Us 70s Lightweight gun programme

[uk 75]

In the 1971-72 copy of Jane's Weapons Systems there is a picture of a model of a US lightweight 3" gun in a spherical onion turret. I have never seen any other accounts of this weapon. I assume that like the larger twin and improved 5" gun of the time it fell victim to expenditure cuts. Was it a US alternative to the Oto Melara 76 mm used on the Perry class?

UK 75

 

[Rickshaw]

Not unless they intended to mount it on the bow rather than the superstructure!

 

[TinWing]

In the 1971-72 copy of Jane's Weapons Systems there is a picture of a model of a US lightweight 3" gun in a spherical onion turret. I have never seen any other accounts of this weapon. I assume that like the larger twin and improved 5" gun of the time it fell victim to expenditure cuts. Was it a US alternative to the Oto Melara 76 mm used on the Perry class?

UK 75

Bofors produced a low elevation, lightweight, anti-surface-only 3 inch gun in this period, base on a coastal defense mounting. The gun housing was low and hemispheric in shape.

Do you have any other information about the entry? Specs? Manufacturer? Was it based on the existing 76mm/L50 or the later Italian 76mmL/62?

 

[uk 75]

Jane's has only a photo of the model next to the models of the 5" family in the 1971-72 edition of Janes Weapons Systems. Friedman does not seem to refer to it. I have never found any other refs, so it might just have been a US manufacturers range from the period.

UK 75

 

[TinWing]

Jane's has only a photo of the model next to the models of the 5" family in the 1971-72 edition of Janes Weapons Systems. Friedman does not seem to refer to it. I have never found any other refs, so it might just have been a US manufacturers range from the period.

UK 75

Very puzzling. We of course know about the earlier US twin 50 and 70 caliber 3" guns, and of course the single version 50 caliber gun employed aboard the a few gunboats and small frigates. Can you comment on the relative barrel length depicted in the photo?

 

[uk 75]

As far as I could make out from the copy in the Library it was an ordinary US 3" gun with a protective shield in the form of an onion like sphere.

Siginificantly Jane's Fighting ships for the same period points out that the original weapon for the PF later Perry class was a 35mm twin gun. Noone seems to have taken up the 3" mounting so I think it just was a manufacturer's idea.

UK 75