ill see your magazines, and raise you barrel changes. im not sure what barrel life was, but videos show them being hot swapped in use pretty frequently.
Each of the four mounted guns had a separate magazine that held only 20 rounds. This meant that a maximum combined rate of fire of 1,400 rounds per minute was reduced practically to 800 rounds per minute for combat use – which would still require that an emptied magazine be replaced every six seconds, on each of the four guns. This is the attainable rate of fire; the sustained rate of fire is significantly lower due to rapid heat buildup and barrel erosion. Automatic weapons are typically limited to roughly 100 rounds per minute per barrel to give time for the heat to dissipate, although this can be exceeded for short periods if the firing window is brief.
because simple math is fun,
100 rpm to keep barrel from melting.
20 rounds each
100 rounds per minute / 60 (seconds) = 1.67 rounds per second per gun.
20 rounds / 1.67 rounds per second = 11.97 seconds of fire per gun. before reload.
in reality it appears to me they could keep the guns topped off for a solid stream of fire.
of course this required a dedicated loading person for each gun. (x4)
i dont know what the fire rate is for the ah3 wirb, but i bet it couldn't make it through its whole ammo supply at the current rate without barrel changes even if the loaders could keep it topped off.
of course we have a lot of theoretically perfect equipment, so this may be by design.
