anti-personnel. :D

Nick R.
 
Yep, real GE Miniguns..very kewl :D

Apaches wouldn't have provided any better fire support for the troops on the ground then the AH-6 Little Birds did. The Apache was designed to pop up from behind cover and loose off a Hellfire at a T80 tank from about 8 klicks. Everything is set up to be employed from a hover, including the chain gun. This was a weakness we learned about the hard way in Afghanistan. The air was too thin at the altitudes we fought at wouldn't permit the Apaches to employ their weapons from a hover. They had to do some OJT to even get the Apache crews into strafing. The SuperCobras that the Marines had in the area were much more effective then the Apache.

Probably the best rotary wing support for TF Ranger would have been the AH1 Cobra, or even the older UH1M gunship. Ironically the 10th Mountain Division had Cobras in country at the time, but they were never used in the battle.

Jeff
 
Spooky is a C-47, Puff is a C-130, and Spectre is an updated AC-130, but it's got a 105mm Howitzer, a 40mm cannon, and a 25mm mini(gatling?) gun (right? I just did a little research.) There may be a C-130 titled Spooky, but the one I remember is the C-47 version.

Nick R.
 
I think that Puff was the nickname that preceded the official call sign of Spooky for the AC-47. The AC-119 was Stinger and AC-130 is and was Spectre. Sensop can probably address that better.

Here is a link to the history of the gunship.

http://www.afa.org/magazine/April1999/0499gunships.html

I have seen a minigun firing at the Flagstaff MG shoot and it is an amazing sight and sound show.

TT
 
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