LCF Frigates of Royal Netherlands Navy to be equipped with Leonardo 127mm Main Gun.

The four Air Defense and Command Frigates (LCFs) will receive the 127/64 LW guns from the Italian company Leonardo, the Defense Equipment Organization (DMO) reported via Twitter yesterday. These guns will replace the old Italian Oto Breda 127mm in a few years. The latter are about 50 years old.

Leonardo 127/64 LW (Picture source: Twitter Account Arie Jan de Waard)

The head of the DMO, Admiral Arie Jan de Waard, announced in a tweet yesterday that the four gun systems would be delivered by the year 2025 and that local company Thales Netherlands will be in charge of their integration with the combat management system (CMS) of the LCF frigates.

According to a DMO representative, Leonardo guns will come with an automated handling system and said that they will be future proof because they can deploy smart ammunition.

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 defence, intended for surface fire and naval gunfire support as the main role and anti-aircraft fire as a secondary role. The compactness of the gun feeding system makes possible the installation on narrow section crafts.

HNLMS De Ruyter frigate (Picture source: Ministerie van Defensie)

De Zeven Provinciën-class frigates are highly advanced air-defence and command frigates in service with the Royal Navy of the Netherlands (Koninklijke Marine). This class of ships is also known as LCF (Luchtverdedigings- en commando fregat, air defence and command frigate). The ships are similar to the German Sachsen-class frigates in role and mission.

The Royal Netherlands Navy will become the fourth or fifth customer of the 127/64 LW after the Italian Navy (aboard the FREMM GP frigates and PPA), the German Navy (aboard the F125) and the Algerian Navy (aboard the Meko A-200AN).