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Gun Barrel Replacement (Maintenance)


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#1 MatthewB

MatthewB

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Posted 21 September 2015 - 09:57 PM

The Campaign Rules seem to mostly deal with Campaigns that would last a week or so, but one issue that the rules do not raise is the life-span of a large bore gun in number of rounds it could fire before it began to suffer accuracy, and worse, pose a danger to the ship.

From the web-site NavWeapons.com there is a comprehensive list of all of the Naval Weapons of the world's navies from around 1880 to the present.

It lists just about everything you would need to know about these guns from the specifics of each type of round fired, to their ammunition needs and capacities for each ship type.

And, one thing that crossed my mind as I saw how few rounds the big guns of the BBs could fire before needing to be replaced.

The IJN Yamato-class' 46cm/45 guns' barrel life: 150 - 250 rounds.
The IJN Kongō-class' 36cm/45 guns' barrel life: 250 - 280 rounds.

The IJN Aoba-class 20cm/50 guns' barrel life: 300 rounds.

The KMS Scharnhorst's 28cm/54.4 guns' barrel life: 300 rounds.
The USN South Dakota-class' 16"/45 guns' barrel life: 395 rounds.

The USN CA/Treaty Cruisers' 8"/55 guns' barrel life: 715 rounds.
The RN Repulse/Renown-class' 15"/42 guns' barrel life: 355 rounds.
The RN King George V-class' 14"/45 guns' barrel life: 350 rounds.
The RN London and Kent-class' 8"/50 guns' barrel life: 550 rounds.

While it is not likely that a ship will fire that many rounds during the course of one campaign (although, in the Solomons Campaign, there were ships that did reach their guns' approximate replacement life during the course of a few battles, such as the CLAA San Juan, which after participating in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Is. and the Engagement of Japanese destroyers around the Solomons forced her home at the end of '43 - her barrels were one of the things exhausted, primarily because of the high ROF during AA coverage. The IJN had ships where this was a factor as well, at least when the ships were not sinking, or being hoarded by the overlords at Truk or Rabaul), it is something that could influence ship availability during a Campaign if one assumes that certain ships have already seen action prior to the beginning of the campaign.

And, it could provide for an effect upon gunfire during a tactical game if a ship is retained past it's guns' barrel life. Degrading the fire a row, or so (and possibly running the risk of a shell hanging in the barrel, or detonating while still in the barrel).

As I have mentioned in the ammo thread, I would be willing to sort out the different ships' guns and their barrel lives in a chart for a Campaign game. The effects upon gunfire are something I am not sufficiently knowledgable about to assume I would know what needed to be taken into account.

I suppose that this could be subsumed into overall ship maintenance, whereby a ship must go in for an overhaul, which happened roughly one every year or two during WWII.


MB

 






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