23mm Afanasev-Makarov AM-23
China: Type 23-2
Introduction
23mm AM-23
Two 23mm Afanasev-Makarov AM-23 autocannon in a tail turret on a Tu-16 (NATO: Badger) bomber aircraft.
Source: www.airwar.ru -
© Copyright lies with original owner
N.M. Afanasev & N.F. Makarov
China - Norinco
9-A-036 (GRAU index)
Type 23-2 (Chinese production)
AN-23 (AM-23 for naval service)
China
Description
Introduction
The AM-23 is a Cold War era autocannon of Soviet origin. It was developed in the early 1950's as a lightweight gun with more firepower than the 23mm NS-23 in service at that time. Several prototypes were developed at TsKB-14 in Tula. The objective was to use the more powerful 23x152mm cartridge. This was reverted to the 23x115mm due to excessive recoil. The AM-23 is named after the lead designers Afanasev and Makarov and the 23mm caliber.
Design
The AM-23 is based on the Afanasev A-12.7 heavy machine gun. It is gas operated and features a wedge shaped vertical breech block. In the AM-23 a heavy spring service as a recoil buffer to slow the violent action of the bolt. The AM-23 is belt fed and can be configured for left and right hand feed. The cyclic rate of fire is rather high. For increased rate of fire and reliability purposes the AM-23 is nearly always used with two guns side by side. Contrary to some sources the AM-23 is not a twin barrel design like the GSh-23-2. Two separate and identical AM-23 are used side-by-side in a variety of remote (radar) controlled gun mounts.
Firepower
The AM-23 fires the 23x115mm cartridge from a metal link belt. Cyclic rate of fire is 1.200 to 1.350 rpm, more than twice as high as the NS-23. The ammunition for the AM-23 is of a second generation and features a faster burning powder. This is backwards compatible, but older ammunition is not to be used in the AM-23. Upon introduction ammunition types consisted of a mix of HEI, HEI-T, APHE and API-T. In the early 1960's two unique types of ammunition were introduced as countermeasures. These are chaff and flares for use against radar and infrared homing missiles. This allowed existing guns to retain a degree of usefulness in a new era where air to air missiles surpassed the gun armed fighter aircraft.
Platforms
The AM-23 was used as defensive armament for various types of bomber aircraft. Most notable are the Tu-16 (NATO: Badger), Tu-95 (NATO: Bear) and Il-76 (NATO: Candid). All of these feature AM-23 side by side in twin gun arrangements. An alternative use was on the Project 125 hydrofoil patrol boats. A total of 18 of these patrol boats was produced in two variants. Each patrol boat head a two small remote turrets, one the bow and one at the stern, armed with two 23mm AM-23 side by side. These are designated AN-23 in naval use.
Users
The USSR formally adopted the AM-23 in 1954. China produced the AM-23 under Soviet license as the Type 23-2. This is used on domestic production variants of the Tu-16 (Xian H-6) and Il-28 (Harbin H-5) bomber aircraft, whereas the Soviet Il-28 used the older NS-23 autocannon.
Details
Media
23mm AM-23
A 23mm Afanasev-Makarov AM-23 autocannon on display Museum of Long-Range Aviation.
Source: Vitaly V. Kuzmin
Copyright: CC BY-SA 4.0
23mm AM-23
Two 23mm Afanasev-Makarov AM-23 autocannon in a tail turret on a Tu-142 long range maritime patrol aircraft as seen in 2014.
Source: Mikhail Fetisov
Copyright: CC BY-SA 3.0
23mm AM-23
Two 23mm Afanasev-Makarov AM-23 autocannon in a turret on a Tu-16 (NATO: Badger) bomber aircraft.
Source: www.airwar.ru
Copyright: Copyright lies with original owner
Related articles
12.7mm Afanasev A-12.7
The AM-23 design started as a scaled-up version of the Afanasev A-12.7 heavy machine gun.
23mm Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-23
The GSh-23 uses the same updated 23x115mm ammunition as the AM-23.