Aug 062012
A drawing of the T250 Vigilante anti-aircraft gun, towed version. The T250 is fairly poorly documented, even though it was built, tested and mounted to an extended M-113 chassis. The T250 certainly looks like the M61 Vulcan gatling gun, but there was a difference: unlike the 20mm M61, the T250 was a hefty 37mm caliber.
The T250 was begun in 1956 at Springfield Armory. It had a rate of fire of 3000 rpm, and had a 192 round drum magazine. While the 37mm round hit like a freight train, apparently the problem was that the integrated system couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, so the Vigilante system was replaced with the Mauler automated anti-aircraft missile system… which was also cancelled.
