The Indonesian Navy has installed BAE Systems’ Bofors 57 Mk3 naval gun system for the 6th KCR-60 fast-missile boat (fast-attack craft) program. The initial contracts with government-owned shipbuilder PT PAL Indonesia include four 57 Mk3 gun systems. Four KCR-60 vessels are currently in service with the Indonesian Navy with a fourth ship scheduled to be operational in 2022. Two of the new 57 Mk3 systems will be for two KCR-60 boats currently under construction, while the remaining two guns will be integrated into two existing KCR-60 boats. The first unit is scheduled for delivery in 2020 and the final unit in 2021.
Bofors 57 mm Naval Automatic Gun L/70 (57 mm Sjöautomatkanon L/70 and 57mm Naval Gun System), among other names, is a series of dual-purpose naval guns designed and produced by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors (since March 2005 part of BAE Systems AB), designed in the late 1960s as a replacement design for the twin-barreled Bofors 57 mm Naval Automatic Gun L/60. Although the Swedish Navy has been the primary user of the gun, it has been exported widely by Bofors Defence for use by the navies of Brunei, Canada, Croatia, Finland, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, Montenegro, Singapore, Thailand, and the United States.
The latest development of the gun is the Mark 3, designed in 1995 for use on the then planned Visby-class corvette. Some of the primary changes include the ability to use Bofors 3P all-target programmable ammunition, the addition of a small muzzle velocity radar housed in a radome externally above the gun barrel for measuring the muzzle velocity of the departing projectiles for fire-control purposes, usually but not necessarily with the new Bofors 57 mm 3P ammunition, the ability to instantly change ammunition types by the use of a dual-feed system, another 1,000 rounds stowed in the standby rack beneath deck, as well as an improved fire control system.
The Sampari-class fast attack craft is a class of domestically designed and built fast attack craft operated by the Indonesian Navy. The ships are also known as KCR-60M and all ships are built by local company PT. PAL in Surabaya. With a length of 60 meters, the KCR-60 was designed to quickly deploy guided anti-ship missiles against surface combatants and then rapidly and safely withdraw into the region’s archipelagos. The new batch that is already incorporated with the western subsystem and CMS from Terma will use BAE System Bofors 57mm Mk.3 instead. The new batch of this class is expected to be fitted with MBDA anti-ship missile solution, possibly Exocet MM-40 Block III for commonality reasons.
