Behind the Su-35 Fighter: Russia Keeps GSh-301 Cannon Production Moving After 2025 Deliveries.

Russia’s Kalashnikov Concern says it has completed all 2025 contractual deliveries of GSh-301 30 mm aircraft cannons and has already begun work on its 2026 production plan. While often overlooked, internal guns like the GSh-301 remain critical to sortie generation and combat readiness when aircraft fleets operate at a sustained high tempo.

Kalashnikov Concern announced on December 12, 2025, that it has completed its 2025 contractual deliveries of GSh-301 aircraft automatic cannons, with shipments made on schedule and follow-on production already underway for 2026. The disclosure highlights how so-called secondary subsystems, such as internal aircraft guns, continue to play an outsized role in sustaining operational availability, particularly when barrel life, spare parts inventories, and depot maintenance capacity begin to constrain combat aviation forces.
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The 30 mm GSh-301 aircraft cannon provides fighter and strike aircraft with a lightweight, high-rate-of-fire internal gun capable of delivering short, accurate bursts against aerial and ground targets at close range, offering an immediate and flexible combat option independent of missile systems (Picture source: Russian MoD).

Known internationally as the Gryazev Shipunov GSh-30-1 family, the GSh-301 is a single-barreled, short-recoil-operated 30 mm aircraft cannon firing the 30x165 mm cartridge, a standard Soviet and Russian aviation gun caliber. The system is widely credited with combining relatively low mass with a high cyclic rate, generally cited in the range of roughly 1,500 to 1,800 rounds per minute, depending on configuration and installation. This balance between weight and firepower is central to its appeal for fighter aircraft, where internal volume and mass margins are tightly constrained.

In operational terms, the GSh-301 provides aircrews with an immediate, close-range lethality option that does not depend on missile availability or seeker performance. Integrated into modern fire control systems, the cannon can be cued through head-up displays and onboard sensors, allowing pilots to deliver short, highly concentrated bursts within seconds of acquiring a firing solution. Typical effective engagement distances are measured in hundreds of meters against aerial targets and up to more than a kilometer against ground targets, reflecting the realities of dispersion, lead calculation, and aircraft closure speeds. In air-to-air combat, the gun remains a last resort and finishing weapon, while in air-to-ground missions, it enables strafing attacks against lightly protected vehicles, artillery positions, and exposed personnel.

For the customer, who Kalashnikov did not publicly identify, continued GSh-301 production primarily supports readiness and sustainment of existing combat aircraft fleets rather than introducing a new capability. The cannon is standard equipment on a wide range of Russian-designed fighters and strike aircraft, including the MiG-29 and MiG-29K or KUB, the Su-27 family, the Su-30 and Su-35 multirole fighters, and the Su-34 frontline bomber. On these platforms, the internal gun complements guided weapons by offering a low-cost, flexible option for targets that do not justify missile expenditure or when rules of engagement require visual confirmation and proportional force.

The 30x165 mm ammunition family associated with the GSh-301 includes high-explosive incendiary and tracer variants designed for both aerial and surface targets. Published characteristics typically describe muzzle velocities in the high hundreds of meters per second, enabling flat trajectories over short ranges and high impact energy on target. In ground attack roles, this translates into the ability to damage or destroy lightly armored vehicles, radar systems, and field fortifications during brief attack windows.

Kalashnikov has also emphasized the industrial dimension of the program, highlighting the use of modern production equipment and high alloy steels, and noting that output has increased in recent years. The company describes itself as Russia’s sole manufacturer of aircraft cannons, underscoring how concentrated this segment of the defense industrial base remains and how continuity of production can be strategically significant during prolonged periods of operational demand.

Beyond Russia, the relevance of the GSh-301 extends to numerous export customers because it is tied to widely operated fighter families. Countries operating Su-30 variants include India, Algeria, Malaysia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Angola, Armenia, and China, among others, all of which maintain fleets where a 30 mm internal cannon remains a core element of the aircraft’s baseline armament concept. MiG-29 operators across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East are similarly linked to this class of weapon, while Chinese Flanker derivatives are widely assessed to use the same pattern gun or a closely related local version.

From a tactical and operational standpoint, the significance of the completed deliveries lies less in any technological breakthrough than in sustaining a proven, high rate of fire capability that underpins day-to-day combat readiness. In high-intensity air operations, the availability of serviceable internal guns influences training realism, engagement options, and the ability to execute effective missions when precision-guided munitions are limited, conserved, or unsuitable for the task at hand.