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From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: USS Iowa
Message-ID: <1990Jun4.194542.4755@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 4 Jun 90 19:45:42 GMT
References: <16084@cbnews.ATT.COM>
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From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)

In article <16084@cbnews.ATT.COM>, Lee Roth writes: 
*When the number two turret on USS Iowa (BB61) suffered damage last year,
*I wondered if the US Navy still had the ability to repair the 16" guns.
*The four Iowa's were the only US ships to mount 50 cal. guns, so spare
*parts are unlikely to be found on the surviving South Dakota class units
*as they mounted 45 cal. guns.

the guns themselves are not the issue; there are approximately two to
three times as many barrels in existance as are needed.  normal practice
is to swap barrels with worn out liners for recently refurbished ones,
and then ship the barrels to the Watervliet Arsenal for relining.

the heavy equipment needed to manufacture entirely new gun barrels no
longer exists, but everything needed for refurbishment still exists
on the Watervliet Arsenal grounds, including the vertical shrink pits
and the enormous lathes in the high bay building.

*This brings me to a question I have been unable to have answered. When and why
*were the optical range finders removed from turret one of the four Iowa class
*battleships? Photos of the ships clearly show them in 1945, but missing during
*Korea.

you got me on this one.  they are clearly missing from Missouri in a
June, 1950 photograph i dug up, but still present on New Jersey when
she was recommissioned in November of 1950.  my source claims that
they were removed from New Jersey before she was sent to Korea for
her first tour there.  Wisconsin apparently did still have her
rangefinder on her tour in Korea, though.  From the text, i infer
that Iowa's turret one rangefinder was removed before she was sent
to Korea.

richard
-- 
richard welty         518-387-6346, GE R&D, K1-5C39, Niskayuna, New York
welty@lewis.crd.ge.com                 ...!crdgw1!lewis.crd.ge.com!welty            
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