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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 20, 2012 9:05:13 GMT 12
Have RNZAF helicopters, Sioux or Iroquois, ever been fitted with forward firing gun packs or with rocket pods, etc., at any stage? They were originally purchased for Battlefield Support to work with the Army, so I wondered if such fitments had ever been trialled and practised with in NZ, or are the Iroquois M-60 or GPMG door guns the only armament ever carried on them?
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Post by paddy on Apr 20, 2012 9:21:12 GMT 12
When I was in we had M60 door guns only. I often wondered why the M60 and not the GPMG as both the Army and RNZAF used the GPMG.
They can't have been used often as I was never trained on them during my mech course.
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Post by saratoga on Apr 20, 2012 21:26:29 GMT 12
I have only heard of door guns being used.
Apparently a mad rush to use train on the M60 proficiently when they were first deployed to East Timor,just in case!
Probably only used M60s as being American aircraft its what came with them.
The M60 has now been replaced with the MAG58 ,effectively the same as a GPMG .
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Post by raymond on Apr 20, 2012 22:22:12 GMT 12
I think that the H models never had the wiring for weapons, not sure about the D models but I dont recall reading about any mods to remove the capability.
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E.T.
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 78
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Post by E.T. on Apr 26, 2012 20:10:14 GMT 12
the newer ones were fitted for the Maverick A-G missile - or were you only meaning the older ones?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 26, 2012 20:17:41 GMT 12
I was referring to any of the helicopters in the Sioux or Iroquois fleet.
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Post by beagle on Apr 26, 2012 20:22:38 GMT 12
wasn't there a story where they used hay bales as armament. accidently hitting a cow during a big snow fall here in Canterbury at the same time as a Blackbird Exercise was on.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 26, 2012 20:37:18 GMT 12
I was there for the Big Snow but I never heard anything about bales being used as a weapon against cows.
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Post by beagle on Apr 26, 2012 20:56:40 GMT 12
it wasn't actually a weapon, just feeding out but one bale missed the target and hit a cow.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 26, 2012 21:33:54 GMT 12
OK, I never heard that one.
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Post by skyhawkdon on Apr 27, 2012 7:38:00 GMT 12
No for the Sioux Dave but yeah/nah for the first D model Hueys ("fitted for but not with"). I remember the sights being in a box in the Avionics bay at 3 Sqn when I was there in 1985 but they were never fitted.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 27, 2012 9:02:37 GMT 12
Thanks Don.
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Post by vansvilla on Sept 19, 2012 20:33:14 GMT 12
Iroquois were fitted with M60 on door mounts and operated by crewman and trained groundies for ex K81,
There was a photo in 3 sqn flight line during the 70's of a weapon of some sort fitted to a sioux, skid mounted and operated by the pilot.The photo shows Scotty Glendinning pilot and Les Olsen arm W/O. Dont believe it was a standard feature and perhaps a mock up for trial.
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Post by phil on Sept 20, 2012 19:14:09 GMT 12
I'm sure the IRO IPB had the breakdown for the weapon pylons and fwd firing guns, but I don't believe we ever actually had the hardware to fit. We do have the M23 Sub-system and MAG58 Machine guns.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Sept 26, 2012 9:38:01 GMT 12
This info has come from my mate Les Olsen, who is mentioned aboce: Hi Dave, I was not aware of the image of Scott Glendenning and I being on the proboards Modern RNZAF section. Great photo. I have attached the image (RNZAF photo G52- Whenuapai)  The photo shows me –then a SGT- holding a pintle post of the M60 Machine gun beside the Sioux landing strut. The idea being to mount the gun on a fitting so that the passenger could use the machine gun as a ‘scatter gun’ if need be. The whole idea didn’t come to fruition but could have likely worked out of sheer desperation with some modification to shorten the pintle post by about 4 inches. The only armament the Sioux had was a signal pistol. Regarding the Iroquois helicopters going to Singapore. That was in 1970 when No 41 Sqn moved from Changi to Tengah at the formation of the ANZUK. I was the SGT armourer sent there at the time with Cpl Wally Mackie as my assistant.. We had four UH1H helicopters and about the same number of Bristol Freighters at the time. The UH1H models had the capability to attach a machine gun package but we never had the equipment. Our only armament was the side mounted M60 machine guns. The armourers also serviced the Breeze rescue hoists and fire extinguishers. The M60’s were purchased with the new UH1H model Iroquois and Don Coyle and I were the first (and only) Armourers posted to No 3 Sqn at Hobsonville to carry out the fitment on each Huey and test fire the guns etc. When the Huey was used for the Military Tattoos at Western Springs we made a fitment to plug into the muzzles of the M60’s so that they could be fired with blank cartridges and these were quite successful initially. Later we managed to get some of the manufactured fittings that the Army used in their warfare exercises which were far more successful than the ones we made up. Understand that the M60 machine gun like all machine guns operate on the system that requires the back pressure of the departing bullet to operate the recoil mechanism which sends the breech block backwards to pick up the next round. Anyway, you probably already know that!!!! Cheers Les Olsen |
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