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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 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 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 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).
As 16-inch guns and a companion improved 6-inch gun were emplaced, older weapons were scrapped. About 21 16-inch gun batteries were completed 1941-44, but not all of these were armed. [17] With the war over in 1945, most of the remaining coast defense guns, including the recently emplaced 16-inch weapons, were scrapped by 1948.
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 highest energy shot was with a 3,848-lb projectile fired at 2,508 ft/s (764 m/s) with a maximum pressure of 19.91 tons per square inch. Ultimately, the General Board decided that a 16"/50 cal gun offered the best combination of performance and weight, and the new 16"/50 caliber Mark 7 gun was used by the Iowa-class battleship design. The ...
USS Massachusetts (BB-59) is the third of four South Dakota-class fast battleships built for the United States Navy in the late 1930s. The first American battleships designed after the Washington treaty system began to break down in the mid-1930s, they took advantage of an escalator clause that allowed increasing the main battery to 16-inch (406 mm) guns, but refusal to authorize larger ...