USAF Fighter Pilots Are Now Flying With These Converted M4 Rifles In Their Survival Kits
The rifles break in half and have other special features so they can fit inside the survival kit underneath a pilot's ejection seats.
By Joseph TrevithickMay 10, 2019
The U.S. Air Force is now issuing new survival rifles, also known as the GAU-5/A Aircrew Self Defense Weapon, to at least some units. So we're now beginning to get a better look at the gun, a variant of the AR-15/M16 pattern design, which has specialized features so it can break apart and fit compactly into the standard survival kit in an aviator's ejection seat.
On May 9, 2019, the public affairs office for the 366th Fighter Wing, which flies F-15E Strike Eagles from Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, published a news item showing that the GAU-5/As are in service with its aircraft. In April 2019, a Facebook post showed that F-22 Raptor pilots with the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska had also begun to fly with the Aircrew Self Defense Weapons (ASDW). In June 2018, the Air Force had revealed it was converting standard 5.56x45mm M4 carbines in-house to the new configuration at a rate of 100 per week, with a goal of producing 2,100 guns for distribution to combat-coded squadrons flying both fighter jets and bombers.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/27950/usaf-fighter-pilots-are-now-flying-with-these-converted-m4-rifles-in-their-survival-kits
