Why no Gatling Lasers/Blasters/Turbolasers?

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

In all my years of watching Star Wars, studying SW ship designs, and even making some of the damn things, I've noticed something. No weapons that have the Gatling principle applied to them. Any thoughts on why?

[consequences]

Targetting is generally accurate enough to make it a waste of energy?

[YT300000]

Well, you don't need to load each barrel for a shot, so there's no point in spinning the thing. The SW equivalent of a minigun (Tri-Suns Developmental Stingray) has 8 barrels which fire really fast but don't spin.

[nightmare]

G-type Rotolaser
this outdated weapon is similar to a Gatling Gun. It produced coherent bolts of energy like a modern blaster, but it does so via a rotating galven tube. The tube collects energy as is spins, and ejects a bolt whenever the galven pattern meets the barrel. The resulting bolts of energy are relatively low in power, since the galven tube spins rapidly and doesn't collect enough energy before it meets the barrel again.

And as we all know, the E-WEB doesn't need rotating pipes.

[Stormbringer]

Because there's no point.

There's probably rotating power cells but it's not the barrel that needs to be rotated.

[Trytostaydead]

Hapan ships use the rotating principle.

[Balrog]

Sorta, they rotate thier guns around while the others cool, but they don't have multi-barreled guns

Maybe if they did they'd get past that slower cool-down period

[Captain Cyran]

Because there's no point.

There's probably rotating power cells but it's not the barrel that needs to be rotated.

Well, barrels do eventually overheat if used to often. Unless StarWars barrels are different? So a few barrels to switch through wouldn't be a bad idea.

[Stormbringer]

Because there's no point.

There's probably rotating power cells but it's not the barrel that needs to be rotated.

Well, barrels do eventually overheat if used to often. Unless StarWars barrels are different? So a few barrels to switch through wouldn't be a bad idea.

True. But even in the fleet engagements that doesn't seem to be such a problem. Unless you've got grueling fight it doesn't seem to be an issue.

[Shinova]

I'm sure you could build a tripod rapid-fire disruptor rifle with this principle, given that disruptors have greater capacity to overheat their components.

[Connor MacLeod]

Adding extra barrels simply adds to the mass, and SW blasters have other cooling methods (if you watch the movies, you'll periodically note puffs of gas being ejected from the barrels. The same principle applies to bigger guns too.

It should be noted that given that energy weapons (lasers and particle beams) don't work on the same principles as a projectile weapon, so you can't assume gatling barrels might work for them.

The only reason you use more than one barrel (which is really soemthing of a mass-intensive option), is if you have no other way of cooling the gun.

[Agent R]

Sorta, they rotate thier guns around while the others cool, but they don't have multi-barreled guns

Maybe if they did they'd get past that slower cool-down period

Actually, Hapans don't rotate their guns to allow them to cool down; they do it to allow them time to recharge. Hapan guns have a slow recharge rate as compared to those of the Empire or the Republic.

[Sea Skimmer]

Its because they just aren't that useful and are a inefficient waste of ammo and mass for most takes.

The applications of Gatling weapons in real life are and always have been exceedingly limited. There only use is for situations, which demand very high rates of fire and those are very rare. Basically we have aircraft guns, and point defence mounts and that it is. Improvements in fire control and increased accuracy of blaster weapons would make point defence galtings unnecessary for a Star Wars ship, and continually firing blaster weapons make them pointless for aircraft mounts. In any case for every application of a gatling in real life you'll find plenty of arguments and examples aginst them in favor of fewer but heavier shots.

[Sea Skimmer]

Well, barrels do eventually overheat if used to often. Unless StarWars barrels are different? So a few barrels to switch through wouldn't be a bad idea.

It may simply never matter. There are few gun designs, which will not overheat if fired continually for long enough but there are plenty which wont overheat in any realistically conceivable period of firing.

We've built machine gun barrels, which are good for tens of thousands of round fired nonstop. Turbolasers may be the same and there is no doubt a regulation in which a ship is regunned whenever its remaining barrel life is equal to the number of shots expected to be fired in a major battle.

[YT300000]

Because there's no point.

There's probably rotating power cells but it's not the barrel that needs to be rotated.

Well, barrels do eventually overheat if used to often. Unless StarWars barrels are different? So a few barrels to switch through wouldn't be a bad idea.

Small guns, such as the E-11 do have the overheating barrel problem. If you empty it's power cell via fully-auto fire, and fire all the shots within 2 minutes or so, the barrel warps and makes the gun useless. Bigger guns in SW don't have this problem though.

Interesting fact: Look closely at the pic below, and you will see holes on the barrel. They keep the barrel from overheating. In TESB, Lando accidentally touched the barrel, and it lightly burned his hand.

Always link large images

[Agent Fisher]

I am sure that they have particle guns using the minigun princible.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

I am sure that they have particle guns using the minigun princible.

How can you be sure?

[YT300000]

I am sure that they have particle guns using the minigun princible.

I have never heard of any. And trust me, I know a lot about Star Wars guns.

[Ender]

IIRC, the reason for the rotating barrel is for cooling of it. The lack of gattling guns in SW just means that their heat removal technology is very advanced, which fits with what we know based on their starships

[Sea Skimmer]

IIRC, the reason for the rotating barrel is for cooling of it. The lack of gattling guns in SW just means that their heat removal technology is very advanced, which fits with what we know based on their starships

Cooling via rotating really isn't an issue; it's reducing barrel erosion and a higher rate of fire that are behind modern gatling guns. Each barrel and chamber is firing no faster then a normal machine gun so additional cooling isn't necessary and simply spinning the barrels wont help that much anyway. It's spreading all those rounds and there heat over six chambers and barrels that keeps them cool.

If you need active cooling then you need something like a water jacket, in tests water cooled machine guns have fired for as long as forty five minutes on a single barrel without stopping. More recently several heavy artillery pieces have adapted water-cooling, the 155mm Crusader for example needed water-cooling to sustain its 8rpm rate of fire.

Anyway, Star Wars hads no need for the excessive rates of fire you get from a galting weapons.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Thanks. That was a great help.

/me seriously thinks about redesigning most of his ships' weapons packages...

[Sea Skimmer]

Thanks. That was a great help.

/me seriously thinks about redesigning most of his ships' weapons packages...

You'd like the Spanish solution to building a CIWS. A gatling gun? But why have many barrels and only be able fire one at a time? No the Spanish decided to simply line but not six but twelve guns and use them all.

[Balrog]

Sorta, they rotate thier guns around while the others cool, but they don't have multi-barreled guns

Maybe if they did they'd get past that slower cool-down period

Actually, Hapans don't rotate their guns to allow them to cool down; they do it to allow them time to recharge. Hapan guns have a slow recharge rate as compared to those of the Empire or the Republic.

Ah, thanks, it's been awhile since I've read up on the Hapans.

Still, could the same principle be applied to thier guns?

[Connor MacLeod]

Sorta, they rotate thier guns around while the others cool, but they don't have multi-barreled guns

Maybe if they did they'd get past that slower cool-down period

Actually, Hapans don't rotate their guns to allow them to cool down; they do it to allow them time to recharge. Hapan guns have a slow recharge rate as compared to those of the Empire or the Republic.

Ah, thanks, it's been awhile since I've read up on the Hapans.

Still, could the same principle be applied to thier guns?

Why? The Wedge shape of an ISD works just fine

[Gil Hamilton]

StarWars guns seem to be able to fire rapidly enough as it is. See how fast the guns on Slave One were firing in AotC?