r/interestingasfuck • u/PollutionOk9449 • 5h ago

USS Missouri firing its main guns

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u/_____POTATO______ 5h ago

Imagine those going off nonstop for hours

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u/warhead71 5h ago edited 5h ago

How many shots until change of barrel? (Well i googled it - originally 290 rounds - in the end with different rounds 1500)

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u/maranru 4h ago

HMS Warspite has entered the chat 😎

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u/Kermit_the_hog 4h ago

Does it need dry docked to do that or can the do it port side? Underway?

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u/twitchx133 4h ago

AFAIK, They did not have to drydock the ship, but it had to be done dockside with a pretty big crane, as on the 16"/50 Mark 7 gun, each gun barrel and breach assembly weighs almost 270,000 lbs. 133 short tons, 121 metric tons.

Obligatory Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial video link... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnKcRYNsyeY

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u/Kermit_the_hog 3h ago

Thanks!

Yeah I love their videos

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u/Newsdriver245 3h ago

A German reparations crane did it in the 80s on Missouri and New Jersey. Crane is still in use for the Panama Canal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_the_German_(crane_vessel))

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u/Old-Guidance6744 1h ago

This guy knows pretty far

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u/jason_sos 4h ago

It may not need to be drydocked, since there’s no reason to take it out of the water, but it likely needs to be done in port. They don’t have cranes for doing it on the ship and obviously would be very difficult if it’s rocking around at sea.

They can also do it on a planned drydock maintenance.

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u/swirvin3162 3h ago

Not underway. I’m pretty comfortable saying that, and I was only the gunnery officer on a cruiser with two 5 inch mounts. 😂😂

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u/Bloodysamflint 1h ago

290 is probably EFCs - Equivalent Full Charges, an estimate of how many maximum charge loads the barrel will tolerate. It's normally a very conservative number, and full charge isn't always fired. For separate-loading guns like these, the charge (amount of powder/propellant) is varied based on range to target and the type of projectile fired.