20mm Oerlikon Fire Test After 50 Years

Kill Of The Hill.

In this video, you’ll get to see a couple of lucky young fellas shooting a pretty rare gun, namely, the Oerlikon 20 mm cannon which was designed in Switzerland. Not only that, the description says that it’s been sitting unused for almost 50 years, yet, it fires like it should.

This cannon has been used in a variety of roles as it was versatile, weighing only 150 pounds. It was used manually by gunners, equipped on navy ships, used as an anti-aircraft gun and eventually put on fighter planes as well.

One of the most famous planes to use this cannon was the German Messerschmitt Bf 109, although for a limited time.

Today, the gun is typically not used as a weapon in any military. There are a few exceptions of old vessels which still have them equipped, but they’re viewed as secondary, or last resort, weapons.  During the war, however, there were lines of them on U.S. Navy ships as they replaced the coveted M2 Browning machine guns as they had more range and power.

Funny how they were used on both sides of the war at one point or another.