Page 44 - NAVAL FORCES 03/2017

Expeditionary Warfare

Features

The 127mm 64 LW from Leonardo
was intro duced in 2012 as the latest
in its 127mm line of naval guns.
It is designed as a dual-purpose system
for both surface and shore targets
and is capable of firing the extended
range precision guided VOLCANO
ammunition.

Opposing artillery batteries, anti-tank miles). These ranges and their typically sheet states the change, “improves the gun’s
guided missiles, and defensive positions in the low-level flight profiles use sophisticated effectiveness as a land attack weapon in naval
objective area are a primary concern. Now guidance including inertial navigation and surface fire support.”
the capability to quickly and accurately re- GPS, terrain-following radar and optical The 5in gun is highly versatile, with a
spond to new threats as they are identified is tracking of stored geographic data to give ac- suite of ammunition well suited to shore fire
crucial. This requires efficient mechanisms curacies in the region of tens of metres. They support. These include High Explosive - Point
to locate such targets and the means to bring generally have a conventional high explo- Detonating, - Variable Time, - Controlled
to bear responsive fires from offshore vessels. sive warhead of around 500kg, although the Variable Time (HE-PD, HE-VT, HE-CVT
Increasingly, this is being performed by sur- Block IV Tomahawk has a Joint Multi-Effects respectively) and illuminating rounds. A high
veillance-tasked UAVs equipped with inertial Warhead System (JMEWS) programmable explosive cargo round (HE-ICM) is also avail-
navigation, high resolution cameras, and laser warhead for blast fragmentation or enhanced able, carrying 49 submunitions designed to ex-
ranging to transmit highly accurate targeting penetration. However, these missiles are plode at a programmed point above the surface
data directly to the fire direction centre of a costly: TOMAHAWK’s unit price is around and dispense its munitions over a 300m area.
ship to respond. U$1.5 million. Thus, the missile’s principal The 5in/127mm has proved to be a highly
Once the ground force is on the beach and application is against deep, fixed high-value effective in shore support for decades; how-
moving inland, the focus is on supporting operational targets such as command centres, ever, concerns exist over its maximum range,
them and responding to calls for fire from airfields, and ammunition depots. which limits engagement of deep targets and
the advance elements. These include not For direct tactical fire support landing also requires ships to operate closer to shore
just destructive fires but smoke to conceal forces must rely upon guns, as they have for than is desirable in the face of modern an-
movement, illumination, and counter-battery. centuries. The once broad array of naval guns ti-ship missiles. Raytheon’s Extended Range
Highly mobile mechanised landed forces, am- (a 1950s inventory lists over 100 different Guided Munition (ERGM) and Orbital ATK’s
phibious raids and landing with limited objec- naval guns over 75mm in service) is today Ballistic Trajectory Extended Range Muni-
tives could choose to rely exclusively on fire down to a handful. The 127mm/5in is the tion (BTERM) were efforts conducted from
support from the sea. most common, with the French 100mm and 1996 to 2011 to both provide extended rang-
the 76mm, though not optimised for shore en- es (90,000 and 100,000m respectively) plus
Current Capabilities – gagement, having a potential role. precision guidance rounds for the weapon.
Guns or Missiles The US-designed 5in /54 calibre (Mk 45) Both were unsuccessful and cancelled by the
uses the L54 Mark 19 gun on the Mark 45 USN. As an alternative, Raytheon is working
Naval armament suitable for engaging land mount and is found in 11 navies. A BAE on an effort seeking to take the proven tech-
targets consists primarily of guns and some Systems product, it is fully automatic with a nology of the 155mm EXCALIBUR preci-
land attack missiles. Sea launched land attack maximum range of 23,700m with conventio- sion guided projectile used with the 155mm
cruise missiles (LACM) include the Raytheon nal ammunition and a 16-20 rpm rate of fire. A howitzer and apply it to the naval 5in gun. It
TOMAHAWK, French SCALP-KG, Chinese MK 45 MOD 4 gun mount upgrade increased is projected that it would not only provide ac-
CJ-10, and Russian 3M-54 KALIBR. These the barrel length to 62 calibres, resulting in curacy of 10m circular error probability (CEP)
have ranges of 500-1,500km (300-1,000 the 5in/62. The US Navy (USN) official data but also a threefold increase in range. Using
42 NAVAL FORCES III/2017