MovieChat Forums > American Battleship (2012) Discussion > 16 Inch guns

16 Inch guns

posted 11 years ago by richardpaperboy
2 replies | jump to latest

I liked the movie overall, but there were a few major plot holes. usually I can overlook them but these were really big ones. Having the mothball fleet show up in a few hours was the worst plot hole I have ever seen, they could have done without that. The whole thing with the 16 inch shells was done really bad to. But I do have a question for anyone that knows. The Iowa could fire a shell over 20 miles but the enemy ship was far less that that, was it possible for the battleship to fire her 16 inch shells on ship that close? I know that the reason she carried 5 inches guns were to defend against small ships that are close but it seemed like they would overshot the ship by miles with her big guns.

[–] goddancredmond 11 years ago

I had to estimate the height of the gun mount and used 25 ft, which is probably a bit low. With possible gun depression of 5 degrees, a target could be hit at about 300 feet away. If the gun height is doubled, the closet range also doubles to about 600 feet.

There is one source that says they have a declination of 15 degrees. If that is true, the ranges change down to about 100 to 200 feet, respectively.

The above is for a projectile's trajectory hitting sea level.

[–] darinm-3 8 years ago

But they hit a submarine with the 16 inch guns in "Under Siege" so it must be possible... 😀