Naval Combat:AMR
11/21/14
11:58 AM
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NAVAL
C O M B A T
Among the ‘heavy’ guns in service today is the British 114.3mm Mk.VIII, a 55 calibre automatic weapon whose actual bore diameter is 113mm. This weapon was originally designed by the former United Kingdom Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment—which eventually became the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory—and further developed by Royal Ordnance, now part of BAE Systems. The company also offers its Mk.45 Mod. 4, a 127mm gun, which is operational with both 54 and 62 calibre barrels, and the 155mm Advanced Gun System (AGS) developed for the US Navy’s ‘Zumwalt’ class destroyers. Oto Melara’s rival is the 127mm, 64 calibre gun at the heart of its VULCANO naval gun system. Larger Russian combatants are commonly armed with the 130mm AK-130, often in twin mountings, while China is developing the H/PJ38 single-barrel 130mm weapon that is reportedly replacing smaller calibre guns in the PLAN fleet.
Medium Calibres
“The Asia-Pacific segment of the market seems to be mainly conditioned by the evolution of the (security) situation in the China Seas (both south-eastern and eastern),” Mr. Colombo told AMR. “At present, many projects for new ships are going to be launched or have been already launched,” he said, citing the examples of Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. He said that the corvettes, frigates and offshore patrol vessels will be equipped with medium calibre 76mm and 57mm weapons as their primary guns and small calibre 12.7mm and 30mm guns as secondary armament, with coast guards and police forces obliged to use the smaller calibres. “Only Japan and the Republic of Korea seem interested in large calibre (127mm) guns, which they have traditionally used and for which the availability of long-range guided ammunition could become a real interest.”
The Russian Navy’s ‘Udaloy’ class destroyer RFS Admiral Chabanenko fires her twin AK-130-MR-184 130mm guns at a distant target during a gunnery exercise as part of an exercise. The AK-130 series is Russia’s heaviest naval gun and China produces an equivalent © US Navy
Bofors 57 Mk.III (known in the US as the 57mm Mk.110), Oto Melara’s 76mm, 62 calibre Super Rapid, and the French 100mm automatic, for which Nexter still makes ammunition, the 35mm Rheinmetall Millenium Gun. Russia’s Burevestnik offers the 57mm A220M, the 76mm AK-176M1 and the 100mm A190 in two variants, which are used on Russian and Indian Navy ships. China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) uses various 76mm and 100mm weapons derived from French, Russian and indigenous designs.
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Oto Melara’s STRALES system brings guidance technology to 76mm, 62 calibre naval guns, the main components being the gun, the DART guided ammunition with its microwave programmable multifunction fuse and an accompanying RF guidance system © Oto Melara
DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
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