The U.S. military is looking at replacing all of the different versions of the famous Minigun in service today with a new standardized type that would be designated the GAU-24/A. The iconic six-barrel Gatling-type 7.62x51mm machine gun, capable of firing thousands of rounds per minute, first entered service in the 1960s, and America’s armed forces now have an array of variants spread across their arsenals.
The Program Executive Office for Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons (PEO U&W) within the U.S. Navy’s Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) put out a request for information contracting notice regarding the GAU-24/A plan this week.
“NAVAIR is seeking to identify sources that can manufacture the GAU-24/A machine gun in accordance with a Government-owned Technical Data Package (TDP),” the notice explains. “The GAU-24/A machine gun is intended to serve as the common replacement for all other M134-based weapons, currently being used, throughout the Department of War.”
“Responses to this notice will be used by the Government to determine the appropriate acquisition strategy,” it adds.
A tentative schedule is laid out, which would see the delivery of an initial five GAU-24/As to the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane) in Indiana for testing within 12 months of a contract award. The Navy is currently eyeing the Fiscal Year 2027 timeframe for the start of that work, which could then run for anywhere between 36 and 60 months afterward, at least.
The notice does not include details about the features being sought for this new common Minigun variant or whether existing types could be converted to that standard as part of the replacement process. TWZ has reached out to NAVAIR for more information.
There are thousands of Miniguns in the U.S. military’s inventory today, and standardizing them around a common pattern would make sense. Though the different variants that have been developed over the years all look roughly the same externally, there are notable differences between various types, which means that not all components are always interchangeable. This, in turn, creates various logistical and supply chain complexities.
General Electric developed the original Minigun in the early 1960s, leveraging more than a decade of work already at that point on larger caliber Gatling-type guns like the equally famous 20mm Vulcan cannon. The U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army subsequently adopted versions under the designations GAU-2/A and M134, respectively.
The original version of the Minigun had an overall length of around 31 and a half inches and weighed 35 pounds. However, the gun also needed an electrically-driven motor to fire. That motor, along with the different ammunition feeding systems and other components required when the gun was installed in various pods and mounts, added additional weight and bulk. Using external electric power did make it easier to set the gun’s rate of fire for specific applications and allowed for selectable fire rates in certain cases. Typical firing rates for Miniguns, even today, are generally between 3,000 and 6,000 rounds per minute, or 50 and 100 shots every second.
It is worth noting that the Army also experimented in the 1960s with a Minigun powered by propellant gas produced during firing, like many other traditional machine guns. The service did not adopt that version, which was designated the XM133.
The Minigun’s first real combat outing was during the Vietnam War, where the guns were extensively used in armament packages for helicopters, such as UH-1 Huey gunships and early versions of the AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter, as well as in podded form on fixed-wing aircraft. The Minigun was a key feature in the genesis of the AC-47 and later side-firing gunships converted from cargo planes, as well. The A-37 Dragonfly light attack jet also featured a single built-in GAU-2/A. The weapons saw more limited and often non-standard use during that conflict on various ground vehicles and maritime platforms.
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