{{unreferenced, date=April 2009 The Type 79 Twin 100 mm gun is the first indigenously developed large caliber Chinese

naval gun Naval artillery is artillery mounted on a warship, originally used only for naval warfare and then subsequently used for naval gunfire support, shore bombardment and anti-aircraft roles. The term generally refers to tube-launched projectile-firi ...

. A decision was made in 1970 to replace the

Soviet 100/56 Bu-34 single 100 mm The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

semi-enclosed gun mount. By June 1973, the first batch was completed and two were installed onboard

frigates 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 ...

for test and evaluation. Two more upgrades were eventually developed.

Type 79

The first of the family, this gun was fully automatic and controlled by

Type 343 radar Type 343 radar (Chinese: 343型雷达) is a Chinese fire control radar installed on Type 051 destroyer, and has been since retired from active service. Type 343 radar is the first generation Chinese fire control radar for large caliber guns, with ...

. However, being the first

fully automatic An automatic firearm is an auto-loading firearm that continuously chambers and fires rounds when the trigger mechanism is actuated. The action of an automatic firearm is capable of harvesting the excess energy released from a previous discharge ...

gun and the first indigenously developed gun at the same time, the Chinese was not confident enough on the design, and thus incorporated manual backup systems. This proved to be baseless because later operation proved that the reliability of the automated system was just as good as the simpler manual system.

Type 79A

Based on the successful performance of the automated system, the manual backup system was eliminated in this upgrade. As a result, the total weight and size of the gun mount was reduced. Beside the obvious different in size, the most obvious visual external difference between Type 79 and Type 79A is that the Type 79 version has sharp edges, thus a very boxy look like the cars of the 1970s, while Type 79A has round and curved edges, thus a rather smooth look like the cars of the 1990s.

H/PJ-33B

The newest family of the Type 79 family is the PJ33A Twin 100 mm gun, and this version has a redesigned

gun turret A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechani ...

with stealthy features. This newest version was originally planned to replace the Type 79A, which in turn, was replacing the Type 79, however the plan was cut short when newer single barreled 100 mm such as Type 210 and its successor HPJ87 entered service.

External links

*http://www.sinodefence.com/navy/weapon/type79gun.asp Artillery of the People's Republic of China Naval guns of China 100 mm artillery