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The Secret of Fully Automatic Weapons: How to Measure the Blazing Rate of Fire?
In modern warfare technology, the speed of fire is a key indicator for evaluating the efficiency of weapons. The rate of fire, or how often a particular weapon can fire or discharge its ammunition, is affected by a variety of factors, including the operator's training level, mechanical limitations, ammunition availability, and the condition of the weapon. Measuring rate of fire is usually expressed in rounds per minute (RPM) or rounds per second (RPS).
There are three different types of fire rate measurements: cyclic rate, sustained rate, and rapid rate.
Cycling rate is the maximum rate of fire based solely on mechanical function without accounting for degradation due to overheating, wear, or ammunition restraint. Sustained rate is the maximum efficient rate of fire after accounting for reloading and keeping the weapon adequately cool. Finally, the rapid rate is the highest reasonable rate of fire in an emergency situation that does not need to be sustained for a long time. These rates are critical to understanding how the weapon will perform in actual combat.
Introduction
For manually operated weapons, such as bolt-action rifles or artillery pieces, the rate of fire is primarily influenced by the training of the operator or crew, subject to certain mechanical limitations. Whereas in the case of automatic weapons (like machine guns), rate of fire is the primary mechanical characteristic. High cycle fire is advantageous against targets that are exposed to machine gun fire, such as aircraft or targets moving quickly from cover.
Generally speaking, the rate of fire of a semi-automatic weapon is primarily affected by the operator's ability to pull the trigger and the recoil time for aimed fire.
Since the 20th century, the rate of fire of weapons has continued to increase, and troops suffering from old-fashioned weapons have become relatively disadvantaged in terms of firepower performance. With the development of modern weapons, small infantry units equipped with modern rifles and machine guns can actually surpass larger units equipped with older weapons in terms of firepower.
Measure rate of fire
Rate of fire is measured in a variety of ways, and the rate varies with different types of automatic weapons.
Cycle Rate
This measurement refers to the speed at which a single round is fired from an automatic or semi-automatic firearm. At the end of each cycle, the weapon should be ready to fire the next round. Generally speaking, automatic rifles have cyclic rates between 600 and 1100 RPM, while submachine guns and machine guns have cyclic rates between 400 and 1400 RPM.
Effective Rate
Effective rate is the length of time a weapon can be expected to continue firing in a realistic environment. Although some weapons are theoretically capable of reaching up to 6,000 RPM, in reality, parts of the weapon may be damaged by overheating during 60 seconds of continuous firing.
Continuous or fast rate
Sustained rate refers to the absolute maximum rate of fire of a weapon, while rapid rate usually refers to semi-automatic or manually operated firearms. These rates often cannot be maintained for long in the event of an ambush or an overwhelming force, but they can provide the necessary fire support.
Technical limitations
One of the main limitations on fire rate is heat. Even manual rifles will generate heat during continuous firing, and machine guns will need to take measures to prevent overheating due to the heat generated. Many machine gun teams carry at least one spare barrel to be replaced on short notice.
Overheating issues can cause ammunition to discharge unexpectedly or, worse, cause the weapon to fail to fire or even explode.
In some cases, weapons on aircraft do not require cooling systems because the outside air during flight can cool the weapon. Then, the sustained firepower of machine guns or automatic cannons mounted on aircraft is also usually more sustained than weapons on the ground.
Another factor that affects rate of fire is ammunition supply. For example, an M134 rotary machine gun firing at 50 rounds per second for five seconds would require approximately 6.3 kg of 7.62 mm ammunition, which is not feasible for infantry.
Generally speaking, these high rate-of-fire weapons are usually only found in vehicles or fixed installations due to the weight limitations of the weapons and ammunition themselves. The development of weapons technology has made it possible to measure and optimize firepower, but this also forces us to think about what level of firepower speed will be achieved in future weapons development?
