Engineered Support Systems, Inc.

Esco Electronics Company

Thomas W Ellington

Bruce E Exely

Edward V Carter

Thomas Linton

Jeffrey S Folmer

John P Buck, Jr

William S Lambros

Kenneth A Roseman

James R Marshall

Peter M Ellis

Russell R Moning

Stabilized common gimbal

A storage and feed mechanism (10) stores ammunition (A) for a weapon (W) and facilitates feeding the ammunition to the weapon during firing. A magazine (12) comprises a storage chamber located adjacent the weapon and capable of storing a plurality of rounds of the ammunition. Individual rounds of ammunition are linked together on an ammunition belt (B) which carries the rounds to the weapon during firing. An ammunition feed (32) includes an inlet chute (33a) positioned above the magazine and allowing linked rounds of ammunition to be vertically extracted from the magazine thereby preventing tip-over and similar problems. The feed further includes a fixed fan section (32a) comprising a rigid chute through which the belt of ammunition is drawn. A sprocket drive (62) includes an appropriate gear (64) which engages the ammunition belt to draw the linked ammunition from the magazine up through the chute to the receiver. Use of the rigid chute minimizes resistance to movement of the ammunition belt and eliminates jams caused by belt stretching, and enables ammunition to be fed to the weapon regardless of the weapon's angle of elevation during firing.

Chuting assembly for ammunition magazine feed

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Alton, IL, United States of America

Thomas W Ellington