The 155mm AGS is less than three years from Initial Operational Capability. Any new technology has risk, but since it would take a few years to build a battleship anyway (and it is a dream project anyway), I figured you might as well go for the gold:) Working at a COCOM staff, I can tell you that being able to delivery firepower in just enough quantities is much more important in today's warfare than gross overkill. It is simply unacceptable to level a city block to take out a machine gun nest, so for a BBs firepower to be useful, it would need to be scaleable to an extent much greater than in the past. A 7.62 and a 5.56 round are still both designed to kill a person, but a BB shell should be scaled to kill maybe one person, or a whole lot.
MV^2 will take care of the difference in shell mass. Modern propellents (or electromagnatism) can get a small shell at hyper velocities with post barrel boost (rocket assist). Bigger generally is better, but it is generally easier to make small seem bigger than to make big have a small effect, which is required in modern warfare. Bigger gun also mean much bigger space and weight for the gun, more recoil, and more big moving parts, and a launcher that is harder to armor.
Electric drive will be used on DDG-1000. It has been previously used on BBs in the past, as well as the Lexington class (CV2). Not really a new concept, but much better technology available today. Projected weapons and sensors simply require a huge electrical load, so an all electric ship could take advantage of shifting unneeded propulsive power to other systems without having too many engines. Elimination of propellor shafts are also big benifits to internal space and damage control. The Queen Mary 2 already uses these drives in service, the technology is not unproven, and it is fuel efficient (if the ship is not nuclear).
MV^2 will take care of the difference in shell mass. Modern propellents (or electromagnatism) can get a small shell at hyper velocities with post barrel boost (rocket assist). Bigger generally is better, but it is generally easier to make small seem bigger than to make big have a small effect, which is required in modern warfare. Bigger gun also mean much bigger space and weight for the gun, more recoil, and more big moving parts, and a launcher that is harder to armor.
Electric drive will be used on DDG-1000. It has been previously used on BBs in the past, as well as the Lexington class (CV2). Not really a new concept, but much better technology available today. Projected weapons and sensors simply require a huge electrical load, so an all electric ship could take advantage of shifting unneeded propulsive power to other systems without having too many engines. Elimination of propellor shafts are also big benifits to internal space and damage control. The Queen Mary 2 already uses these drives in service, the technology is not unproven, and it is fuel efficient (if the ship is not nuclear).
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