76mm/62 Compact
History
The Italian 76mm/62 compact is one of the most popular naval guns ever produced. The weapon is build in various versions and is in licensed production in multiple places around the world.
The Compact was developed from the earlier 76mm/62 M.M.I. mounting. Compared to the M.M.I. and older 3 weapons, the advantage of the compact was it's small size, far lower manning requirements and larger supply of ready-service ammunition, allowing the gun to be in action faster and fire for longer compared to previous designs. The gun was build in various versions over the years, some of them differing mostly externally and some mostly internally. Some mountings have been updated to different versions over time with the use of upgrade kits.
The 3 most important variations are the following:
- 76mm/62 Compact, the original variant operational in 1964
- 3/62 Mk 75, the licensed and slightly modified variant for the USN, introduced in 1971
- 76mm/62 Super Rapid, an improved faster firing version meant to make the gun capable of anti-ship missile defence, introduced in 1988.
All variants are considered dual purpose guns against surface, shore or air targets. The mounting has no dedicated fire control system and has been controlled by various fire control systems over the years.
The Compact is or has been in use by fifty nations.
Notable exterior differences are the mohawk turret of the early mountings, which had the gun shield almost shrinkwrapped in size around the guns mechanisms. Later models have used a slightly larger gun shield that fitted the entire mechanism without deviating from the cupola shape too much. Both the Compact and SR versions can be fitted with an boxier low RCS gun shield. Internally this has very little (if any) effect on the guns mechanisms. An interesting variation is the DAVIDE anti-missile system. This system mounts an additional antenna on the mounting that allows the gun to be used together with steerable DART anti-missile ammunition that requires an continuous data stream to in-flight projectiles.
Used on
- Many ships
Affiliated systems
Part description
Included in the part are an right side view of a few of the versions.
