Antiaircraft Gun

antiaircraft gun

Artillery piece fired from the ground or shipboard in defense against aerial attack. They were first used in combat in World War I, when field artillery were converted to antiaircraft use by mountings that enabled them to fire nearly vertically. Range finders and searchlights, developed in the 1920s and '30s, increased their effectiveness. Advances in World War II included rapid-firing and automatic weapons, radar for target tracking, and radio-operated fuses. British and U.S. forces used a 40-mm gun that fired ammunition to a height of 2 mi (3.2 km). Heavier guns, up to 120 mm, were used against high-flying bombers. For most of the war, the most effective was the German 88-mm Fliegerabwehrkanone; its abbreviated name, flak, became a universal term for antiaircraft fire. With the introduction of guided missiles in the 1950s and '60s, heavy antiaircraft guns were phased out, though lighter radar-guided automatic guns remained effective against low-flying aircraft and helicopters.

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antiaircraft gun [′an·tē′er‚kraft ‚gən]

(ordnance)

A gun designed for use against aircraft, easily shifted in direction and elevation, having great range, and capable of firing at high angles of elevation.

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Antiaircraft Gun 

an artillery gun designed to destroy air targets. Antiaircraft guns appeared before World War I in Germany, France, and Italy and were scarce in number.

In Russia the 3-inch (76-mm) 1914 model antiaircraft gun was adopted. In the USSR on the eve of the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), the following were available: 76-mm 1915–28, 1931, and 1938 models of antiaircraft guns, 37-mm and 85-mm 1939 model antiaircraft guns, and 25-mm 1940 model automatic antiaircraft guns. After World War II the 57-mm, 100-mm, and 130-mm antiaircraft guns provided with antiaircraft directors and gunlaying radar were adopted; these constituted antiaircraft artillery complexes. With the appearance of antiaircraft missile complexes in the 1950’s, medium-caliber (60–100 mm) and large-caliber (100 mm and more) antiaircraft guns have gradually been discarded; the small-caliber (20–60 mm) two to four barrel self-propelled automatic antiaircraft guns remain. They have an elevation range up to 90°, an all-around traverse of 360°, muzzle velocity of 800–1,000 m/sec, and a rate of fire of more than 500 rounds a minute. Antiaircraft guns are equipped with computers, automatic sights, and radar sets.

IU. V. CHUEV and K. A. NIKOLAEV