BB's participating in a Sinkex

[Pacfanweb]

Did it ever happen, particularly with any of the fast BB's participating? If so, is there any footage? I've searched and only found video of BB's shooting, but none of their targets and the results.

I'd love to see an Iowa shooting at a real, floating target, and even better if there was a helo or plane nearby to record the results.

[RustyBattleship]

Did it ever happen, particularly with any of the fast BB's participating? If so, is there any footage? I've searched and only found video of BB's shooting, but none of their targets and the results.

I'd love to see an Iowa shooting at a real, floating target, and even better if there was a helo or plane nearby to record the results.

Once that I know of. After the 1946 Bikini Atomic Bomb tests were thoroughly analyzed and we no longer needed the ships still afloat, The (ex) USS Nevada was towed out to sea to be sunk.

But she sunk hard. Even the USS Iowa put a few 16-inchers in her and she still stayed afloat. It finally took a couple of torpedoes on top of all the aerial bomb damage and 16-inch damage to send her down.

Nevada was the only ship to get underway during the Pearl Harbor attack. But she was fairly well damaged and the Captain ran her aground so as not to block the Harbor channel.

She was the target ship for Test Able at Bikini. The parachute drift of the "Fat Boy" type of bomb missed her by a disappointing distance. But that was a blessing in disguise as the cameras on board were then salvagable and a lot of data was retrieved from the films and other parts of the ship exposed to the blast.

At Test Baker, the underwater bomb, the foam of water spread out and completely covered Nevada up to her topmast. But she still remained afloat.

After her deliberate sinking after the tests (I guess you could call that a preliminary Sinkex Op), she went down with the last laugh. Since copper was a critical war material for communications wiring and shell casings, her buss bars were all Sterling Silver --- and still aboard the ship.

Below is a photo scanned from an old copy of the LBNSY weekly DIGEST showing the last visitation of Nevada before being towed to Bikini. It's also on page 36 of my book.

[shadow01]

She went down hard. I bet many a crewman whe served on her were both sad at her end but proud at what it took to send her to the locker.

[Dreadnought]

There are damage reports of the BB's that survived both blasts of the Bikinni Tests.;)

[Dreadnought]

Did it ever happen, particularly with any of the fast BB's participating? If so, is there any footage? I've searched and only found video of BB's shooting, but none of their targets and the results.

I'd love to see an Iowa shooting at a real, floating target, and even better if there was a helo or plane nearby to record the results.

* A 16-inch projectile lands near the bow of the target ship being fired at by the New Jersey (BB-62) and Missouri (BB-63) during Fleet Exercise '89 on 14 Oct 1989.;)

[Dreadnought]

During this time period:

In early 1989 the Iowa conducted special firing trials with her 16-in guns. Rangefinders, RPVs, and velocimeters helped two of six 16-in shells to strike a target from a range of 46,800 yd. The velocimeters measured the initial velocity of the projectile as it left the barrel, and with better means of controlling the powder inventory, greater accuracy at,longer ranges was possible. The new computers kept track of the powder inventory as well as generating the ballistic computations fed to the rangekeepers and computing the initial velocities from the velocimeters

*Thats 26.6 miles with accuracy.;)
.
By 1988 the Iowa was considered the best shooting battleship ever. When Captain Fred Moosally relieved Captain Larry Seaquist that year, the Iowa's gunnery department had completed the task set by Secretary Lehman-the Iowas, and the Iowa in particular, had deadly accuracy at any range with little shell dispersion.

[USSWisconsin]

During this time period:

In early 1989 the Iowa conducted special firing trials with her 16-in guns. Rangefinders, RPVs, and velocimeters helped two of six 16-in shells to strike a target from a range of 46,800 yd. The velocimeters measured the initial velocity of the projectile as it left the barrel, and with better means of controlling the powder inventory, greater accuracy at,longer ranges was possible. The new computers kept track of the powder inventory as well as generating the ballistic computations fed to the rangekeepers and computing the initial velocities from the velocimeters

*Thats 26.6 miles with accuracy.;)
.
By 1988 the Iowa was considered the best shooting battleship ever. When Captain Fred Moosally relieved Captain Larry Seaquist that year, the Iowa's gunnery department had completed the task set by Secretary Lehman-the Iowas, and the Iowa in particular, had deadly accuracy at any range with little shell dispersion.

Thats awesome Do you know whether that range was with an HC or AP projectile?

[Dreadnought]

Thats awesome Do you know whether that range was with an HC or AP projectile?

*If I had to guess I would say the 1900 lb HE rounds. There were more of them in inventory then the AP rounds and I doubt the target they fired upon required the AP round. The AP rounds range IMO would have been less.

[RustyBattleship]

*If I had to guess I would say the 1900 lb HE rounds. There were more of them in inventory then the AP rounds and I doubt the target they fired upon required the AP round. The AP rounds range IMO would have been less.

According to a former Iowa crewman I met, he said they were using BLP rounds. That's Blind Loaded Plugs which is an inert 1900 lb shell. Since the exercise was strictly for gun calibration and range enhancement they didn't want to use the much more expensive rounds containing explosives.

[USSWisconsin]

According to a former Iowa crewman I met, he said they were using BLP rounds. That's Blind Loaded Plugs which is an inert 1900 lb shell. Since the exercise was strictly for gun calibration and range enhancement they didn't want to use the much more expensive rounds containing explosives.

is the BLP a 1900# HE casing without a fuse or explosive filler - Or is it a different type of projectile altogether?

[Dreadnought]

is the BLP a 1900# HE casing without a fuse or explosive filler - Or is it a different type of projectile altogether?

I would imagin it is of the very same casing minus the fuze (which was not installed until it was ready to be parbuckled into the hoist for safety reasons) unless they utilized dummy fuses to seal the nose cavity (for stability in flight) and minus the 153.5 lbs of high explosives of the normal HC round.

[Dreadnought]

According to a former Iowa crewman I met, he said they were using BLP rounds. That's Blind Loaded Plugs which is an inert 1900 lb shell. Since the exercise was strictly for gun calibration and range enhancement they didn't want to use the much more expensive rounds containing explosives.

Target Mark 15 and Mark 16 use blind loaded and plugged (BL&P) HC Mark 13 projectile bodies.

Rusty, are you sure it wasnt this round for range enhancement? The reason I ask is because the time frame would fit and the range somewhat similar to those fired by Iowa during exercises.

Improved HC Mark 147
During the battleship reactivations during the 1980s, the Navy developed a new HC design that was the same length as the AP Mark 8 (4.5 calibers) and weighed 2,240 lbs. (1,015 kg). Several of these were test-fired from USS Iowa and at Dahlgren, achieving ranges over 51,000 yards (46,600 m) with a new gun muzzle velocity of 2,825 fps (861 mps). This projectile does not appear to have entered general service use before all of the battleships were decommissioned in the early 1990s.

[USSWisconsin]

I would imagin it is of the very same casing minus the fuze (which was not installed until it was ready to be parbuckled into the hoist for safety reasons) unless they utilized dummy fuses to seal the nose cavity (for stability in flight) and minus the 153.5 lbs of high explosives of the normal HC round.

I would think the plug would be a dummy nose fuse to give the projectile the same ballistic shape, probably a solid peice of Al machined to the same shape as the fuse. I wonder if they fill the projectile with something to simulate the weight of the HE, like cement or wax (which would have a similar density to the Comp D).

[Dreadnought]

I would think the plug would be a dummy nose fuse to give the projectile the same ballistic shape, probably a solid peice of Al machined to the same shape as the fuse. I wonder if they fill the projectile with something to simulate the weight of the HE, like cement or wax (which would have a similar density to the Comp D).

No doubt a machined dummy fuse cap, otherwise you change the exterior ballistics of the projectile in flight. I would imagine that both Crane and the USN came to some agreement long before the reactivation. Especially if they had intentions of employing some new projectiles into the inventory.

[Pacfanweb]

* A 16-inch projectile lands near the bow of the target ship being fired at by the New Jersey (BB-62) and Missouri (BB-63) during Fleet Exercise '89 on 14 Oct 1989.;)

Now THAT'S what I was talking about!

Did they shoot enough to get any hits? Wonder if there's any video of it?