The term is sometimes used loosely to refer to guns of similar rates of fire and configuration, regardless of power source and caliber. The Minigun is used by several branches of the U.S. military. Versions are designated M134 and XM196 by the United States Army, and GAU-2/A and GAU-17/A by the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy.

The GAU-17/A utilized on the UH-1N, H-3, and H-60 aircraft, is a crew served, electrically driven, 6 barreled, rotary action, percussion fired weapon, with a maxi-mum rate of fire of 6000 rounds per minute.

The 0.30 caliber (7.62 mm) GAU-2 version was first deployed by the Air Force for use on light aircraft and helicopters, but has since been adopted by the Army, Marines and Navy for the same purposes. These guns are widely used, with the U.S. …

Regarding the weapon itself three versions can be identified: the original model, an improved reliability model and a final model firing at 2.000 and 4.000 rpm instead of 2.000 and 6.000 rpm. These are known simply as the M134 in US Army service but have the designations GAU-2/A, GAU-2A/A and GAU-2B/A in US Air Force service.

Jul 7, 2011 · The Air Force GAU-2B/A (Army M134) 7.62mm "minigun" was designed to provide a light weight high rate of fire armament package for use on helicopters and light fixed-wing aircraft. The basic...

Jun 1, 2000 · The Dillon Aero minigun has been so extensively redesigned that the military would have redesignated it the GAU-2C for aircraft or M134A1 for ground applications, indicating a significant revision to the original design.

Aug 10, 2023 · The developmental "XM134" ultimately became the "M134" in U.S. Army service while the USAF knew it as the GAU-2/A and GAU-17/A (the USN used the "Mk 25 Mod 0" designator).

Designers, using as a model a devastating weapon the corporation fielded for the U. S. Air Force in 1959, scaled down the rotating-barrel GAU-4 20MM (M61 VULCAN) CANNON to create the M134 7.62MM MACHINE GUN. Entering service in 1963, the American military quickly embraced the weapon as the "Minigun."

The Minigun (also known as the M134, GAU-17/A, and Mk 25 Mod 0) is a 7.62 mm, multi-barrel heavy machine gun with a high rate of fire (2,000 to 6,000 rounds per minute), employing Gatling-style rotating barrels with an external power source.

The Army designation for the 7.62x51mm minigun is the M134 while the Air Force and Navy designate the system as the GAU-2/A (fixed mount) and the GAU-17/A (flexible mount).