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Originally Posted by HKDan
Rusty Battleship,
Earlier you mentioned ships in the gulf mounting 25mm chain guns. Do you have any idea about the possibility of replacing the .50 cal mounts on the LCS with those? One of the biggest reasons that I would like to see CIWS on the LCS is the small boat threat. If the .50 cal mounts could be replaced with somthing bigger and with greater range, it might go a long way towards addressing that threat. Of course, I would prefer CIWS for performance against a wider range of threats, but just wondering.
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There were too few 25 mm Chain Guns to go around and mount port and stbd on EVERY ship. So as a ship came back from risky areas, its guns would be taken off and put on another ship.
This was a bit aggravating as the foundation for those guns was of pretty fair size and welded to the deck. And IT had to be cut off also.
But all ships also had mounts for the good ole' "Mah Deuce". Perhaps the best all around heavy caliber machine gun ever made. Even the Battleships had simple mounts for them in at least 2 places port and 2 places stbd.
What makes the .50 caliber so versitile is it's variety of ammunition. It can fire anything from common ball to Mk 211 Armor Piercing/Incendiary.
As an example of its popularity, we captured an Iranian gunboat back in post Shah era. It was a Swedish made fiberglass boat powered by twin Volvo-Pinta inboard/outboard engines (I had to design foundation reinforcements for them). The boat was originally found drifting with a dead crew (air strike score) and mounting a Russian 25 mm AA gun. Our Special Ops boys that took over the boat changed that out to the .50 caliber M2 Browning real quick.