The 30 mm ASP-30 Combat Support Weapon has been developed as a private venture by The Boeing Company (previously McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems).

Development of the ASP-30 began in mid-1984 and the weapon fired its first rounds in October 1984.

The name of the ASP-30 weapon is derived from Automatic Self-Powered with 30 being the calibre of the weapon in millimetres. By mid-1989 three prototypes had been built and had fired over 20,000 rounds of ammunition. These three prototypes were followed by a batch of pre-production weapons.

In the spring of 1989 Royal Ordnance and the then McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems signed an agreement under which Royal Ordnance has exclusive sales and marketing rights throughout the world with the exception of Argentina, Israel, South Korea and the US. The latter countries remain the responsibility of The Boeing Company.

The gas-operated weapon has built-in dual-acting recoil adaptors, a rotating bolt mechanism and a blast suppressor. It is designed as an upgrade 12.7 mm (0.50 calibre) M2 HB machine gun and 40 mm Mk 19 high velocity grenade launchers mounted on armoured vehicles. When equipped with a soft recoil cradle it can also be mounted on the standard M3 heavy machine gun tripod for use in the ground fire suppression role.

It can also be installed on the US Navy Mk 16 Deckmount for naval use. Another potential application for the ASP-30 is as a helicopter door gun.

The gunner can fire semi-automatic or full automatic and the cradle allows the gunner to fire the weapon using the spade grips.

The ASP-30 weapon fires standard 30 x 113B mm ammunition, (already in production for the The Boeing Company), including M789 High Explosive Dual Purpose (HEDP), M788 Target Practice (TP) and M799 High Explosive Incendiary (HEI). All these rounds have a muzzle velocity of 823 m/s. The M789 HEDP round has a maximum range of 4,000 m and can defeat the BMP-1/2 ICV at combat ranges. The weapon can also fire ammunition used by the French 30 mm DEFA and British 30 mm ADEN Mk IV weapons.

For its first public demonstration it replaced the standard 12.7 mm M2 HB machine gun on a M113A2 APC and hit stationary targets at ranges of up to 1,500 m.

Preproduction. The ASP-30 weapon has been demonstrated in Europe, the US and the Middle East. As of mid-1999 there were no production applications for this weapon.