Alternate armaments for Italian and Japanese fighter

Admiral Beez said:

Bravo for Japan on the ROF increase I suppose. My point though is twin Vickers in 1941? That's the best you can do?

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Bravo to Vickers.

The Japanese licensed the Vickers model E which Vickers had developed from the WW I guns by the late 20s.
I don't know when the Japanese started work on the 12.7mm machine gun.
A lot of the aircraft guns used in WW II seemed to take 3-6 years from start of a project to large scale production.
The Ki-43 may have specified to use twin 7.7mm Vickers guns but perhaps the 12.7mm guns were being developed simultaneously?
Perhaps they ran a bit late?

Shortround6 said:

...
A lot of the aircraft guns used in WW II seemed to take 3-6 years from start of a project to large scale production.
The Ki-43 may have specified to use twin 7.7mm Vickers guns but perhaps the 12.7mm guns were being developed simultaneously?
Perhaps they ran a bit late?

Click to expand...

Seems like the availability and reliability of the 12.7mm cannon were not the best. Barrels were prone to burst, thus in some instances Japanese mixed 1 MG and 1 cannon so the Ki-43 can function as a fighter even if a bigger weapon is out.
(Japanese seemed to call the 12.7mm as cannon, probably since it also fired the fused explosive ammo)
FWIW: link

Shortround6 said:

The Ki-43 may have specified to use twin 7.7mm Vickers guns but perhaps the 12.7mm guns were being developed simultaneously?

Click to expand...

To the IJAF's credit, with their twin .303s they achieved remarkable success against the Buffaloes, P-36s, Hurricanes and Fokker D.XXI.

In 2018 I visited the Boeing field flight museum and stood beside their Ki-43 Oscar. I was surprised at just how small it was compared to the Corsair, Thunderbolt and Hellcat nearby.

One source I read stated the guns on Ki-43 could be whatever combination the pilot wanted. A 7.7 could be taken out and a 12.7 installed. It has been so long ago I don't know which book now. My impression was that it was not a problem to do this.