ShVAK cannon

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Illustration of the cannon

The ShVAK (Russian: ШВАК: Шпитальный-Владимиров Авиационный Крупнокалиберный, Shpitalnyi-Vladimirov Aviatsionnyi Krupnokalibernyi, "Shpitalny-Vladimirov large-calibre for aircraft") was a 20 mm autocannon used by the Soviet Union during World War II. It was designed by Boris Shpitalniy and Semyon Vladimirov and entered production in 1936. ShVAK was installed in many Soviet aircraft including Yakovlev Yak-1, Polikarpov I-153 and I-16, Lavochkin La-5 and La-7, LaGG-3, early Ilyushin Il-2, and Soviet-modified Hawker Hurricane aircraft as well as T-38 and T-60 tanks.

The TNSh was a version of this gun for tanks (Russian: ТНШ: Tankovyi Nudel’man-Shpitalnyi).

1 Description
2 Specifications
3 Ammunition specifications
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Description

ShVAK 20 mm autocannon is a large-caliber version of the 12.7 mm ShKAS machine gun. The machine gun entered production in 1934 but proved unreliable, difficult to manufacture, and prone to jamming which often required partial or complete disassembly of the weapon. Its production was stopped in 1936. The autocannon version differed only in larger caliber of the barrel. It is a gas-operated belt-fed weapon with either cable or pneumatic charging in remote applications. ShVAK ammunition consisted of a mix of fragmentation-incendiary and armor piercing-incendiary rounds. The damaging effect of this ammunition was considered weak for the caliber. As the result, towards the end of Great Patriotic War ShVAK was supplanted by Berezin B-20, Volkov-Yartsev VYa-23, and Nudelman-Suranov NS-37 autocannons.

[edit] Specifications

Caliber: 20 mm
Rate of fire: 700-800 rounds/min
Muzzle velocity: 750-790 m/s
Weight: 88 lb (40 kg) without ammunition for the wing version
Length: 66.1 in (1679 mm) for the wing version

[edit] Ammunition specifications

USSR Designation	US Abbreviation	Bullet Weight [g]	Muzzle Velocity [m/s]	Description
OZ	HEI	96.0	770	Nose fuze, 2.8g HE + 3.3g incediary
OZT	HEI-T	96.5	770	Nose fuze, 2.8g HE + 3.3g incediary, tracer
OF	HE-Frag.	91.0	790	Nose fuze, 6.7g HE, fragmentation grooves on shell
OFZ	HEI-Frag.	91.0	790	Nose fuze, 0.8g HE + 3.8g incediary, fragmentation grooves on shell
BZ	API-HC	96.0	750	Mild steel projectile case with hardened steel core, surrounded by 2.5g incendiary, screwed on aluminum, or bakelite ballistic cap
BZ	API-HC	99.0	750	As above but with swaged steel nose cap
BZ	API	96.0	750	Solid steel shot with incendiary in swaged steel cap
BZT	API-T	96.0	750	As above but with tracer in base cavity
PU	TP	96.0	770	Inert filled HEI shell with dummy fuze
PUT	TP-T	96.5	770	Empty solid head projectile with swaged tracer in base cavity

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Широкорад А.Б. (2001) История авиационного вооружения Харвест (Shirokorad A.B. (2001) Istorya aviatsionnogo vooruzhenia Harvest. ISBN 985-433-695-6) (History of aircraft armament)