I'd like to see a test fire video of this. The question I have is how long is a damaging shot? In rough seas the boat can rock and pitch. If the shot has to continue for several second, you would probably need to stabilize the assemble since a small change in position could mean moving from the target to well off the target.
Since before WWI. I'm reading up on that war, and am in the middle of the overview of all naval action in that war (not just the North Sea/Jutland): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0870212664/
Quite good, e.g. one Admiral really needed a Nelson era signal in one early battle, a not uncommon way to deal with submarines was to run over them. And it really brings home how it was a "World War" (although not called that at the time).
For the split second it takes a round to leave the barrel, thats why GP was asking about the length of time that stabilization would be required.
EDIT: Adding to that though, the reality is that ships large enough to be the platform for something like this don't get affected much by normal seas. Seems like it would have to be some really rough seas, and ones that wouldn't have targets flying over them due to storms anyway, to cause much pitching/yawing?
Well, I would think that the gun barrel is continuously stabilized as:
1) That's how tank guns work
2) To enable manual single shot capability, the barrel must always be correctly oriented (as much as possible), since a computer cannot predict when the operator will actually say fire
3) Many naval guns have quite high rates of fire. Even outside of low caliber close in defense weapons (like the Phalanx), even larger weapons (~76mm) can fire more than once a second. At these rates of fire, you're basically continuously stabilizing anyways.
I lived and worked on a Nimitz class aircraft carrier. We were always pitching and rolling.
It made some parts of my job interesting as it doesn't take long for your body to get used to it and filter the sensation out. Outside there are visual cues built into the horizon and inside I usually use a glass with some water in it to help me know which way we were leaning.
Interesting. I relate to getting used to it, do a fair amount of offshore fishing (very different scale I realize) and by the end of the season I have my legs under me but the first trip of two I'm falling all over myself.
I really would have through carriers with with such a depth and width would have little motion, at least near the waterline.
It's less than smaller boats but still noticeable. I have to say I have a ton of respect for the guys who fish in those little boats. The reason I love the show Deadliest Catch is I did a cruise up around the Aleutians. (PACEX '89) I remember how crazy it was up there on a carrier, in the fall. I can't imagine doing it in the winter on one of those little fishing boats.
One of my jobs for a little while was on the flight deck, manning the push pull bar. The job is not rocket science. When an aircraft is recovered, it pulls out quite a bit of cable onto the flight deck. Once the aircraft is unhooked from the cable there is a period of time where, due to rolling, the cable can slide towards the starboard side of the ship and out of the landing area. This could potentially cause damage to equipment or people, once it retracts. So I stood there with a long metal rod that had a metal block at the bottom. My job was to push the cable back so that it did not come over the foul line. My training consisted of being told, "If you look that way (he pointed off the port side) and you see a lot of water, push. If you see a lot of sky, you don't have to push."
The Ponce is an LPD and considerably smaller than a CVN. My guess would be that the aiming is completely automated.
I did reserves after active duty. I spent a couple weeks on a frigate once. They did some practice with the gun the boat had. They put out a target and first did things manually. They couldn't come close to hit that target. Then they switched over to the computer and it never missed.
heh, Im not sure if respect is the right word. We've got a 30ft walkaround (got lucky with a father in law has always had a thing for boats), and seas over ~4ft with a short period make me want to get back home ASAP.
On clear days we occasionally see some really crazy guys way out in little single engine flat bottom john boats. Don't care how much fun it is to pull in a nice mahi, its not worth that kind of risk.
Oh, it's definitely stabilized. Otherwise they wouldn't even bother. The real question is how long you have to keep it on a target before you can move to the next, i.e. if you can set a speedboat on fire in 200 milliseconds (seems unlikely) it might be useful in a swarm attack. But if you need to dwell on each target five minutes it's a different story.
