content: The gun was originally designed to have 2 fire modes; 2,100 Round Per Minute, or 4,200 Rounds Per Minute. This was select-able by the pilot. Later models of the gun were designed to fire a fixed 3,900 Round Per Minute. This means that in 10 seconds (not accounting for the 2 seconds spin-up time of the weapon), the weapon fires 650 30mm Depleted Uranium Armor Piercing Incendiary Rounds. Since the plane can only store a maximum of 1,350 rounds, the ammunition will be depleted after 20.769 seconds. Each 30mm round contains approximately 280 grams of Depleted Uranium (DU). In January 2010, United Nuclear was selling DU for an approximate $9.00 per gram. Each Round, therefore, contains $2,520.00 of DU. Therefore, the A-10 Warthog, with its GAU-8 cannon, is capable of expelling $3,402,000.00 of DU in just over 20 seconds. Keep in mind, that this figure does NOT include the other materials within each round. This is simply the cost of the DU. Basically, the GAU-8 is what you use when you hate someone SO MUCH, that you're willing to spend MILLIONS OF DOLLARS to shoot at them with a material that is denser than lead, effective at over 4,000 ft., is armor piercing, explodes on impact, and sprays molten metal at the targets. If that isn't a huge middle finger, I don't know what is.