DEFA 554 30mm, Internal Cannon In Mirage 2000-5

It is believed that the procurement of 12 Mirage 2000-5 units from Qatar by the Indonesian Ministry of Defense for the needs of filling the gap for Indonesian Air Force fighter jets is believed to also include an armament package.

Although it is not yet known what type of armament package will be carried off, it is certain that it will include the 30 mm caliber DEFA 554 canon.

The adoption of the DEFA 554 canon is attached as an internal (organic) weapon to the Mirage 2000 series.

Which means it is in the complete aircraft procurement package.

The DEFA canon (Direction des Études et Fabrications d'Armement) is a family of French-made aircraft revolver canons that fire standard NATO 30 mm ammunition.

The DEFA canon is not a new name in the scope of the Indonesian Air Force, because this canon is complete as an internal weapon on the A-4 Skyhawk tactical fighter jet.

The variant used on the A-4 Skyhawk is the DEFA 550.

Even though the A-4 Skyhawk has been retired by the Indonesian Air Force, however, the DEFA canons are still being optimized, one of which is the DEFA 550 prepared as a canon to be installed on the CN-235 220 Gunship by PT Dirgantara Indonesia.

While the variant used on the Mirage 2000 fighter jet is the DEFA 554, where each Mirage 2000 fighter jet is equipped with two DEFA 554 canons.

But it should be noted that the DEFA 554 canon only exists on the single seater Mirage 2000, while the Mirage 2000 is a tandem seats are not equipped with internal canons.

The tandem seat version, also known as the Mirage 2000B, is the training variant of the aircraft.

The main focus of this variant is for training and carrying out combat missions based on a series of avionics and computing systems.

The DEFA 554 gun in the Mirage 2000 has an overall length of 1.66 meters and the weight of the gun without ammunition is 85 kg.

DEFA was built on the basis of a German-made MG-213C canon, this canon works with gas operated via a five-chamber revolver mechanism.

The ammunition used refers to the 30 × 113 mm NATO standard.

Regarding combat power, the effective range for air targets is around 2,000 to 3,000 meters, while for ground targets the effective range can reach 4,000 to 6,000 meters.

Meanwhile, the rate of fire is set at 1,100 munitions per minute (low) and 1,800 munitions per minute (high), and the projectile launch speed reaches 765-815 meters per second.

The DEFA 554 canon configuration on the Mirage 2000 has two shoots, located just below the air intake.

Each DEFA 554 gun has ammunition loaded in a drum, which is located inside the fuselage.

A standard DEFA 554 ammunition drum capacity is approximately 125 to 150 rounds per drum.

With two cannons, the total Mirage 2000 ammunition capacity for the DEFA 554 cannon can reach around 250 to 300 rounds in one flight.