| Breda-SAFAT | |
|---|---|
12.7 mm Breda-SAFAT on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center |
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| Type | Aircraft machine gun |
| Place of origin | Italy |
| Service history | |
| Used by | Italy |
| Wars | WW2 |
| Production history | |
| Designed | 1935 |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 12.5 kg (7.7 mm) 29 kg (12.7 mm) |
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| Cartridge | 7.7×56R (10.1 g) 12.7×81SR (34.2 g) |
| Caliber | 7.7 mm (0.303 in) 12.7 mm (0.50 in) |
| Rate of fire | 800–900 rounds/min (7.7 mm) 700 rounds/min (575 rounds/min synchronized) (12.7 mm) |
| Muzzle velocity | 730 m/s (7.7 mm) 765 m/s (12.7 mm) |
Breda-SAFAT was a series of machine-guns mounted on Italian aircraft during World War II. The weapon came in 7.7mm (0.303-inch) and 12.7mm (0.50-inch) variants. The 7.7mm model was similar to the M1919 Browning machine gun and could use some types of .303 British ammunition. The 12.7mm version could fire a high-explosive-incendiary-tracer (HEIT) round with 0.8 grams of PETN. An armor-piercing (AP) round was also available.
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The birth of these weapons came from the desire to have better machine-guns to face a new generation of enemy aircraft, with their higher performance and better armor. Breda based their designs on Browning machine-guns, adapted for Italian exigences, in particular with the change of cartridges from 7.62×63mm to 7.7×56R and from 12.7×99 to 12.7×81mm. The latter especially weakened the weapon and the goal of a lighter machine-gun with a high rate of fire was a failure. In any case, the completed gun saw competition from similar projects produced by the powerful industrial group Fiat, which proposed new weapons designed by its subsidiary factory, SAFAT (Società Anonima-Fabbricazione Armi Torino). But Breda/Browning weapons proved superior, the heaviest Browning machine-gun was five kilograms lighter than the Fiat-SAFAT. Despite attempts by Fiat to sell their design, the Regia Aeronautica (Air Force) selected Breda for the contract. Fiat still did not surrender and launched a lawsuit aimed at Breda. But Fiat lost their case and the court ordered it to pay the trial expenses as well. After this failure, Senator Giovanni Agnelli was so irritated that he decided to exit the small arms industry for the next twenty years, selling SAFAT to Breda itself. Fiat's predominance in machine-guns ended, the rise of Breda began. (It was then an almost minuscule factory in Brescia.)
The muzzle velocity of the Breda 12.7 mm was less than other .50 caliber machine-guns because its ammunition was 12.7×81 mm and not 12.7×99 mm or 12.7×108 mm. The Breda's muzzle energy was only 10,000 joules compared to the 16,000–17,000 joules of other cartridges. The Breda guns were reliable, but they had the worst power-weight ratio of all machine-guns mounted on World War II aircraft. In comparison, the Japanese Ho-103 had a similar 12.7×81mm round, but the gun was 6–7 kg lighter and had a rate of fire of 800–900 rounds per minute with a 34.2 gram projectile. The Japanese gun's rate of fire was at least 20% better, but it was still reliable. Isotta-Fraschini Scotti tried to improve the Breda's performance, but it could still not match the Japanese weapon's better rate of fire or reliability. Despite the availability of high-explosive ammunition, Italian pilots preferred the armor-piercing and incendiary rounds to the weak destructive capability of a mere 0.8 grams of explosive. It is untrue that other countries did not adopt high explosive 12.7–13.2 mm caliber rounds. Almost all did so, but they rated this ammunition too weak to justify its cost, it also did little damage to metal structures. On top of this, they were not effective against armor. High-explosive rounds were only common with guns in a caliber of 20 mm or larger. British experts called the high explosive smaller caliber rounds "ridiculous". The US only tested a few examples of HE 12.7 mm ammunition.
Thus, Italy lacked machine-guns with the critical qualities of light weight, a high rate of fire, good muzzle velocity, good projectile weight and reliability, while the Russians, Germans, Americans and Japanese had them in the Berezin, MG 131, M2, and Ho-103. Late-war Italian aircraft began to adopt the German Mauser MG 151 to give their aircraft parity in firepower with Allied fighters. Aircraft such as the Macchi MC.205, Fiat G.55 and Reggiane Re.2005 had as many as three MG 151s in addition to two cowl-mounted Bredas.
The Breda guns, although adequate in 1935 at the time of their design, were unacceptable by the standards of 1940. In 1941 the Fiat C.R.42, Fiat G.50, Macchi MC.200, Macchi MC.202 and Reggiane Re.2000 still only had two Breda 12.7 mm machine-guns and sometimes two extra wing mounted Breda 7.7mms. This was clearly inferior armament at the time, only equal to that of the Fiat CR.32 in 1935. Nevertheless, thousands of Breda guns were built in the 1930s and 1940s, arming nearly every Italian fighter and bomber of that period. Many of these weapons were also adapted for the anti-aircraft role and remained in service until the 1970s as reserve weapons; even if all the aircraft that they equipped had been phased out by that time. The last heavy machine-gun used on Italian aircraft was the Browning M3, as used on the Fiat G.91R.