Battle of Old Fort Wayne

For the infantry fighting vehicle, see Dardo IFV.

DARDO ("Dart" in Italian) originally known as Breda Type-70,[1] also marketed as the OTO Twin 40L70 Compact,[2] is a close-in weapon system (CIWS) built by the Italian companies Breda and Oto Melara. It is composed of two Breda-built Bofors 40 mm firing high explosive (HE) shells, a fire-control radar (Alenia RTN-10X Orion) and a fire-control system (Alenia RTN-20X Orion and Dardo). It is the last of a long series of Italian anti-aircraft weapons derived from the Swedish Bofors 40 mm autocannons (mounted on Breda built gun mounts such as the Type 64, Type 106, Type 107, Type 564 and Type 520).

Purpose

The system's primary purpose is to defend against anti-ship missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and other precision guided weapons. It can also be employed against conventional and rotary-wing aircraft, surface ships, small water-crafts, coastal targets and floating mines.

Installation

DARDO is installed in an enclosed turret with two different mounts: the Type A with 440-round internal and 292-round under-deck magazines; and Type B with only the 440-round internal magazine (Type B requires no deck penetration). However, the most recent OTO Twin 40L70 Compact's brochure nominates 736-round magazine for Type A and 444-round magazine for Type B, both feature deck non-deck penetration or with deck penetration.[2]

The newest Marlin 40 variant has no deck penetration, having a sole internal magazine for 80 ready-to-fire rounds.[3]

Other versions

DARDO Compact mounting on Peruvian navy landing platform dock, BAP Pisco (AMP-156).

Compact

The OTO Twin 40L70 Compact is the current marketing name for the DARDO. Option for a stealth cupola is available to reduce the gun mount's RCS.[2] They comes in Type A version with 736 round magazine & Type B version with 444 round magazine. Both the Type A and Type B mounting can be installed above-deck (non-penetrating) or with below-deck magazine. The compact mounting has maximum fire rate of 600 round/min (300 round/min × 2). A kit to upgrade Compact mounting to Fast Forty standard is available.[1]

Single Fast Forty mounting on Kuwaiti navy Um Al Maradim-class missile boat, Al Fahaheel (P3721).

Fast Forty

The Fast Forty is an improved version of the Compact mounting with a higher fire rate of 900 round/min (450 round/min × 2), dual magazine and dual feed mechanism to allow switching from High Explosive (HE) rounds to Armour-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot (APFSDS) rounds when a target gets within 1,000 meters from the vessel. Produced in both Single-barrel (Single Fast Forty) and Twin-barrel (Twin Fast Forty) forms, the Fast Forty include a revision of some parts of the loading and breech mechanism and the use of titanium material to improve the performance compared to the Compact mounting. Ammunition magazine and feed arrangements of the Twin Fast Forty remain the same as the Compact but operate at a higher speed. The gun laying and acceleration rates were increased, while the barrel/barrels, are secured in a barrel guidance frames to improves accuracy.[1]

The Single Fast Forty has on-mounting ammunition capacity of only 144 round and are available in three types of mounting:

  • Type A: unmanned mounting, with all operation are done via remote control,
  • Type B: manned mounting, controlled and aimed by an on-turret operator,
  • Type C: unmanned mounting, feature an integral Micro Fire Control System (MFCS) with automatic tracking and fire-control computation.[1]

An optional 'Stealth' cupola that provided a significant reduction in the radar cross-section of the mounting are also available.[4]

Marlin

The OTO Marlin 40 is the single-barrel, light-weight and no-deck-penetration derivative of the DARDO family, succeeding the Single Fast Forty variant. It is designed with high autonomy and fully-digitalized systems.[3] The mounting used to be known as OTO Melara Fast Forty Light naval gun system.[5]

The system comes in a basic version called "Remotely Controlled" (RC), which can be managed by an external firing control system and in the advanced version called "Independent Line Of Sight" (ILOS), which can be operated autonomously via a local control console in addition to be fully controlled by Combat Management System. It also has selectable rate of fire ranging from single shot, 100 round/min and 300 round/min. The Marlin 40 may be fitted with an integrated hoist bellow-deck to enable the ammunition loading from covered position.[3][6]

Comparison with current CIWS

Comparison of some modern CIWS
Russia AK-630[7] United States Phalanx CIWS[8] Netherlands Goalkeeper CIWS Italy DARDO[9]
Weight 9,114 kg (20,093 lb) 6,200 kg (13,700 lb) 9,902 kg (21,830 lb) 5,500 kg (12,100 lb)
Armament 30 mm (1.2 in) 6 barreled GSh-6-30 Gatling Gun 20 mm (0.79 in) 6 barreled M61 Vulcan Gatling Gun 30 mm (1.2 in) 7 barreled GAU-8 Gatling Gun 40 mm (1.6 in) 2 barreled Bofors 40 mm
Rate of Fire 5,000 rounds per minute 4,500 rounds per minute 4,200 rounds per minute 600/900 round per minute
(effective/ flat-trajectory) Range 4,000 m (13,000 ft) 2,000 m (6,600 ft) 3,600 m (11,800 ft) 4,000 m (13,000 ft)
Ammunition storage 2,000 rounds 1,550 rounds 1,190 rounds 736 rounds
Muzzle velocity 900 m (3,000 ft) per second 1,100 m (3,600 ft) per second 1,109 m (3,638 ft) per second 1,000 m (3,300 ft) per second
Elevation −13 to +78 degrees −75 to +55 degrees −75 to +64 degrees −13 to +85 degrees
Traverse 360 degrees -150 to +150 degrees 360 degrees 360 degrees

Operators

Map of DARDO operators in blue
Single Fast Forty mounting with stealth cupola on Turkish navy landing ship tank, TCG Bayraktar (L-403).

Current operators

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Gander, Terry (2013). The Bofors Gun (.EPUB). Pen and Sword Books. ISBN 978 1 47383 504 7.
  2. ^ a b c "OTO TWIN 40L70 COMPACT NAVAL MOUNT" (PDF). Leonardo Electronics. Leonardo S.p.A. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
  3. ^ a b c "OTO Marlin 40". Leonardo Electronics. Leonardo S.p.A. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
  4. ^ "Oto Melara introduced a new version of its FAST FORTY naval mount during IDEF 2013". Navy Recognition. 2013-05-20. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
  5. ^ "Oto Melara Unveils the new Forty Light naval gun system At IDEX 2015". navyrecognition.com. Retrieved 2024-04-27.
  6. ^ "OTO MARLIN 40" (PDF). Leonardo Electronics. Leonardo S.p.A.
  7. ^ "AK-630 Gatling Gun Close in Weapon System". Indian-military.org. 2010-03-12. Archived from the original on March 15, 2010. Retrieved 2012-01-08.
  8. ^ "The US Navy - Fact File". Navy.mil. Archived from the original on 2014-11-04. Retrieved 2012-01-08.
  9. ^ Tony DiGiulian (2006-05-21). "Italian 40 mm/70 (1.57") Breda". Navweaps.com. Retrieved 2012-01-08.

External links

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARDO