US 4,398,447 AGranted

Vertical loading system for a gun mount

AssigneeFMC Corporation

InventorsRobert M. Harris, Edward R. Betzold

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A gun mount having a gun cover or shield contains a gun which may be directed in both azimuth and elevation. An ammunition storage space is disposed below the gun mount. Ammunition components are combined in the storage space to provide an ammunition round with the long axis of the round substantially vertical. The barrel of the gun is elevated to the 90.degree. or vertical position and when the breech block is opened the vertically disposed ammunition round is hoisted directed into the open breech. The round is latched in the breech while the hoisting mechanism is withdrawn and the breech is closed. Thereafter the gun may be depressed to a desired firing elevation and the round fired. The gun is then positioned at a predetermined intermediate elevation angle so that the gun breech is adjacent to a door in the gun cover which is controlled between open and closed positions. The breech is opened, the door is opened and the empty propellant case from the fired round is ejected through the open door. The gun is then repositioned to the vertical position to receive another round in the breech and the process is repeated. Conventional length ballistic projectiles and ultra-long guided projectiles may be handled by the disclosed loading system and the loading may be accomplished at any angle or azimuth or train.

Claims5

Dependent claims

A loading system for a gun mount wherein the gun has a barrel and a breech with a breech block movable between closed and open positions, the gun being supported above an underlying storage region for ammunition components and being surrounded by a protective cover which is movable with the gun only in azimuth, comprising

means for elevating the gun barrel to a vertical position,
means for disposing an ammunition round in vertical orientation, said last named means being situated below and aligned with the breech of the gun when the gun barrel is in said vertical position,
a hoist engaging the vertically oriented ammunition round,
means for driving said hoist to lift the round directly into the breech when the breech block is open,
a latch operating to move between positions engaging and disengaging the lower end of the ammunition round in the breech, said means for driving further operating to lower the hoist away from the breech after said latch is engaged, so that the breech block may thereafter be closed and the gun directed and fired,
said means for elevating further operating to bring the gun barrel to a predetermined intermediate elevation position after the round is spent by firing,
means for sequentially disengaging said latch from the lower end of the spent round and extracting the spent round from the breech when the gun is in said predetermined intermediate elevation position and the breech is open,
a door in the gun cover disposed adjacent to the breech when the gun is in said predetermined intermediate elevation position, and
means for opening said door when the spent round is being extracted and for closing said door otherwise.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 06/235,884Filed 19 Feb 1981
Granted: 16 Aug 1983
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification3 codes

F41A 9/50
Feeding or loading of ammunition ; Magazines; Guiding means for the extracting of cartridges: external power or control systems
F41A 9/45
Loading arrangements, i.e. for bringing the ammunition into the firing position: the cartridge chamber or the barrel as a whole being tiltable or…
F41A
Functional features or details common to both smallarms and ordnance

Family

No related US applications are recorded in the indexed filing history.

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