This 1970s film about the the Emerlec 30mm mount shows it fitted with two Oerlikon 30-mm/75-cal rifled automatic cannon. The Emerlek is a US-built antiaircraft gun mount in service in several classes of non-US ships. The film also shows the the CPIC or coastal patrol and interdiction craft aboard which the mount was originally intended for deployment. The CPIC was a 100-foot craft built as a prototype successor for the PT/PTF-type small combatant. The Tacoma Boatbuilding firm in the State of Washington launched the craft in 1974. The U.S. Navy carried out extensive trials. Among the CPIC’s special features was a modular weapons configuration to permit rapid changeover to guns, rockets, missiles, torpedoes, and mines. Total weapons payload was ten tons (on a full load displacement of about 75 tons). The craft was propelled by two aircraft-type Avco Lycoming gas turbine engines with an auxiliary diesel; maximum speed was in excess of 40 knots. After U.S. Navy trials, on August 1, 1975, the CPIC was transferred to South Korea. Additional craft of this type were constructed in South Korea. The CPIC was the last U.S. small combatant built with a torpedo capability-the last PT boat. Anti-ship missiles, which could be carried by relatively small ships as well as large warships, aircraft, and even submarines, had replaced the torpedo. The Koreans returned the CPIC to the USA in 1979. The prototype CPIC was armed with the Emerson Mk 74 Mod 0 twin 30mm gun mount; one forward and one amidships on the 01 level. There were 4 other weapons stations for .50s or Mk 19s.
As shown in the film, the Emerlec is a gyro-stabilized mount that puts the gunner’s position between the two cannon, which are mounted on a trunnion that passes through the cabin behind the gunner. The two barrels elevate and traverse together. The front-entry cabin has a controlled environment and a daylight reflex sight or a image-intensifying night sight; the mount can also be operated under remote control.
The Oerlikon gas-operated cannon has a muzzle brake and fires from the open breech position, using propellant gas to unlock the bolt and breech during the firing cycle. It can be clip-fed or belt-fed, the belt feeds being set up from either the left or the right side.
The Oerlikon KCB fires High-Explosive Incendiary (HEI), HEI with Tracer (HEI-T), Semi-Armor-Piercing HEI (SAPHEI), and Target Practice (TP and TP-T) rounds. A below-decks magazine holds up to 1,970 rounds of ammunition.
The Emerlec 30 began as the EX-74 Mod 0, a mount developed for the US Navy’s Coastal Patrol and Interdiction Craft (CPIC) program in the early 1970s. Land testing began in 1972 with General Electric EX 28 30-mm machine guns, which were replaced by the Oerlikons. Tests in the prototype CPIC began in 1975; neither was procured by the USN, but the mount design was exported to several navies.
Produced by Emerson Electric, Government and Defense Group (later ESCO) in St. Louis, Missouri. In service with ships in the Ecuadorian, Greek, South Korean, Malaysian, Nigerian, Philippine, and Qatari navies.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
