Two current issues are the barrel life and projectile cost.Originally Posted by Hambo
Is the Zumwalt the one with the 155mm Guns they never bought ammo for ?
Two current issues are the barrel life and projectile cost.
Is the Zumwalt the one with the 155mm Guns they never bought ammo for ?
I’m going to hold out for the 78X.
Yes. I am not even sure if the guns are usable for anti-surface use. They look lie they can only be angled for very long range bombardment.
The days of broadsides in visual range are long over.
I read detailed accounts of the surface battles near Guadalcanal and what they told me is that surface warfare was a terrible idea then. The odds cannot have gotten better with modern technology.
"Gunfighting is a thinking man's game. So we might want to bring thinking back into it."-MDFA
Beware of my temper, and the dog that I've found...
I read that the Zumwalt guns were not designed for ship to ship usage. The ships also were to carry two 57 mm guns for defense against little vessels and some AA. However, the gun sucked and they substituted two 30 mms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zumwal...Secondary_guns
If some time travel cliche landed one of these near a Fletcher class destroyer in visible gun range, they would be toast. There's a big debate how modern ships could handle in close waters, small boat swarm attacks, light aircraft and drones.
The Israelis have a drone small boat that carries two high tech torpedos. Send a set of them out to a ship close in and OOPS. This is funny because it mirrors the secondary armament debates during the developments of the pre and post dreadnought battleships in the early 1900's. What secondary armament, range and fire control of the main guns were all up for discussion.
The Zumwalts are a waste of money, IMHO. They will tote around 80 missile for an exorbitant price with limited other abilities. The Chinese are building new cruisers while ours are old and new ones just in planning.
The problem is that they may find themselves in a fast breaking situation where the ability to use a pair of 5" or 155mm surface guns against a surface target could be critical.
That looks to be a pretty horrible spot to mount a large turret on a warship- especially one that uses lots and lots of electricity to work.
Edit to add some possible problems:
-It's a long, long, long way from the powerplant. That's a long way to run the massive amount of KW you need to run that thing.
-If the turret is armored, that's a lot of weight to be putting right at the bow.
Last edited by Joe in PNG; 01-04-2019 at 12:46 AM.
"You win 100% of the fights you avoid. If you're not there when it happens, you don't lose." - William Aprill
"I've owned a guitar for 31 years and that sure hasn't made me a musician, let alone an expert. It's made me a guy who owns a guitar."- BBI
It makes sense given the ship. The ship is an old cargo/amphibious delivery ship. I’m guessing the bow opens to a degree allowing easy access to the various internals for engineering purposes.
This gun on this ship is strictly test bed, not combat capable. I suspect that the rail gun is not armored and that this is instead concealment for the internals.
I also suspect that the gun works, but that it is no where near primetime. To be fair, conceptually a railgun is pretty basic. The difficulties are, as we’ve seen, in durability and power generation/delivery. Personally, if we have power generation and delivery down pretty well, we need to get a railgun on a ship. Navy is saying, “We want it combat ready before we mount.” Because you know...nothing ever needed adapting for mounting on a ship or working properly in a marine environment...
They could but that is not what the 155mm guns are for. The Zumwalts were designed as guided missle destroyers with a secondary role of using the 155mm Vertical gun system to provide long range naval gunfire support to land troops via GPS guided shells. The primary surface weapons were guided missles with two 30mm cannon as back up for close range threats.
You are thinking in the past. Think battle of Jutland vs battle of midway. Now go a step beyond midway and add sea/air/ land guided missles to the mix. They work near and far.
It’s a moot point anyway as the three zumwalts are being repurposed and will not use the 155mm gun system. There won’t be any beyond the three already orders.
Reply With Quote