DARDO. DARDO ("Dart" in Italian) originally known as Breda Type-70, also marketed as the OTO Twin 40L70 Compact, is a close-in weapon system (CIWS) built by the Italian companies Breda and Oto Melara. It is composed of two Breda-built Bofors 40 mm firing high explosive (HE) shells, a fire-control radar (Alenia RTN-10X Orion) and a fire-control system (Alenia RTN-20X Orion and Dardo). It is the last of a long series of Italian anti-aircraft weapons derived from the Swedish Bofors 40 mm autocannons (mounted on Breda built gun mounts such as the Type 64, Type 106, Type 107, Type 564 and Type 520).

Purpose
The system's primary purpose is to defend against anti-ship missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and other precision guided weapons. It can also be employed against conventional and rotary-wing aircraft, surface ships, small water-crafts, coastal targets and floating mines.

Installation

DARDO is installed in an enclosed turret with two different mounts: the Type A with 440-round internal and 292-round under-deck magazines; and Type B with only the 440-round internal magazine (Type B requires no deck penetration). However, the most recent OTO Twin 40L70 Compact's brochure nominates 736-round magazine for Type A and 444-round magazine for Type B, both feature deck non-deck penetration or with deck penetration.

The newest Marlin 40 variant has no deck penetration, having a sole internal magazine for 80 ready-to-fire rounds.

Other versions

Compact 
The OTO Twin 40L70 Compact is the current marketing name for the DARDO. Option for a stealth cupola is available to reduce the gun mount's RCS. They comes in Type A version with 736 round magazine & Type B version with 444 round magazine. Both the Type A and Type B mounting can be installed above-deck (non-penetrating) or with below-deck magazine. The compact mounting has maximum fire rate of 600 round/min (300 round/min × 2). A kit to upgrade Compact mounting to Fast Forty standard is available.

Fast Forty 
The Fast Forty is an improved version of the Compact mounting with a higher fire rate of 900 round/min (450 round/min × 2), dual magazine and dual feed mechanism to allow switching from High Explosive (HE) rounds to Armour-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot (APFSDS) rounds when a target gets within 1,000 meters from the vessel. Produced in both Single-barrel (Single Fast Forty) and Twin-barrel (Twin Fast Forty) forms, the Fast Forty include a revision of some parts of the loading and breech mechanism and the use of titanium material to improve the performance compared to the Compact mounting. Ammunition magazine and feed arrangements of the Twin Fast Forty remain the same as the Compact but operate at a higher speed. The gun laying and acceleration rates were increased, while the barrel/barrels, are secured in a barrel guidance frames to improves accuracy.

The Single Fast Forty has on-mounting ammunition capacity of only 144 round  and are available in three types of mounting:

 Type A: unmanned mounting, with all operation are done via remote control,
 Type B: manned mounting, controlled and aimed by an on-turret operator,
 Type C: unmanned mounting, feature an integral Micro Fire Control System (MFCS) with automatic tracking and fire-control computation.

An optional 'Stealth' cupola that provided a significant reduction in the radar cross-section of the mounting are also available.

Nobong 
The DARDO were also manufactured in South Korea until 1992 by Daewoo who then developed their own mounting based on the DARDO with the magazine and feed capacity of 768 rounds and maximum fire rate of 600 round/min (300 round/min × 2) known as the Vespa 40mm L/70 K(T) mounting. The mounting is currently marketed by S&T Dynamics as 40L/70K Nobong (노봉) and available with optional dual feed mechanism of 704 rounds magazine capacity.

Marlin 
The OTO Marlin 40 is the single-barrel, light-weight and no-deck-penetration derivative of the DARDO family, succeeding the Single Fast Forty variant. It is designed with high autonomy and fully-digitalized systems. The mounting used to be known as OTO Melara Forty Light naval gun system.

The system comes in a basic version called "Remotely Controlled" (RC), which can be managed by an external firing control system and in the advanced version called "Independent Line Of Sight" (ILOS),  which can be operated autonomously via a local control console in addition to be fully controlled by Combat Management System. It also has selectable rate of fire ranging from single shot, 100 round/min and 300 round/min. The Marlin 40 may be fitted with an integrated hoist below-deck to enable the ammunition loading from covered position.

Comparison with current CIWS

Operators

Operators 

 Kalaat Beni Hammed-class landing ship

 
 video
 

 Al Manama-class corvette
 Ahmed Al Fateh-class missile boat
 Al Riffa-class patrol boat

Twin Fast Forty
 Bangabandhu-class frigate

 
 
 ARC 20 de Julio-class offshore patrol vessel

 

 
 

 

 OTO Twin 40L70 Compact (Stealth)
 
 OTO Marlin 40 (ILOS)
 
 
 

 Vittorio Veneto-class cruiser
 Giuseppe Garibaldi-class aircraft carrier
 
 

 DARDO
 Istiqlal-class missile boat
 Al Boom-class missile boat
 Single Fast Forty - Type B
 Um Al Maradim-class missile boat

Ibn Ouf-class landing ship tank
 Beir Grassa-class missile boat

 

 
 Erinomi-class corvette
 Siri-class missile boat
 Ekpe-class missile boat

 Nasr al Bahr-class amphibious warfare vessel
 Dhofar-class missile boat
 Al Bushra-class missile boat

 Almirante Grau-class cruiser
 
 Carvajal-class frigate
 Velarde-class corvette
 
 Pisco-class landing platform dock

 

 Damsah-class missile boat

 
 

 DARDO
 
 
 Bukhansan-class patrol boat
 40L/70K Nobong
 Go Jun Bong-class landing ship tank
 Cheon Wang Bong-class landing ship tank
 
 Hansando-class training ship
 Cheonji-class replenishment ship
 Yoon Youngha-class missile boat
 Sam Bong-class patrol boat
 Tae Pyung Yang-class patrol vessel
 Je Min-class patrol vessel
 Han-River-class patrol vessel
 Taeguk-class patrol boat

 Makut Rajakumarn-class frigate
 
 Chonburi-class patrol boat

 La Galite-class missile boat
 
 DARDO
 Kılıç-class missile boat
 
 Single Fast Forty - Type B (Stealth)
 

 Serhet-class patrol boat

 Ban Yas-class missile boat

 
 Capana-class landing ship tank

See also
Aselsan GOKDENIZ
Myriad CIWS
Meroka CIWS
Sea Zenith CIWS
Denel 35mm Dual Purpose Gun

References

External links

 OTO-Melara 40 mm weapon factsheets
 Data and Spec of OtoBreda DARDO
 Images of DARDO and other Breda 40 mm CIWS
 Video of DARDO firing

40 mm artillery
Autocannon
Close-in weapon systems
Naval anti-aircraft guns
Naval guns of Italy