76 mm/62 OTO-Melara Compact (76 mm)

76 mm/62 OTO-Melara Compact on a native Italian boat - Sparviero

Description

The 76 mm/62 OTO-Melara Compact cannon is a modern Italian fast-firing cannon found on Italian, German and British naval vessels.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

Ground vehicles

• OTOMATIC

Naval vessels

• Albatros
• Bussard
• HMS Peacock
• LÉ Orla
• Sparviero

General info

The 76 mm/62 OTO-Melara Compact is the Italian equivalent of the AK-176M. It has a fast aiming speed both vertically and horizontally, comparable to the AK-176M. This particular gun has one of the best balances of accuracy, stopping power, and range. While it is not the first 76 mm naval deck gun seen in game, it is by far one of the best multi-purpose weapon systems available for both naval and ground combat. The compact version of the OTO Melara 76/62 has a smaller carousel to be fitted with more ease on many platforms.

Available ammunition

The Albatros and the Bussard have only access to the DM-251 and DM-261 rounds, while HMS Peacock, LÉ Orla and the Sparviero have access to the 76/62 HE-MOM, the 76/62 SAPOM, and the 76/62 HE-VT MOM shells.

The OTOMATIC has access to the 76/62 SAPOM, 76/62 HE-MOM and 76/62 APFSDS rounds. While they carry identical names, these shells are different from their naval counterparts and the APFSDS shell is exclusive to the OTOMATIC.

Naval vessels

Ground vehicles

Comparison with analogues

The gun features a rare combination that gives it an exceptionally high damage output - very large explosive filler and an extremely high rate of fire for the caliber, ejecting 1 shell every 0.7 seconds. It's further improved by excellent targeting speed and one of the best muzzle velocities. Additionally, the gun can come equipped not only with the HE and HE-VT rounds but on Italian and British ships also SAP, which makes it much better in ammo-racking enemy ships.

HE

Cannon		Sample Ship	Ammo	Calibre (mm)	Muzzle velocity (m/s)	Sustained rate of fire (rounds/min)	Targeting speed (°/s)		Vertical guidance (°)	TNT equivalent (kg)	TNT equivalent per minute (kg)	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
							Horizontal	Vertical
	3-inch Mark 10	USS Raleigh	HE	76	825	17	8.5	15	85	0.5	8.5	8
	3 inch Mk.33	Geniere	HE	76.2	823	6	20	26	85	0.5	3	8
	3-inch Mk.34	USS Asheville	HE	76.2	823	49.8	20	26	85	0.5	24.9	8
	34-K (76 mm)	Soobrazitelny	HE	76.2	845	27	12	8	85	0.483	13.04	8
	39-K (76 mm)	Tashkent	HE	76.2	845	20	18	11	87	0.483	9.66	8
	76 mm/60 AK-176M	MPK Pr.12412	HE	76.2	845	20	30	26	85	0.616	12.32	10
	AK-726 (76 mm)	SKR-7	HE	76.2	980	16.2	26	30	85	0.616	9.98	10
	3 inch 12pdr 12 cwt QF Mk.V (76 mm)	HMS Churchill	HE	76.2	823	17	25	25	70	0.5	8.5	8
	76 mm/45 QF 3in 20cwt (76 mm)	HMS Valhalla	HE	76.2	762	12	13	10	40	0.32	3.84	6
	Type 88 AA (75 mm)	Type 5	HE	75	720	20	21	20	50	0.42	8.4	5
	8 cm/40 3rd Year Type (76 mm)	Type K-8 No.13 late	HE	76.2	685	20	11	10	75	0.48	9.6	8
	8 cm/60 Type 98 (76 mm)	IJN Agano	HE	76.2	902	25	18	16	85	0.399	9.98	7
	76 mm/40 Ansaldo mod.1917 (76 mm)	RN Aquila	HE	76.2	690	15	11	10	75	0.65	9.75	10
	76 mm/62 OTO-Melara Compact (76 mm)	Sparviero	HE	76	925	85.7	51	30	85	1.08	92.57	15
	76 mm/62 SMP 3 (76 mm)	Albatros	HE	76.2	930	8.57	34	60	85	0.864	7.40	15
	75 mm/50 model 1922	Duguay-Trouin	HE	75	850	15	19	18	85	0.45	6.75	8

SAP/AP

Cannon		Sample Ship	Ammo	Calibre (mm)	Muzzle velocity (m/s)	Sustained rate of fire (rounds/min)	Targeting speed (°/s)		Vertical guidance (°)	TNT equivalent (kg)	TNT equivalent per minute (kg)	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack @ 5000 m (mm)
							Horizontal	Vertical
	3-inch Mark 10	USS Raleigh	APCBC	76	823	17	8.5	15	85	0.13328	2.27	57
	3-inch Mk.34	USS Asheville	APHE	76.2	823	49.8	20	26	85	0.0637	3.17	62
	34-K (76 mm)	Soobrazitelny	APHEBC	76.2	816	27	12	8	85	0.119	3.21	65
	39-K (76 mm)	Tashkent	APHEBC	76.2	816	20	18	11	87	0.119	2.38	65
	Type 88 AA (75 mm)	Type 5	APHEBC	75	720	20	21	20	50	0.150	3	55
	76 mm/40 Ansaldo mod.1917 (76 mm)	RN Aquila	APHE	76.2	690	15	11	10	75	0.319	4.79	20
	76 mm/62 OTO-Melara Compact (76 mm)	Sparviero	SAP	76	925	85.7	51	30	85	0.6552	57.46	32

Compared to AK-176M

Both systems are extremely similar except that the OTO Melara has access to semi-armour-piercing ammunition. It typically carries less ammunition than the AK-176M (though the specific amount depends on a ship - Italian and British vessels carry only 115 shells while German carry 400 shells per gun) but can put more rounds in the air due to the higher rate of fire.

When talking about just the HE and HE-VT shells, the OTO Melara 76/62 has a much higher explosive payload (nearly double) but has a lower muzzle velocity (925 m/s vs 980 m/s). Both systems do the same purpose with different approaches, one uses a faster round with less payload and the other vice versa.

Usage in battles

The 76 mm excels in outputting a large amount of explosives on target in bursts. For the caliber, it has an exceptional damage potential, far above foreign competitors, in the right hands making it a perfect weapon for an ambush. That said, it's in an uncomfortable spot, where the caliber is too large against some of the coastal vessels, yet too small to easily ammo-rack enemy destroyers. That said, it's one of, if not the best anti-air gun, featuring HE-VT shells, a great rate of fire for the caliber, targeting speed, and very good vertical guidance, making it easy to take down enemy airplanes (note that Bussard and LÉ Orla uniquely have secondary armaments, allowing you to rely on AI to take the enemy planes down at a distance).

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Exceptional damage output
• High rate of fire
• Very large explosive filler in the HE and HE-VT shells
• Excellent targetting speed
• Good muzzle velocity

Cons:

• Either very limited ammunition (for just 80 seconds of continuous fire) or no access to the SAP shells (depending on the ship)
• SAP shells are prone to over-penetration against coastal vessels
• Being a weapon used only on the coastal vessels, it has no access to the shell chase camera

History

The OTO-Melara Compact is an Italian naval weapon designed to serve as a multi-role gun that defends smaller naval vessels as anti-missile point defense, anti-ship and anti-surface guns. The 76/62 was was developed in the 1960s based on the earlier 76mm/62 Allargato guns. Design work on the gun begun in 1964, with initial prototype being built in 1968. Testing campaign continued for about a year, after which, in 1969, a serial production of the gun has begun. First units were delivered to the Marina Militare in 1973, and the gun quickly became an export success with the adoption by the US Navy to the USS Oliver Hazard Perry guided-missile frigates

In total 60 other navies around the world used the 76. Some of the most notable examples among them included German Albatros-class fast attack craft, the Gepard-class fast attack craft, the Braunschweig-class corvette along with the frigates of the Brandenberg, Bremen, Sachsen, classes. The Irish Navy uses the guns from former Royal Navy Peacock-class corvettes such as the LÉ Orla, and their locally designed patrol vessels Róisín-class and Samuel Beckett-class.

The Italian Navy uses the OTO-Melara Compact model on the Audace-class Destroyer, Minerva-class corvette, the Franco-Italian Horizon-class frigate, the San Giorgio-class and the Sparviero-class patrol boats.

The Italian Army also made two plans to turn this naval cannon into a anti-aircraft weapon. The first was the OF-40-based OTOMATIC, which was never adopted due to budget cuts, and the second was the Draco, a Centauro-based design, that only exists as a mock-up.

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;
• references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.

External links

• [Wikipedia] OTO Melara 76 mm
• [NavWeaps] 76 mm/62 (3") Compact
• [WeaponSystems.net] 76mm Compatto
• [Seaforces-online] Oto-Melara / Oto-Breda 76/62 Compact - 76/62 Super Rapid
• [Dziennik Zbrojny] Armata morska OTO Melara 76/62 (in Polish)