On Aug 17, 3:42*pm, Wayne.B wrote:
On Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:52:31 +0100, Andy Champ
wrote:



Wayne.B wrote:
On Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:02:15 +0100, Andy Champ
wrote:

Reagan recommissioned a couple of battleships. *While it seemed crazy
they performed very well for shore bombardment duties.

It was crazy. *They performed well for a battleship but not compared
to modern precision guided munitions. *Accuracy at typical range was
something like plus or minus 400 feet, close enough to scare your
target but not necessarily destroy it.

Odd, I thought I recalled them being used a cruise missile launchers
among other things...

They might have had some cruise missles also but that was secondary to
the big battleship guns. * A battleship is a very inefficient platform
for launching missles since the historical advantages were heavily
armored hulls and massive artillery, none of which is required for
missle launching since it can be safely done from hundreds of miles
away. * Cruise missles have an accuracy of about 10 feet or better vs
maybe 400 ft for a battleship's guns on a good day.


Nah, the battleship guns were quite accurate... many times in WW2 they
could blow open shore fortifications quicker & easier (and with a lot
less risk) than an attack bomber. It's been recorded that many ships
not only hit the target with great accuracy but then put another shell
thru the same hole. And that was with 60+ year old technology.
Nowadays they track the shell in-flight with the SPY-1 radar & AEGIS
system.... no need for forward observers.

Another point... 16" shells are relatively cheap & a battleship holds
a LOT (iirc the lower magazines can carry 800 per turret). It's a very
efficient fighting platform, especially considering the survivability.
Suicide bombers can blow themselves up against the side of the hull, a-
la Cole, all day every day.

The reason why the battleships are history is that they are out of gun
barrels. They had a huge stockpile of 16/45 gun tubes left over from
WW2 but nobody can make them any more. I think the USS IOWA & her
sisters are officially retired and placed as memorials, but the
machinery is still under nitrogen blankets, so they might just be able
to be recalled.

Regards- Doug King ...ex-BT1(SW)