The book definition of this term is the rate that any weapon that launches projectiles can launch in one minute.There are many circumstances which affect the rates of fire of weapons systems but ideally the military wants to put as many rounds down range as possible. When a weapon has a high rate of fire it destroys more than a weapon with a low rate of fire. Machine guns are used for their ability to spit out a lot of rounds which keeps the enemy that you are shooting at from advancing on your position.
The cyclic rate of fire doesn’t take into effect any of the other factors which may effect the number of rounds that will be realistically fired but it speaks of the weapons peak capability. Realistically it won’t happen. The cyclic rate of fire can be as high as 6,000 rounds per minute (100 per second) for mini guns which are normally mounted on aircraft. It can be as high as 1,200 rounds per minute for heavy machine guns.
The effective rate is more realistic in that it accounts for the actions that the crew has to take which will slow down the process. This is what a well trained crew will be able to do in combat situations.
The effective rate of fire is the rate of fire that can be sustained over an indefinite period of time. You will see this term used more with artillery pieces and bigger guns because they may have to fire programs which will continue for an extended period of time. Every military ring customer who serves with a heavy or crew served weapon is intimately familiar with its capabilities and knows how much abuse that that weapon will take.
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