Official caption: “Sailors shoot a Mark 38 25mm machine gun during a live-fire exercise on the fantail of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) in the Pacific Ocean, Oct. 14, 2024. Nimitz is underway in 3rd Fleet conducting routine training operations.”
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Timothy Meyer
To be clear, the mount is a stabilized BAE Mk38 Mod2/3, which can be fired remotely and reportedly has a two to three-fold increase in Probability of Hit (POH) versus the old Mod 1. It has a cyclic rate of 175-to-200 rounds per minute, at least until its onboard 150 linked rounds run out.
Nimitz and her sisters, for the past decade, have carried at least four MK38s for use against surface targets as needed.
The Navy’s program of record for the Mk38 is 501 guns, which may or may not include the USCG that uses the mount on its remaining handful of 210-foot Reliance class cutters (where they replaced the last WWII-era 3″/50 DP wet mounts in U.S. service) and 60+ 158-foot Sentinel-class patrol boats.
Keep in mind that all installed armament on cutters “belongs” to the Navy while the Coasties are on their own to purchase small arms, hence their use of Glocks rather than SIG P320 M17/M18s.
USCGC Benjamin Bottoms (WPC-1132), note her Navy-owned MK38 forward