The harder the fighting, the more the army relies on artillery. It would seem, what does the fleet have to do with it?
But with that. The stationary carriage and the absence of strict weight and size restrictions due to the size of the carrier (ship) provide the ship's guns with absolute priority.
Due to the lack of need for transportation on roads and rough terrain, naval artillery systems are not at all like the short-barreled howitzers of the ground forces. Their barrels reach 60 calibers in length (more than ten meters!), Hence the high muzzle velocity of the shells.
Multi-hundred-kilogram “blanks” fly faster than rifle bullets. At a distance unattainable for land guns.
To assess the scale of the cataclysm, read how many problems the project to lengthen the barrel of the American M777 howitzer from the standard 39 to only 52-56 calibers caused. Two additional meters of the M777ER immediately raised the question of transporting the new system.
Further more.
Automated ammo rack. Powerful electro and hydraulic drives in guidance systems. Unlimited supply of cooler (seawater).
All this is a multiply high density of fire.
The rate of fire of six-inch land howitzers does not exceed 2-3 rds / min (for a short time, by a trained crew - up to 5 rds / min).
Back in the years of the Second World War, naval artillery systems were created, capable of “spitting out” hot steel at a rate of 12 rds / min. This was the technical mode of fire for the guns of the cruiser "Des Moines". Little depended on the training of the calculations themselves, all operations were performed automatically.
It is worth considering that the eight-inch shells were more than twice as heavy as the aforementioned six-inch shells. 118 versus 50 kg!
Only a couple of such cannons had a firepower greater than that of an entire artillery battalion. As part of two batteries, four howitzers each (8 guns).
Another advantage is ammunition. In the ship's artillery cellar, several wagons of shells were kept ready for use. Needless to say, how much ship art is superior in this parameter to land batteries (gentlemen, artillerymen, how many is the rate of shots for each gun?)
And how does this affect the duration of the shelling.
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So, we have seen what power is contained in the barrels of the ship's guns. Range, rate of fire, power - a ferocious cocktail!
Another interesting example. During the war years, the Luftwaffe did not have 100-kg bombs. It was believed that a 50 kg "Betty" (SC 50) containing approximately 25 kg of explosives was sufficient to defeat most targets on the battlefield and in urban areas.
The next caliber after 50 kg was immediately 250 kg "Ursel", which was used against serious fortifications and large objects. And if there was not enough of it, a thick 500-kg "Gerda" would fall from the sky.
Unfortunately, there is no reason to doubt the sobriety of the fascist calculations. The Betty's fighters and dive bombers did an immense amount of damage.
What does this mean in terms of the issue of naval artillery?
If the Germans in most cases had enough 50-kg bombs, then 118-kg shells today should be enough for the eyes. Or, as a colleague of EvilLion correctly put it:
A caliber of 203 mm or more already allows you to go beyond the projected resistance of 99% of land objects and throw something comparable in power to aircraft bombs.
Smaller oddsfilling old shells (8, 21% versus 50% for the SC50 aerial bomb) is compensated for by a twice as large mass (118 kg), as well as half a century of progress in the field of creating ammunition and explosives.
The filling ratio of modern high-explosive fragmentation projectiles can exceed 20%, for example, the 47-kilogram six-inch M795 contains almost 11 kg of explosives.
Taking into account the properties of modern plastic explosives, the bursting power will sharply exceed that of the German "Betty". Plus the kinetic energy of a supersonic projectile, which allows you to break through an obstacle and explode inside the structure. With the formation of a huge number of massive fragments.
Alles kaput.
As for bunkers and other hard-to-hit objects, against which aerial bombs weighing over 250 kg were required.
Now no one will design cannons capable of firing shells of such a mass. It already makes sense to launch Caliber against the bunker.
Artillery - to aid aviation and cruise missiles.
For solving a certain range of tasks in which the best qualities of the gun are realized.
They have been spoken about many times.
Projectiles are invulnerable to AA defenses. Cannons shoot through the areas covered by any "Shells" and S-400 with impunity.
A small projectile is almost impossible to shoot down, and if it is shot down, the next one will arrive in a second.
It is worth recalling that the loss of one squadron of modern aircraft is equivalent in cost to the loss of a destroyer.
And tactical cruise missiles, no matter how smart they are, have a subsonic flight speed and are very vulnerable to anti-aircraft weapons. In terms of cost, they are also not sugar: the cost of a salvo of two dozen "Calibers" is equivalent to the Su-35 fighter.
Projectiles save pilots time, money and lives.
Other benefits of artillery include:
- Minimum reaction time, supersonic projectile flight speed.
From the moment of receiving the request to the first shot of the naval artillery, no more than 2.5 minutes should pass.
- Ballistic trajectory and harsh calculation. The concept of horizontal visibility has no meaning.
The cannons shoot at the indicated coordinates through the continuous mist from the smoke of burning tires and oil wells, through sandstorms and fog.
“The problem with aiming through the clouds has not been fully resolved; there is no guarantee of air strikes in difficult weather conditions."
