Reduced recoil from Venom

AEI Systems (Stand S4-160) is showing its latest Venom Low Recoil (LR) 30mm cannon, which is targeted at installation in turrets and remote weapon stations (RWSs) and here at DSEI, is integrated into the Slovenian Midgard 300 Lite RWS. As Venom LR has been designed and manufactured in the UK, it is ITAR free.

Venom LR is a gas-operated, electrically primed, self-loading revolver cannon and features a 1.4m long barrel with improved parabolic profile, barrel bearing support, three-stage muzzle brake for reduced recoil and barrel aligned recoil buffers that interface directly with the RWS gimbal elevation driveshaft and yoke arms through an integrated buffer cradle. The complete 30mm weapon recoils within the buffer cradle and stabilises between shots when fired in the automatic mode, which provides improved accuracy.

The 30mm cannon for turret installations has a recoil load of 22kN, which has been reduced to a maximum of 7kN for the latest Venom LR, which means it can be installed in RWSs that are normally armed with a .50 M2 HB machine gun, so increasing the firepower of the RWS. According to AEI Systems, it has an effective range of 2,000m and the operator can select single shot or 230rds/min.

Types of 30x113mm ammunition that can be fired include high-explosive incendiary (HEI), high-explosive incendiary − tracer (HEI-T), armour-piercing (AP), armour piercing − tracer (AP-T), highexplosive dual purpose (HE-DP), target practice (TP) and target practice − tracer (TP-T), with a muzzle velocity of between 780 and 800m/s. Ammunition feed can be from the left or right, depending on the application, and the cocking system is mechanical and electrical.