M61A1 Vulcan 20 mm cannon
E111140
The M61A1 Vulcan 20 mm cannon is a six-barreled, electrically driven Gatling-style rotary cannon widely used on modern fighter aircraft for high-rate-of-fire air-to-air and air-to-ground engagements.
All labels observed (10)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T945766 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: M61A1 Vulcan 20 mm cannon Context triple: [CF-18 Hornet, armament, M61A1 Vulcan 20 mm cannon]
-
A.
GAU-12 Equalizer 25 mm cannon
The GAU-12 Equalizer is a five-barrel 25 mm Gatling-type rotary cannon used primarily by U.S. military aircraft for high-rate, close air support and ground-attack missions.
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B.
Mauser BK-27 27 mm cannon
The Mauser BK-27 is a German-designed 27 mm revolver cannon widely used in modern fighter aircraft for high-rate, accurate air-to-air and air-to-ground fire.
-
C.
40 mm Bofors autocannon
The 40 mm Bofors autocannon is a widely used, rapid-firing anti-aircraft and multi-purpose gun system renowned for its reliability and effectiveness since World War II.
-
D.
7.62 mm M240 machine gun
The 7.62 mm M240 machine gun is a belt-fed, gas-operated general-purpose machine gun widely used by U.S. and NATO forces for infantry support and as a mounted weapon on vehicles and aircraft.
-
E.
MG 131 machine gun
The MG 131 machine gun was a German 13 mm aircraft-mounted heavy machine gun used extensively by the Luftwaffe during World War II for defensive and offensive armament on various combat aircraft.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: M61A1 Vulcan 20 mm cannon Target entity description: The M61A1 Vulcan 20 mm cannon is a six-barreled, electrically driven Gatling-style rotary cannon widely used on modern fighter aircraft for high-rate-of-fire air-to-air and air-to-ground engagements.
-
A.
GAU-12 Equalizer 25 mm cannon
The GAU-12 Equalizer is a five-barrel 25 mm Gatling-type rotary cannon used primarily by U.S. military aircraft for high-rate, close air support and ground-attack missions.
-
B.
Mauser BK-27 27 mm cannon
The Mauser BK-27 is a German-designed 27 mm revolver cannon widely used in modern fighter aircraft for high-rate, accurate air-to-air and air-to-ground fire.
-
C.
40 mm Bofors autocannon
The 40 mm Bofors autocannon is a widely used, rapid-firing anti-aircraft and multi-purpose gun system renowned for its reliability and effectiveness since World War II.
-
D.
7.62 mm M240 machine gun
The 7.62 mm M240 machine gun is a belt-fed, gas-operated general-purpose machine gun widely used by U.S. and NATO forces for infantry support and as a mounted weapon on vehicles and aircraft.
-
E.
MG 131 machine gun
The MG 131 machine gun was a German 13 mm aircraft-mounted heavy machine gun used extensively by the Luftwaffe during World War II for defensive and offensive armament on various combat aircraft.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Gatling-style gun
ⓘ
aircraft cannon ⓘ rotary cannon ⓘ |
| action | rotating barrel cluster ⓘ |
| ammunitionType |
20 mm API
ⓘ
20 mm HEI ⓘ 20 mm TP ⓘ |
| barrelLength | approximately 1.8 m ⓘ |
| caliber | 20×102 mm ⓘ |
| coolingSystem | air-cooled ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| designedFor | fighter aircraft ⓘ |
| developmentOf |
M61A1 Vulcan 20 mm cannon
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
M61 Vulcan
|
| feature |
high reliability at extreme rates of fire
ⓘ
hydraulically or electrically driven rotor ⓘ |
| feedSystem | linkless ammunition feed ⓘ |
| firingMode | fully automatic ⓘ |
| introduced | 1960s ⓘ |
| manufacturer |
General Dynamics
ⓘ
General Electric ⓘ |
| mounting |
gun pod
ⓘ
internal gun installation ⓘ |
| numberOfBarrels | 6 ⓘ |
| operation | externally powered ⓘ |
| partOf |
M61A1 Vulcan 20 mm cannon
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
M61 Vulcan family
|
| powerSource | electric motor ⓘ |
| primaryRole | air-to-air combat ⓘ |
| rateOfFire |
approximately 6000 rounds per minute
ⓘ
selectable 4000–6000 rounds per minute ⓘ |
| replaced | M39 cannon in many U.S. fighters ⓘ |
| secondaryRole | air-to-ground attack ⓘ |
| successor |
M61A1 Vulcan 20 mm cannon
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
M61A2 Vulcan 20 mm cannon
|
| usedBy |
NATO
ⓘ
surface form:
NATO member states
United States Air Force ⓘ United States Marine Corps ⓘ United States Navy ⓘ |
| usedInConflict |
Gulf War
ⓘ
Iraq War ⓘ Vietnam War ⓘ |
| usedOn |
A-7 Corsair II
ⓘ
AC-130 gunship ⓘ
surface form:
AC-130 gunship (as part of armament variants)
B-1B Lancer ⓘ Grumman F-14 Tomcat ⓘ
surface form:
F-14 Tomcat
F-15 Eagle ⓘ F-16 Fighting Falcon ⓘ F-22 Raptor ⓘ McDonnell F-4 Phantom II ⓘ
surface form:
F-4 Phantom II
F/A-18 Hornet ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: M61A1 Vulcan 20 mm cannon Description of subject: The M61A1 Vulcan 20 mm cannon is a six-barreled, electrically driven Gatling-style rotary cannon widely used on modern fighter aircraft for high-rate-of-fire air-to-air and air-to-ground engagements.
Referenced by (14)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
M61A2 Vulcan 20 mm rotary cannon
this entity surface form:
M61 Vulcan 20 mm rotary cannon
this entity surface form:
M61A1 Vulcan 20 mm rotary cannon
this entity surface form:
M61 Vulcan family
this entity surface form:
M61 Vulcan
this entity surface form:
M61A2 Vulcan 20 mm cannon
this entity surface form:
M61 Vulcan 20 mm cannon (early variants)
this entity surface form:
M61 Vulcan 20 mm rotary cannon
subject surface form:
General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon
this entity surface form:
M61 Vulcan 20 mm rotary cannon
subject surface form:
McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle
this entity surface form:
M61 Vulcan 20 mm rotary cannon
this entity surface form:
20 mm M61 Vulcan cannon
this entity surface form:
20 mm M61A1 Gatling gun