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Gatling Blaster - Reaver

Gatling Blaster mounted on a Reaver-class Titan

The Gatling Blaster is an immense, pneumatically-driven, six-barreled, air-cooled, electrically-fired rotary auto-weapon that fires heavy calibre rounds. This weapon is commonly mounted on Reaver-class Titans but they can also be mounted on the carapace hard points of an Imperator-class Titan.

This weapon is comprised of large, multiple, heavy-calibre barrels. Its staggering rate of fire makes it an ideal weapon for use against infantry, light vehicles and even small structures.

Operation[]

Each of the Gatling Blaster's six barrels fires once in turn during each revolution of the barrel cluster. The multiple barrels provide both a very high rate of fire and contribute to long weapon life by minimizing barrel erosion and heat generation.

The Gatling Blaster is pneumatically-driven and electrically-primed. The gun rotor, barrel assembly and ammunition feed system are rotated by a hydraulic drive motor through a system of flexible drive shafts. The round is fired by an electric priming system where an electrical current from a firing lead passes through the firing pin to the primer as each round is rotated into the firing position.

One of the drawbacks of the initial design was that the ejection of spent links created considerable (and ultimately insufferable) problems. The Adeptus Mechanicus compensated for this issue by creating a linkless feed system. The application that they chose for this linkless feed system is "double-ended" (i.e., it returns spent shell casings back to the magazine).

The installations of the Gatling Blaster on Reaver-class Titans are double-ended, because the ejection of empty cartridges can cause a foreign-object damage (FOD) hazard for supporting ground troops and because the retention of spent cases assists in maintaining the centre of gravity of the Titan.

Deployment[]

Gatling Blaster-Chaos Reaver

Gatling Blaster mounted on a Traitor Reaver-class Titan

The Gatling Blaster is a weapon usually carried by Reaver-class Titans. Its multiple-barreled Gatling Autocannon fires thousands of rounds per minute in a destructive torrent, turning the Titan into a highly effective anti-personnel and anti-vehicle fire support weapon.

Sources[]

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