16 Inch Guns

Battleships such as the Wisconsin and Missouri have nine 16-inch guns mounted on three turrets. The guns can hit a target 23 miles away and are being used against Iraqi positions in Kuwait. Five 110-lb. bags of gunpowder 2,700-lb. projectile 62-foot barrel

Battleships such as the Wisconsin and Missouri have nine 16-inch guns mounted on three turrets. The guns can hit a target 23 miles away and are being used against Iraqi positions in Kuwait. Five 110-lb. bags of gunpowder 2,700-lb. projectile 62-foot barrel

One day after an explosion ripped through a gun turret aboard the battleship Iowa killing 47 sailors, the Navy on Thursday ordered that firing of the 16-inch guns on all four U.S. battleships be halted until an investigation of the blast is completed. The Navy's investigation is expected to focus on a welter of safety issues related to the 1940s-vintage guns, which are considered among the most destructive of the Navy's conventional weapons but also among the most complex and dangerous to operate.

When the U.S. battleship Wisconsin began pounding a marina on the Kuwaiti coast, its first 1,900-pound shells landed wide of the target. But infrared pictures from a small aircraft circling the beach allowed the battleship's gunners to adjust their aim. The correction proved devastating. When the 30-round barrage from the Wisconsin's thundering 16-inch guns ended, the water was littered with the remains of 15 boats that Iraq could have used for raids against the Saudi coastline.

The U.S. Navy has imposed a moratorium on firing all guns like the one involved in Wednesday's disaster aboard the battleship Iowa that killed 47 sailors, a senior officer said today. Vice Adm. Jerome Johnson, commander of the 2nd Fleet, did not spell out the period of the moratorium but said it covered all Navy ships carrying the 16-inch guns. He spoke after the Iowa arrived off Puerto Rico to transfer the bodies to shore. In addition to the Iowa, the Navy has three other battleships of its size.

In an indication that equipment failure is no longer considered a prime suspect in the April explosion aboard the battleship Iowa, the Navy has partially lifted its ban on the firing of the unique 16-inch guns aboard the nation's four battleships, sources said Tuesday. The firing moratorium, imposed a day after a blast ripped through a 16-inch gun turret aboard the Iowa April 19, has been modified to permit the use of the guns in wartime, for self-defense and during operations designed to send political signals to foreign nations, according to Navy officials.

The Navy declined to comment on a report that one of the 16-inch guns in the battleship Iowa's No. 1 turret misfired shortly before the No. 2 turret exploded, killing 47 sailors. A Navy spokesman said he could not confirm or deny whether such a misfire had occurred as long as the investigation is under way. The Virginian-Pilot and the Ledger-Star of Norfolk, Va., reported that a survivor of the April 19 explosion, Petty Officer Kendall L. Truitt, said the misfire occurred during gunnery exercises just before the blast in the No. 2 turret.

The Navy will reopen its controversial investigation of the 1989 explosion aboard the battleship Iowa that killed 47 sailors because an "unexplained ignition" of gunpowder occurred Thursday during tests. The renewal of the investigation, ordered Thursday by Secretary of the Navy H. Lawrence Garrett III, calls into question the Navy's earlier conclusion that the fatal blast in the Iowa's central gun turret was "most probably" caused by 24-year-old Gunner's Mate Clayton M.

The Navy on Monday acknowledged that the crew of the battleship Iowa was conducting "unauthorized experiments" with gunpowder charges in its 16-inch guns at the time of the April blast that killed 47 sailors. The naval board investigating the explosion recommended that the officers and sailors involved in the tests be punished and that a complete inquiry into the improper experiments be conducted by the Navy's inspector general.

The 16-inch guns involved in Wednesday's disaster aboard the Iowa have been a standard fixture on U.S. Navy battleships since the early part of the century--and, surprisingly, have not changed much in concept since they were first deployed. The guns are the largest still in use by any navy, either of a Western country or a Communist Bloc nation. And the ships that carry them--the 45,000-ton "battlewagons" of naval lore--are the Navy's oldest and most romantic warships. The turret on which the guns are mounted is a rotating gun platform that extends down into the ship in the form of a huge cylinder.

The Navy will reopen its controversial investigation of the 1989 explosion aboard the battleship Iowa that killed 47 sailors because an "unexplained ignition" of gunpowder occurred Thursday during tests. The renewal of the investigation, ordered Thursday by Secretary of the Navy H. Lawrence Garrett III, calls into question the Navy's earlier conclusion that the fatal blast in the Iowa's central gun turret was "most probably" caused by 24-year-old Gunner's Mate Clayton M.

The Navy on Monday acknowledged that the crew of the battleship Iowa was conducting "unauthorized experiments" with gunpowder charges in its 16-inch guns at the time of the April blast that killed 47 sailors. The naval board investigating the explosion recommended that the officers and sailors involved in the tests be punished and that a complete inquiry into the improper experiments be conducted by the Navy's inspector general.

The battleship Iowa was being used as a floating laboratory for high-explosive experiments, and crewmen were using improper gun powder when the No. 2 turret exploded and killed 47 men, a news service reported. Media General, a communications company based in Richmond, Va., which publishes the Richmond Times-Dispatch and other papers, reported that transcripts from the Navy investigation into the April 19 battleship explosion showed also that the commander, Capt. Fred B.

In an indication that equipment failure is no longer considered a prime suspect in the April explosion aboard the battleship Iowa, the Navy has partially lifted its ban on the firing of the unique 16-inch guns aboard the nation's four battleships, sources said Tuesday. The firing moratorium, imposed a day after a blast ripped through a 16-inch gun turret aboard the Iowa April 19, has been modified to permit the use of the guns in wartime, for self-defense and during operations designed to send political signals to foreign nations, according to Navy officials.

One day after an explosion ripped through a gun turret aboard the battleship Iowa killing 47 sailors, the Navy on Thursday ordered that firing of the 16-inch guns on all four U.S. battleships be halted until an investigation of the blast is completed. The Navy's investigation is expected to focus on a welter of safety issues related to the 1940s-vintage guns, which are considered among the most destructive of the Navy's conventional weapons but also among the most complex and dangerous to operate.

The U.S. Navy has imposed a moratorium on firing all guns like the one involved in Wednesday's disaster aboard the battleship Iowa that killed 47 sailors, a senior officer said today. Vice Adm. Jerome Johnson, commander of the 2nd Fleet, did not spell out the period of the moratorium but said it covered all Navy ships carrying the 16-inch guns. He spoke after the Iowa arrived off Puerto Rico to transfer the bodies to shore. In addition to the Iowa, the Navy has three other battleships of its size.

A fiery explosion in a giant gun turret rocked the refitted battleship Iowa on maneuvers in the Atlantic today, killing at least 47 sailors and injuring an undetermined number, the Pentagon said. Defense Department spokesman Dan Howard said the explosion may have resulted from the blast of a 110-pound gunpowder bag used to fire shells that weigh more than a ton a distance of up to 23 miles. The 16-inch guns are the biggest in the Navy arsenal. "We assume it was a powder bag," Howard said in Brussels.

The 16-inch guns involved in Wednesday's disaster aboard the Iowa have been a standard fixture on U.S. Navy battleships since the early part of the century--and, surprisingly, have not changed much in concept since they were first deployed. The guns are the largest still in use by any navy, either of a Western country or a Communist Bloc nation. And the ships that carry them--the 45,000-ton "battlewagons" of naval lore--are the Navy's oldest and most romantic warships. The turret on which the guns are mounted is a rotating gun platform that extends down into the ship in the form of a huge cylinder.