The AK-176 is a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

76mm

naval gun Naval artillery is artillery mounted on a warship, originally used only for naval warfare and then subsequently used for more specialized roles in surface warfare such as naval gunfire support (NGFS) and anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) engagements. T ...

mounted in an enclosed turret, that may be used against sea, coastal, and aerial targets, including low flying anti-ship missiles. The system is designed to arm small displacement ships and comprises the Gun Mount with a MR-123-02/76 Fire Control Radar System. It has high survivability owing to autonomous use of the gun mount controlled from the optical sight in the absence of control from the radar system, as well as a capability for fire even if power supply is lost.

Design

The gun is fed by 152 ready to fire rounds and has selectable rates of fire of 30, 60 and 120 rounds per minute. The 120 r.p.m. rate is achieved by firing a burst of 75, but afterwards the gun has to cool off for 30 minutes. The AK-176 is effective against missiles, being able to shoot down AT-2 Swatter (simulating a

Harpoon A harpoon is a long, spear-like projectile used in fishing, whaling, sealing, and other hunting to shoot, kill, and capture large fish or marine mammals such as seals, sea cows, and whales. It impales the target and secures it with barb or ...

anti-ship missile An anti-ship missile (AShM or ASM) is a guided missile that is designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea-skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. ...

), taking an average of 25 rounds per kill. In the late 1980s an upgraded version the AK-176M, with a new fire control system MR-123-02, television targeting and a laser

rangefinder A rangefinder (also rangefinding telemeter, depending on the context) is a device used to Length measurement, measure distances to remote objects. Originally optical devices used in surveying, they soon found applications in other fields, suc ...

, was introduced. This gun, is still in production (AK-176M1) and is the primary medium-caliber artillery systems to all small Soviet ships and is widely exported. AK-176MA, a further upgrade of the design intended for newer ship classes, such as the Karakurt-class corvettes and project 22160-class patrol ships, completed its trials in 2017. The AK-176MA features improved accuracy, a stealthy turret design, and a significantly reduced weight of under 9 tonnes. It will replace older guns on carrier ships on the process of their modernization. The equivalent

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

system is the

Otobreda 76 mm The OTO Melara 76 mm gun, marketed as the OTO 76/62 Gun Mount, is a naval autocannon built and designed by the Italian defence company OTO Melara. It is based on the OTO Melara 76/62C and evolved toward 76/62 SR and 76/62 Strales. The s ...

, another 120 rpm 3 inches gun.

H/PJ-26

The 713th Institute (also known as

Zhengzhou Zhengzhou is the capital of Henan, China. Located in northern Henan, it is one of the nine National central city, national central cities in China, and serves as the political, economic, technological, and educational center of the province. Th ...

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

Research Institute) of

China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation The China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) was one of the two largest shipbuilding conglomerates in the People's Republic of China, the other was the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC). In 2019, CSIC was merged into CSSC. ...

(CSIC) of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

has developed a Chinese variant of AK-176, with Mr. Chen Dingfeng (陈汀峰) as the general designer. Design begun in 2000 and was completed in 2003. The primary difference between this H/PJ-26 and AK-176 is that the Chinese variant adopts a stealthy

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Optical microscope#Objective turret (revolver or revolving nose piece), Objective turre ...

design, and more composite material is used in the construction of the turret. In addition, ready rounds for the H/PJ-26 are doubled to 150 rounds from the original 75 of the AK-176.

Operators

Current

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Past users

Gallery

File:Artillery installation of the small rocket ship Cyclone.jpg, A

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

Karakurt-class

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...

with the AK-176MA-01 variant File:Wuhu (539) Frigate - PJ-26 Main Gun.jpg, The H/PJ-26 gun mount on Chinese frigate ''Wuhu'' (539) File:Gepard 3.9 frigate Quang Trung (016) of Vietnam People's Navy in MILAN2022 - 2.jpg, Vietnamese frigate ''Quang Trung'' with its AK-176MA gun mount.

References

External links

*http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNRussian_3-60_ak176.htm {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 76 mm artillery Naval anti-aircraft guns Cold War artillery of the Soviet Union Anti-aircraft guns of the Soviet Union Naval guns of the Soviet Union Autocannons of the Soviet Union Nizhny Novgorod Machine-building Plant products