Northrop Grumman breaks out the big guns at AUSA

With the growing threat of attacks by small unmanned aircraft systems on the battlefield, Northrop Grumman is pitching gun-based air defense systems designed to take down waves of aerial threats.

At the Association of the United States Army’s annual convention, Northrop showed off its newest 50mm Gun-Based Air Defense system dubbed the Raid Hunter and the latest iteration of the M230.

Both systems are part of Northrop’s patented Bushmaster Chain Guns, a collection of medium-caliber, vehicle-mounted machine guns that operate using an external power source.

Kenn Todorov, the company’s vice president and general manager of command and control & weapons integration, called the Raid Hunter “a cost-effective, flexible tool to decisively defeat evolving threats” intended to overwhelm defense systems.

According to the specs sheet, the system relies on AI targeting and precision-guided 50mm ammo, which proximity fuzes detonate near a target.

Todorov added that the weapon “addresses a critical short-range defense gap by delivering rapid, high-capacity protection against complex, mass aerial threats like cruise missiles and drone swarms.”

Since its introduction in August, the Raid Hunter has completed aeroballistic testing — meaning it was tested against aerial targets — that confirmed pre-test predictions and performance expectations.

Modeled after the M230 gun for Apache attack helicopters, the M230 Link Fed Dual Feed Bushmaster Chain Gun, or M230LF, can be mounted to an assortment of vehicles, ranging from 4x4s to large ground vehicles to patrol boats.

But what’s special about it is that it can use two feed paths, which allow operators to switch between standard proximity-fuzed 30x113mm rounds for countering drones and high-explosive, dual-purpose rounds for armored targets.

With a dual-feed system, an operator will be able to quickly select the best ammunition for the given target rather than completely changing out the loads. Plus, the new variant shares 60% of the same parts as the single-feed model.

According to Northrop’s spec sheet, the M230LF can fire 200 rounds per minute with a “highly reliable” 22,000 rounds between mean time of failure.