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MANILA, -- One of the Philippine Navy's Gregorio Del Pilar class frigates (formerly the American Hamilton class cutters) has been fitted with a Mark 38 25mm "Bushmaster" auto-cannon which will act as its secondary weapon.
BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PF-16) was fitted with this weapon last November while BRP Gregorio Del Pilar (PF-15) will be fitted with the Mark 38 25mm "Bushmaster" during her next dry-docking period which is scheduled between February and June this year.
This was confirmed by Philippine Fleet public affairs officer Lt. Liezel Vidallon.
The Mark 38 25mm "Bushmaster" auto-cannon will improve the ship's surface warfare capability.
Surface warfare refers to the capability to detect, engage, and if necessary, sink naval ships or unidentified vessels that may intrude in the country's vast territorial waters.
The secondary 25mm weapons will complement the 76mm Oto Melara main gun and allow the frigates to handle targets coming fast and that are too close for the ship's primary weapon to engage.
The weapon, commissioned by the United States Navy following the terrorist attack on the USS Cole in 2000, was designed to counter high-speed maneuvering surface targets. It will be installed in almost all US surface ships by 2015.
The remotely controlled chain gun system can fire as many as 180 25m rounds per minute at targets as far as two kilometers.

Rafael Advanced Defense Systems is participating at Euronaval, 27-31 October, 2014, Paris, France. At the show, Rafael will showcase a comprehensive suite of naval vessel defense solutions for detection, tracking, interception and neutralization of a variety of threats. Among its defense systems, Rafael will be displaying the following:

The C-Dome Naval Point Defense System is designed to effectively protect combat vessels against a large set of modern threats. C-Dome handles saturation attacks by engaging multiple targets simultaneously. Reaction time is very short and enables automatic and semi-automatic engagements.

The Typhoon MLS-ER, a complete Naval Missile System. The system includes Spike-ER missiles, launchers, an Electro Optical director and a fire control system. The light-weight, stabilized system can be installed on a variety of platforms, ranging from Rigid Hull Inflated Boats (RHIBs) to larger boats and ships. Spike ER is an electro-optically guided multipurpose missile for ranges of up to 8km with pinpoint accuracy.

The SPIKE NLOS, a Non-Line-Of-Sight, High-Impact tactical Missile. Spike NLOS is an electro-optically guided multipurpose missile for ranges of up to 25 km with pinpoint accuracy and midcourse navigation. The weapon system can be launched from land, air and naval platforms.

Equipped with a variety of warheads, a wireless data link to the missile, unique advantages of hitting non-line of sight (NLOS) targets and the ability to switch between targets and abort missions, Spike NLOS can be operated in both offensive and defensive scenarios. In addition to attacking hidden targets, Spike NLOS can provide real-time tactical intelligence and damage assessment.

The Sea Spotter, an advanced Naval IRST system that will enable a naval vessel to automatically locate and pinpoint threats and targets located around it without being exposed to enemy systems.

The system, dubbed Sea Spotter, is a new generation (third generation) infrared staring system that is capable of automatically locating both surface and airborne targets, super-sonic and slow, very small targets above and around the vessel, from horizon to zenith and transferring the data to the ship's combat system for interception.

The Spotlite-M, an advanced electro-optic systems for weapon fire sources Detection Location Classification & Tracking applications. The system incorporates state of the art fully operational day and night passive sensors for Multiple fire sources threats detection. Additional sensors, capabilities and applications can be added as advanced options.

The C-GEM, highly effective against current and new generation anti-ship missiles (ASMs). Modern tracking radar seeker missiles exploit the principle of mono-pulse and Lock-On Receive Only (LORO) techniques to track marine platforms. Many of these radars incorporate chaff identification and discrimination capabilities.

The Croatian Navy has selected Israeli Rafael 30mm Typhoon RWS for its newly built FAC. The patrol boats constructed by local Brodosplit will be capable of 28 kt speed, additionally armed with two 12.7mm HMG and 'tactical missiles'.

The Royal New Zealand Navy's (RNZN's) Otago-class offshore patrol vessels (OPVs), HMNZS Otago and HMNZS Wellington , have completed successful acceptance trials of the Typhoon naval gun system, an RNZN spokesperson told IHS Jane's on 20 August.

The trials were conducted over 11-12 August at an undisclosed location. "The aim of the trials was to verify that the installed Rafael Typhoon Weapon System functions correctly firing live ammunition at a towed target," said Lieutenant Commander Vicki Rendall.

The vessels, formerly armed with the MSI DS 25M Autsig 25 mm gun system as primary weapons, were installed with the Rafael Typhoon 25 mm stabilised naval gun as part of an upgrade programme.