Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun

Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60
British Bofors 40 mm L/60 on Mk VII naval mounting, Priddy's Hard, Gosport, United Kingdom
Type	Autocannon
Place of origin	Sweden
Service history
In service	1934–present
Used by	See Users
Wars	See Wars
Production history
Designer	AB Bofors
Designed	1930
Manufacturer	Bofors Defence (1932–2000) Zastava Arms (1970–present) Gun Carriage Factory Jabalpur (1960-present) United Defense Industries (2000–2006) BAE Systems AB (2006–present)
Produced	1932–present
No. built	>60,000 (L/60)[1]
Variants	See variants
Specifications (L/60)
Barrel length	2.25 m (7 ft 5 in)
Crew	4[2] (dependent on use)
Shell	40 × 311 mm R
Shell weight	0.9 kg (2 lb 0 oz)
Caliber	40 mm
Barrels	1 or 2[2]
Action	Automatic extraction and integrated cam-operated recoil powered autoloader
Breech	Vertical sliding-wedge
Carriage	522 kg (1,151 lb)
Elevation	−5°/+90°, 55°/s
Traverse	Full 360°, 50°/s
Rate of fire	140 round/min at low elevation angles 120 round/min at high elevation angles
Muzzle velocity	850–880 m/s (2,800–2,900 ft/s)[a]
Maximum firing range	7,160 m (23,490 ft)

The Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60 (often referred to simply as the "Bofors 40 mm gun", the "Bofors gun" and the like,^[3][4] see name) is an anti-aircraft autocannon, designed in the 1930s by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors. The gun was designed as an intermediate anti-aircraft gun, filling the gap between fast firing close-range small calibre anti-aircraft guns and slower firing long-range high calibre anti-aircraft guns. For its time, the Bofors 40 mm L/60 was perfectly suited for this role and outperformed competing designs in the years leading up to World War II in both effectiveness and reliability.^[5][3]

It entered the export market around 1932^[5] and was in service with 18 countries by 1939.^[6] Throughout World War II it became one of the most popular and widespread medium-weight anti-aircraft guns. It was used by the majority of the western Allies and some Axis powers such as Nazi Germany and Hungary.

In the post-war era, the Bofors 40 mm L/60 design was not suitable for action against jet-powered aircraft, so Bofors developed a new 40 mm replacement design with significantly more power — the Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/70, also known under the generic name 'Bofors 40 mm gun' — which was adopted by many nations during the Cold War and was selected as NATO-standard in November 1953.^[7] The Bofors 40 mm L/60 would however continue to see service long after becoming obsolete as an anti-aircraft weapon due to the massive number of surplus guns from WWII, and a small number of Bofors 40 mm L/60 guns remain in service today. Some weapons saw action as late as the Gulf War and Yugoslav Wars.

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