The MG 151 as an AA gun faced a few problems. Not that it couldn't be used but it wasn't ideal.
The 15mm while better than the American .50 cal from an effectiveness point of view, was heavy, expensive and used a small shell with only a few grams of explosive, it still used a fuse though (expensive) .
Anthony Williams photo.
Not sure on barrel life, (the US .50 was rather short lived until 1944) but the high velocity gives good
effective range, most AA ranges in books are total nonsense.
The 20mm solves several problems and introduces a few of it's own. Barrel live will be better, it carries more HE (forget the mine shell for AA work) for more target effect, fuse is bigger but not much more expensive ( about the same number of parts and time to assemble) but the lower velocity means a shorter
effective range than anybody else's 20mm AA gun. The 2
110 in the picture is for a Hispano but it used the same projectiles and had the same velocity/range as the Oerlikon.
The rate of fire of the MG 151 is good.
The mine shell starts out fast but slows down very quickly, by 300-400 meters it is moving slower than the regular 20mm MG 151 ammo and this makes aiming a problem. There were no mine shells with tracer so once past 300-400 meters the tracers rounds are not showing you where the mine shells are going.