M41 Vulcan

The M41 Light Anti-Aircraft Gun, nicknamed the "Vulcan", is a United Nations Space Command Defense Force vehicle-mounted machine gun. It is used as the primary armament on the standard M12 Light Reconnaissance Vehicle.

Background
The M41 LAAG is the standard weaponry of the M12 Warthog, although similar turrets can be found on the M313 Heavy Recovery Vehicles, the Elephants fire rate is slightly faster. It is a triple-barreled, electric-powered, linkless, belt-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 known 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-materiel round, as it can take out both light armor and infantry at great range. The bullet is even 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, and both weapons also fire the 12.7×99 mm round.
 * Vulcan is the Roman name for the Greek god Hephaestus, God of fire and forgery, and the name of several current-day high-caliber gatling guns.
 * The M41 LAAG takes a second to spool up, so it is slow but gradually gets faster the longer the player holds down the trigger, so it's always a good idea to just prime the trigger when one is on the turret, since one won't waste any ammo.
 * The armor plating can be shot or beaten off in Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo: Reach.
 * Halo 3 MythBusters proved that one can perform a Superbounce in Halo 3 using a detached Warthog turret from a destroyed Warthog.
 * A stationary version of the M41 LAAG, as well as the M68 Gauss Cannon, appears in Halo 3: ODST.
 * 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 Halo: Reach, the M41 LAAG takes a few seconds to spin up, whereas in previous games the spin-up was instantaneous. Also, the M41 LAAG will overheat after continuous fire, even though this is technically impossible, as the multi-barrel design of gatling guns prevents overheating by dispersing heat between the multiple barrels.
 * A variant of the M41 LAAG, titled "M41 ELAAGat", is mounted on the back of the OF92/EVA Booster Frame. This version fires Depleted Uranium rounds.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Combat Evolved
 * Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
 * Halo 2
 * Halo 3
 * Halo 3: ODST
 * Halo Wars
 * Halo: Reach
 * Halo: The Fall of Reach
 * Halo: The Flood
 * Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
 * Halo: Contact Harvest
 * Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
 * Palace Hotel
 * Halo Graphic Novel
 * Second Sunrise Over New Mombasa
 * Halo: Uprising
 * Halo: Blood Line
 * Halo Legends
 * Prototype
 * Homecoming
 * Origins

Related pages

 * M12 Force Application Vehicle
 * M68 Gauss Cannon
 * OF92/EVA Booster Frame