Check out this video of the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter cannon spitting almost a couple of hundred rounds in seconds.
This is the GAU-22/A, a four-barrel version of the five-barrel 25mm GAU-12/U Equalizer rotary cannon found on the Marine Corps’ AV-8B Harrier II jump set. Both guns are made by General Dynamics Corp.
The video clip below shows a 181-round burst of the gun, embedded in the aircraft's left wing, during a ground test earlier this month at Edwards Air Force Base in California, according to a press release from the program office. Airborne testing of the weapon is slated to begin in the fall.
"At the end of the program's system development and demonstration phase in 2017, the F-35 will have an operational gun," the release states.
While smaller than the one found on the A-10, "the gun will provide operational F-35A pilots an ability to engage air-to-ground or air-to-air weapon targets using its strafing capability in addition to its beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles and precision-guided air-to-ground weapons," Lockheed Martin Corp., maker of the F-35, wrote in a description to the video on its YouTube channel.
The GAU-22/A is designed to be internally mounted on the Air Force's F-35A version of the aircraft. It's slated to be externally mounted on the Marine Corps' F-35B jump-jet variant and the Navy's F-35C aircraft carrier version and hold slightly more rounds at 220.
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