57 mm Guided Projectile

NavyRecognition reports initial unguided tests have been conducted on the proposed guided round for the Mk110 57 mm gun that is mounted on the National Security Cutters (class of 9 ships) and is expected to be deployed on the projected 25 Offshore Patrol Cutters.

If we could get a laser designator with sufficient range (over 4000 yards) I would think the CG would be more interested in the laser seeker than the millimeter radar version because we are more likely to want to target a specific area on a large target than we are to need to engage multiple small targets which would suggest the fire and forget round.

Laser designators might would be useful with small missiles like Griffin or Hellfire as well. They might be used from small boats and aircraft as well.

1 thought on “57 mm Guided Projectile

  1. Back in the 60’s JFK – former patrol boat commander – was appalled that the USN wanted to deploy warships with a all-missile armament, without guns. Such cruisers were incapable of defeating a flotilla of patrol boats from 1944. He required them to use 5″ guns just in case.

    It took another four more decades for the USN bureaucracy to get fully interested in the small coastal craft topic, then due to the shock of Van Riper’s red teaming in advance of the invasion of Iraq. The USN assets in the Persian Gulf-lookalike scenario area had been declared defeated by the umpires because Van Riper had overwhelmed them with small craft.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002

    More than a decade later, we’re clearly in an overreaction phase – particularly in regard to R&D.
    The USN has serious issues in ASW, it has serious issues in MCM and it has badly obsolete missiles for ASuW. Yet the two extremes of small surface craft and quasi-ballistic missiles seem to get disproportionate R&D attention. Guided 57 mm rounds is gold-plating and excessive.

    Regarding CG uses; I suppose the CG can knock out specific points of a ship (bridge, guns) with autocannons calibre 23-30 mm, and sink a ship by ramming (shearing) it, opening it to the elements at some length a little below the waterline. This could also be done by fast CG units by using depth charges without any modification of the CG ship’s hull.

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