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The lightweight 16-in/50 Mark 7 was designed to resolve this conflict. These guns were 50 calibers long, 50 times their 16-inch (406 mm) bore diameter with barrels 66.7 ft (20.3 m) long, from chamber to muzzle. Each gun weighed about 239,000 lb (108 t) without the breech, and 267,900 lb (121.5 t) with the breech. [1]
An improved weapon, the BL 16-inch Mark II was designed for the Lion-class battleship which was a successor to the King George V class taking advantage of the larger weapon allowed under the London Naval Treaty from March 1938. This "new design" of 16-inch gun fired a shell that weighed 2,375 pounds (1,077 kg).
USS Iowa (BB-61) fires a full broadside volley during a target exercise near Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, 1 July 1984, showing the muzzle blast from its 16 inch main battery and the pressure effect on the water surface surrounding the ship. A muzzle blast is an explosive shockwave created at the muzzle of a firearm during shooting.
The first Iowa-class ship was laid down in June 1940; in their World War II configuration, each of the Iowa-class battleships had a main battery of 16-inch (406 mm) guns that could hit targets nearly 20 statute miles (32 km) away with a variety of artillery shells designed for anti-ship or bombardment work. The secondary battery of 5-inch (127 ...
The two battleships fired 1,182 16-inch shells in support of Gulf War combat operations without mishap. [ 112 ] As part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet , Iowa was berthed at the Naval Education and Training Center in Newport from 24 September 1998 to 8 March 2001, when she began her journey under tow to California .
The primary guns used on these battleships are the nine 16-inch (406 mm)/50-caliber Mark 7 naval guns, a compromise design developed to fit inside the barbettes. These guns fire high explosive- and armor-piercing shells and can fire a 16-inch shell approximately 23.4 nautical miles (43.3 km; 26.9 mi).
The U.S. Navy had the 16"/50-caliber Mark 2 guns left over from the canceled Lexington-class battlecruisers and South Dakota-class battleships of the early 1920s. However it was already apparent that the Mark 2 was too heavy to arm the North Carolina and new South Dakota (1939) battleship classes which had to adhere to the 35,000 ton standard displacement set by the Second London Naval Treaty.
For comparison, the M16 rifle has a muzzle speed of 930 m/s (3,050 ft/s), and the 16-inch/50-caliber Mark 7 gun that armed World War II American battleships has a muzzle speed of 760 m/s (2,490 ft/s), which because of its much greater projectile mass (up to 2,700 pounds) generated a muzzle energy of 360 MJ and a downrange kinetic impact of ...