Volkov-Yartsev VYa-23
| Volkov Yartsev VYa-23 | |
|---|---|
VYa-23 cannon
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| Type | Aircraft |
| Place of origin | Soviet Union |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1941–? |
| Used by | Soviet Union |
| Wars | World War II |
| Production history | |
| Designer | A.A. Volkov and S.A. Yartsev |
| Designed | 1940–41 |
| Number built | 64,655 |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 68 kg (150 lb) |
| Length | 2.15 metres (7 ft 1 in) |
| Barrel length | 1.66 metres (5 ft 5 in) |
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| Cartridge | 23x152mmB |
| Caliber | 23 mm (1 in) |
| Rate of fire | 550–650 rounds/min |
| Muzzle velocity | 905 m/s (2,969 ft/s) |
Volkov-Yartsev VYa-23 (Волков-Ярцев ВЯ-23) is a 23 mm (0.91 in) used on Soviet aircraft during World War II.
In 1940, A.A. Volkov and S.A. Yartsev created an called TKB-201 for the new 23 mm round. It was intended to be the primary weapon of the Ilyushin Il-2 ground attack aircraft. The original intention was to create a gun capable of penetrating German tank armour.
Due to unavailability of Il-2, the first airborne testing was performed using a German Messerschmitt Bf 110 heavy fighter. After testing on Il-2 in 1941, TKB-201 was accepted into service as VYa-23. A total of 64,655 VYa-23 were built.
The VYa-23 is a gas-operated belt-fed autocannon with a rate of fire of 600 rounds per minute - a high rate of fire for the caliber at the time. The gun was 2.140 metres long, and weighed 68 kg. Its main disadvantages are powerful recoil and very abrupt functioning of the firing and reloading mechanisms which decreased service life and often caused jamming that could not be fixed in mid-air.
According to a US intelligence report, the VYa-23 used an upscaled version of the Berezin UB mechanism.
A powerful new 23×152mm cartridge was specifically developed for the VYa. The same caliber was later used also in the post-war towed ZU-23 and self-propelled ZSU-23-4 23mm AA guns. However, the ammunition for this later AA gun has a different powder charge and primer, and is thus not interchangeable. The ammunition is externally easily recognizable: VYa ammunition has brass cases, while post-war AA ammunition has steel cases.
The ammunition for VYa included fragmentation-incendiary, fragmentation-incendiary-tracer, and armor-piercing-incendiary rounds. The total weight and filling of HE rounds were more than twice that of the 20 mm ammunition used by the ShVAK and Berezin B-20 cannons. The armor-piercing round could penetrate 25 mm (1 in) of armor at 400 m (1,300 ft). The main characteristics of VYa ammunition according to Christian Koll's Russian Ammunition site are listed in the table below:
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Wikipedia