Drafted — not technically validated
Record revision 1 · France's 30 mm revolver cannon, the standard gun of every French gun-armed fighter from 1954 until the Rafale.
Real-world weapon as described in public sources. Weights and dimensions change with the fins, fuzes and variant fitted; the data plate names the variants its figures describe, and differences are noted beside the number they affect. The record describes the weapon; it is not a guide to employing it.
DEFA 550-series 30 mm revolver cannon · DEFA 552, 553 and 554
- Type
- 30 mm revolver cannon with a five-chamber cylinder [1]
- Origin
- France; developed by the DEFA in the late 1940s from the German Mauser MG 213C [1]
- In service
- DEFA 552 in production from 1954; DEFA 553 from 1971 [1]
- Weight
- 80 kg (552), 83 kg (553) or 85 kg (554) [1]
- Dimensions
- Length 1.66 m (552), 1.86 m (553) or 2.01 m (554) [1]
- Calibre
- 30 mm, firing the NATO 30 × 113 mm round [1]
- Action
- Five-chamber revolver [1]
- Rate of fire
- 1,100 to 1,500 rounds per minute (552), 1,300 (553), and 1,100 or 1,800 selectable (554) [1]
- Muzzle velocity
- 765 to 815 m/s [1]
- Ammunition
- Usually 125 to 135 rounds per gun in a twin installation [1]
- Carried by
- DEFA 553: Mirage F1Mirage F1 AircraftA swept-wing French fighter sold to eleven countries and flown in many wars. and C-101C-101 Aviojet AircraftSpain's two-seat jet trainer with an internal weapons bay. [1]
- DEFA 554: the single-seat Mirage 2000Mirage 2000C AircraftFrance's fly-by-wire delta interceptor, armed with Super 530D and Magic II missiles. [1]
- Mirage III and 5, Super Étendard, Jaguar, Alpha Jet, Kfir and Israeli A-4 Skyhawks, among others [1]
The French gun
The DEFA comes from the same root as the British ADENADEN cannon OrdnanceThe 30 mm revolver cannon of every British gun-armed jet from the Hunter in 1954 to the Tornado. and the American M39M39 cannon OrdnanceThe US Air Force's 20 mm revolver cannon of the 1950s, proven in Korea and still in the F-5's nose.: the Mauser MG 213C, an experimental German revolver cannon that never reached production. [1] The first DEFA 551 was developed in the late 1940s, and the DEFA 552 went into production in 1954. The DEFA 553 of 1971 brought a new feed, a nichrome-plated steel barrel and better electrical reliability, and the DEFA 554 of the single-seat Mirage 2000Mirage 2000C AircraftFrance's fly-by-wire delta interceptor, armed with Super 530D and Magic II missiles. can fire at two rates. [1] It fires the NATO standard 30 × 113 mm round. [1]
Everywhere in French service
From 1954 until the Rafale, the DEFA was the gun of every gun-armed French fighter, usually as a pair with 125 to 135 rounds each. [1] It armed the Mystère, the Mirage III, the Mirage F1Mirage F1 AircraftA swept-wing French fighter sold to eleven countries and flown in many wars., the Super Étendard and the Jaguar, and Israeli Skyhawks, Neshers and Kfirs. [1]
Sources
- DEFA cannon. Wikipedia (secondary source). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEFA_cannon (accessed 2026-10-27).
Wikipedia articles are secondary sources and can change; they are cited with the date they were read. NAVEDTRA training manuals and budget justification exhibits are official US publications, but each describes the weapons in service when it was written.