Rheinmetall Gmbh

Helmut Fischer

Udo Weinfurth

Walter Sauerwald

A device for storing and loading unbelted ammunition in a turret equipped with a tubular weapon, the tubular weapon being equipped with one shaft magazine on either side, with a ring magazine to receive ammunition disposed in the turret basket. Each respective shaft magazine can be supplied with ammunition by way of an associated lifting device. A ring magazine is disposed in a turret basket so as to be rotatable about its axis by means of a drive. Vertical, radially oriented shafts are provided in the ring magazine to receive ammunition and an auxiliary shaft device fixed to the turret is disposed above the ring magazine, with the shaft magazines being articulated to the tubular weapon in such a manner that their shafts, with the tubular weapon in an indexed position, are aligned with the auxiliary shafts of the auxiliary shaft device which are an upward extension of the shafts of ring magazine therebelow, whereby any two types of freely selectable ammunition may be loaded into the respective shaft magazines via the ring magazine and auxiliary shaft device.

Device for storing and loading ammunition in a turret

An empty belt clip and empty cartridge casing discharge arrangement for use with a machine cannon which can, for example, be mounted in the gun turret of an armored vehicle. The arrangement includes a cradle and built-in gun barrel which is pivotally mounted in a gun mount about an axis which is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the gun barrel for control purposes. An alternate ammunition belt feeder is also pivotally mounted in the gun mount about a second axis which is also parallel to the longitudinal axis of the gun barrel and is adapted to assume an upper or lower operative position or a middle SAFETY position. The alternate ammunition belt feeder has an upper and lower outlet for empty belt clips. An upper and lower discharge duct are mounted in the arrangement so that their respective inlets confront the upper and lower outlets of the alternate ammunition belt feeder. A middle duct serves to receive the empty cartridge casings from the cradle. Means are respectively mounted in the inlet regions of the upper and lower discharge ducts to be actuated by the empty belt clips which are being discharged in dependence to the positional shift of the alternate ammunition belt feeder.

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Duesseldorf, Germany

Helmut Fischer