Military Procurement International Vol. 19, No. 9, May 1, 2009
Copyright DAPSS S.A., 200
9, Switzerland. It is unlawful to reproduce any of this publication without written permission from the publisher.
ITALY
76mm
DART sub-calibre projectiles tested
Finmeccanica
company Oto
Melara has announced that, on March 24, it conducted very important firing
trials of the DART sub-calibre guided projectiles, as part of the 76mm Strales
system currently in final developed for the Italian
Navy to counter enemy aircraft, anti-ship missiles and Fast Attack Craft.
The trials proved that the
76mm Super Rapid gun can be successfully modified to project a Radio Frequency (RF)
guidance beam capable of steering a burst of three highly manoeuvrable sub-calibre
DART projectiles, with extreme accuracy, against subsonic and supersonic
targets.
As a consequence of these
firing trials, the first fully operational 76/62mm Strales system will be
installed on an Italian Navy warship at the end of 2009, on schedule.