Last use for SL SD captured

Theemile wrote:Now, the real question is how many 11,12,14, and 15" gun parts and ammo are sitting in those warehouses and bunkers? While there is still obstensively a reason to have the 16" stuff around, you know the same thinking squirled away the older gun types along with them.

robert132 wrote:

Theemile wrote:Now, the real question is how many 11,12,14, and 15" gun parts and ammo are sitting in those warehouses and bunkers? While there is still obstensively a reason to have the 16" stuff around, you know the same thinking squirled away the older gun types along with them.

It would be interesting to find out. The US alone produced a huge number of these weapons.

Guns of that size weren't only used shipboard, many were mounted in coastal batteries and were swapped periodically with spares for the shipboard rifles of the same caliber and mark, though to my knowledge none of the MK-7 16" were ever used for anything other than shipboard service in the Iowa and cancelled Montana classes. 11, 12, and 14" were however and almost never stayed with the same ship or battery throughout their service lives. Some saw service as USN railway guns in Europe during WWI.

Bits of trivia; at least one 14" rifle that was sunk in USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor was recovered, refurbished and spoke in anger from USS Nevada at Normandy and others were utilized in other battlewagons. Turrets #3 and #4 from Arizona were recovered and mounted as short emplacements on Oahu but never saw combat.

Theemile wrote:If the sources I found are correct the Navy held onto 50 spare Mk 2 & 3 16" guns (built for the original South Dakota and Lexington classes in the early 20's) until the Iowa fiasco forced the design of the new mk7 guns in the late 1930s. they gave these to the Army at that time and they were turned into coastal batteries, so the Mk 7 was never used in a battery.

robert132 wrote:

Theemile wrote:Now, the real question is how many 11,12,14, and 15" gun parts and ammo are sitting in those warehouses and bunkers? While there is still obstensively a reason to have the 16" stuff around, you know the same thinking squirled away the older gun types along with them.

It would be interesting to find out. The US alone produced a huge number of these weapons.

Guns of that size weren't only used shipboard, many were mounted in coastal batteries and were swapped periodically with spares for the shipboard rifles of the same caliber and mark, though to my knowledge none of the MK-7 16" were ever used for anything other than shipboard service in the Iowa and cancelled Montana classes. 11, 12, and 14" were however and almost never stayed with the same ship or battery throughout their service lives. Some saw service as USN railway guns in Europe during WWI.

Bits of trivia; at least one 14" rifle that was sunk in USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor was recovered, refurbished and spoke in anger from USS Nevada at Normandy and others were utilized in other battlewagons. Turrets #3 and #4 from Arizona were recovered and mounted as short emplacements on Oahu but never saw combat.

saber964 wrote:
Hears a fun fact the U.S. memorial fleet is one of the most powerful fleets in the world.

Jonathan_S wrote:

saber964 wrote:
Hears a fun fact the U.S. memorial fleet is one of the most powerful fleets in the world.

Kind of like the fun fact that IIRC the 2nd most powerful carrier airforce in the world is the US Marine Corp.

(Carefully phrased because they don't operate their own carriers; though the LHAs and LHDs their VTOL planes and choppers fly off of would pass for carriers in most other navies)

saber964 wrote:
The USN has never commissioned any battleships with 11 and 15 inch guns. As to the rest there is one 14 inch battleship left USS Texas (BB-35). The last 12 inch gunned ships were the Alaska class large cruisers and the Wyoming class battleship and the last 14 inch battleship was the Mississippi class.

Hears a fun fact the U.S. memorial fleet is one of the most powerful fleets in the world. IIRC it contains

5 CV
8 BB
1 CA
1 CLG
1 ACR
2 SSN
20 SS
20-30 DD/G

robert132 wrote:Wait, I knew Nautilus was preserved (embedded in concrete,) which is the other preserved SSN?

Jonathan_S wrote:

robert132 wrote:Wait, I knew Nautilus was preserved (embedded in concrete,) which is the other preserved SSN?

I wonder if robert132 was mistaken about that -- I went through the list of museum ships on Wikipedia and the only 2 nuclear ones I saw in the US were the USS Nautilus and the NS Savannah.

[Unless you want to count the sail of the SSBN-636 USS Nathanael Greene; which on display alongside the Trident turning basin at Port Canaveral, FL. Wiki didn't list that one ]


Sorry I thought that USS Triton was preserved. When only her sail was.


Also somehow I'd never stumbled across the fact that there are a couple of ex-Soviet Foxtrot class subs on display in the US.