Otobreda 76 Mm

The Otobreda 76 mm gun is a naval artillery piece built by the Italian defence conglomerate Otobreda. It is based on the Oto Melara 76mm/L62 Allargato, which was bigger and heavier. A vehicle-mounted version known as the Otomatic was built for the self-propelled anti-aircraft gun role but was not put into production.

Unlike the older Allargato the Otobreda 76mm Compatto cannon system is compact enough to be installed on relatively small warships, like corvettes, avisos (a vessel somewhere between a corvette and a patrol boat), or patrol boats. The gun's high rate of fire makes it suitable for short-range anti-missile point defence, and its calibre also allows it to function in anti-aircraft, anti-surface, and ground support roles. Specialised ammunition is available for armour piercing, incendiary and directed fragmentation effects and there is also a new guided round that is supposed to be able to destroy maneuvering anti-ship missiles. In recent years a new stealth cupola has been offered.

The Otobreda 76mm has been widely exported and is in use with 53 navies. It has recently been favoured over the French 100mm naval gun for the joint French/Italian Horizon CNGF frigate project. On 27 September 2006 Iran announced it has started mass production of a marine artillery gun, named the Fajr-27, which is a reverse-engineered Oto Melara 76 mm gun.