Sea Zenith is a four-

barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...

led 25 mm

CIWS 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 la ...

used by the

Turkish Navy The Turkish Naval Forces ( tr, ), or Turkish Navy ( tr, ) is the naval warfare service branch of the Turkish Armed Forces. The modern naval traditions and customs of the Turkish Navy can be traced back to 10 July 1920, when it was establi ...

on their

MEKO 200 The MEKO 200 is a frigate design by the Blohm + Voss shipyard of Germany, as part of the MEKO family of warships. Variants ''Anzac'' class (MEKO 200ANZ) Ten MEKO 200 frigates were built to the ''Anzac''-class design: eight for the Royal Au ...

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

s, like the

Barbaros Hayreddin Barbarossa ( ar, خير الدين بربروس, Khayr al-Din Barbarus, original name: Khiḍr; tr, Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa), also known as Hızır Hayrettin Pasha, and simply Hızır Reis (c. 1466/1478 – 4 July 1546), was an O ...

and Yavuz classes. It was developed in the 1980s by

Oerlikon Contraves Rheinmetall Air Defence AG is a division of German armament manufacturer Rheinmetall, created when the company's Oerlikon Contraves unit was renamed on 1 January 2009 and integrated with Rheinmetall's other air-defence products. Oerlikon Contr ...

(

Rheinmetall Rheinmetall AG is a German automotive and arms manufacturer, headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany. Its shares are traded on the Frankfurt stock exchange. History Rheinmetall was founded in 1889. Banker and investor Lorenz Zuckermandel L ...

Air Defence since 2009) around their Oerlikon KBB gun and manufactured in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. This automatic gun uses a 25x184mm cartridge (longer than the one used by the more common

Oerlikon KBA The Oerlikon KBA is a 25 mm (25×137mm) autocannon, developed as a close range multipurpose weapon for the mechanised battlefield, originally made by Oerlikon (now Rheinmetall AG) and currently produced in Rheinmetall Italia S.p.A. facilities. It ...

gun) at a rate of 800 rounds a minute. Using four independent guns instead of one multi-barrelled

rotary cannon A rotary cannon, rotary autocannon, rotary gun or Gatling cannon, is any large-caliber multiple-barreled automatic firearm that uses a Gatling-type rotating barrel assembly to deliver a sustained saturational direct fire at much greater rate ...

improves reliability. The system is mounted in an enclosed automatic

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 * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

and directed by the Seaguard

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

developed by Contraves. The turret is tilted back to allow a higher elevation to intercept diving missiles. The system's primary purpose is defence against

anti-ship missiles An anti-ship missile (AShM) 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. A good nu ...

, and other

precision guided weapon A precision-guided munition (PGM, smart weapon, smart munition, smart bomb) is a guided munition intended to precisely hit a specific target, to minimize collateral damage and increase lethality against intended targets. During the First Gulf ...

s. However it can also be employed against fixed/rotary wing

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines ...

, ships and other small craft, coastal targets, and floating

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

s. Specifications: * Caliber: 25 mm * Barrels: 4 (independent) * Rate of fire: 3,200 rpm * Range: 2 km * Weight: 3500 kg Sea Zenith had a related development, the Sea Shield system. It was mounted above deck and did not have the high elevation capability of the Sea Zenith. Presented in 1989, it was abandoned in the early 1990s. The Myriad system, developed by Breda and Contraves (among others) was a related weapon. It used two 25mm 7-barrelled KBD Gatling gun, also developed by Oerlikon. Compared to the Sea Zenith, the firing rate is higher (10,000 rounds a minute), but the effective range is limited to one kilometer.

References

* http://www.janes.com/articles/Janes-Naval-Weapon-Systems/Oerlikon-Contraves-GM25-Sea-Zenith-Switzerland.html * The Naval Institute guide to world naval weapons systems, 1997-1998; Friedman, Norman * Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World; Wertheim, Eric * :de:Nahbereichsverteidigungssystem (in German) * :it:Seaguard (in Italian) Naval anti-aircraft guns Autocannon Close-in weapon systems Turkish Navy weapon systems 25 mm artillery {{artillery-stub

See also

References