On October 11, 1932, the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR approved a resolution on the adoption by the Red Army of an aviation machine gun of the Shpitalny-Komaritsky caliber system of 7.62 mm.

The weapon was named ShKAS and subsequently became popular among the troops.

Its key advantage was the high rate of fire.

For example, the wing and turret versions of the machine gun, the production of which was mastered in 1933-1934, provided a rate of fire of 1800 rounds per minute. 

The extraction of the cartridge from the tape and sending it into the chamber took place in the ShKAS so quickly that the inertial overloads that arose in this case led to the deformation of the ammunition.

In this regard, a team of engineers led by designer Nikolai Elizarov developed a line of special cartridges for the brainchild of Boris Shpitalny and Irinarkh Komaritsky.

In an interview with RT, Alexander Butyrin, a columnist for the magazine "Firing Line", called the ShKAS "an outstanding domestic weapon in many respects."

According to him, the machine gun of the Shpitalny-Komaritsky system became the first truly modern aviation machine gun of the Red Army Air Force.

“ShKAS was designed taking into account the requirements of the time.

The continuous feed of the tape, the stranded reciprocating mainspring, the frantic rate of fire - all this was implemented by Soviet designers for the first time, ”said Butyrin.

At the same time, as the expert noted, the ShKAS was a rather complicated product in terms of design, and its production required a lot of labor.

Nevertheless, the creation of ShKAS was of great importance for the further development of Soviet air-launched guns.

In 1934, the Red Army received a 12.7-mm machine gun under the name ShVAK, in the manufacture of which the gunsmith Semyon Vladimirov (creator of the legendary KPVT heavy machine gun) participated.

Then, on the basis of ShVAK, Shpitalny and Vladimirov designed the 20-mm automatic gun of the same name.

The gun was put into service in 1936.

According to the interviewed experts, ShVAK became the first successful aircraft gun of the Soviet Union.

From its predecessors, the new gun inherited a high rate of fire, which was achieved thanks to the drum 10-position mechanism for the phased extraction of the cartridge from the belt.

ShVAK could fire at a rate of 850 rounds per minute.

  • Sturmovik Il-2

  • RIA News

  • © Fedor Levshin

In an interview with RT, the founder of the Military Russia portal, Dmitry Kornev, said that in terms of rate of fire, ShVAK was not inferior, and often surpassed the best foreign aircraft guns at that time.

The ShVAK cannon and ShKAS machine guns were massively used during the Great Patriotic War.

In particular, these types of guns were installed on the most massive aircraft of the Second World War - the Il-2 attack aircraft.

In addition, during the Great Patriotic War, 37 thousand fighters of Alexander Yakovlev, 22 thousand aircraft of Semyon Lavochkin were equipped with 20-mm cannons.

Increase in caliber

As experts interviewed by RT noted, the products of Shpitalny, Komaritsky and Vladimirov were highly effective weapons for their time.

However, the experience of their operation suggested the need to increase the caliber and improve ammunition.

“Before World War II and, of course, during it, there was a trend towards a significant increase in the security of both air platforms and ground equipment.

There was a need to equip the Air Force, and massively, with more powerful guns.

As a result, in 1940, a Volkov-Yartsev gun of 23 mm caliber was created, a little later, a 37-mm NS-37 gun appeared, ”said Kornev.

In a RT commentary, a military expert, retired colonel Anatoly Matviychuk, stated that the leadership of the USSR was aware of the need to massively equip combat aviation with cannon weapons instead of a less powerful machine gun.

“The gun uses an explosive projectile, not a bullet like a machine gun.

The gun has a more solid caliber, more serious damaging capabilities.

But, of course, it is heavier, overall, has a strong return and less ammunition than a machine gun.

Hence the numerous difficulties in integrating guns into the weapon system of air carriers, ”says Matviychuk.

In search of a compromise, outstanding, as it is believed, the results were achieved by a tandem of Soviet gunsmiths - Vasily Gryazev and Arkady Shipunov. 

The designers set themselves the task of creating fast-firing, reliable, but at the same time fairly light guns.

The result of their work was the development of a line of single-barreled, double-barreled and six-barreled guns made in 23 and 30 mm caliber.

  • 30-mm six-barreled aircraft automatic gun GSh-6-30

  • © VargaA / Wikimedia Commons

In the six-volt version, Gryazev and Shipunov created the GSh-6-30 and GSh-6-23 guns.

The first model was intended to equip MiG-27 fighter-bombers.

In a few seconds of a massive strike, this artillery system fired 100 kg of ammunition.

Subsequently, a naval modification of this gun was made.

It became part of the AK-630 ship installation, which is still used by the ships of the Russian Navy.

Alexander Butyrin called the invention of the GSh-6-23, which was installed on the Su-24M front-line bombers (operated in the Russian Aerospace Forces), a big step forward.

This product implements a multi-barreled automation scheme with a rotating block of barrels.

The rate of fire from the gun was 8,000 rounds per minute, and the rate of fire from the modern upgraded version reaches 10,000 rounds per minute.

At the same time, as Butyrin emphasized, failures due to wedging of the tape or its rupture are practically excluded in GSh-6-23.

At close range

An incredibly popular product of Gryazev and Shipunov is the GSh-23 double-barreled automatic gun, adopted by the USSR Air Force in 1965.

The gun was installed on a huge number of aircraft platforms, including MiG-21, MiG-23, Yak-28, Yak-130, Su-15, Su-17 fighters, Il-76M, Tu-22M, Tu-95MS heavy aircraft, helicopters Ka-25, Ka-29, Mi-24VM, Mi-35M.

As reported in the Rostec materials, due to the use of two barrels and a shockless accelerator-type ramming mechanism, Gryazev and Shipunov brought the rate of fire of the GSh-23 to 3400 rounds per minute (versus 1800 rounds per minute for previous models).

“The use of single mechanisms for servicing both barrels made it possible to create a double-barreled gun in the dimensions and weight of a single-barreled one.

Variations of the GSh-23 are still used in Russia and dozens of other countries," the state corporation's website says.

In the caliber of 30 mm, the single-barrel gun GSh-301 (GSh-30-1) was widely used among the troops.

This product is one of the first Soviet mass-produced guns with a liquid cooling system.

The maximum rate of fire of the GSh-301 is 1800 rounds per minute, the weight is less than 50 kg.

According to Dmitry Kornev, in the GSh-301, Soviet designers made a very successful attempt to reduce the negative impact of a high rate of fire, which is expressed in rapid overheating and barrel deformation.

  • Gun GSh-301

  • © Public Domain

“At a good level, Gryazev and Shipunov thought out the cooling system, marking the water in the barrel casing.

When fired, the liquid heats up and turns into a steam-water mixture, which cools the barrel, and then exits.

GSh-301 turned out to be a reliable, powerful and at the same time light product for its caliber and class, ”says the expert.

GSh-301 has been produced since the 1980s and is installed on MiG-29, MiG-35, Su-27, Su-30, Su-33, Su-35, Su-34 aircraft.

Also, this gun was mounted on experimental Su-37 and Su-47 Berkut fighters. 

The result of the modernization of the GSh-301 was the 9A1-4071K (9-A1-4071K) aircraft gun.

The weapon of this type was received by the Russian fighter of the fifth generation Su-57.

The official tactical and technical characteristics of the gun are not disclosed.

However, in open sources you can find information that 9A1-4071K is capable of hitting almost all modern armored targets.

The estimated rate of fire of the gun is 1500–1800 rounds per minute, the initial velocity of the projectiles is 860 m/s, and the mass of the product is 50 kg.

9A1-4071K has an autonomous water-evaporative barrel cooling system and a unique recoil-type automation scheme.

The technical solutions implemented in the gun make it possible to dissipate the excess energy of moving parts and stabilize the operation of automation when firing in bursts.

According to Kornev, aircraft cannons are still an actual weapon of modern combat aviation, despite the rapid development of missile weapons.

According to the expert, guns are indispensable in close air combat and are necessary for hitting ground targets at low altitudes.

“Range and accuracy of missiles are constantly improving, but events in a war zone can develop unpredictably.

Therefore, even fifth-generation aircraft are armed with guns.

This type of weapon remains an effective means of self-defense and defeating the enemy at close range.

Therefore, we see that the guns continue to be improved by our defense industry, ”summed up Kornev.