180 mm artillery mount MK-3-180

Initially, for light cruisers, Project 26, it was planned to install three two-gun 180-mm towers. The project of such a facility was developed in the design bureau of the Leningrad Metal Plant named after I.V. Stalin (LMZ) with Italian help. Both trunks were in the same cradle (installation of the "Italian type"). The project was considered on October 5, 1934 at a meeting in ANIMI . During the consideration, ANIMI representatives put forward a “counter” project of three-gun towers ^[1] .

So the idea was born of a 180-mm three-gun tower installation MK-3-180. CB LMZ began to produce working drawings, bypassing the stage of development and approval of the technical design. This work was conducted under the direction of A. A. Florensky and was completed in the fourth quarter of 1935. The design of the three-gun 180-mm swinging part, designated B-27, was carried out by the design bureau of the Bolshevik plant under the supervision of D. F. Ustinov and A. G. Gavrilov ^[2] .

For the first time, all three large-caliber barrels were in the same cradle, that is, with one vertical guidance drive. With this arrangement, one successful hit by an enemy projectile could put an entire turret out of action, while a similar hit in a turret with an individual vertical guidance system for each gun would disable only one gun. The calculation was simple: since the two-gun version still provided for placing the guns in one cradle, and the probability of getting into the two-gun and three-gun towers was practically equal, then in case of failure of one tower in the first embodiment, the ship will remain with four guns, and in the second with six. In addition, as shown by the calculations, the three-gun tower (excluding the mass of the guns themselves) was only 30 tons heavier than the two-gun ^[2] .

The experimental swinging part of the B-27, manufactured at the Bolshevik plant, was delivered to the NIAP in November 1936. For firing, the swinging part of the B-27 was mounted on a 356 mm polygon installation machine, which was specially adapted for mounting the B-27 ^{[3 ]} . Factory tests at the NIMAP on November 22–28, 1936 revealed the unsatisfactory operation of recoil devices. Repeated tests were carried out from December 30, 1936 to January 3, 1937. After improvements, in February - May 1937 passed control tests ^[2] .

The first three towers for Kirov were manufactured by the Leningrad Metal Plant. The installation of the towers on the light cruiser Kirov was completed in the summer of 1937, and the first firing on the cruiser was carried out on September 15-17. They caused a lot of comments. The final ship tests of the MK-3-180 took place from July 4 to August 23, 1938. The commission’s conclusion read: “MK-3-180 is to be transferred to operation for personnel and for military testing.” The installation was handed over to the ship with a rate of fire of two rds / min instead of six according to the design. Artillerymen of the Kirov were only able to start planned combat training with a properly working materiel in 1940. Further, the production of towers was transferred to the Marty Nikolaev Shipyard No. 198 , which, according to the LMZ drawings, produced MK-3-180 units for subsequent cruisers of projects 26 and 26 bis ^[2] .

Tower installation MK-3-180 was armored. The swinging part of the B-27 included three B-1-P guns in one cradle.

Vickers shutter, push-pull, two-stage piston. The shutter toppled up, to facilitate unlocking, there was a cargo counterweight. Anti-recoil devices were placed in the body of the cradle. Rollback brake - hydraulic, spindle type. The knurls are hydropneumatic. Each barrel had one pullback brake and two knurls. The cradle is one-piece. made from one forging. Anti-recoil devices were located in its lower part. Sending shells and half-charges of a throwing type was carried out by a pneumatic rammer. The ammunition was supplied from the reloading compartment to the battlefield using cable elevators with a pusher having electromechanical and manual drives. Each gun had its own elevator, the elevator pusher had three valves - one for shells and two for half-charges. From the cable elevator, the ammunition was delivered directly to the swinging tray located in the fighting compartment. When the shutter was opened, the tray was tipped over from the loading line to the loading angle, and after loading the guns, it occupied its previous position for taking the ammunition for the next shot ^[1] . The guns were fired after the shot with compressed air ^[2] .

A 6-meter DM-6 stereo range finder is mounted in a special tower enclosure. In the aft of the tower housed a tower central post with a turret firing machine ^[4] .

The ammunition consisted of 300 (100 per gun) armor-piercing, semi-armor-piercing, high-explosive fragmentation, practical shells and remote grenades complete with reinforced combat, combat, low-combat and reduced charges. In addition, the ship had warming shots, both conventional and flameless (for use at night). The cellars of the artillery ammunition were equipped with an air-conditioning system that ventilated them with air cooled in special thermotanks with a temperature of no higher than 25 ° С. In case of fire hazard or in case of fire, it was supposed to include an irrigation system and flooding the cellars ^[2] .

In the first quarter of 1941, the Bolshevik plant was to produce 50 shells for ultra-long range firing. These shells were lighter than usual and due to this, an initial velocity of 1275 m / s and a range of about 50-55 km were achieved. Due to the large dispersion, these shells were intended solely for the destruction of areal coastal targets and were not entered into service ^[4] .

Each artillery tower MK-3-180 had ^[8] :

• 6-meter stereo range finder DM-6;

• one WB commander sight;
• one sighting sight MB;

• a tower central post with a turret firing machine (the tasks to be solved are guiding a tower according to central aiming data, guiding a tower according to aiming data, shooting a tower independently on a visible target, using the tower as a backup rangefinder post) ^[11] .

• Shirokorad A. B. Soviet naval artillery. - SPb. : Velen, 1995 .-- 80 p. - ISBN 5-85817-009-9 .
• Platonov A.V. Encyclopedia of Soviet surface ships, 1941-1945 / A.V. Platonov. - SPb. : LLC Polygon Publishing House, 2002. - 640 p. - 5,000 copies. - ISBN 5-89173-178-9 .
• Chernyshev A.A. Cruisers of the Kirov type. - M .: Model designer, 2003. - 32 p. - (Marine collection, 2003, No. 1).

• 180-mm artillery mount MK-3-180 on the site "Black Sea Fleet"
• 180-mm artillery mount MK-3-180 on the site "Russian military equipment"