Aircraft cannons
The BK 5 is a 50 mm nose-mounted German aircraft cannon designed to attack armoured ground targets.
Tell us about the tactical and technical characteristics of the cannon or machine gun.
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | ||||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| HEI-T | 11 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 7 | |
| AP-T | 106 | 101 | 83 | 65 | 50 | 39 | |
| HVAP-T | 137 | 126 | 88 | 56 | 36 | 23 | |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| HEI-T | 920 | 1.52 | 0.2 | 0.01 | 420 | 79° | 80° | 81° | ||||
| AP-T | 835 | 2.05 | 1.2 | 9 | 28.9 | 48° | 63° | 71° | ||||
| HVAP-T | 1,180 | 0.9 | - | - | - | 66° | 70° | 72° | ||||
Give a comparative description of cannons/machine guns that have firepower equal to this weapon.
Describe the cannon/machine gun in the game - its distinctive features, tactics of usage against notable opponents. Please don't write a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought.
Pros:
Cons:
Facing the reality of 'viermotor' four-engine heavy bombers over Germany, the Luftwaffe sought more effective weapons to blunt the USAAF bomber offensive which was wreaking havoc on their industrial capacity. Rheinmetall-Borsig was approached to adapt the KwK 39 tank gun into a weapon which could be used against heavy bombers. To do this, they designed an autoloader which was connected to a 22 round belt feed which was loaded on the ground. To provide additional punch to the already impressive 50 mm round, a Minengeschoß (mine shell) high-explosive, high-capacity round was developed.
While the gun had a low rate of fire and suffered from reliability problems, it had some success against B-17s and B-24s and was used until the end of hostilities.
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
Weapons of similar calibre or role
| Germany aircraft cannons | |
|---|---|
| 15 mm | MG 151 |
| 20 mm | MG 151 · MG C/30L · MG FF · MG FF/M |
| 27 mm | Mauser BK27 |
| 30 mm | Hispano HS 825 · MK 101 · MK 103 · MK 108 |
| 37 mm | BK 3.7 |
| 50 mm | BK 5 · Mk.214a |
| 75 mm | BK 7.5 |
| Foreign: | |
| 20 mm | Hispano Mk.V (Britain) · M24A1 (USA) · M61A1 (USA) · ShVAK (USSR) |
| 23 mm | GSh-23L (USSR) · NR-23 (USSR) · VYa-23 (USSR) |
| 30 mm | DEFA 552 (France) · GSh-30-1 (USSR) · GSh-30-2K (USSR) · NR-30 (USSR) |
| 37 mm | N-37D (USSR) |