The Defa 30mm

Happy Firearm Friday!!

This Museum piece was acquired 5 years ago when an elderly lady came into Owen Guns and said she had her husbands 30 calibre army gun to hand in. Jason asked if she needed a hand to bring it in to the shop and she said she would need two. Jason thought he could handle it but when she popped the boot, he saw that he in fact could not handle it.

This particular DEFA was on a Mirage Jet that was made in Australia.

Manufactured by National d`Armes this 30mm Cannon’s overall length is 1957mm it weighs 80 kg, has 5 revolving chambers and lets off 1250 rounds a minute.

The Ammunition 30 x 113 mm, the length of the whole hub is 213mm, the cartridge 113mm. The weight of the whole projectile 245 - 275 g (according to projectile type), the projectile explosive charge 18-50 g (according to projectile type), the dust is 48 g and the whole charge is 450 g

They were created shortly after the Second World War, on the basis of captured materials of the developed air cannon Mauser MK 213C/30 and for the efforts of former Mauser chief designer Anton Politzer.

The axis of the drum with five chambers lies below the axis of the barrel, the propulsion is provided by gases taken from the barrel. Charge feeding is coil. Tensioning of the weapon before the first shot is performed on the ground manually, in flight using pyrocartridges. The prophotypes were designated DEFA 551. Serial production of cannons, already under the designation DEFA 552 (Cannon 550-F2) began in 1954. U DEFA 552A (Cannon 550-F2A), the drum housing is made by milling a steel block instead of sheet metal molding, and has a layer of chrome. This increased the weight of the weapon, but at the same time extended its life, especially to 5,000 rounds, and increased cadence. Further modifications to improve the properties of the weapon began in 1968 and DEFA 553 (Cannon 550-F3) went into series production in 1971.

The photo’s below include a real projectile and a 3D printed Projectile next to a .50cal round to give you context of size.