Tag Archives: FN M3

A closer look at Jolly’s new guns

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The new Jolly runs FN’s updated EGM on both sides of the airframe

The next generation of “Jolly Green Giants” ride shotgun with a new gun mount system that was developed for the Air Force by FN. 

The mission of Combat Search and Rescue, or C-SAR, helicopters for the Air Force dates to Vietnam, where large camouflage-painted Sikorsky HH-3Es were given armor and machine guns for protection. Nicknamed the “Jolly Green Giant” for obvious reasons, the HH-3E was replaced by the smaller but more modern HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters in the 1980s. Then, with the Pave Hawks showing their age, the Air Force in 2016 embarked on a program to field the new HH-60W Jolly Green II Combat Rescue Helicopter. 

And the service wanted the next generation of Jolly Green to tote a better weapons suite, with FN getting the call from HH60W contractor Lockheed Martin to come up with something special.

Whereas FN already made the fast-firing (1,100 rounds per minute) M3 .50-caliber machine gun – which the Marines had already fielded as the GAU-21 – and a Medium Pintle System to mount it on helicopters, the new flexible mount on the HH-60W was made capable of carrying either the Air Force’s legacy GAU-18 .50-caliber machine gun with a 650- to 800-rounds-per-minute fire rate as carried on the HH-60 Pave Hawk, the M3/GAU-21, and the GAU-2, a 7.62mm NATO caliber electric M134 minigun with a 3,000 rounds-per-minute fire rate.  

The Air Force performed live-fire testing on the HH-60W Jolly Green Giant in August 2020 at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida “to verify the weapons systems functionality, accuracy, and to demonstrate the guns are safe to employ operationally.” (U.S. Air Force photos by Tech. Sgt. John Raven)

Further, the new mounts allowed the helicopter’s left- and right-side mounted guns to rotate independently, providing an almost 360-degree firing arc – including straight ahead. 

“This unique hybrid solution offers the user the capability to maximize the use of the machine gun in a wide firing window, allowing both lateral and fixed forward protection or target engagement,” notes FN. “It allows suppressive fire against light armored vehicles, suppressive fire in landing zones, and ground and aerial threat suppression.”

FN announced this month the company delivered 10 prototype mounts between 2016 and mid-2019 for use in initial flight operations and Air Force validation tests.

This was followed with 25 shipsets (each of two mounts in left-hand side and right-hand side configurations along with dedicated ammunition boxes for each caliber) delivered by October 2022, at which time the Air Force declared the HH-60W “combat ready.”  

The company began full-rate production of what is now dubbed the FN External Mount Gun System last November. Soon after, the Air Force announced that the 347th Rescue Group, operating with HH-60Ws, rescued two U.S. service members from a battlefield in the Horn of Africa in late December, the aircraft’s first CASEVAC mission.

Ultimately, the Air Force program of record calls for 113 helicopters to be delivered. 

The lost Fast 50s of the Kiowa

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Although the Bell Helicopter OH-58D Kiowa Warriors have been withdrawn (regretfully) from service, the air frame design dates back to Vietnam and had served the Army well for five decades. In its final form the Kiowa packed some serious hardware.

Originally part of the Army’s retired Avenger air defense system, the FN-made M3P .50 caliber heavy machine gun is a thing of beauty. We are talking about a 81-pound 12.7x99mm NATO BMG with a three-foot long barrel. Big deal right? Sounds like the standard M2 Ma Duece, right? Well this bad boy, instead of the M2s sedate and hypnotic 400-ish rounds per minute rate of fire, the M3P runs at up to 1100.

About three times faster…

This made the rapid fire .50, with its effective range on soft targets out to 3,000 meters and lightly armored vehicles at about half that, a sweet option to up-arm Kiowas headed to the sandbox.

In 2004 experiments with the M3P side-mounted on an OH-58 at Rucker were successful, leading to an Operational Needs Statement in 2007.

M3P .50 caliber machine gun on bell jet ranger FN test

M3P .50 caliber machine gun on bell jet ranger FN test

“The Avenger system was being phased out because there is no current air threat,” said Maj. Kirk McCauley, assistant product manager for Kiowa Warrior, PEO for Aviation in 2009. “They were being turned in and some 800 guns were being taken off and put in storage.

“The guns were in various stages of readiness. But they were also government-owned. Instead of developing something new, we decided to take a proven system and adapt it and save money.”

oh 58 with M3P .50 caliber machine gun

Once the machine gun was chosen, it needed a mounting system (platform) that would attach it to the Kiowa helicopter. The MOPP Shop competed with two military contractors in developing a mounting system.

“As work on a firing platform progressed, it became apparent to us that we weren’t so sure that the military contractors would have the platform that was needed for the job,” said Gary Henry, chief of the MOPP Shop’s Sustainment Support Division, Integrated Materiel Management Center.

“Through a combined effort, we came up with a platform to mount the gun on the Kiowa’s universal weapons pylon. Our platform design is solely based on the talents of the guys in our machine shop. Without that platform, our gun would not have been selected.”

OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter systems repairer with Troop D, 2nd Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade loading hopper with 50 cal

OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter systems repairer with Troop D, 2nd Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade loading hopper with 50 cal

The Kiowa’s M3P system uses the existing Kiowa Warrior ammo can, the Avenger feed chute and a simple, lightweight mount designed by the MOPP shop. The new mount attaches the M3P directly to the Universal Weapons Pylon (UWP) and eliminates a cumbersome gun cage assembly.

Test data from fielding with the 7/17th showed that the MOPP Shop’s mount and gun system was durable, reduced the noise level by 48 percent and dropped the weight of the system by 65 pounds.

OH-58F with M3P .50 caliber machine gun

OH-58F with M3P .50 caliber machine gun

In the end at least 380 M3Ps were fitted to the Kiowa fleet, and fired in excess of 100,000 rounds in theater, helping the Joes at the sharp end go home whole.

Now, the big 50s, like the Kiowa, are history. Hellfire and Griffin-armed UAVs will take their place, but neither of them can drop 750-grain incendiary tracer at 18 rounds per second with eyeballs on target in real-time.

2-6 Cavalry Squadron, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, B Troop flies near Seoul on a hazy day

2-6 Cavalry Squadron, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, B Troop flies near Seoul on a hazy day