16 Inch Naval Gun
A battleship mounted gun with 16" (15.9"-16.1") diameter shells. More modern examples are 45 to 50 calibers in length. The 16" Naval Gun is almost unparalleled in firepower for modern naval warfare, being capable of delivering more explosive than missiles, more rapidly than missiles, and less expensively than missiles, all with higher penetration and less chance of interdiction. Without a MTHELS type weapon, there is no chance of stopping the shell. Against modern ships, few conventional weapons are as devastating as the old heavy guns against which they are practically unarmored; there are, of course, limits on the range and accuracy of guns. Other examined types include the 18 Inch Naval Gun, 12 Inch Naval Gun, and 5 Inch Naval Gun.
In Real Life Detail: The 16" / 50-Caliber Gun
The Mark 7 16-inch/50-caliber gun was the primary armament of the IOWA-class battleships. The IOWA class are the only battleships to mount this weapon which is a considerable improvement over the 16in/45cal guns mounted in the North Carolina and South Dakota classes. The Mark 7 gun fires two basic rounds, a 2,700 pound "super-heavy" APC (Armor Piercing Cap), which can penetrate up to 30 feet of concrete, and a 1,900 pound HC (High Capacity) shore bombardment projectile. The "super-heavy" APC round was developed after the gun saw deployment; previous to this, the 16"/50 gun used 2240 pound APC shells, much like previous 16"/45 models, which could not handle the 2700 pound APC shell. A third type of shell built, but probably never deployed was the W23 Katie nuclear projectile. It had a yield of 15-20 kliotons, and weighed 1900lbs.
The silk bags of propellant and the projectiles are elevatored to this room from the powder magazines and the shell decks below and then loaded into the gun in the gun room. To fire it, the gunner and his numerous mates complete a carefully choreographed sequence of events, first sliding the projectile into the breech, then gingerly placing the cylindrical silk bags of black powder, then ratcheting the breech shut; the experience of the loading crew has a strong bearing on the rate of fire possible. An ominous red stripe on the wall of the turret just inches from the railing marks the boundary of the gun's recoil. With the possible exceptions of the more powerful 16"/50 Soviet gun (built for the Sovietskii Soyuz and eventually used as a heavy land artillery piece) and the 18.1"/45 guns of the Yamato class, the 16"/50 mk 7 is generally considered the finest heavy naval gun to see combat. It certainly had the best built shells of any battleship main gun, and in the end saw the most use.
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