I’d take one Burke against the German Jutland fleet any day.

Always loved those drills on the Tico, Spruance Destroyers, and FFG’s... one cruise, they even assigned one of the Bushmasters to the Air Det and I was the gunner :D

Those are great man. The paint jobs on the A-6, A-7s, and the F-4s in the third to last F-4 picture are too cool for school.

I am so in love with your picture vomit.

Everyone always forgets the “squared” part.

Fair point that gets lost in the “size of our fleet” arguments. Considering especially the TLAM capabilities and the range of those weapons, a single Tico or a Burke class is far more lethal than the heaviest of WW2 or historic naval ships.

Plus the 100 mile+ range. Energy + range will make it a game changer.

Very clean in. Then the clean ends real fast. The amount of energy imparted on the target structure by a projectile at that speed will be extraordinary.

Yes and no. A solid slug will definitely pass through an object if it is moving fast enough, but it will also depart a lot of kinetic energy. Check out the damage done by a bullet passing through several successive watermelons here:

Pictures of planes on Navy ships...

The 155mm gun on the Zumwalt is already fully automated.

“We” just freed the shit out of some fish.

Did a little quick napkin calculations. The railgun that will be tested at sea this year has a muzzle energy of 33 MJ. The modern 5 inch gun used on US destroyers and cruisers produces 10 MJ. The 16 inch Iowa guns produced over 350 MJ of muzzle energy.

You’re probably underestimating the amount of damage a railgun will do even without an explosive head.

Railguns will definitely be offensive. It would be rare against other ships since missiles have better range, but against shore targets they will be incredibly useful.

Depending on the distance, it would make sense to aim just above the waterline with solid AP rounds. It would create a large exit hole that would be at or below the waterline.

I think it’s not only entirely possible but I would highly suspect the Pentagon and other countries defense departments have these sorts of metrics. I think, though, you have to look at a variety of factors, such as:

Yeah they can be fired manually, and after block 1B upgrade they work as a remote weapons mount for any target within their range really.

I’m now wondering if one could usefully calculate a metric of how efficient a ship is as an armament platform, i.e. weight of broadside (missiles included) vs. displacement, to see how this metric has evolved over time, the question being how this compares with the classic Iowa broadside and the ship that fires it.…

It’s an ethos drummed into the most junior ensign: If God forbid the ship dies, she will not go to the bottom with a full magazine.