Jane Edwards
Northrop Grumman is working on a new 20mm cannon, called the Sky Viper, for the U.S. Army’s Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft, Military .com reported Thursday.
Quinn Canole, director of the guns operating unit at Northrop, said the company is building the cannon, which completed the service’s initial design reviews, under a rapid prototyping agreement with the Army Development Command Armament Center.
Canole noted that the company has used a nonfiring prototype to carry out functional testing and is developing the first production prototype, which will move into live-fire assessment either in late spring or early summer once Northrop brings the weapon system to the service for additional testing.
"One of our core focuses is really on accuracy of the weapon and how it gets controlled," Canole said.
The director added that the Sky Viper will be similar to the M230 30mm chain gun aboard the AH-64 Apache helicopter but will come with a higher firing rate to improve its accuracy.
