henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (04/22/89)
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) >There are projects under way to make the 16"/50's more accurate weapons; >this is done by using reduced caliber rounds (I've heard of 13" shells, >with sabots to make them fit the 16" tube) which use modern terminal >guidance, such as laser homing. An additional benefit is increased >range (I've heard 35 miles, but that's very unofficial). Of course, >you sacrifice explosive filling with the smaller shells. Actually, the whole reason for the reduced caliber is longer range, at the cost of payload. There is no fundamental problem with fitting laser guidance to full-sized 16-inch shells; there was in fact a project to do that quite a while ago (Vietnam era I think), which was abandoned due to the imminent mothballing of the battleships. You have to remember that in wartime, nobody with any brains expects to stand near a target and not get hurt. 16-inch shells may not be strikingly accurate, but it only takes a few hits. If I'm recalling occasion and numbers correctly, in the Battle of the Surigao Strait (WW2), the US ships fired 75 shells at one Japanese battleship, of which only 9 hit. But after those 9 hits, the Japanese battleship was sinking in pieces. Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu