Why Didn't the Navy Use 18in Guns?

Comments · 479

• F-

  @F-Man · 1 year ago

  I’d say that, because you’d have to come up with all new tooling and production methods for the bigger guns, then new ammunition, new powder, or at very least new ways to contain the powder, redesign turrets, redesign hoists inside the turrets, redesign the machinery that elevates the guns, controls recoil, and opens and closes the breeches, likely have to redesign magazine spaces to pack the larger shells more efficiently, and then allocate more power generation to support all of it on a ship - you’re probably looking at designing an entirely new class of ship from the keel up just to gain what would be, by comparison, a marginal gain in penetrative ability over a 16-inch gun.

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• BO

  @BobShalvoy · 1 year ago

  And the 18 inch were thought to have significantly shorter barrel life.

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• CH

  @ChrisSorenson-m6o · 1 year ago (edited)

  We fired an 8-inch gun at the Transonic Range (Aberdeen Proving Ground), the blast overpressure damaged the soffits on the adjacent spark shadowgraph building. Turned the planned effort into a typical "one and done." 😆

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• BI

  @billbaker4519 · 1 year ago

  When they had accuracy problems with the Triple turret closely spaced guns on the Nevada's and the Pennsylvania's, they found firing the center gun at a couple of microseconds behind the outer barrels corrected the accuracy. (whew!)

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• DA

  @davidm.9812 · 1 year ago

  Would be interesting to know what, Willis Lee's thoughts on this topic were, back in the day.

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• WI

  @williambinkley8879 · 11 months ago

  I spent ten years in the navy, from 88-98, I don’t recall ever drinking Gatorade. We did have bug juice, which sailors called the colonel drinks that were similar but definitely different from koolaid. We never called it by a flavor but always by the color, like red or orange. It was also great for cleaning brass.

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• CA

  @cayman9873 · 1 year ago

  45 acp  1911 is actually .451   and I love them

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• GR

  @GrahamCStrouse · 1 year ago

  I’ve been arguing for a while that 41 to 42 cm (roughly 16”-16.5”) was the theoretical useful limit of big naval guns by the time WWII broke out. By the end of the war radar fire control &amp; mechanical engineering had improved to a point where we probably could have solved a lot of the problems with a triple 18” mount by swapping it out for a dual mount with a more substantial magazine size, first salvo accuracy &amp; a faster ROF that could have compensated for most of the issues caused by the loss of three guns.<br><br>A super-heavy two ton 18” shell that could knock anything afloat before or since (including a Yamato) out of action in a a few minutes might have come in handy, but it wasn’t strictly necessary, by this point. <br><br>I would have also been curious how post-war sub-caliber munitions for an 18” gun might have functioned. I reckon a sub-caliber 13” or 11” shell fired from an 18” gun prolly could’ve outrange most missiles into the 1980s. <br><br>Not strictly necessary but definitely intriguing. 😁<br><br>In the end obviously it was possible to go larger than 16” but just because we could’ve isn’t an argument that we should’ve…

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• JD

  @jdfriar · 1 year ago

  Moving the shells. And the increased effect was not necessary.

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• QU

  @quentintin1 · 1 year ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dTNdoCzpec&amp;t=1698">28:18</a><br>but putting the guns closer can have the issue of worsening the dispersion, as the blast of each gun might affect the shells of the immediate neighbor<br>the french found that out during Richelieu&apos;s trials and it was enough an issue to make them reconsider the quadruple turret of their 14.9&quot;, and fit delay coils to the inboard gun of each pair to try and solve the issue<br>according to some, that was a particular issue on guns of a caliber 14&quot; and above, which could explain why they hadn&apos;t found out, or considered the issue after Dunkerque and her 12.9&quot;

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• PE

  @Penguincannon9000 · 1 year ago

  Yeah you probably <i>could</i> put 18 inches on the same barbette, but the 16 inch 50 is already cramped. Shoving an 18 inch gun in that same space probably wouldn&apos;t be a good idea.

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• DA

  @DaveSoCal · 1 year ago

  I was talking to a retired marine colonel who was in Vietnam and I was volunteering on USS Iowa at the time and we got talking about the guns. He wasn’t familiar with the use of “caliber” on the BB guns, I was pretty surprised.

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