Sunday, July 6, 2014

Secondary armament of BRP Ramon Alcaraz to be installed

From the Philippine News Agency (Jul 6): Secondary armament of BRP Ramon Alcaraz to be installed

The Philippine Navy (PN) announced that the secondary armament of the BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PF-16), the country's most modern warship, will be installed and completed within the year.

Cmdr. Gregory Fabic, Navy public affairs office chief, confirmed this in a message to the PNA.

"The weapons (are here) but not installed yet. Our timeline for the installation of her secondary armament is within the year," he added.

Fabic is referring to the two Mark 38 Model 2 25mm "Bushmaster" automatic cannon.

Installation will be done by a US Coast Guard team, he added.

The "Bushmaster" automatic cannons will be fitted to BRP Ramon Alcaraz's port (left) and starboard (right) side and will act as the ship's secondary armament.

The decision to seek US Coast Guard aid in installing these automatic cannons came in wake of the high cost of having the guns installed by a private shipyard.

The guns were supposed to be installed before BRP Ramon Alcaraz's Nov. 22 commissioning but the cost of having it done here was just to expensive for the Navy.

The weapon was commissioned by the US Navy following the terrorist attack on the USS Cole in 2000. It was designed to counter high-speed maneuvering surface targets and will be installed in almost all US surface ships by 2015.

The remotely controlled chain gun system can fire as many as 180 25m rounds per minute at targets as far as two kilometers.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=660074

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