Modular Naval Artillery Concept (MONARC) was a study of the German defence industry about mounting the turret of the PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzer on a

naval ship A naval ship is a military ship (or sometimes boat, depending on classification) used by a navy. Naval ships are differentiated from civilian ships by construction and purpose. Generally, naval ships are damage resilient and armed with ...

of frigate size.

Description

The size required above and below deck and the weight of this turret are not much different from the OTO Melara 76mm gun system, the standard naval gun of the

German Navy The German Navy (, ) is the navy of Germany and part of the unified '' Bundeswehr'' (Federal Defense), the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the ''Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy) from 1956 to 1995, when ''Deutsche Mar ...

. But to deal with the much greater

recoil Recoil (often called knockback, kickback or simply kick) is the rearward thrust generated when a gun is being discharged. In technical terms, the recoil is a result of conservation of momentum, as according to Newton's third law the force r ...

of the 155 mm artillery piece on such a vessel, a flexible mount with damping elements had to be designed. This mount and a PzH 2000's turret was fitted experimentally in December 2002 on the Type 124 ''Sachsen''-class frigate ''Hamburg'' at the shipyards of HDW in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland pe ...

, when she was still fitting out. In 2004 the

fire-control system 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 ...

was tested with a PzH 2000 strapped onto the helicopter deck of ''Hessen'', another Type 124 frigate. The feasibility of using even the unmodified PzH 2000 with unguided "dumb" rounds to attack naval targets had been proven previously by the Swedish Coastal Artillery with tests performed in May 1996.

Rheinmetall Rheinmetall AG is a German automotive and arms manufacturer, headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of ...

, the producer of PzH 2000's gun system, plans to design special

smart Smart or SMART may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Smart'' (Hey! Say! JUMP album), 2014 * Smart (Hotels.com), former mascot of Hotels.com * ''Smart'' (Sleeper album), 1995 debut album by Sleeper * '' SMart'', a children's television se ...

naval rounds that will boost the range of the gun from 30 km with standard NATO ammunition and 40 km with assisted rounds to over , more than that of many

anti-ship missile 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 ...

s. The future F125 class frigate was intended to make use of this concept. While the intricate elastic mounting system handled the recoil adequately, adapting all of the PzH-2000's systems for the corrosive naval environment proved more difficult and more costly than expected and MONARC appears to have been removedhttp://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNGER_61-52_MONARC.php German 155mm/52 MONARC from F125 plans. The F125 class will now mount the new developed

Otobreda 127/64 The Oto Melara 127/64 Lightweight (LW) naval gun mount is a rapid-fire gun mount suitable for installation on large and medium size ships. It also has a version for coastal defense, intended for surface fire and naval gunfire support as main ro ...

naval gun, which has a range of more than 120 km when using guided Vulcano ammunition.

References

External links

German 155mm/52 MONARC
@ www.navweaps.com
HDW-Videos
@

Howaldtswerke Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (often abbreviated HDW) is a German shipbuilding company, headquartered in Kiel. It is part of the ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) group, owned by ThyssenKrupp. The Howaldtswerke shipyard was founded in Kiel in 183 ...

, a video showing parts of the 2002 test can be downloaded here.
MONARC , Mounting a Pzh 2000 turret to a German Frigate
@ www.geopolitiki.com Naval guns of Germany 155 mm artillery {{Artillery-stub

Description

See also

References

External links