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152mm Weapons

45-calibre M1914
Used on : Caracciolo and Pisa Classes
Details : 50kg Common and HE, MV of 700m/s, 4-7rpgpm
Mountings : Single casemate Caracciolo, Quadruple turret Pisa
Notes : Muzzle velocity considered to be quite low, but heavy shell makes up for this. Low dispersion in single mounts and barrel life is long. Significant problems with quadruple turret. Low rate of fire due to complicated handling procedures. Excessive dispersion due to the close grouping of the barrels has been overcome with some success with the adoption of delay coils.

53-calibre M1925
Used on : Condottieri, Feruccio and Ras Dejen
Details : 50kg AP, 44.3kg HE , MV of 1000m/s and 950m/s, 4rpgpm, 28400m range
Mountings : Duple turrets, Single weatherproof mount
Notes : Electrically-powered turrets able to elevate up to 45°. The gun has a large improvement in performance over the M1914, especially with regards to mv. However, the cost is in large dispersion for the mounting and a short barrel life.

53-calibre M1928
Used on : Saint I Class
Details : 50kg AP, 44.3kg HE, MV of 1000m/s and 950m/s, 8rpgpm, 28400m range
Mountings : Duple turret
Notes : Only change is gun manufacturer, OTO not Ansaldo. Mounting has considerable change, being far more heavily armoured and weighing considerably more. Electrically powered training and elevation up to 45°. Able to load at any angle. Rate of fire is doubled through use of a reciprocating lever having the next shell in position. Dispersion problems and short barrel life still exist, but have been negated due to larger gaps between gun axes.

130mm Weapons

45-calibre M1917
Used on : Morosini, Aquila, Capitani Romani, Panthera, Elba, Umbria and post 1922 Destroyers
Details : 32kg HE, 28kg MTF (AA), MV of 850m/s, 12rpgpm, 19000m range
Mountings : Enclosed duple mounts, Shielded Duple mounts
Notes : Experience showed that a more powerful weapon than the 100/47 was needed for destroyers. This evolved into the 130/45 first mounted on the Panthera Class of Esploratori. Considered to be a success due to the heavy-hitting shell, low dispersion and long barrel life. Shielded mounts can elevate to 30° whilst the enclosed to 40°. Horizontal sliding breech block combined with shell hoists give a 12rpgpm rate of fire. The 28kg MTF shell was developed to ease fatigue during prolonged firing.

54-calibre ?
Under development for new destroyers and capital ships

100mm Weapons

47-calibre M1917
Used on : Lepanto, Generale, Spica and cruiser secondary weapons
Details : 13.8kg HE, MV of 850m/s, 15+rpgpm, 15000m range, 10000m ceiling
Mountings : Single deck mounts, Duple mounts with hoists
Notes: Manually powered mounts. Elevation up to 85°. Considered to be a good AA weapon. Fires combined shell/cartridge. Rate of fire only limited by crew. Too small for a destroyer weapon but adequate for usage on torpedo boats.

65-calibre M1928
Used on : Caracciolo, Saint I
Details : 15kg HE, MV of 1001m/s, 15+rpgpm, 20000m range, 13000m ceiling
Mountings : Duple mount with hoist
Notes : Electrically powered mountings with elevation up to 80°. Much higher muzzle velocity gives for hugely improved accuracy in the AA role. The barrel life is reduced but negated by use of electroplating. The weapon is well-liked but the mounting needs a lot of maintenance due to the complicated firing mechanism. A new mounting is under development that will be triaxially stabilised and consideration has been given to firing sub-calibre 65mm or 57mm shells.

76.2mm Weapons

40-calibre M1909
Used on : Older vessels as AA
Details : 6kg HE, MV of 815m/s, 15rpgpm
Mountings : Single pedestal
Notes : Older weapon that has been discontinued in favour of the 100mm weapon which is much superior.

65mm Weapons

17-calibre
Used on : Morosini and Pisa
Details : 4.08kg HE, MV of 412m/s, 20rpgpm, 6200m range
Mountings : Single Pedestal
Notes : Adapted mountain gun used as light AA. Not a stellar performer, but a lightweight mounting.

47mm Weapons

50-calibre
Used on : Saint I, Capitani Romani, Ruggiero, Baleno, MAS(G)
Details : 1.75kg HE, MV of 800m/s, 90rpgpm, 10000m range
Mountings : Triple AA and Single pedestal
Notes : Manually powered medium AA. The triple mount is not considered a success due to the complexity of loading the centremost gun. The single mount is better liked and has proven an excellent weapon for use on MAS.

37mm Weapons

54-calibre Breda
Used on : Most Warships
Details : 0.83kg HE, MV of 800m/s, 60/90/120rpgrpm, 7800m range
Mountings : Twin and quadruple mounts, Quadruple turret
Notes : Standard close-range AA weapon. Good performance. Water-cooled with selective rate of fire. Manually operated. Quadruple turret is electrically powered, weatherproof and has its own rangefinder. Weight of duple mount is 5tons. Quadruple weighs 10tons.

20mm Weapons

Oerlikon FFL
350rpgpm, 700m/s
Single manually powered pedestal mounting purchased from Switzerland

Future Weapons

Development of the 47mm weapon into a powered, stabilised mount with higher mv and rate of fire. A new short-range AA weapon is needed to supplant the 20mm FFL. Something that is considerably lighter than the 37/54 Breda whilst still maintaining high power. The 25mm(1”) calibre has been chosen for this, it retains the traits of the 20mm calibre whilst having a shell twice as heavy. 3 different types of mountings are to be developed; a single, manually operated pedestal using the Revelli-Fiat from 1925 as a baseline; a duple and quadruple triaxially stabilised mounting, the quadruple being a stacked duple mount. The gun itself is expected to fire a 238g round at 1070m/s, rate of fire being as high as possible – over 300rpm stipulated.

Addendum as of 01/01/1930

Development of 54-calibre 130mm weapon has been postponed indefinately. 36kg SAP shell adopted for use instead of going to a higher muzzle velocity.

Major design work on new 100/65 mount finished. First examples hope to be put to sea in 1932/33.

Work on new 47mm gun and mounting proceeds slowly.

After approaching the Danish firm Madsen, work on the new 25mm cannon has gone rapidly with a few prototypes being produced. Cartridge adopted is the 25x200. Air cooled and water cooled examples have been produced but with emphasis on the water cooled version.

Too complicated?

Were we supposed to comment on it??
:-)

Interesting stuff and I didn't think it was complicated.
What about train and elevation rates for all those guns? Will you release that data or keep it a secret?

I'm sure I can put down a few things on elevation/training rates, but I reckoned that that was too detailed.

'Too detailed' doesn't exist. Just look at NavWeaps. :-)

I thought this was a statement as oppose to a question. I've not seen too much out of the ordinary, though do destroyers need 54 cal barrel lengths for 130mm cannons?

OF course I'm only really use to the older shorter barrelled weapons and the later US 5"/38 cal type weapons.

More power for anti-surface firing. Increased accuracy for AA. Because the mv is higher, the time of flight is less, so the distance any aircraft has moved is less, so the shell is more accurate. Barrel life would be lessened, the mounting size and weight larger, but I think its worth it. If it doesn't turn out to be a success, I'll keep on mounting the 45-cal weapon.

Odero-Terni-Orlando twin 25mm mounting.