holly@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Joe Hollingsworth) (05/26/89)
From: Joe Hollingsworth <holly@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
I tried submitting this a while back when the Iowa was more of a
hot (pardon the pun) topic, but it got lost in the mail.
Out of all the articles submitted to this newsgroup (that I read,
which is just a subset of all "Iowa articles"), only a few people
mentioned anything about its mission, and these were just in passing.
What are the primary and secondary missions of an Iowa class ship?
Thanks,
Joe
Joe Hollingsworth Computer and Information Science @ OSU
holly@cis.ohio-state.edu or ...!{att,pyramid,killer}!cis.ohio-state.edu!hollywelty@Lewis.crd.ge.com (Richard P. Welty) (05/31/89)
From: Richard P. Welty <welty@Lewis.crd.ge.com> From: Joe Hollingsworth <holly@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> >Out of all the articles submitted to this newsgroup (that I read, >which is just a subset of all "Iowa articles"), only a few people >mentioned anything about its mission, and these were just in passing. >What are the primary and secondary missions of an Iowa class ship? well, when they were designed, the primary mission was surface gunfire actions against similarly equipped enemy ships, and the (very) secondary mission was shore bombardment. in wwii, the missions varied ... they served as AA platforms in carrier groups, the earlier fast battleships (Washington, South Dakota, etc.) fought in surface night actions, and occasional shore bombardment (the principal shore bombardment vessels were the older wwi-vintage battleships, as their ca. 21knot speed rendered them too slow to operate with the fast carriers or against the somewhat faster wwi-vintage japanese battleships and battlecruisers.) in the korean and vietnamese wars, they served strictly as shore bombardment vessels -- New Jersey's guns could reach 80% of the combined land mass of North and South Vietnam. in the current reactivation, they primarily serve as shore bombardment vessels, but also now carry Tomahawk cruise missiles (they certainly carry the anti-ship version of Tomahawk, and you'll never get a clear statement from the Navy on whether or not they carry the nuclear version) and Harpoon medium-range anti-ship missiles. in their current form, the Iowas depend on other units to provide AA defence, although they do retain 6 of their 5-inch dual mount dual purpose turrets, although i have no idea of how effective these guns would be under current conditions. also, the Iowas do carry 4 Phalanx CIWS mounts. richard -- richard welty welty@lewis.crd.ge.com welty@algol.crd.ge.com 518-387-6346, GE R&D, K1-5C39, Niskayuna, New York ``but officer, i was only speeding so i'd get home before i ran out of gas''