Source: Reddit
A Ukrainian gun truck crew, photographed sometime in 2025, looking after their weapon: the Nudelman-Rikhter NR-30 30mm autocannon. Entering service in 1954, the NR-30 is exclusively a weapon utilized in Soviet-era aircraft which included the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 (NATO reporting name Farmer), early models of the MiG-21 (Fishbed), the Sukhoi Su-7 (Fitter-A), and the Sukhoi Su-17 (Fitter). It is the latter where this weapon likely came from as the Ukrainian Air Force operated the Su-17M3 (Fitter-H), Su-17EM3 (Fitter-G), and Su-17M4 (Fitter-K) until 2004 when some 24 of the UM3 and M4 aircraft were overhauled and sold off to Yemen and Vietnam while the remainder were put into storage, dispersed between facilities in Odesa and Zaporizhia. As such, since these airframes are likely no longer airworthy or worth the effort to return to service, stripping their weapons for ground use is a logical option to “recycle” old components.
The NR-30 is a short-recoil action autocannon with a weight of 145 pounds without ammunition. Speaking of ammunition, the NR-30 fires a 30x155mm round which was replaced by the 30X165mm round that remains in use to this day. As such, the NR-30 is not compatible with these rounds, making supply a potential issue since most of the Ukrainian Army uses the 30X165mm round in their BMP-2 IFVs, BTR-82A IFVs, BMP-3 IFVs, and 2K22 Tunguska SPAAGs. Likewise, the Ukrainian Air Force and Army Air Force use the round in the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29 (Fulcrum), Sukhoi Su-25 (Frogfoot), and Mil Mi-24 helicopter gunships (Hind).
Rate of fire is between 850 to 1,000 rounds per minute with the effective range (when mounted in aircraft) being a relatively short 200 to 800 meters against aerial targets and 1.1 miles against ground targets. Again, when used in aircraft, the NR-30 was usually provided with 70 rounds of belted ammunition. Typical ammunition types include the BR AP (Armor-Piercing), the OFZ HE-I (High Explosive Incendiary), and LP training projectiles. The OFZ round contains between 40 to 48 grams of explosive while all rounds had between 95 to 99 grams of VBP smokeless powder propellant.
If one looks closely, one can see two blue gauges and a heavy hose coming from what is possibly a regulator valve. The hose runs underneath the custom fabricated gun mount. The valve is no doubt connected to a compressed air cylinder and the reason for this arrangement is because the NR-30 requires such an apparatus for operating the cocking cylinder to initially charge the weapon. Called pneumatic tensioning, the initial action triggers the recoil accelerator that unlocks the chamber and pushes the breech block backwards where it is held in place by a trigger. This action advances a round into the breech. The compressed air then releases the breech block forward, chambering the round, and the NR-30 is then ready to fire.
