GAU-5A detachable survival rifle
GAU-5A detachable survival rifle
Caliber: 5.56 × 45mm M 855
GAU-5A is a new life-saving rifle that the U.S. Air Force began to equip in 2019. The gun is not produced by the weapons supplier of the Ministry of Defense, but is modified by the U.S. Air Force itself from the carbines used by active ground crews. The U.S. Air Force has always planned to update the self-defense weapons of fixed-wing aircraft aircrews, but has not seriously invested time and energy to realize this. The birth of GAU-5A was due to a tragedy four and a half years ago.
On Christmas Eve 2014, an F-16AM fighter jet of the Royal Jordanian Air Force crashed due to mechanical failure while attacking ISIS militants in northeastern Syria (ISIS claimed that they shot it down). The pilot, Lieutenant Muath al-Kasasbeh, ejected but was captured by ISIS after landing. ISIS cruelly burned the pilot to death in an iron cage in early January 2015.
The direct result of this incident is that many countries have begun to consider strengthening the self-defense capabilities of pilots. For example, the Royal Netherlands Air Force began to issue MP9-N submachine guns produced by the Swiss B&T company to all F-16AM pilots in service in 2015. Russia also provided Stechkin APS submachine guns to fighter pilots performing missions in the Middle East, and even provided some pilots with AKS-74U short assault rifles with foldable stocks to be placed in their ejection seat survival kits. In fact, some Soviet pilots carried AKS-74U during the Afghan War, but most of them were helicopter pilots. This time, it was the equipment innovation promoted by the Russian Air Force's top brass to enhance the pilots' self-defense capabilities.
The US Air Force is also paying attention to these experiences, because the US Air Force has many aircraft performing combat missions over Iraq and Syria, including A-10C Thunderbolt II, B-1B Lancer, B-52H Super Fortress, F-15E Strike Eagle and F-16CM Fighting Falcon, and even F-22A Raptor stealth fighter.
Although the U.S. Air Force had equipped pilots with simple M6 survival rifles at an early time, these weapons were used to hunt small animals in remote wastelands to satisfy hunger. If used to deal with hostile armed elements, they would not be able to do so. Therefore, the survival rifles were withdrawn as early as the 1970s. In 2015, the only self-defense weapons equipped by the U.S. Air Force for pilots were M9 pistols and Ontario 499 or SP2 survival knives.
Ontario 499 (left) and SP2 (right) survival knives
The long-retired M6 life-saving rifle
General David L. Goldfein, the current Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, actually had an escape experience. He had participated in NATO's bombing of the former Yugoslavia. On May 2, 1999, the F-16CG "Fighting Falcon" he was driving was shot down by an SA-3 Goa surface-to-air missile. After he parachuted out, a rescue team consisting of the Air Force Combat Control Team, the Parachute Rescue Team and the Army Special Forces' A Team took off at 2 a.m. to rescue him in an MH-60G "Pave Hawk" and two MH-53J "Pave Low" helicopters. At this time, three Serbian soldiers approached Goldfein, so Goldfein picked up his M9 pistol to defend himself, only to find that the pistol might have been damaged due to the violent impact when ejected. Fortunately, he was not discovered by the Serbs. Finally, he was discovered and rescued by the rescue helicopter team at around 5 a.m. Having had such experience, Goldfein particularly understands the feelings of downed pilots who need reliable self-defense weapons, especially since the M9 pistols issued to pilots are no match for the AK rifles that are commonly seen by hostile forces.
After the pilots in the Middle East parachuted to the ground, they would face stubborn and fanatical religious militants who would not abide by the 1949 Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war. Even the anti-government organizations they belonged to were not signatories to the convention. These people had ill will towards all captured enemies. Recognizing this situation, the U.S. Air Force began to actively seek to provide crew members who undertook combat missions with a more effective self-defense weapon than a pistol.
The U.S. Air Force's initial response to the problem in 2017 was to shorten the barrels of the GAU-5/A or GAU-5A/A carbines left over from the Vietnam War to only 8 inches (about 203mm) and stuff them into the survival kits of the ACES II ejection seats of fighters or bombers. However, because the barrels were too short and there was no flash hider installed, the muzzle flash was frighteningly large, affecting the line of sight, and the muzzle noise was too loud. In addition, even if the barrel was shortened to 8 inches and no flash hider was installed, the total length of the gun after shortening the stock would still exceed 50 cm, which would not fit into the survival kit of the ejection seat. Although there are no pictures, from the text description, I estimate that this test gun may be similar to the CAR-15 survival rifle tested by Colt in 1964, which needs to be split into two parts, the upper and lower receivers, to be carried. Colt made a total of 10 prototypes of the CAR-15 survival rifle that year, but the Air Force did not purchase them after the test. However, disassembling the rifle into two sections for carrying is indeed a solution.
CAR-15 rescue rifle after assembly
The Stoner 63 survival rifle is a competitor to the CAR-15 survival rifle, but it also only built one prototype and nothing happened.
Then, on February 3, 2018, a Russian Su-25SM3 attack aircraft was shot down by an SA-24 single-person surface-to-air missile while attacking the Victory Front (formerly the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) over Syria. The pilot, Major Roman Nikolayevich Filipov, successfully ejected and landed safely on the ground, but was then surrounded by a dozen terrorists. His wingman provided fire support in the air and blew up two vehicles in an attempt to open an escape route for Filipov. But due to the lack of precision strike weapons, the terrorists who had rushed to the vicinity of Filipov could only be dealt with by Filipov himself.
Filippov fired back at the terrorists with a Stechkin APS submachine gun, emptying a full 20-round magazine and killing two terrorists. He then changed the magazine and fired a short burst of fire that lasted half a second, and was then hit by the enemy who surrounded him from the right. Filippov was seriously injured and fell behind a boulder. In order to avoid being captured and tortured by these extreme terrorists, he pulled the trigger on his RGO grenade, shouted "For the brothers!" and died. The terrorists who surrounded him at the time recorded the whole process with a camera and uploaded it to the Internet.
This incident may have stimulated the U.S. Air Force to speed up the pace of upgrading pilot self-defense weapons. In June 2018, the U.S. Air Force officially announced in the Air Force Times that they would begin converting the current GUU-5/P carbines to the new GAU-5A (this model does not use a forward slash, so it is not the same as the GAU-5/A equipped by the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War) Aircrew Self-Defense Weapon (ASDW).
The GAU-5A rescue rifle under test is compared with the GUU-5/P carbine (not M4) currently in service. The right picture shows the GAU-5A rescue rifle disassembled into two parts, and the grip is also folded back.
This may be the first sample of the GAU-5A.
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The GUU-5/P carbine is the standard rifle of the US Air Force, mainly equipped with ground combat personnel of the Air Force such as combat control teams, parachute rescue teams, etc., as well as security personnel in air force bases. The gun is modified from the original GAU-5/A, GAU-5A/A, GAU-5/A/B and GAU-5/P equipped by the US Air Force by replacing the barrel and several other parts. The US Air Force has always been more economical in terms of rifles. And this time, the GAU-5A ASDW is also modified from an old gun.
The modification of the GAU-5A ASDW is carried out by the Air Force's ordnance shop at Lackland AFB, Texas, with a production rate of about 100 guns per week. Its stated goal is to provide a total of 2,137 ASDW rifles for fighter and bomber squadrons. The distribution range includes A-10C, B-1B, B-52H, F-15C, F-15E, F-16CM/V and F-22A, but not the F-35A for the time being, because the F-35A uses the British Martin-Baker US16E (Mk.16) ejection seat and its life-saving equipment, rather than the ACES II ejection seat of the United Technologies Aerospace Systems (UTAS), and the US16E life-saving kit is smaller in size.
A ground crew member is packing a life-saving bag in front of him, with the ACES II ejection seat next to him.
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By：USA Military Channel
News about the U.S. Air Force receiving and testing GAU-5A
In this life-saving equipment update plan, each ACES II seat survival kit will include a GAU-5A carbine, four 30-round magazines, a black life raft, a Streamlight "Sidewinder" flashlight, flares, medical and survival modules and other important tools, with a total weight of about 40 pounds (about 18.2 kilograms). This life-saving package is under the ACES II ejection seat and has an outer dimension of 16×14×3.5 inches (about 406×355×89mm).
In addition, the U.S. Air Force also began deploying the 9mm caliber M18 compact pistol produced by SIG in March 2019 to replace the existing Beretta M9 pistol. Therefore, these pilots performing combat missions on the front line will have two self-defense weapons at the same time - the M18 pistol carried on their bodies and the GAU-5A life-saving rifle placed in the survival kit.
On April 23, 2019, the first batch of GAU-5A weapons were distributed to F-22A "Raptor" stealth fighter pilots stationed at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska for trial equipment; on May 9, 2019, F-15E pilots at Mountain Home AFB also received GAU-5A for trial equipment.
The first batch of Air Force pilots who received the GAU-5A are learning how to assemble the GAU-5A.
Since the GAU-5A ASDW rescue rifle is converted from the GUU-5/P carbine, the lower receiver, bolt handle, action mechanism, firing mechanism, telescopic stock, magazine, and the A2 flash suppressor installed on the muzzle are all old, while the rest of the parts are replaced with new parts. In addition, compared with the old GAU-5 series, this GAU-5A ASDW has added an auxiliary push handle.
The core part of the GAU-5A ASDW life-saving rifle is a quick-detachable barrel kit produced by Cry Havoc (the product name is Quick-Release-Barrel, referred to as QRB), and is equipped with a 12.5-inch (317.5mm) barrel produced by BCM with a rifling twist rate of 1:7.
The design of the QBR system is to divide a cylindrical barrel mount into two parts, the rear half of the barrel mount is installed in front of the upper receiver, and the barrel and the handguard are installed on the front half of the barrel mount. There are two locks on the side of the front half of the barrel mount. When the barrel assembly including the barrel, gas tube, and handguard is inserted into the upper receiver, the two locks are engaged with the notches on the rear half of the barrel mount, so that the barrel assembly is tightly combined in the upper receiver. To prevent the barrel from losing zeroing during disassembly and assembly, a locating pin is extended from the front half of the barrel mount, just above the gas tube, corresponding to a small round hole on the rear half of the mount. After reassembling the gun, the shooter does not need to re-zero the sight. This locating pin also helps with alignment and installation in low light conditions, and can also protect the gas tube from being crushed during rough assembly actions.
The QBR rear section mounted on the front of the upper receiver. This is a close-up of a civilian QBR user review, not the Air Force's GAU-5A.
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After installing QBR, the handguard will extend forward.
Animation of QBR's locking action   QBR can be used on many different AR handguards |
The front section of the QRB barrel mount can be equipped with an AR15 handguard with a width of no more than 2 inches and a standard military-sized barrel, so users do not need to worry about having to equip a special handguard for this barrel quick-release device, but it will move the handguard forward 1.4 inches (35.6mm), so users are better off with free-floating handguards and barrels without the old triangular front sight. The U.S. Air Force's choice is the MI-G3ML10-BLK free-floating handguard from MI (Midwest Industries), which only has a Picatinny rail on the top, and the accessory interface in the rest of the position is M-LOK.
The QBR system has passed the Air Force's field tests, proving that crews can quickly assemble the carbine even in complete darkness, when disoriented and under tremendous psychological pressure, and that the QBR system's shooting accuracy has not changed significantly after multiple disassembly and assembly.
The reason for choosing a 12.5-inch barrel is to allow the barrel assembly to fit into a 16-inch wide survival kit, because after including the QRB connector and flash hider, the total length of the barrel assembly is about 15 inches (about 381mm). So the barrel cannot be longer.
Due to the use of the QBR system, each GAU-5A is usually split into two parts and stored in the life-saving bag of the ejection seat. After the pilot takes it out, it can be assembled in 1 minute or less without the help of any tools.
In order to further save storage space in the survival kit, the GAU-5A is also equipped with an AGF-43S folding grip produced by the Israeli FAB Defense Company to further reduce the height of the receiver; in order not to increase the volume, although there is a Picatinny rail on the top of the receiver, it is not equipped with a scope, but an MBUS Pro LR folding mechanical sight produced by Magpul is installed. Probably considering that the pilot is not a well-trained infantryman, the gun cannot fire continuously, but can fire semi-automatically or three rounds in bursts.
As a short-barreled rifle that fires rifle bullets, the GAU-5A has an effective range of 200 meters, which is farther than a submachine gun that fires pistol bullets. The gun is designed to help crashed crew members survive in a hostile environment for three to four hours until a rescue helicopter arrives on the scene. It is said that the Royal Air Force, the German Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force have shown some interest in the project, and these countries intend to refer to this compact detachable weapon.
And the U.S. Air Force seems to have expanded the deployment of the GAU-5A, because according to the latest news in February 2020, the U.S. Air Force's ordnance shop has modified 2,700 GAU-5As, more than 600 more than planned a year ago. It is said that the total cost of this batch of 2,700 guns is about 2.7 million U.S. dollars. And to modify a GAU-5A, it is necessary to disassemble an old GUU-5/P and replace it with a QBR kit, MI's handguard, folding grip and other accessories. The suggested retail price of the core part of Cry Havoc's QBR kit is $349, but it should be much cheaper for the military to purchase more than 2,000 sets at one time. These material costs plus labor costs are about $1,000 per gun.
Now, Cry Havoc is taking this opportunity to promote their QBR system. At the same time, since the US Air Force has chosen MI's handguard, MI has also put a finished gun with a QBR system installed on the civilian market, named "MI-GAU5A-P pistol". The configuration of this gun is a clone of the Air Force version, except for the stock. Because the barrel is shorter than 16 inches, in order to reduce the difficulty of purchase for users, MI has equipped this civilian clone of the GAU-5A with a forearm stock (Brace Stock) that is not legally considered a "stock", so this GAU-5A clone gun is legally a "pistol". Of course, some buyers who have their own SBR licenses will also buy this "pistol" or just its upper receiver and assemble it into a normal short-barreled rifle by themselves.
The MI-G3ML10-BLK handguard only has a small rail section at the front and back, and the top center and 3, 6, and 9 o'clock positions are all M-LOK
MI's MI-GAU5A-P pistol
The disassembled MI-GAU5A-P pistol has "GAU-5A ASDW" deliberately written above the ejection port. |
| A civilian bought a MI-GAU5A-P upper receiver and assembled it into a SBR with a normal stock. |
Inspired by this project, the 157th Fighter Squadron "Swamp Foxes" of the 169th Fighter Wing of the South Carolina Air National Guard (flying F-16CM) ordered a batch of FN M4 SBR short assault rifles with 10.5-inch barrels and holographic sights from the FN US factory in South Carolina (equivalent to similar weapons similar to MK18 produced by FN, but no US military orders were obtained before) as self-defense weapons for pilots, and began to distribute them to troops in September 2018. Because the GAU-5A ASDW is currently only equipped with the US Air Force, not the Air National Guard, other Air National Guard units are waiting and watching.
As for helicopter pilots, it is relatively easy to carry shoulder-fired weapons because they do not eject, and naturally do not need to try to stuff the rifle into the survival kit under the ejection seat cushion. Therefore, the US Army has long provided submachine guns, rifles or carbines as self-defense weapons for helicopter crew members participating in combat missions. Therefore, helicopter crew members do not need to follow up on this plan.
In fact, if we go back to the situation faced by the Russian pilot Filippov, although the firepower of the carbine is much stronger than that of the submachine gun, a lone pilot may not be able to fight his way out when surrounded by more than a dozen fanatical militants holding automatic weapons and rocket launchers (except for the protagonist of the movie). But for a pilot who is alone in the enemy-controlled area, carrying a rifle will at least give him much more confidence than holding only a pistol. When encountering one or two enemies, he will have a greater chance of suppressing or even destroying them. Building confidence is the key factor for pilots to successfully escape from enemy-occupied areas, and the rest is up to luck.
F-22A pilots stationed in Alaska are learning to assemble the GUA-5A and practicing shooting at the base range.
A cloned gun that completely imitates the GAU-5A configuration
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