M41 Vulcan

The M41 Light Anti-Aircraft Gun is a United Nations Space Command Defense Force vehicle-mounted machine gun. It is used as the primary armament on the standard M12 Warthog LRV.

Background
The M41 LAAG is the standard weaponry of the M12 Warthog LRV, although it is found on the Behemoth-class Troop Transport Elephant as well. It is a triple-barreled, electric-powered, linkless, drum-fed weapon. It fires 450 to 550 12.7x99mm armor penetrating rounds per minute. Turret traverse rate is 100 degrees per second and weapon elevation rate is 60 degrees per second. Recoil from sustained fire is prodigious and negatively impacts accuracy at long range. It also works quite well for taking out Banshees and other lightly-armored vehicles.

Ammunition
As stated above, the M41 uses 12.7x99mm rounds, also know as the .50 BMG round, or .50 caliber. The name BMG comes from the 20th-century M2 Browning Machine Gun the cartridge was designed for. It is well known for its legendary stopping power. It is normally considered an anti-matériel round, as it can take out both heavy armor and infantry at great range. The bullet is even supposedly capable of stopping a car dead in its tracks, shooting a round right through its engine block.

The 12.7x99mm rounds is capable of exerting upwards of five times as much damage as the 7.62x51mm rounds used in the MA5 series of assault rifles, and the M41 is a relatively accurate example of its power compared to the smaller 7.62mm round. This was only evident in Halo: Combat Evolved, as damage per-hit in Halo 2 was dramatically less powerful. To balance this out, the rate of fire on the M41 was increased to roughly 900 rounds per-minute, and accuracy was increased significantly from the Halo: Combat Evolved version.

Trivia

 * This weapon bears a close resemblance to the GAU-19/A machine gun used by the United States military. In addition to other superficial similarities, both are triple-barreled Gatling-style machine guns. Both weapons also fire the 12.7×99 mm round.
 * The M41 is also found on the Behemoth-class Troop Transport.
 * When the weapon is firing it is slow but gradually gets faster the longer you pull the trigger, so it's always a good idea to just prime the trigger when you're on the turret, since you don't waste any ammo.
 * In Halo 2 and Halo 3, you can cut through any type of shielding when shooting.
 * The armor plating can be shot or beaten off in Halo 2 and 3.
 * In Halo Wars trailers, renders, and cutscenes, the M41 is shown with four barrels. It is unknown if this is a graphical change or a different weapon altogether.
 * In Red vs Blue: Relocated, Simmons surmises the rate of fire for the LAAG at "ten thousand rounds per second".

Related Pages

 * United Nations Space Command
 * M12 LRV Warthog
 * M68 Gauss Cannon