In a Gatling gun (12, 13), it would be desirable, in a burst of fire, to fire the first cartridge (32) only when the rotating tube bundle (15) has reached full speed during the run-up, that is to say when the gun (12, 13) is capable of shooting at its full rate. The desired high accuracy and a low spread of the weapon system are achieved in this way. The cartridge-feed device, too, needs some time before it has reached the full feed speed. The first cartridge (32) is therefore to be fed to the Gatling gun (12, 13) only when, on the one hand, the run-up of the tube bundle (15) is terminated and, on the other hand, the cartridge-feed device has reached its full feed speed. This object is achieved by means of two transfer wheels (26a, 26b) connected to one another via a coupling (35) and arranged between two endless chains (24a, 16b), a separate return channel (17a) and a sensor (50) for determining the initial position of the first cartridge. … …