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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 early main battery fire control consisted of the Fire Control Tower, [7] two Mark 38 Gun Fire Control Systems (GFCS), [8] and fire control equipment located in two of the three turrets. [9] As modernized in the 1980s, each turret carried a DR-810 radar that measured the muzzle velocity of each gun, which made it easier to predict the ...
A week after taking command, Moosally and his executive officer, Mike Fahey, canceled a planned $1 million repair package for Iowa ' s main gun batteries, including repairs to the main gun turrets' lighting, electrical, powder hoists, and hydraulic systems—75 detailed deficiencies in all; instead, the funds were spent on overhauling the ship's powerplant. [10]
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). [ 35 ] [ 36 ] The guns are housed in three 3-gun turrets: two forward of the battleship's superstructure and one aft, in a configuration known as "2-A-1".
The battleship's target was a suspected subterranean staging area for a Viet Cong regiment. New Jersey ' s big guns went to work on the complex, firing 16 inch shells into tunnels and bunkers to aid the ground troops. On 14 February the battleship steamed south of the DMZ to provide support for the 3rd Marine Division, in the process destroying ...
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 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 ...
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).