130 53 TK or 130 TK ("130 mm rifled, 53 length caliber, turret gun") is a Finnish fixed, heavy artillery piece, manufactured by

Tampella Oy Tampella Ab was a Finnish heavy industry manufacturer, a maker of paper machines, locomotives, military weaponry, as well as wood-based products such as packaging. The company was based mainly in the Naistenlahti district of the city of ...

. The caliber is 130 mm. The 130 53 TK is the main weapon of the Finnish

coastal artillery Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form of ...

. The maximum firing range with high-explosive fragmentation shells is 27 km and with anti-ship base bleed shells is 40 km.Imgur.io. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2022, from https://imgur.io/gallery/hGv17If The initial velocity of the shot is around 860 m/s depending on the shell and amount of propellant used. When firing temporary bursts with auto-loader the gun can fire 3 shots in 20 seconds and up to 6 shots per minute during sustained firing. The gun weighs 16,000 kg (including shield) and the length of the barrel is 6,818 mm. The gun is operated by 3 NCOs and 7 soldiers. The development of the 130 TK started in the 1970s and lasted for 10 years. In 1971, the Finnish national defence committee suggested that the then main current coastal artillery gun (

152/50 T The 152mm 45 caliber Pattern 1892 was a Russian naval gun developed in the years before the Russo-Japanese War that armed a variety of warships of the Imperial Russian Navy during the Russo-Japanese War and World War I. Guns salvaged from scrapp ...

) would be replaced by the end of the 1970s. A development contract was signed with

in 1975. It was decided that the calibre would be 130 mm, since the mobile coastal artillery used towed guns of same calibre ( 130 K 54). A prototype was constructed on the island of Isosaari in 1980, where test firing was conducted until 1983. The Finnish Defence Forces signed a series production contract with Tampella in 1982. The first battery was installed in 1984 and the final battery was installed in 1990. The spaces required for the gun, such as room for the gun crew and ammunition storage was built inside the base rock with concrete

casemates A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to antiquity, the term "casemate wall" mea ...

for shaping. The 130 53 TK will probably be the last fixed coastal defence gun in the Finnish inventory. Initially, there were no special sea target shells, instead, regular fragmentation shells were used with timed, immediate and delayed fuses for differences in desired effect. A first attempt to develop sea target shells failed in the 1980s, with the company going bankrupt. A fresh start was done in the beginning of the 1990s for payload shells similar to some anti-tank shells. Targeting for these guns is done by a targeting team either using a

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fi ...

range and direction finder or optically with triangulation (requiring two teams). The triangulation method is safer as there is nothing transmitted towards the target as in the laser rangefinder case. The coordinates (if laser acquired) or directional information in the case of triangulation are sent to a calculation unit which then calculates the targeting solution for the guns. This is a continuous (tracking) operation since the targets are moving. The gun itself can be directed manually with the data coming from the central calculation unit or fully automatically based on the data received via a data bus from the central calculator. The gun is also fully capable of autonomous operation with its own laser rangefinder and firing solution computer.

References

* Enqvist, Ove: ''1918–1998'', Sotamuseo, 1999,

External links

Finnish Defence Forces material presentation. Tornikanuuna
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930180617/http://www.mil.fi/maavoimat/kalustoesittely/00152.dsp , date=2007-09-30

Tampella Artillery of Finland 130 mm artillery Coastal artillery Military equipment introduced in the 1980s

See also

References

External links