The Vulcan Gun is among one of most common armaments that appears in the Gundam meta-series.
Universal Century[]
A machine gun equipped on MS or fighter aircraft. It has a single chamber but multiple barrels, and the warhead and liquid explosive are fed separately into the rotating chambers and fired. 60mm caliber is common for MS. In the RGM series, two guns are mounted on the head, as in the RX series machines. However, due to limited ammunition, they can only fire continuous for less than a minute. As an anti-MS firearm, it is weak in power and has low accuracy. It is used for close-quarter defense, to intercept enemy missiles/units, as warning shots, and to destroy lightly armored targets.
After Colony[]
Future Century[]
After War[]
Cosmic Era[]
In the Cosmic Era, Vulcan guns are referred to as Close-In Weapon System or "CIWS", and their caliber size reduced as the years passed to allow for more ammo. In C.E. 71, most mobile suits employed CIWS with caliber size of 75mm to 76mm as seen with OMNI Enforcer's original G Project Gundams and the GAT-01 Strike Dagger, the Orb Union's Prototype Astrays and the MBF-M1 M1 Astray, and ZAFT's initial ZGMF-X series of Gundams. By C.E.73, the caliber size of most CIWS has dropped to 12.5mm to 20mm as seen with the OMNI Enforcer's GAT-02L2 Dagger L, the Orb Union's MVF-M11C Murasame, and ZAFT's Second Stage Series of Gundams.
Notes & Trivia[]
- In the real world, the term Vulcan was originally coined by General Electric for their electric-powered rotary cannon. However, it has since become slang for any rotary cannon regardless of manufacturer.