The French Navy has adopted the CTAI 50mm cased-telescoped automatic cannon system as a point defence weapon, as reported by defense-aerospace.com:

RAPIDFire incorporates the new reference medium calibre 40 mm gun developed by CTAI, the international subsidiary of Nexter Systems and BAE Systems. The system is compatible with the full range of ammunitions developed for land forces programmes and is predisposed to the use of future ammunition as the smart Anti Aerial Airburst (A3B) round.

Nexter and Thales formed a temporary consortium for RAPIDFire as part of a work programme and roadmap put in place 10 years ago. The programme is currently in the development phase. When development is complete, the weapon systems will enter production, and the first delivery is scheduled for 2022.

An interesting choice given that the RN has recently selected the Bofors Mk 4, which has a similar range of capabilities.

autogun said:

An interesting choice given that the RN has recently selected the Bofors Mk 4, which has a similar range of capabilities.

My sense is that BAE had a lot of control over the armament selection for the Type 31. While BAE is a partner on the CTAI gun, they own the Bofors gun "lock, stock, and barrel" as it were.  Opting for the Bofors Mk 4 keeps the whole effort (and profit) in-house.   Plus, the Mk 4 is a proven system with multiple other sales already (Sweden, Finland, Brazil) so no real development effort required at this point.  RAPIDFire is a new system  with the teething trouble that could bring with it.

Sounds very plausible.

Very interesting, is this envisioned with an emphasis on small boat defense outside of the arc of main armament,  or replacing CIWS for missile defense?


 

Refleks said:

Very interesting, is this envisioned with an emphasis on small boat defense outside of the arc of main armament,  or replacing CIWS for missile defense?

With most anti ship missiles being supersonic,  the old dumb penetrators will not be enough. Even 40 mm might be too small to carry a guided projectile.

The Thales marketing video for Rapidfire shows it engaging only small boats and slow UAVs. The marketing text does talk about the ability to engage cruise missiles as well, but it doesn't seem like it's designed as a full-blown CIWS like Phalanx. 

https://youtu.be/LCFWUFWh3Io

Interestingly, the initial announcement of this system a few years ago included the option to mount up to six Starstreak missiles on the turret.

http://www.defense-aerospace.com/cgi-bin/client/modele.pl?shop=dae&modele=release&prod=135913&cat=3

I must admit my current favourite backup gun is the 30mm SeaSnake. 1000rpm, ABM. Good backup against small boats and UAV and is toted by the manufacturer as a CIWS. Not as good as Millennium, but in the presence of Sea Ceptor, it's what I'd use. 4 of them, one on each corner.

I see from the Rheinmetall website that 30mm SeaSnake uses a KCE revolver cannon. I presume that this is the KCA modified to fire percussion-primed 30 x 173 ammunition. I know what the KCA, KCB and KCC are, but I've never seen mention of a KCD. Possibly RWM skipped over that number in order to match the 20 x 128 KAE? Anyone know any more?

The only reference that I can find for KCE is the SeaSnake brochure on the website. I was going to ask you when I got around to it...

A little Google snooping turned up one other reference, an engineer's biography on LinkedIn. 

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/simonthomefoster

He refers to it as a "new development 30mm cannon," which kind of sounds like it's not just a tweaked KCA.  But resumes aren't notoriously accurate about such things and he was only involved for a few months.