Engineering:OTO Melara 76 mm

Short description: Naval artillery piece

OTO 76/62
The OTO 76/62 SR (Super Rapid) as mounted in a stealth turret (to reduce radar cross-section) onboard HTMS Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Type	Naval gun
Place of origin	Italy
Service history
In service	1964–present
Used by	See operators
Production history
Designer	OTO Melara
Designed	Compact: 1963 Super Rapid: 1985 Strales: 2004
Manufacturer	Otobreda: 1963–2001 BHEL Haridwar : 1994–present (under licence) OTO Melara (subsidiary of Finmeccanica): 2001–2015 Leonardo-Finmeccanica: since 2016 Leonardo: since 2017
Produced	Compact: 1964 Super Rapid: 1985 Strales: 2008
Variants	See variants
Specifications
Mass	Empty: 7.5 tonnes (17,000 lb)
Barrel length	62 caliber: 4,724.4 mm (186.00 in)
Crew	remote controlled
Shell	76×636mmR shell weight 6.3 kilograms (14 lb) propellant weight 2.35 kilograms (5.2 lb)
Shell weight	12.4 kg (27 lb)
Calibre	76.2 mm (3.00 in)
Elevation	−15°/+85° speed: 35°/s (acceleration: 72°/s²)
Traverse	360° speed: 60°/s (acceleration: 72°/s²)
Rate of fire	Compact: 85 rounds/min Super Rapid: 120 rounds/min
Muzzle velocity	915 m/s (3,000 ft/s)
Maximum firing range	HE-PFF 16,000 m SAPOMER 20,000 m VULCANO 40,000 m
Feed system	Magazine capacity: 80 ready rounds on Compact gun mount

The OTO Melara 76 mm gun, marketed as the OTO 76/62 Gun Mount, is a naval autocannon built and designed by the Italian defence company OTO Melara. It is based on the OTO Melara 76/62C and evolved toward 76/62 SR and 76/62 Strales.

The system is compact enough to be installed on relatively small warships. Its high rate of fire and the availability of several types of ammunition make it capable of short-range anti-missile point defence, anti-aircraft, anti-surface, and ground support. Ammunition includes armour-piercing, incendiary, directed fragmentation effects, and a guided round marketed as capable of destroying maneuvering anti-ship missiles. It can be installed in a stealth turret.

The OTO Melara 76 mm has been widely exported, and is in use by sixty navies. It was favored over the French 100mm naval gun for the joint French/Italian project and FREMM frigate.

The Super Rapid Gun Mount (SRGM) variant is being license-manufactured in India by Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) in its Haridwar plant in Uttarakhand, India since 1994. Multiple warships of the Indian Navy as well as the Indian Coast Guard has deployed SRGM as an anti-missile/anti-aircraft naval gun. BHEL has been manufacturing the upgraded SRGM variant incorporating the Strales system (with integrated director radar) and DART (guided projectile) and Vulcano (extended effecive range) ammunition. On 28 November 2023, BHEL received a contract worth ₹2,956.89 crore (US$410 million) to manufacture 16 upgraded SRGM guns for in-service as well as under construction ships at GRSE and MDL. is the first ship of the Indian Navy to feature OTO Melara Strales.

On 27 September 2006 Iran announced it had started mass production of the Fajr-27, which is a reverse-engineered copy of the OTO Melara 76 mm Compact gun.

Other specifications

• Cooling: sea water—fresh water for flushing
• Electrical Power supply
  • 440 V, 3-phase, 60 Hz, main circuit;
  • 115 V, 1-phase, 400 Hz, servo and synchro network

Variants

Compact

The original version has a rate of fire of 85 rounds per minute.

Super Rapid (SR)

The Super Rapid or "Super Rapido" (SR) variant, with a higher rate of fire of 120 rounds per minute, was developed in the early 1980s and remains current as of 2025. The Super Rapid's higher rate of fire was achieved by designing a faster feed system. From June 2025, the Indian Navy started inducting the first Indian-made gun barrels for the gun type which will be utilised on all its current and future warships. The indigenous barrels have been developed over three years by a team of 12 engineers and are being produced at the Field Gun Factory, Kanpur.

Strales System

The Italian navy preferred the improved Super Rapido with Strales System and DART ammunition to the Fast Forty 40 mm CIWS in the anti-missile defense role as it is capable of countering several subsonic missiles up to 8,000 meters away. It is a medium caliber gun with relatively long range, and can also be used against surface targets.

The advanced Strales system is also manufactured by BHEL in India and is employed with s.

Sovraponte

The 76/62 Sovraponte ("over deck") is a new, compact, lightweight mount for the 76/62 gun. The system is approximately 30–40% lighter than the standard Super Rapid, and its installation requires no penetration of the deck below. The mount accommodates 76 ready-to-fire rounds and is available for sale both with and without the Strales system. The Sovraponte mount was installed for the first time on the Thaon di Revel-class patrol vessel of the Italian Navy, positioned above the roof of the helicopter hangar.

Ammunition

To provide multiple roles for the gun, OTO provides the user with wide ranges of specialized ammunition:

• HE standard: weight 6.296 kg, range 16 km, effective 8 km (10 km vs. air targets at 85°)
• MOM: developed by OTO (Multirole OTO Munition)
• PFF: anti-missile projectile, with proximity fuze and tungsten balls embedded in the shell for defined fragmentation effect
• SAPOM: 6.35 kg (0.46 kg HE), range 16 km (SAPOMER: 20 km) semi-armour piercing
• DART: guided projectile for anti-aircraft and anti-missile manoeuvering targets
• VULCANO: 5 kg, guided (GLR) projectile with a maximum range around 40 km (it is a smaller version of the 127 mm Vulcano)

Fire control system

There were evolutions in the gun's fire control systems as well. The early versions (Compatto) utilised radars such the RTN-10X Orion (made by Selenia, now Selex);

From the early 1980s the gun was equipped with a more powerful and flexible system, the RTN-30X (used with the Dardo-E CIWS system and known within the Italian Navy as SPG-73), that was capable to manage both guns (40, 76, and 127 mm calibres) and missiles (Sea Sparrow-Aspide). This system came into service with the Italian Navy on the cruiser Garibaldi (C551: the RTN-30X entered service first on the s; the Dardo 40 mm turret was slaved to the smaller and older RTN-20X radars), but still with the twin 40 mm Dardo's turrets. The first ship equipped with Dardo E and 76 mm Super Rapido was the upgraded s, later followed by the Durand de la Penne class. The 76/62 has also been used with many other fire control systems when not in Italian service.

The Indian Navy ships uses BEL Lynx-U2 fire control system designed, developed and manufactured by Bharat Electronics for these guns.

Fuses

The fusing includes a DSP which rejects ground/sea clutter and so is capable of detecting a missile flying as low as two meters above sea level. It has the capability to recognise a target at a 10-meter stand-off. In all, the fuze greatly increases the effectiveness of the gun when engaging anti-ship missiles.

DART

Since the 1980s efforts were made for development of guided 76 mm ammunition, but this was not achieved until recently. The first such ammunition was the CCS (Course Corrected Shell), also known as 'CORRETTO'; a joint program of OTO and British Aerospace. Work started in 1985. The projectile had several small rockets in order to deviate the trajectory. Radio commands were sent from the ship FCS. The FCS did not know the exact position of the projectile, only that of the target. This system was too complex and unreliable, so OTO studied another development in order to obtain a real 'guided ammunition'.

The result of this development is a system which was called DAVIDE just for the Italian market and STRALES for export purposes while the fired guided ammunition is called DART (Driven Ammunition Reduced Time of flight).

The DART projectile is similar in many aspects to other hyper-velocity systems, for example the Starstreak SAM missile's multi-dart warhead, but is a guided gun projectile with radio controls and a proximity fuze for low level engagement (up to 2 meters over the sea). DART is fired at 1,200 m/s (3,900 ft/s), can reach 5 km range in only 5 seconds, and can perform up to 40G maneuver. The DART projectile is made of two parts: the forward is free to rotate and has two small canard wings for flight control. The aft part has the 2.5 kg warhead (with tungsten cubes and the 3A millimetric wave new fuse), six fixed wings and the radio receivers.

The guidance system is Command Line of Sight (CLOS). It uses a TX antenna installed on gun. The radio-command for them is provided on a broadcast data-link (Ka Band).

The first lot of DART 76mm guided ammunition, produced by OTO Melara, was successfully tested at the end of March, 2014. The firing trials were conducted on board one of the Italian Navy's ships equipped with Strales 76mm SR and Selex NA25 fire control system. The first firing trials of the DART ammunition bought by Colombia in 2012 were successfully conducted in the Caribbean Sea on 29 August from the 76/62 Strales inner-layer defence system fitted to its modernized FS 1500 Padilla-class frigates.

VULCANO

The more recent development is the VULCANO 76 ammunition system. Basically, it is a scaled-down version of the 127–155 mm Vulcano family of extended-range projectiles developed by OTO Melara; guided by an inertial navigation system and Global Positioning Systems, it is capable of hitting targets twice the distance of normal 76 mm gun ammunition. GPS-IMU guidance and IR or SALT Terminal sensor. The Vulcan 76 GLR ammunition is expected to complete the development, test and qualification process by late 2022 with the delivery of production rounds to customers from 2023–24 onwards.

Other uses

Main article: Engineering:Rooikat

Most of the basic ammunition types offered for the OTO Melara 76mm can also be fired from the South African Rooikat armoured car with slight modification to change from electric to percussion primers. This is the only land-based vehicle system capable of deploying the same ammunition as its naval counterpart.

Operators

Map with OTO Melara 76mm operators in blue

Asia

Bangladesh

• ()
• (ex-USCG cutter)
• (ex-USCG cutter)

Brunei

• KDB As-Siddiq (ex-Singaporean )
• KDB Al-Faruq (ex-Singaporean )

India

• (SRGM)
• (SRGM)
• (3 out of 5 ships after refit)
  • (SRGM)
  • (Compact)
  • (SRGM)
• (Strales)
• (SRGM)
• (Mounted on 1 of 7 ships)
  • (SRGM)
• (Compact)
• (decommissioned; Compact)
• (SRGM)
• (Compact)
• (last 2 of 13 ships)
  • INS Prabal (Compact)
  • INS Pralaya (Compact)
• (Indian Coast Guard; Compact)

Indonesia

• (ex-RNLN s)
• Red White frigate (planned)
• (1 out of 2 ships)
  • (planned)
• (planned)
• Paiton Naval Gunnery Firing Range (OTO Melara 76mm Compact)

Israel

• (decommissioned)
• (decommissioned)

JMSDF's Asagiri-class destroyer – JS Setogiri (DD-156) showing off her main gun at maximum elevation of +85°.

Japan

• (decommissioned)
• destroyer
• (JDS Murakumo only) (decommissioned)
• (decommissioned)
• (decommissioned)

North Korea (OTO Melara 76mm gun believed to have been acquired illegally from Iran or Myanmar)

• Nampo-class corvette
• Nongo-class Fast Attack Craft

South Korea

• (decommissioned)

Malaysia

Myanmar

Oman

Pakistan

• PNS Alamgir (ex-USN Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate)
• Babur-class corvette

Philippines

• Miguel Malvar-class frigate
• Gregorio del Pilar-class frigate (ex-USCG cutters)
• BRP Conrado Yap (ex-South Korean )
• (ex-British s)
• (planned)
• Rajah Sulayman-class offshore patrol vessel

Saudi Arabia

The OTO Melara 76mm Super Rapid gun mounted on the Victory-class corvette – RSS Valour (89)

Singapore

• Independence-class littoral mission vessel

Sri Lanka

• (ex-USCG cutter)
• SLNS Nandimithra (P701) (ex-Israeli )
• SLNS Suranimala (P702) (ex-Israeli )

Republic of China

Thailand

• Pattani offshore patrol vessel
• Krabi offshore patrol vessel

Turkey

United Arab Emirates

Lebanon

• Combattante FS56-class fast attack craft

Vietnam

• VPNS 18 (ex-South Korean )

• 

  A Vietnamese Pohang-class corvette with two Oto Melara 76mm Compact gun mounts.

  VPNS 20 (ex-South Korean )
• CSB 8020 (ex-USCG cutter) (operated by Vietnam Coast Guard)
• CSB 8021 (ex-USCG cutter) (operated by Vietnam Coast Guard)
• CSB 8022 (ex-USCG cutter) (operated by Vietnam Coast Guard)

Africa

Algeria

• Kalaat Béni Abbès-class

Egypt

• Ambassador MK III-class missile boat
• Gowind 2500 corvette
• FREMM multipurpose frigate

Morocco

• Mohammed VI (701) (FREMM multipurpose frigate)
• Sigma-class corvette
• Lieutenant Colonel Errhamani (501) ()
• Mohammed V (611) and Hassan II (s)

South Africa

• (converted from fast attack craft with missiles launchers and rear 76mm gun removed) (1 ship in service)
• Rooikat

Tunisia

• ex-s

Europe

Belgium

• Anti-Submarine Warfare Frigate

Bulgaria

The Bulgarian Navy's New Multifunctional patrol ships will be armed with an OTO Melara 76/62mm SP/MF(Super Rapid, Multiple feed) Cannon.

Denmark

• (decommissioned)
• (decommissioned)

France

Two turrets on the Horizon type frigate Chevalier Paul.

• Defence and intervention frigate

• FREMM multipurpose frigate

Germany

• (decommissioned)
• (decommissioned)

Georgia

• (decommissioned)

Greece

• ()

76mm OTO Melara cannon on the Irish Naval Service patrol vessel LÉ Niamh

Ireland

• (decommissioned)

Italy

Oto Melara 76/62 mm Strales Sovraponte anti-aircraft gun on the Italian offshore patrol vessel Francesco Morosini

• (decommissioned)
• FREMM multipurpose frigate
• Fulmine gunboat (decommissioned)
• (decommissioned)
• (1 out of 3 ships after refit)
• (hydrofoil, decommissioned)
• Thaon di Revel-class offshore patrol vessel
• Trieste LHD

Netherlands

• Anti-Submarine Warfare Frigate

Norway

Poland

• ORP Ślązak offshore patrol vessel

Portugal

• (ex-RNLN Karel Doorman-class frigate)

Romania

• Regele Ferdinand (F221) (ex-British )
• Regina Maria (F222) (ex-British )

Spain

• (decommissioned)

Ukraine

• Hetman Ivan Mazepa Ada-class corvette (under construction/launched (as of the beginning of 2023))

Oceania

Australia

• (decommissioned)

North America

Canada

• (after TRUMP modifications, decommissioned 2017)

The Mk75 in use aboard USCGC Gallatin, 2005.

Loading of the 76 mm shells

Underdeck of a Mark 75 gun

Various aspect of the OTO Melara 76 mm Mark 75 gun in US service

United States

• (USCG)
• (USCG) (decommissioned)
• (USN, decommissioned))
• (USN, decommissioned)

Mexico

South America

Argentina

Brazil

Chile

• (ex-British )
• (decommissioned)

Colombia

• – modernised with Strales 76 mm and DART guided ammunition

Ecuador

Peru

Venezuela

• Guaiquerí OPV
• Guaicamacuto OPV
• Constitución Class OPV

See also

• 76mm/L62 Allargato – the direct precursor of the Melara
• AK-176 – a similar Soviet/Russian naval gun
• H/PJ-26 - a similar Chinese naval gun
• MKE 76 mm/62-caliber gun – a similar Turkish naval gun
• Otomatic – a land-based SPAA version of the Super Rapid, mounted on OF-40 chassis
• Draco – a land-based SPAA version of the Strales system, mounted on B1 Centauro chassis

External links

• Official website of Leonardo – Strales
• Official website of Leonardo – Vulcano 76
• Official website of Leonardo – Draco
• Officially released video of OTO Melara 76mm during test firing on YouTube
• Italian 76 mm/62 (3") Compact, SR and United States 76 mm/62 (3") Mark 75 at NavWeaps