For over twenty years, navies have fitted the same model guns to their ships. The last US gun to appear was the Phalanx 20mm (1980), and the Russians haven't produced a new gun system since the AK-130 that appeared on the Sovremennyys in 1981. Bofors Mk3 57mm/70 Bofors The Swedish Bofors Mk3 57mm/70 is a reduced signature mount for the new Visby class. It is the same gun as the existing Mk2, but has a stealthy gunhouse and fires the new 3P fragmenting ammunition against air targets. As shown on the diagram, when the gun is stowed, the barrel fits into a slot on the front of the mount. That's changing now. New gun mounts are being produced by several navies, both in response to new gun technologies, and also in response to other design considerations. Some of those changes are: Stealth: All new gun mounts are designed to significantly reduce their radar cross section. Better shells: New guided shells are now being developed with ranges greater than those of the old 16-inch projectiles. GPS-guided, they will allow warships to take part in battles far inland. Modern naval guns are not expected to be used against naval targets, although they can be used in that role. Their primary missions are gunfire support for land forces and close-in defense against air targets. They can operate when planes and helicopters can't, and shooting down a shell is a lot harder than shooting down an aircraft. Winston Churchill is the first ship fitted with the new Mk45 Mod 4 5 in/62 gun. The longer barrel will give conventional 5 inch ordnance an extra 5 nm range. The rocket-assisted ERGM (Extended-Range Guided Munition) round will go out 63 nm in support of land forces. The current Mk45 5 in/54 gun has a range of 13 nm. The shell has a weight of 50 kg and uses GPS/Inertial guidance. It carries 72 M80 submunitions. These have shaped charge AP warheads that can penetrate 2-3 inches of armor and a fragmenting steel case. They are dispensed at 250 - 400 m altitude over a selectable 20 - 100 m area. IOC is planned for 2004. The German MLW 27 is in development for German Navy. A derivative of the BK 27 aircraft cannon, the unmanned mount will replace both the Rh 202 20mm and Bofors 40mm/ 70. Deliveries are to start in 2001. It will use a subcaliber frangible APDS round. The US 155mm VGS (Vertical Gun System) is the ultimate in Low RCS. The barrel is fixed in the vertical, and fed from a rotary magazine automatically. The ERGM shells are guided and will have a range of 100 nm. It is planned right now for the second flight of the Zumwalt (DD-21) class destroyers. The Italian 127/53 LW replaces the current Compact 127mm. It will be tested aboard Bersagliere starting with installation Sep 2000. It has a low RCS gunshield, and carries up to four types of ammunition. An unguided extended range subcaliber round is under development with range of 37.8 nm. The British Mk8 Mod 1 114mm is a maintenance and reliability upgrade of the existing mount, with a low RCS gunhouse. It also can fire the new HE ER (Extended Range) round, with an IOC of 2001. It will be installed first on Norfolk (Type 23 FF). BT Back to The Naval Sitrep #19 Table of Contents Back to Naval Sitrep List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Larry Bond and Clash of Arms. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com