Re: Naval Gunfire Question
- From: dg411@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Andre Lieven)
- Date: 27 Mar 2006 04:16:41 GMT
"TOliver" (toliverjrFIX@xxxxxxxxxx) writes:
"Brad Meyer" <bradm110@xxxxxxxxx> wrote ...
On Sat, 25 Mar 2006 08:05:07 -0800, "a425couple"
<a425couple@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Advantages against a symmetric force certainly seem present.During the early stages of Viet Nam, the USS Longbeach was rather
Seems like there are some disadvantages against a
close in small target.
hurriedly fitted with a pair of 5 inch (54s IIRC) after being
essentially chased around the Gulf of Tonkin by some MTBs and they
sudenly realized that they had nothing in their weapons suite between
Terrier and rifles.
LONG BEACH was fitted with a pair of 5"/38 ("open mounts".
Wrong. You may be thinking of the open 5 inch mounts fitted to the CG
Albany class rebuilds, but the Long Beach got two enclosed 5/38 mounts,
same as the Fletcher and Brooke/Garcia classes carried.
IIRC, from the
deck edge sponsons of an ESSEX class CV losing 4 of her 8 in overhaul)
Ibid.
long
before the time inquestion.....(the threat of small attack craft already
becomoing a factor in the Summer of 1962 in the Med, and LB wasa LANTFLT
unit at the time). Nor was any "cahse" in the GoT the cause of any
weapons additions, nor, come to think of it, was there such a chse, at
least not in her deck logs, a place along with the media in which one
might have appeared, and even more likely, LB never ventured too close
to the coast in the GoT, since her BFR ("Big F*cking Radar") became an
even more marginal asset when adding the element of land-clutter
Indeed. In the 1960s, the USN was lousy with destroyer type ships
with more than 2 5 inch guns, and which would be far handier in
coastal waters than a 14,000 nuke.
OTOH the USN has always shown itself adept at modifying what it has to
match it requirements. For instace the conversion of PT boats in the
Solomons to "barge hunters" by the removal of two torpedo tubes and
the addition of several more guns. They are currently modifying their
Burkes "on the fly" for small surface target hunting and arming the
Great Lakes cutters. I wouldn't be surprised to see the USN adopt some
sort of medium Coast Guard Cutter platform to modify as required
specifically for such coastal work.
Well, we did a bunch of that in SEA (and learned that the little cutters,
along with being long in the tooth, were under-gunned for the mission).
The BURKEs have had an anti-small craft operational role since day 1 of
their development process, and at various times were scheduled to receive
all sorts of ancient and magical weapons designed to complement the task.
The ancients, .50M2, are with us always. The magical variety alter with
the ability of contractors to produce devices which live up to their
optimistic prognostications and can be maintained by simple souls in
maritme environments.
Indeed. It might even be said that the RN had a fair appreciation of
this less than total war naval task, as most of their 60s built
destroyers and frigates carried a pair of 20MM mounts.
Andre
.
- References:
- Naval Gunfire Question
- From: a425couple
- Re: Naval Gunfire Question
- From: Brad Meyer
- Re: Naval Gunfire Question
- From: TOliver
- Naval Gunfire Question
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