Editing Gun pod (section)

== Design ==
[[File:F-4 With Gunpod.jpg|thumb|]]
A gun pod typically contains one or more guns, a supply of ammunition, and, if necessary, a power source. Electrically powered cannon, such as the [[M61 Vulcan]], may be powered from the aircraft's electrical system or by a [[ram-air turbine]].

Gun pods increase a vehicle's firepower without occupying internal volume. When not required for a specific mission they can be omitted to save weight.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Quaile |first=John E. |date=1958 |title=New Military Methods and Devices: Electronics • Aviation • Weapons |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44560759 |journal=The Military Engineer |volume=50 |issue=338 |pages=451 |jstor=44560759 |issn=0026-3982}}</ref> On some vehicles they isolate delicate internal components such as [[radar]] from the weapon's recoil and gases, and for [[jet engine|jet]] aircraft allow the weapons to be mounted away from the intakes of the engines, reducing problems of gun-gas ingestion, which may cause the engine to stall.

When designed to be suspension-mounted on a [[hardpoint]] on a typical post-WW II aircraft, gun pods are inherently less accurate than integral guns, or the type of "conformal" gun pods that are faired smoothly into or onto the nearby surfaces of an aircraft, because the "hardpoint" mounting is necessarily less rigid, so that the weapon's recoil produces more deflection. This problem is particularly acute with more powerful cannons like the [[GAU-13 cannon|30mm GPU-5 gun pod]]. Both hardpoint-mounted and conformal-mount gun pods also cause substantial [[drag (physics)|drag]] on fast-moving vehicles such as [[fighter aircraft]].

Gun pods are commonly carried on military [[helicopter]]s, and are often fitted to light aircraft to equip them for [[counter-insurgency#COIN Aircraft|counter-insurgency]] operations. Some air arms use gun pods for [[fighter bombers]] for use in [[strafing]] attacks.