Modern ship cannons

From time immemorial, ships with ship guns were considered the decisive force at sea. At the same time, their caliber played an important role: the larger it was, the more significant the damage was to the enemy.

However, as early as the 20th century, ship artillery was imperceptibly pushed into the background by a new type of weapon - guided missiles. But before the write-off of ship artillery, the case still did not come. Moreover, it began to modernize under modern conditions of military operations at sea.

The origin of naval artillery

For a long time (until the 16th century), the ships had only weapons for close combat - rams, mechanisms for damaging the ship's hull , masts and oars. Boarding was the most common way to resolve conflict situations at sea.

The ground forces were more inventive. On the ground at this time, all sorts of throwing mechanisms have already been used. Later, similar weapons were used in sea battles.

The invention and distribution of gunpowder (smoky) dramatically changed the armament of the army and navy. In Europe and in Russia gunpowder became known in the 14th century.

However, the use of firearms at sea did not arouse the enthusiasm of the sailors. Gunpowder often dampened, and the gun misfired, which in the conditions of combat was fraught with serious consequences for the ship.

The 16th century marked the beginning of the technical revolution in the conditions of the rapid growth of the productive forces in Europe. This could not but affect the armament. The design of guns has changed, the first sighting devices have appeared. The gun became mobile. Increased the quality of gunpowder. The ship's guns began to play a significant role in sea battles.

Marine artillery of the 17th century

In the 16th and 17th centuries, artillery, including maritime art, was further developed. On ships increased the number of guns due to their placement on several decks. The ships in this period were created with the expectation of an artillery battle.

By the beginning of the 17th century, the type, caliber of ship cannons had already been determined, methods of shooting from them, taking into account naval specifics, had been developed. There was a new science - ballistics.

It should be noted that ship guns of the 17th century had trunks of 8-12th caliber. Such a short barrel was caused by the need for full retraction of the gun inside the ship for recharging, as well as the desire to facilitate the gun.

In the 17th century, along with the improvement of naval guns, ammunition developed. On the fleets there were incendiary and explosive shells, causing serious damage to the enemy's ship and its crew. The first to use rifle shells Russian sailors in 1696, during the assault of Azov.

Armament of the ship of the 18th century

The ship gun of the 18th century already had a flintlock. At the same time its weight has not changed much since the last century and was 12, 24 and 48 pounds. Of course there were cannons and other calibers, but they were not widely used.

The guns were located throughout the ship: on the bow, stern, upper and lower decks. At the same time on the lower deck were the heaviest guns.

It should be noted that ship guns of large calibers were mounted on a carriage with wheels. Under these wheels in the deck were made special grooves. After the shot, the cannon was rolled back by the recoil energy and was again ready to be charged. The process of loading shipborne guns was quite complex and risky for the calculation of the case.

The effectiveness of firing such guns was within 300 m, although the shells reached 1,500 m. The fact is that with the distance the shell lost its kinetic energy. If in the 17th century the frigate was destroyed by 24-pound shells, then in the 18th century the battleship was not afraid of 48-pound shells. To solve this problem, in England ships began to arm 60-108-pound cannons caliber to 280 mm.

Why were the guns on the ships not written off by history as scrap?

At first glance, missile weapons of the 20th century should have replaced classical artillery, including the navy, but this did not happen. The missiles could not completely replace the ship's guns. The reason lies in the fact that the artillery shell is not afraid of any kind of passive and active interference. It is less weather-dependent than guided missiles. The volley of guns of the sea inevitably reached its goal, unlike its modern counterparts - cruise missiles.

It is also important that the naval guns have a higher rate of fire and a more significant ammunition, rather than rocket launchers. It should be noted that the cost of ship cannons is much lower than rocket weapons.

Therefore, today, taking into account these features, special attention is paid to the development of shipborne artillery systems. The work is conducted in conditions of the strictest secrecy.

And yet today, the artillery installation on the ship, with all its pluses, plays a more auxiliary role in the sea battle than the decisive one.

A new role of ship artillery in modern conditions

The 20th century brought its own corrections to the pre-existing priorities in naval artillery. The development of naval aviation was the reason. The air raids posed a greater threat to the ship than the enemy's naval cannons.

The Second World War showed that air defense became a vital system in the confrontation at sea. The epoch of a new kind of armament - guided missiles began. The designers switched to rocket systems. At the same time, the development and production of the main caliber guns were stopped.

However, the new weapons could not completely displace the artillery, including the ship's artillery. Guns, whose caliber did not exceed 152 mm (calibers 76, 100, 114, 127 and 130 mm), nevertheless remained in the military fleets of the USSR (Russia), the United States, Britain, France and Italy. True, now naval artillery was assigned a more auxiliary role than a strike. The ship's guns began to be used to support the landing, protection from enemy aircraft. The sea antiaircraft artillery came to the forefront. As you know, its most important indicator is the rate of fire. For this reason the quick-firing ship's gun became the object of increased attention of the military and designers.

To increase the frequency of shots, automatic artillery systems began to be developed. At the same time, they placed a stake on their universality, that is, they must equally successfully defend the ship from enemy aviation and navy, and also damage the shore fortifications. The latter was caused by the changed tactics of the navy. Almost gone are the sea battles between the fleets. Now the ships have become more used for operations near the coastline as a means of destroying the enemy's ground targets. This concept is reflected in modern developments of naval weapons.

Ship automatic artillery systems

In 1954, automatic systems of caliber 76.2 mm began to be developed in the USSR, and in 1967 the development and production of automatic artillery systems of calibers 100 and 130 mm began. The result was the first automatic ship cannon (57 mm) double-barrel artillery AK-725. Later it was replaced by a single-barrel 76.2-mm AK-176.

Simultaneously with the AK-176, a 30-mm rapid-fire unit AK-630 was created, which has a rotating block of six barrels. In the 80's, the fleet received an automatic installation of the AK-130, which is still in service with ships today.

AK-130 and its characteristics

The 130-mm ship cannon entered the double-barreled A-218 unit. Initially, a single-barrel version of the A-217 was developed, but later it was recognized that the double-barreled A-218 had a high rate of fire (up to 90 rounds per two barrels), and preference was given to it.

But for this, the designers had to increase the weight of the installation. As a result, the weight of the whole complex was 150 tons (installation itself - 98 tons, control system (SU) - 12 tons, mechanized arsenal cellar-40 tons).

Unlike previous developments, the ship's gun (photo below) had a number of innovations that increase its rate of fire.

First of all, it is a unitary cartridge, in the case of which the capsule, powder charge and projectile were combined together.

Also, the A-218 had an automatic reset of ammunition, which allowed using the entire ammunition without additional human commands.

SU "Lev-218" also does not require obligatory human intervention. The correction of the shooting is made by the system itself, depending on the accuracy of the explosions of the falling projectiles.

The high rate of fire of the gun and the presence of specialized shots, which have remote and radar fuses, allow the AK-130 to fire at air targets.

AK-630 and its characteristics

The AK-630 fast-moving ship cannon is designed to protect the ship from aircraft and light enemy ships.

Has a barrel length of 54 caliber. The range of guns firing depends on the target category: air targets are affected at a distance of up to 4 km, light surface ships - up to 5 km.

Rate of installation reaches 4000-5000 thousand rounds per minute. In this case, the queue length can be 400 shots, after which a break of 5 seconds is required to cool the gun barrels. After a line of 200 shots, a break of 1 second is sufficient.

Ammunition AK-630 consists of two types of shots: high-explosive incendiary projectile RP-84 and fragmentation tracer projector OR-84.

US Naval Artillery

The US Navy also changed priorities in armaments. Widely introduced missile weapons, artillery was pushed into the background. However, in recent years, Americans began to pay attention to small-caliber artillery, which proved to be very effective against low-flying aircraft and missiles.

Attention is paid first of all to automatic artillery installations of 20-35 mm and 100-127 mm. The ship's automatic gun takes a worthy place in the armament of the ship.

The average caliber is designed to defeat all targets, except underwater. Structurally, the units are made of light metals and reinforced fiberglass.

Also, active-rocket shots are fired for 127- and 203-mm artillery guns.

Currently, the universal installation Mk45 127-caliber is considered a standard installation for US ships.

From small-caliber weapons it is worth noting the six-barrel Vulcan-Falancks.

Interesting Facts

In 1983, a project of an unprecedented ship craft appeared in the USSR, resembling the smokestack of a steamship of the 19-20th century with a diameter of 406 mm, but with the only difference that a controlled antiaircraft or conventional projectile, a cruise missile or a depth bomb with a nuclear filling . The rate of fire of such a universal gun depended on the type of shot. For example, for guided missiles this is 10 rounds per minute, and for a conventional projectile, it is 15-20.

It is interesting that such a "monster" could easily be installed even on small ships (2-3 thousand tons displacement). However, the command of the Navy did not know such a caliber, so the project was not destined to be realized.

Modern requirements for ship artillery

According to Alexander Topzik, the head of the 19th test range, today's requirements for ship cannons remain partially the same - they are reliability and accuracy of the shot.

In addition, modern naval guns should be light enough to be able to be mounted on light warships. Also, it is required to make the gun unobtrusive for the enemy radar. A new generation of munitions is expected, which have a higher striking ability and an increased range of fire.