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From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Update on USS Iowa
Message-ID: <5851@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 24 Apr 89 02:57:27 GMT
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From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
>Why aren't modern ships armored?  Shouldn't a nuclear aircraft
>carrier, for instance, have enough power to push extra armor around?

Only if you deduct something else.  There is never enough space or weight
available in a warship.  Useful amounts of armor are very heavy.  Even
the Iowas aren't armored everywhere:  command centers are inside masses
of steel, turrets and magazines have heavy armor, and there is a
substantial armor belt at the waterline to prevent holes that could
let in water... but much of the rest of the ship gets to take its
chances against anything heavy.

Carriers are a particular trouble spot because aircraft operations put
a premium on speed -- every knot of forward speed is one more knot of
airspeed to help an aircraft that's landing or taking off.

Armor fell out of fashion after WWII, since it wasn't useful against
nuclear weapons.  Ship designers were happy to have the extra weight
for other things, and haven't been enthusiastic about reintroducing armor.

>>Armor: Face: 19.7"   Sides 9.5"    Rear 12"   Roof 7.25"
>
>How counterintuitive!  I would have thought roof > sides > rear >
>face, in order of vulnerability...

Note that we may have a terminology problem here:  the "face" of the
turret may be not the relatively small and low "nose" of the turret,
but the large and very steeply slanted (almost horizontal) "forehead".
The "roof" may be just the rearmost portion which really is horizontal.
I could be wrong, my references aren't handy.

                                     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
                                 uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu

[mod.note:  I'm sure the term "face" means the actual front of the
turret, perforated for the guns.  On the Iowa's main turrets, unlike
those of many (now-defunct) battleships, the entire roof is flat.  
- Bill ]