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Been searching high and low for the minigun model first showcased on our LST in the papers when she was performing some maritime operation under the UN flag last year. TCH was visiting then and there was a photograph showing a RSN crew member manning a Gatling-type weapon system but as far as I could recall there was no mentioning of the gun model. Our RSN website does not mention anywhere of this new armament so was rather perplexed then. Was watching on SH one of the episodes of Lock N' Load with R. Lee Ermey on machine guns and there he was happy like F firing away a minigun so rekindled my interest on our version. Did a search and finally found a blog talking about this fearsome weapon. Here's the blog on M134: http://kementah.blogspot.com/2010/05/minig...gger-punch.html Saturday, May 22, 2010 Navy Open House 2010 - Changi Naval Base, Singapore Miniguns spell major improvement in RSN firepower The M134 Miniguns unveiled at the Navy Open House today are just the thing Singapore's sailors need when sent in harm's way. The Republic of Singapore Navy's (RSN) move to arm some of its warships with Miniguns shows that even as the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) transformation gathers pace, brute force is sometimes the only way to settle shootouts at sea. Miniguns need no introduction to weapons enthusiasts. These guns have been around for decades and are prized for their ability to hose down their targets with 7.62mm bullets at a rate of 3,000 rounds per minute - that's 50 bullets every second - with a good degree of accuracy. See what a Minigun can do here. Fans of the Terminator movies would recognise the Minigun as the six-barrel weapon which Arnie used to mow down the opposition while holding the 15-kg weapon in his one buffed hand. The RSN sailors say it's movie magic. So they rely on strong weapon mounts to bring Miniguns into action during shootouts on the high seas. Though the RSN did not say it, the weapons rails mated to the Minigun indicate that unspecified weapon sights and night vision devices can be fitted to the weapon to improve its precision effect. To warships that may have to deal with swarm attacks by small craft in congested waters, the Minigun's destructive power makes it a weapon of choice in any last-ditch gunfight. "There's a tracer with every few rounds fired and I walk the stream of rounds to the target like a garden hose," said an RSN warfighter at the Navy Open House."It can chew up a target accurately up to 1-km away. The rounds are also lethal up to 2km-plus." The 4,000 ready rounds linked to each Minigun by the flexible feed chute give gunners the punch to fend off several small craft attacks against their warship before reloading. It doesn't give an iron-clad defence, but is nonetheless a vast improvement to the 12.7mm CIS 50 heavy machineguns that are the current last-ditch weapons on RSN warships. The pintle-mounted machineguns are fed by a 100-round box magazine, have a lower rate of fire and are hard to control against fleeting targets. The electrically-fired Miniguns offer far better insurance, especially during anti-piracy operations where there's a need to keep hostile fast craft as far away as possible lest small arms fire or rocket-propelled grenades disable the RSN warship's sensor suite. The Minigun's ability to reach out and touch hostile vessels up to 1km away and the "garden hose" effect from the stream of hot tracer rounds will give unwelcome visitors a hot reception. Go Navy! Posted by David Boey at 7:24 PM NB: On the Wikipedia website, they classify the US versions according to the services they go with: M134 for the army and GAU 17/A for the USN and USMC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minigun 7.62mm is a still a pretty small calibre weapon IMHO to be used in sea environment but as a last, last ditch weapon as compared to the more famous computer-controlled Phalanx CIWS 20mm Gatling guns on almost all US warships, mai hiam liao I guess... [laugh]

Any bros read today's Zao Bao? There was a pic with the Defence Minister next to a crew manning what seems like a Gatling gun. Didn't know our ships are armed with this type of rapid-fire weapon... The firing rate of this type of guns/cannons can go up to 6000 rounds/minute. That means 100 rounds/second! Similar systems are found on most US fighters (20mm on the M61 Vulcan series) and their navy's Phalanx CIWS (Close-In-Weapon-System).