records in air-to-air combat. Engineers and air crews quickly created a solution by attaching rotary cannons in a cut-out fuel drop tank, creating an impromptu gun pod suitable for attacking ground targets. World War II In World War II the Third Reich's Luftwaffe made use of many different, and most often rigidly mounted, conformal and suspended-mount gun pod systems usually called Waffenbehälter (prefix of WB, literally 'weapon container') or Waffenträger (prefix of WT, literally 'weapon carrier'), and carrying anything from rifle caliber MG 81 machine guns, all the way up to the enormous Bordkanone anti-tank cannon based ordnance weapon series, ranging from 37 to 75mm in caliber, though the usual underwing conformal gun pods fitted to Bf 109 and Fw 190 single engined fighters used either the MG 151/20 or MK 108 in gun pod mounts. Other countries also used gun pods on their aircraft; the U.S. SBD Dauntless could be equipped with two gun pods on each wing, each with two M2 Browning machine guns. The Bristol Blenheim Mk.1F of the Royal Air Force was a night fighter conversion of the twin engine light bomber equipped with airborne interception radar and armed with four Browning machine gun in a special gun pack under the fuselage. The Mk.IVF was a long range fighter version armed with the same gun pack. The RAF Hawker Hurricane Mk.IID of 1942 was an early and extremely successful example of tank busting aircraft of the North African campaign armed with two Vickers S gun with 15 rounds mounted in gondola-style pods, one under each wing. Common gun pods United States GPU-2/A: Gun pod with M197 cannon. GPU-5/A: Gun pod with GAU-13/A cannon. M18/SUU-11/A: Gun pod with M134/GAU-2/A machine gun. M12/SUU-16/A: Gun pod with M61A1 cannon. M25/SUU-23/A: Gun pod with GAU-4/A cannon. USSR/Russia GUV-8700: Gun pod (9A624) 2 GShG 7.62mm / 9A622 and 1 Yak-B 12.7mm / 9A624 GUV-8700: Gun pod (9A669), similar as above, 1 9A800 (version of AGS-17 30mm automatic grenade launcher) in the same pod. UPK-23-250: Gun pod GSh-23L twin barreled 23mm SPPU-22: Depressible gun pod GSh-23L twin barreled 23mm SPPU-6: Fully mobile gun pod GSh-6-23 six barreled 23mm SPPU-687: Depressible gun pod (9A-4273) GSh-30-1 high velocity 30mm (prototype) France CC420: Gun pod with 30mm DEFA 552, 552A, 553, or 554 cannon. CC422: Short gun pod with 30mm DEFA 553 cannon. CC630: Gun pod with two 30mm DEFA 554 cannons. External links Aircraft