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[5] Complementing the 16-in/50 caliber Mark 7 gun was a fire control computer, the Ford Instrument Company Mark 8 Range Keeper. This analog computer was used to direct the fire from the battleship's big guns, taking into account factors including the speed of the targeted ship, the projectile's travel time, and air resistance.
The amount of gun elevation needed to project a 5-inch (127 mm) shell 9 nmi (17 km) is different than the elevation needed to project a 16-inch shell the same distance. The ballistics calculations in these mechanical analog computers were performed by mechanisms like differential gears, levers, and small rods riding on the surface of three ...
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.
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 first US Navy 16-inch gun was the 16-inch/45 caliber Mark 1 gun, which armed the Colorado-class battleships launched 1920–21. [ 5 ] [ 6 ] The second Navy design, the Mark 2, was intended as armament for the planned South Dakota -class battleships , and also selected for the modified design of the Lexington -class battlecruisers ...
The belt armor was a much more intractable problem; the 16-inch gun could penetrate 13.5 inches (340 mm) of plate, the thickest in an American battleship at the time, even at 25,000 yd (23,000 m). To proof the ship against her own armament—a characteristic known as "balanced armor"—the main belt would have to be increased to 15.5 in (390 mm ...
88 mm (3.5 in) 8.8 cm SK C/31 naval gun Nazi Germany: World War II 88 mm (3.5 in) 8.8 cm SK C/32 naval gun Nazi Germany: World War II 88 mm (3.5 in) 8.8 cm SK C/35 naval gun Nazi Germany: World War II 88 mm (3.5 in) Bofors 8,8 cm naval anti air gun L/45 Sweden: Interwar - World War II 90 mm (3.5 in) Canon de 90 mm Modèle 1926 France
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 .