Additional equipment on the HH-60 rescue helicopters, like the new twin M240 Door Guns, as extra armament.
HH-60 Rescue Helicopters Get New 'High-Tech' Extra Armament
The US Air Force developed a doorway gun mount to arm its HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters with four additional M240 machine guns, reported The Drive.
Built using retrofitted armament components, the remedy would augment the HH-60's devoted gunner aperture and give a cheap approach to enhance the level of lead that combat search and rescue choppers might crank out by using hardware that is already in the stock.
According to the US Air Force, the project was invented by the 943rd Rescue Group out of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, to improve and better equip the 920th PRTF, mentioned DVIDS News.
With the advice of Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown's Accelerate Change or Lose philosophy, which primarily strives to ensure that the service quickly develops, noted US Armed Forces.
Airmen from the 943rd have been able to design the new mount with widely accessible resources while utilizing minimal manpower or as many established Air Force manuals and technical orders as conceivable.
New Twin M240 Door Guns
HH-60G is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2023 due to a critical feature of this mount notion was also trying to ensure that it can be easily transferred to a new and correspondingly structured HH-60W Jolly Green II, which attained preliminary operational capacity this October.
These HH-60 rescue helicopters fly with either of the three primary guns compatible with the aircraft, such as the GAU-2C 7.62mm minigun, GAU 18/A .50 caliber machine gun, or M240, noted Air Force Technology.
Because the eventual aim was to augment new twin M240 door guns to the aircraft, the aircrew was tasked to investigate which of the three guns the Pave Hawk could be up-armed with extra armament.
After evaluating the GAU 18/A.50 caliber machine gun, the group concluded that perhaps the floor design wouldn't support the torque, which would be implemented by doubling up on these armaments while removing it as a choice.
Dual M240 machine guns were positioned in both door openings, arming the rescue helicopter with four of these firearms in total. Two more guns could be maintained in the assigned gunner stations installed on pintle mounts.
Nevertheless, to stay in line with design constraints even as strict adherence to the Air Force's Accelerate Change or Lose philosophy, the notion needed that the three major components of the weapon systems bracket be refitted utilizing demonstrable parts from military stocks, thereby increasing cost-effectiveness.
The aspects that finally met these prerequisites were a base stand from a components-associated project inside the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, but a floor bracket used by the 55th and 71st Special Operations Squadrons for them .50 caliber guns.
A third most crucial piece in recognizing this idea was an MK99 gun mount, generally in use on patrol boats, to install the two dual machine guns and retain 1,200 rounds of ammo.
The 355th Maintenance Group at Davis-Monthan AFB also generated gun mount stops to adapt the new gun configuration on the Pave Hawk. HH-60 rescue helicopters will get new twin M240 door guns as extra armament that is cheap to make.
