Minigun facts for kids

A Special Warfare Combatant-craft crewman with an M134 Minigun.

The M134 Minigun is a very powerful American machine gun. It has six barrels that spin around, letting it shoot a lot of bullets very quickly. It uses 7.62mm bullets, which are a common size. This gun can fire between 2,000 and 6,000 bullets every minute!

What is the M134 Minigun?

The M134 Minigun is a type of machine gun known for its incredibly fast firing rate. It is often called a "rotary machine gun" because its barrels spin in a circle. This design helps the gun fire many bullets without getting too hot. It also makes the gun very reliable during use.

How the Minigun Works

The M134 Minigun looks like several smaller guns put together. It has six barrels that rotate, similar to an old Gatling gun. An electric motor powers the spinning barrels. As the barrels spin, each one loads, fires, and then ejects a bullet casing. This continuous process allows for its amazing speed.

A Brief History of the Minigun

The idea for the Minigun came from an old design called the Gatling gun. The original Gatling gun was invented in the 1860s and used a hand crank to make its barrels spin. In the 1960s, engineers at General Electric developed the modern Minigun. They replaced the hand crank with an electric motor. This made the gun much faster and more effective. It was first used by the United States military during the Vietnam War.

Where the Minigun is Used

Because the M134 Minigun is so powerful and fires so quickly, it is often mounted on vehicles. You might see it on helicopters, like the famous Huey, or on boats. It is also used on some military vehicles. It is too heavy and fires too many bullets for a single person to carry and shoot easily. Its main purpose is to provide a lot of firepower very quickly.

Images for kids

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  A U.S. Air Force rotary-wing crewman fires a minigun during the Vietnam War.

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  View of M134 from inside Huey, Nha Trang AB, 1967

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  A Royal Navy minigun, separated from mounting and ammunition

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  A U.S. Navy Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewman (SWCC) on a SOC-R firing a Minigun at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, August 2009

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  FAST Marine firing a GAU-17/A minigun

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  GAU-17/A

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  SUU-11/A pod in the cargo door of an AC-47

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  Douglas AC-47 Spooky with SUU-11/A pods

See also

In Spanish: Minigun para niños