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First sailors trained to operate Royal Navy’s new 5in gun

Type 26 model
14 October 2024
The gun of Glasgow is ready to fire. Just add barrel and ammo…

There are now two sailors who know the ins and outs to operate the Fleet’s new main gun after intensive training Stateside.

HMS Glasgow is the first Royal Navy warship to be equipped with the 5in Medium Calibre Gun – succeeding the battle-proven 4.5in gun which has been the mainstay of the Fleet since the 1970s.

The 5in is also a proven weapon. The Mk45 Mod 4A is the latest variant of a US Navy gun which is provides the punch of more than 280 warships in 11 navies including those of Australia, New Zealand, Japan and several NATO allies.

As well as firing larger calibre shells than the 4.5in to deal with targets as varied as enemy installations ashore, drones, fast inshore attack craft and hostile boats, the new gun is fed a constant supply of shells during a shoot automatically by an automated handling system.

Whilst it saves sailors having to lug heavy shells around the ship, it also has to be maintained to the highest standards to prevent any jams.

To learn how to maintain the whole system, weapons engineers Petty Officers Dave Strachan and ‘Tiny’ Sanderson spent three months in San Diego on a comprehensive course covering every aspect of the new weapon.

Their training spanned basic operation, maintenance requirements, defect analysis and, where necessary, repairs, in the classroom, on simulators and replicas of the gun/system.

It built up over 11 weeks to a final assessment: a four-hour-long multiple-choice exam, followed by a practical session, testing the engineers’ knowledge to bring the gun online, load rounds in simulation mode as well as a solitary physical round, all while dealing with various defects ranging from blown lamps to broken sensors and damaged components. 

 

“As we are both former 4.5in maintainers we had a good foundation of the skills and experience needed,” Dave explained. 

“We were able to apply some of the knowledge we had previously gained and apply it to the areas that were common between both guns - the basic principles of each weapon are very similar, as well as the ways in which each navy utilise them.”

Both passed the course with flying colours – but sadly things didn’t end with a bang as there was no opportunity to actually use the gun in a live-firing exercise aboard a US Navy warship on this occasion.

But the pair were royally hosted in San Diego, made friends with fellow students and instructors, were shown the sights of one of California’s biggest cities, toured the carrier USS Midway and enjoyed their time Stateside.

As for HMS Glasgow, both the turret and handling system have been installed in the first Type 26 frigate (the barrel has yet to be fitted), but no shells will be fired until well into sea trials later this decade.

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