By Published on 04/22/2020 – Last Updated on 04/22/2020 by OTC
According to the Defense Equipment Organization (DMO) of the Netherlands, a contract was signed with Italian company Leonardo to procure 127/64 mm guns for the De Zeven Provinciën-class frigates which is also known as LCF (Luchtverdedigings- en commandofregat, air defense and command frigate). The new guns will replace older Oto Breda 127mm guns, which are currently in use.
Leonardo was only remaining bidder to participate in the tender for the guns on the Dutch frigates. In the beginning, BAE Systems had decided to participate the tender for the gun procurement of the Royal Dutch Navy, but they gave up because of the Vulcano ammunition demand of the Ministry of Defence of the Netherlands. In fact, both guns are suitable for the Vulcano, but, while Leonardo-made 127 mm gun already works with Vulcano, the integration process of the BAE-made 127 mm gun still continues.
The 127/64 LW – VULCANO is a state of art medium caliber gun suitable for installation on large and medium size ships and intended for surface fire and naval gunfire support as main role and anti-aircraft fire as secondary role. The compactness of the gun feeding system makes possible the installation on narrow section crafts.
The gun is equipped with a modular feeding magazine, composed by 4 drums with 14 ready to fire ammunition each, reloadable during firing, and highly flexible in terms of selection of ammunition, independently from their position in the drums. Ammunition flow is reversible as rounds can be downloaded automatically.
The 127/64 LW – VULCANO can fire all standard 127mm / 5 inches ammunition as well as the new VULCANO family of ammunition. Moreover, it has digital/analogical interface and ballistic calculation capabilities that allow a smooth integration with any Combat Management System.
The 127mm VULCANO ammunition family, is composed by Ballistic Extended Range (BER) and Guided Long Range (GLR) ammunition with different multifunctional fuses, sensor and final guidance that extend the range of the gun up to 100km.
To learn more about the system, you can download the brochure here.
Comments