The Denel 35mm Dual Purpose Gun (35DPG) is a

close-in weapon system A close-in weapon system (CIWS ) is a point-defense weapon system for detecting and destroying short-range incoming missiles and enemy aircraft which have penetrated the outer defenses, typically mounted on a naval ship. Nearly all classes of ...

(CIWS) for warships built in South Africa by

Denel Land Systems Denel Land Systems is a division of the Denel group. ) , type = , traded_as = , ISIN = , industry = Armanents Manufacturing , genre = , predecessor = , founded = , founder = , defunct = , fate = , successor = , hq_location ...

. It is currently in service on the

Valour-class frigate The ''Valour'' class is a class of frigates built for the South African Navy. Part of the MEKO family of warships, the German shipbuilder Blohm+Voss officially designate the class as the MEKO A-200SAN. Designed as a multiple purpose, multi capab ...

s of the

South African Navy The South African Navy (SA Navy) is the naval warfare branch of the South African National Defence Force. The Navy is primarily engaged in maintaining a conventional military deterrent, participating in counter-piracy operations, fishery prot ...

Role

Its primary role is to defend against attack by helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and missiles. It has a secondary role against surface vessels and shore targets, both in symmetrical and asymmetrical warfare and also in law enforcement where accuracy is critical because

collateral damage Collateral damage is any death, injury, or other damage inflicted that is an incidental result of an activity. Originally coined by military operations, it is now also used in non-military contexts. Since the development of precision guided ...

is unacceptable.

Design

The system consists of two GA35 rapid-fire

automatic cannon An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large- caliber ( or more) armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary shells, as opposed to the smaller-caliber kinetic projectiles ( bu ...

s derived from the Oerlikon 35mm, mounted side by side in an unmanned low radar observable turret. Target acquisition is by the installed search and track radar, while an optronic tracking system with

infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...

and

visible spectrum The visible spectrum is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visual perception, visible to the human eye. Electromagnetic radiation in this range of wavelengths is called ''visible light'' or simply light. A typical human eye wil ...

modes provides fire-control. A control console is located in the ship's operations room, although the system operates automatically in the air-defence mode. An emergency control panel is fitted on the rear of the turret. The turret does not penetrate the deck on which it is mounted. On the Valour class frigates it is mounted on top of the helicopter hangar. The turret is fully self-contained and requires only an electrical supply and a radar data feed from the ship's combat management system and the control console. The turret is capable of unlimited full circle traverse at up to 70° per second and elevates from 10° below to 85° above horizontal at up to 40° per second. The turret's on-board computers do the ballistic calculations and

fire-control A fire-control system (FCS) is a number of components working together, usually a gun data computer, a Director (military), director, and radar, which is designed to assist a ranged weapon system to target, track, and hit a target. It performs ...

. The high level of self-containment and compact size and low weight allows installation on a wide variety of ships down to as small as 200 tonnes.

Ammunition

The cannons fire the full range of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

standard 35×228 mm ammunition; HEI, HEI-T, SAPHEI, APCI-T, Prac and Prac-T; all manufactured by Rheinmetall Denel Munition's PMP division.

Anti-missile

In the anti-missile role it uses Advanced Hit Efficiency And Destruction (AHEAD) ammunition from RWM Schweiz AG. This round ejects 152 tungsten projectiles at a predetermined distance, between 40 and 10 m, from the target. A 25-round burst of AHEAD rounds produces 3,800 of these small projectiles to destroy the incoming missile. Cruise missiles can be destroyed at 2.5 km and high speed missiles at 1.5 km range. The system's anti-missile capability is further enhanced by adding Denel's Closed Loop Fire Correction System, which tracks projectiles all the way to the target. This allows for real-time correction of bias errors in the control system and compensation for atmospheric conditions.

References

External links