[The Drive] The U.S. Air Force has offered the first good look at how its new-ish GAU-5/A carbines squeeze in with other items inside a survival kit that the service's pilots are now flying with under their ejection seats. The guns are converted standard M4 carbines with various new features, most notably a special locking system that allows users to break it down into two halves in 30 seconds or less and reassemble when necessary just as fast.
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center released the picture of the carbine broken down inside its kit, along with four tan-colored 30-round magazines and other items, along with additional images of the gun assembled and disassembled on Feb. 14, 2020. Air Force gunsmiths at the Air Force Security Forces Center, situated at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas, assembled 2,700 of these GAU-5/As, also known as Aircrew Self Defense Weapons (ASDW), to units across the service between February 2018 and January 2020, when it reportedly completed all of the planned deliveries. It's interesting to note that this is 600 more guns than the Air Force expected to produce as of June 2018.
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