Akan m/39A (13.2 mm)

Description

The 13.2 mm Akan m/39A, short for Automatkanon m/39A, is a variant of the Mitrailleuse d'Avion Browning - F.N. Calibre 13,2 mm heavy airplane machine gun. This specific variant is unique solely because it was produced by Ericsson for the Swedish in-country. The original gun was based on the M2 Browning, but was rechambered to 13.2 mm to be able to use the Hotchkiss 13.2 x 99 mm round, which was already in production. This was quite useful, as exploding ammunition had already been developed for this calibre. Essentially all Swedish World War II aircraft were equipped with this weapon, rendering it similar to the M2 Browning in its role as an all-purpose strap-to-your-plane gun.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• A21A-3
• B18A
• B18B
• J9 Early
• J21A-1
• J21A-2
• T18B
• T18B (57)

General info

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Available ammunition

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Comparison with analogues

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Usage in battles

You would use this machine gun just like you would the Brownings from the American tech tree - as a general-purpose aircraft-fighting weapon. It is certainly superior, however, to the Brownings; primarily due to its explosive ammunition that makes it do far more damage than simple incendiary rounds.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Explosive ammunition resulting in higher damage
• Higher calibre than .50 cals resulting in higher damage
• Excellent ballistics
• Ammunition count is more than enough with decent trigger discipline

Cons:

• Stealth belt only contains AP

History

The story of the Akan m/39A begins in 1900 with a gunsmith named John Moses Browning. Having recently patented the first semi-automatic shotgun only to be turned down by his long-term collaborator the Winchester Repeating Arms company, Browning ended up finding a manufacturer for the design, called the Browning Auto-5, in Fabrique Nationale de Herstal in Belgium who began production in 1902. So began the partnership between John Browning and Fabrique Nationale (FN) who would manufacture his designs in Europe, sometimes identical to the designs produced by Colt in the United States. This relationship between Browning, Colt and FN would continue even after Browning's death in 1925. The M2 Browning, for example, was modified from a water-cooled machine to an air-cooled machine gun by Colt who later made a lightened model for use on aircraft. This same gun would manufactured by FN as the MG53.

However, FN saw room for improvement. In the 1930s, they modified the design to both make it lighter and chamber the more powerful 13.2x99 mm Hotchkiss cartridge used in the Hotchkiss Mle 1929. The end result was the Mitrailleuse d'Avion Browning - F.N. Calibre 13,2 mm or "Browning Aircraft Machine Gun - F.N. Calibre 13.2 mm" often known simply as the FN Browning M.1939. In 1938, Sweden expressed interest in the design and ordered the gun along with a production license. The deliver was ready by the summer of 1940, which unfortunately for FN and Belgium, was not long before the German invasion and subsequent occupation for the next 4 years. For security reasons, the original order of guns and ammunition, along with the documentation for licensed production, was shipped by boat when it was originally set up to be shipped by train.

While the company LM Ericsson was set up to produce licensed version of the Browning, which was designated the Akan m/39 in Swedish service, the documentation was incomplete which combined with the construction standards differing between companies resulted in the development of a variant of the Akan m/39 based on the licensed design but with modifications. The result was the Akan m/39A which became the main Swedish aircraft machine gun during World War II and arming almost all of their aircraft. After the war however, 13 mm Hotchkiss became harder to acquire for the Swedish Air Force so in 1947, they converted the guns to fire .50 BMG which was available thanks to adoption of the M2 Browning as the Akan m/45 two years earlier with the J26 (surplus P-51D Mustangs). Both calibres of the Akan m/39A were easily able to switch with just the barrel being replaced during the conversion. The 13.2 mm ammunition would remain in use for life-fire exercises until it was taken off the inventory list in 1950. The .50 cal version however, would continue to serve as a trainer weapon for fighter jets with the last jets mounting this gun being retired in 2007.

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See also

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External links

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