Quote:
Originally Posted by Hatterasguy
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Iowa 16" gun stats:
http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_16-50_mk7.htm
Iowa 16" gun Config/Ops Manual:
http://www.eugeneleeslover.com/AMMUNITION/NAVORD-OP-769-TITLE-AND-FORWARD.html
Excellent stuff!........Here's more oldie but goodie Navy tech stuff.
This is 1960-1990 technology. This stuff has been superceded, but is excellent, especially the gun.
- The missiles were Terrier, air range up to 50 miles.
- The missle control panel loads the horizontal magazines (same as a revolver) onto the launcher rails in the beginning of the video.
- (blue is a dummy missle)
- Later in the video , the 5" 54 Cal Mk 42 gun is fired (5 inch in diameter).
- It shows the automated bullet handling equipment loading three bullets and powders before the shooting occurs.
- The 5" bullet weighs 72 lbs, powder was 40 lbs. The gun was capable of shooting 42 rounds a minute when they first came out!
The Navy beat the crap out of these guns in Vietnam attempting to justify the rapid firing concept. However it wasn't practical.
At 42 rounds a minute, the gun never lasted more than a couple minutes before developing a problem.
More realistically it only fired for about 15-20 seconds. Although the problem was usually quickly resolved, the load on equipment and manpower wasn't a viable reason to keep them. Cold/hot/shock alignment variables, hydraulic fluid temp and hydraulic pressure changes made it unrealistic.
The super tight mechanical tolerances don't work the same in Adak Alaska (20F, 90% humidity) and the Indian ocean (90F, 20% humidity). An expert could make these guns sing, but they were few and far between...and unappreciated!.....By the time they became experts they (for practical reasons) morphed political.
I have heard rumors of a Navy video of a Forest Sherman class destroyer, with three of these guns onboard, shooting all three rapid fire for 90 seconds before a problem developed in one of the guns. 120 rounds a minute.
+- 10 yard accuracy at 18,000 yards !!!
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For comparision here's a modern version of the same gun (about half the speed of it's predecessor)
Keep in mind the older gun was twice as fast as this one and each bullet is 70+ lbs.
After each shot the remains of the 40 lbs aluminum powder case is ejected.
The dark mat on the deck is supposed to be a landing area for the ejected empty powder cases but they all seem to miss.