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From: military@cbnews.ATT.COM (William B. Thacker)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: USS Iowa explosion
Message-ID: <5834@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 22 Apr 89 04:30:53 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 11
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: enzyme.berkeley.edu!allen
Regarding the accuracy of the battleship guns in the Beirut shelling,
a press account here discussing the battleship revival in light of the
current accident pointed out that the shells used in Beirut were very old
ones used as an economy measure.  They reported that the low accuracy at
Beirut made the Navy upgrade with fresher ammunition for the sixteen inch
guns.  That alone will improve accuracy a lot.  They didn't say exactly
how old the ammunition was, but my guess is 50's or 60's vintage.
Ed Allen (allen@enzyme.berkeley.edu)