Zumwalts may have lost both mounts, but the housing for the aft gun (mount 6-2?) is still there meaning there’s plenty of room for a gun 5” or 155mm it doesn’t matter, there’s enough room for either
No, the only things left of the gun systems are the deckhouses that hid the barrels when not actively firing. IIUC those were left for RCS reasons.
And the USN is requiring that BOTH gun and CPS tubes be on a single ship going forward. Zumwalts get an exception since there's only 3 of them, so effectively only one at sea. So they're testing CPS for everyone else.
Yes lets build something else instead, cold war finished long ago. Why compare with Burkes at all? Compare with something you would build as a future DDG replacement.
Because we still have a bunch of brand new Burke IIIs, and failed to build either Zumwalts or CG21s 20 years ago.
Plus, bluntly, the bare minimum capability for a front line combatant ship these days is just short of a Burke.
They werent even mounted on the same part of the hull. The more likely tradeoff would have been 127mm vs 2 × 57mm.
So? If you can't fit both CPS tubes and gun the USN says it fails requirements.
But Mk38 probably not idea as CIWS, at minimum it should compete with other CIWS systems. I believe Mellenium Gun had a battery and optional radar on mount, but only fire control radar, not a search radar.
Mk38 is not ideal as a CIWS, it's
barely capable
if you give it a radar. But given the sheer numbers of Shaheds people are throwing around I want more guns on new ships. Because 30x173 or even the 40x173 for more HE/fragments is adequate versus Shaheds.
So I'm really talking about a Mk38 "Mod5" mount, with dual feed on the gun plus search and fire control AESAs added. Over and above the EOTS/thermal imager the Mod4 has. One feed, probably the larger-capacity one, has HEDP or whatever is preferred versus USVs. The other feed has AHEAD-type PFF for Shahed swarms.
I wouldn't be suprised to see the GVLS replace APM on new ship designs.
I really hope so, the APM/APT is terribly space-inefficient. On the other hand, it does give pretty solid protection to each set of tubes inside, because it's submarine-hull-thick HY80. And the HY-series steels were developed from the STS battleship armor plate.
But failsafe for the maintenance guys! The off switch should not be accessible without disabling the gun...
Correct. Gun set at "safe" in CIC, Danger tag hung. Unscrew the access panel and physically disconnect a single electrical connection, what the aircraft guys call a "cannon plug". The kind that has many pins and a huge outer screw connection. This plug (or plugs if the size for one plug is absurd) has power from battery to
everything on the mount (ship power goes into the battery, not direct to mount). Radar, EOTS, traverse and elevation motors, gun motor,
everything. Danger tag hung on the plug(s). Work on mount.
Work done?
Clear Danger tag from plug(s), run mount tests that require electrical power. Now clear Danger tag from gun console in CIC, ship is back in fighting condition.
And yes, there's probably a few other Danger and/or Caution tags that would need to be hung, but those two I described would cover the big points.
CIWS on centreline doesn't make sense, they should be on the corners for better redundancy overlaps. Not an old 20mm thing. You could surfacemount guns like Mk38 on sponsons amidships or flightdeck, but thats more as point defence.
Look at where the RAM and Phalanx are located on Burkes. And where the 5" guns got placed on the later US WW2 cruisers.
2x CIWS on centerlines can
both fire into either broadside. (IMO this should be the minimum fit for a
frigate, or rather 2x RAM and 2x CIWS.)
4x CIWS with 2 on the centerline and 2 amidships puts
3x CIWS into either broadside. While 4x CIWS on the corners can only put 3 into the
quarters not the broadside.
I will accept that with radar-guided AShMs it may be better to angle the ship instead of broadside. Not sure about IIR-guided.
@Dilandu you're the resident missile expert, do you have an opinion on this?