What are antiaircraft guns or Ack Ack?

Question

What are antiaircraft guns or Ack Ack?

Answer 1

During WWII it was 50mm machine guns used to try to take out aircraft.  They can be found on boats and land units.  When you see an old WWII movie showing a night bowmbing seen they always show thousands of rounds of tracer fire.  That was all AAA.  This was later repalced with the SAM's (Surface to Air Missiles).  I believe there was some 25mm AAA but it was found the 50mm was much more effective.

Answer 2

Anti-aircraft guns are rapid-firing cannons mounted so as to fire up into the sky readily, and loaded with high-propellant cartridges that can throw explosive shells to a high altitude.

The purpose is to interdict aerial attack by bringing down the attacking aircraft.

The British called them "Ack-ack" guns in WW2 because of the sound they made.

Answer 3

Machine guns capable of taking down aircraft.

Answer 4

It's in title: guns designed to shoot down aircraft.

Usually from the WWII era, as nowadays we use missiles. I think they were 30 mm or 50 mm mostly, and fast action, ie, several rounds per second.

Later in the war, proximity fuses with radar detectors became available and greatly improved their effectiveness.  

Answer 5

AA guns are a deterrent against enemy aircraft and located at strategic places which need to be defended against aerial attacks. Most are rapid firing guns, but the ones for high altitudes are not fast repeaters. These guns are even radar guided.

In normal deployment, when a raid comes in, they open up simultaneously and keep on firing to deter  and shoot down the enemy aircraft. Ack ack guns are also deployed for umbrella fire when the guns fire in salvos at a height above the target being defended and their firing criscrosses to form an umbrella shaped shield. Otherwise, each gunner has the option to track any incoming aircraft and shoot it on its own.Gradually the AA guns have been phased out and have been replaced with ground to air guided missiles. However, portable, lighter and smaller calibre AA guns with a very high rate of fire are still prevalent which can prove quite effective against intruding aircraft.

Answer 6

ack ack is not from the sound it made....sheesh, it is a hold over from ww1. "signalese"  ack ack is the phonetic spelling used by signalers for anti-aircraft (fire)

Answer 7

They are annoying devices that 3rd-world countries use to force people to bomb them from higher altitudes because low altitudes were just too scary.

As a result, they are a form of psychological warfare because they drive their adversaries insane with extreme boredom because that's what dropping JDAMs on AAA is all about.

Answer 8

Ack Ack is just a term used in reference to AA guns, or Anti Aircraft guns. An AA gun is a gun that is designed to engage and destroy aircraft. They reached their peak usage in world war 2. They ranged in size from .50 caliber (12.7mm) all the way up to 128mm. There was even a few larger ones in development. What made a gun an AA gun was not the gun tube itself, but the carriage it was mounted on. It was designed to fire upwards and was fitted with sights suited to engaging aircraft. Since WW2 most AA weapons have been missile, with guns only being used for low level point defence. But even a regular infantry machine gun with a special tripod and sights has been used as an AA weapon, though to limited effect.

Answer 9

they are guns designed to take down aircraft.

back in WWI it was simple hand held machine guns, and rifles.

WWII, there were emplacements of these to defend critical locations. Most are mobile, and can be towed by truck. Typical caliber of 50mm but there is also 20, 25 and 30mm. Rate of fire is high for these. They are effective only against low flying aircraft. As another answerer said, these are usually used(such as at night) to form and umbrella over a strategic location or over high altitude antiaircraft guns called flak cannons. During the day, gunners will visually track a target and bring it down.

Flak cannons are the high altitude antiaircraft guns. Their fire rate is much slower and hence is why they are usually placed in great numbers. The fighters protecting the bombers will need to go after these otherwise a great number of slow flying bombers will be lost. The most famous is the German Flak 88. Flak guns are essentially  artillery guns. The shells fly high into the sky, over 20,000 feet. They have a fuse so the gunners on the ground can regulate at which altitude the shells explode.

Later in the war, radar help find the targets in the dark and the antiaircraft guns became much much more effective.

Nowadays, we mainly use missiles called SAMs or Surface to Air missile. These are usually radar guided, or radar guided up to a certain point then heat-seeking or radar guided and then self radar guided.

We still have physical guns as anti aircraft defense also. These are usually extremely fast firing, rotary, multiple barreled 20mm and up guns and are extremely deadly at low altitudes with the radar running target acquisition. These guns are also used as CIWS or close in weapon system, and are used to defend ships and strategic emplacements from cruise missiles and bombs. They will actually shoot the missle out of the air. Certain ships also use a special, smaller SAM to take out incoming bombs and anti-ship missiles also.

Answer 10

Anti-Aircraft Artillery "AAA" are any weapons ranging from small arms, up through large caliber cannon used to destroy/discourage aircraft.  "Ack-Ack" is the World War I British phonetic alphabet for "A-A" = "antiaircraft.  In WW2 the term "Flak" was widely used. This is Deutsch for "FLieger Abwehr Kanone" = Flyer Defense Cannon (literally).  

Triple A is now the term.

Most AAA runs in the 20mm, 23mm, 30mm, 35mm, 40mm and 57mm ranges.  Many of these are in self-propelled mounts with their own on-board radar.  Anything larger than 57mm has been replaced by SAMS.  Also small arms from 7.62-14.5mm are common.  

The majority of kills in Vietnam, and in the Six Day War were due to AAA not Air/air or SAMS BTW.  It is still around because it's cheap, easy to train/use and reasonable effective against helos, UAVs, cruise missiles and fast-movers in a low-altitude delivery (this is related to what Yo was referring to about med alt).  AAA does its job by not only destroying incoming bad guys: if someone jettisons stores, or moves to higher altitude, so it can be engaged by SAMS, that's a mission-kill.