Situations in which the pilot is shot down over enemy territory occur in every war. It's hard to mention their number, but certainly most of us has heard stories about some of these cases. Among those it is worth mentioning the stories of Lt. Col. Iceal Hambleton, known from the movie BAT21, Mike Durant's CW3, a pilot of one of the Blackhawks shot down on Mogadishu, or Captain Darrell P. Zelk, a pilot of an F-117 shot down in Serbia.
Pilots, unlike soldiers of land forces, have very limited possibility to take sufficient numbers of weapons and ammunition on board their aircraft, to be able to defend themselves effectively in the event of a direct firefight.
It was this idea, the increase of firepower of its airmen, that underlies the creation and implementation of the Aircrew Self Defense Weapon (ASDW) GAU-5/A carbines.
The incident from December 2014, when the ISIS fighters shot down an airplane of the Jordanian Air Force with the pilot Moaz Al Kasasbeh on board, was the deciding factor behind the imminent arming of airmen with compact automatic rifles. The airman was able to catapult, but was quickly captured by ISIS terrorists and burnt alive in January 2015. At that time, the American F-15E pilots from 366 Fighter Wing stated that their standard issue M9 Beretta caliber 9mm was not a sufficient as a self-defense tool.
Before the ASDW was established, the US air force, in response to the incident in Syria, began modifying the existing carbines, remembering the Vietnam War GAU-5 models (shortened barrels, modified receivers and sights) and issued them to pilots flying over Syria.
GAU-5 during the Gulf War
Compared to the standard M4, the GAU-5/A is equipped with the Cry Havoc Tactical quick barrel mounting mechanism and a front with the M-lok system. Another interesting feature is the folded pistol grip.
All these modifications allow you to fit the carbine in a standard survival kit which each pilot is equipped with.
The carbine can be ready to fire in about 60 seconds without the use of any special gunsmith tools. The other features of the ASDW are shared with the standard M4, i.e. it is equipped with a 14.5-inch barrel and is fed from standard STANAG magazines.
The carbines are sent first to pilots of F-15Es and F-22s performing combat missions over enemy territory.
Source: thedrive.com, tactical-life.com, en.wikipedia.org
