Meanwhile, in China, Engineers Built a 20-Barrel Gatling Gun

• Newly leaked photos allegedly show a 20-barrel Gatling gun reportedly under development in China.

• The Gatling gun easily has twice as many barrels as similar weapons.

• China is likely testing the weapon as a defense against drone swarms.

A new gun system reportedly under development in China features a whopping 20 barrels, making it one of the most powerful—and weirdest—Gatling guns ever.

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China is likely designing the gun to counter the threat of drone swarms, throwing up a wall of lead as a defense against dozens, or even hundreds, of armed drones.

Russian defense blogger Yuri Lyamin tweeted the photos, which show what appears to be a 20-barrel Gatling gun undergoing testing in China. Popular Mechanics can’t confirm the veracity of the photos.

The Gatling gun, which dates back to 1861, utilizes multiple barrels, rotating between them as firing continues. This allows the gun itself to operate at a much higher rate of fire without overheating.

The M134 7.62-millimeter Gatling gun and the M61 Vulcan 20-millimeter cannon, both of which can fire up to 6,000 rounds per minute, are modern examples of the weapon.

Armed forces typically use Gatling guns to saturate a target zone with machine gun bullets or cannon rounds. Helicopter-mounted Gatling guns are extremely good at suppressing enemy defenses; a mere second’s worth of firing will send scores of rounds downrange, resulting in the suppression of a larger area than a conventional machine gun.

Navies use ship-mounted Gatling guns, meanwhile, as a defense against low-flying aircraft and cruise missiles. The U.S. Navy’s Phalanx close-in weapon system (CIWS), mounted in guided missile cruisers and destroyers, is designed to fill the sky in the path of an incoming missile with 20-millimeter rounds, increasing the probability of hit and saving the warship.

The new Gatling gun is too large to fit on an aircraft, and the barrels are too small to allow it to engage missiles at a distance. China, then, is likely developing the gun for a new, third purpose: drone warfare.

The threat of drone swarms to ground troops, military bases, and warships is prompting countries to experiment with ways to quickly destroy large numbers of incoming drones. Gatling guns, with their extremely high rate of fire, may provide an obvious solution.

Most Gatling guns top out at six or seven barrels, with the Dutch Goalkeeper ship defense system and the Chinese Type 730 utilizing seven barrels. The main photo in this story shows an 11-barrel Type 1130 Gatling gun CIWS on a Chinese Type 054A Frigate of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).

Twenty barrels is unprecedented, but an alleged overhead shot of the new Gatling gun seems to reveals it’s actually two guns. The photo shows gunpowder gasses escaping from two locations, indicating not one, but two firing systems.

Chinese forces would likely use the new gun system to defend airfields, ports, headquarters, supply depots, and other military targets from drone swarms. While the 20-barrel Gatling gun isn’t as elegant of an anti-drone solution as those used in many western countries, such as jamming or the use of lasers, an instant wall of lead would certainly do the job.

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