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On July 1, 2018, we announced that US Air Force Fighter Pilots Will Fly With A new Rifle

Today U.S. Air Force’s 3rd Wing announced on his Facebook page that the F-22 pilots receive their modern GAU-5A automatic rifles

A new modified M4 Rifle Can Be Broken in Half And Fits in Ejection Seat Survival Kit. The Aircrew Self Defense Weapons Give Pilots More Firepower in case They Have to Eject over Hostile Territory

The newest GAU-5A is a compact conversion of standard M4 carbines, specially designed to be stowed aboard the U.S. Air Force combat aircraft.

WHAT TO CALL THE WEAPON? GAU-5B/ A?

The US Air Force had officially designated the gun as the GAU-5/A, but the service already applied this designation during the Vietnam War-era to a variant of the original M16 rifle. This gun had a 10-inch barrel, which is shorter than present-day M4 with its 14.5-inch long barrel. There was also a GAU-5A/A with an 11.5-inch barrel. The Air Force primarily issued these guns to security personnel guarding planes and facilities on the ground.

Starting in the 1990s, the Air Force began converting both of these weapons into an evolving configuration that was increasingly similar to the M4, called the GUU-5/P. It is possible that the Air Force has decided to refer to the Aircrew Self Defense Weapon as a subvariant of the GAU-5/A, but then its correct designation would be GAU-5B/A.

FEATURES OF modern GAU-5A automatic rifles

Regardless of the nomenclature, this rebooted GAU-5/A appears to share very little with its predecessors. The biggest change is the addition of a special locking system from a company called Cry Havoc Tactical that holds the barrel assembly onto the rest of the gun.