57mm Bofors M1950
57mm lvakan M/50
Overview
57mm Bofors M/50
57mm Bofors M/50 twin naval mount on a Halland class destroyer.
Source: Koster -
© Public domain
Sweden
Description
Introduction
The 57mm Bofors M/50 is an early Cold War naval gun of Swedish origin. It was developed just after World War 2. These turrets are mainly intended for anti-aircraft use, but can also be used against surface targets. Due to their weight and complexity only 10 of these turrets were ever produced. Fn
Design
The 57mm M/50 naval mount is a large and heavy design capable of delivering a tremendous amount of anti-aircraft fire. The 57mm M/50 uses a fully automated turret with water cooled barrels. Fire control is carried out by radar and external calculation. The ammunition hoppers are loaded automatically and are fed by two feed chutes from a below deck magazine.
Firepower
The Bofors M/50 is armed with two water-cooled 57mm L/60 autocannon. These guns have a cyclic rate of fire of 120 to 130 rpm per barrel. Since the loading if fully automated and barrels are water-cooled their effective rate of fire is practically similar to their cyclic rate of fire. Combined with radar guidance these guns are very effective against aircraft up to a range of 5 km, especially combined with air burst ammunition. Depending on ammunition type the theoretical range against surface targets is 13 to 14.5 km.
Users
The first and foremost user of the 57mm M/50 is the Royal Netherlands navy. Each of the two De Zeven Provinciën class cruisers were fitted with four of these mounts. Both Swedish Halland class destroyers were fitted with a single turret. France adopted the 57mm Bofors L/60 guns in a twin mount of their own design in an effort to reduce weight. Several types of single barrel 57mm L/60 naval guns were developed as well.
Details
Platforms
Halland class
A single 57mm M/50 mount is located superfiring over the forward 120mm M/50.
Media
57mm Bofors M/50
57mm Bofors M/50 twin naval mount on a Halland class destroyer.
Source: Macrusroos
Copyright: GNU Attribution Share Alike license
57mm Bofors M/50
57mm Bofors M/50 twin naval mount on a Halland class destroyer.
Source: Saftgurka
Copyright: GNU Attribution Share Alike license
Related articles
120mm Bofors M1950
The 57mm L/60 gun mount is not to be confused with the similar named Bofors M1950 in 120mm, which is a much larger dual purpose gun. Both turrets were often used on the same type of destroyer.
57mm Bofors SAK-57
The 57mm L/60 was updated to a single barrel L/70 design which was much lighter, but had a near similar firepower due to its higher rate of fire.