General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products in Burlington, VT received a $10 million ceiling-priced, firm-fixed-price letter contract for the procurement of 42 M61A2 Vulcan 20 mm Automatic Gun Systems, which will be mounted in F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft. Work will be performed in Burlington, VT and is expected to be complete in January 2007. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Air Systems Command Aircraft Division in Patuxent River, MD issued the contract (N00421-05-C-0110).
The 20mm M61 Vulcan is a hydraulically driven, six-barreled, air-cooled, electrically fired Gatling gun with an extremely high rate of fire. It has been the principal cannon armament of United States military aircraft for five decades. The M61A2 is mechanically the same as the M61A1, but with thinner barrels to reduce overall mass to 202 lb (91.6 kg).