At the Allentsteig military training area last week, the midshipmen of the 3rd year of the air defense training group at the Theresian Military Academy and the participants of the current cadre candidate training 2/air defense completed a live air target shooting with the 35-millimeter twin anti-aircraft gun 85.
The exercise was conducted under the direction of the Air Defence Institute of the Air Force and Air Defence Troop School and involved both individual firing and combined fire: two 35-millimeter twin cannons were coordinated by the 98 Skyguard fire control unit.
While the cadre candidates acted as gunners at the guns, the midshipmen took on the role of fire control officer in the system.
Proven technology, modern requirements
The roots of the system go back to the 1950s, when the Swiss company Oerlikon-Bührle developed a twin 35-millimetre rifled anti-aircraft gun. The first prototype was produced as early as 1959, and the production-ready model was given the designation GDF-001. army introduced the system in the improved version GDF-002 and as early as 1985 a comprehensive combat upgrade to the GDF-005 version took place – with modern sights, laser rangefinder, digital fire control computer, generator and automatic loader.
The Austrian Armed Forces’ air defense force currently has twelve such systems, each consisting of two cannons and a Skyguard 98 fire control unit. As part of the “Mission Forward”, these will now be replaced by Rheinmetall Air Defense (successor to Oerlikon-Bührle) modernized to the GDF-009 version and thus also optimized for engaging small targets such as drones.
In future, the radar control will be integrated directly into the guns and the guns will be equipped for the use of so-called Ahead-Muntion (-> How does Ahead ammunition work?) will be enabled. This is ammunition with a so-called fragmentation charge, which is distributed over the target in a fan-shaped pattern and engages approaching targets with a projectile cloud.
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