People not in the know are surprised to know that "cannon" and "automatic" can be used in the same sentence. When I describe the Mk 45 to civilian friends they find it hard to believe that it can be fired so quickly.
Try to explain the 3x Triple 8"/55 caliber on the 3 Des Moines class cruisers. It blows peoples minds. The biggest "full" auto loaders to ever exist. Then the Iowa class guns .... I still run into people who think the Gun crews were just hand slinging those rounds. "Partial" auto loaders but technically BB guns count.
I hear a fellow Gunner's Mate here. The MK45 is impressive, but in terms of speed (17 rounds per minute) for the MK45, I'll see your firing rate and raise you up to the 32 rounds per minute that my old system that I was coded on could do, the MK42. Yes, the MK45 (mod 2) has some capabilities (guided projectiles) that the now defunct MK42 didn't have, but we could empty our drums in 75 seconds. It makes me just a bit wistful.
But it seems the turret fires when the water is least turbulent even with the fire control system. The motion is greater in between shots. This weapon came into service in 1988.
From 1967-73, I was a Fire Control Technician. Our radars worked hand in hand with the 5” mounts automatically following the target through via the data sent to the Fire Control computer, which was an electro mechanical beast. All the 5” guns were loaded completely by hand. Being just outside these 5” guns in the Fire Control directors is probably why I have hearing aids now.
I was on CVA 62 in 1970, had 4 5"54s, 2 port and 2 starboard aft in turrets. It was the Indy's BPDS. Even then they had Gunnar they fire by sight or radar, when they under radar control the barrel would wobble in synch with the radar scan. S-2 with a huge banner with woven metallic wire in it on the end of a long tow cable would fly over port to stbd and the gunners would fire away like in twelve o'clock high, quite a spec-takle
Noticing the whole system is mounted on a leveling suspended frame that is consistently countering the waves up and down, while works in an unbelievable efficiency. It’s no doubt a engineering marvel.
They had this on tanks before the Navy even got them.. As stabilized guns have been around for 80 years. But this works because the shell and casing are one unit. Only thing it does is wait for the air bust range to be programmed into it..
I was a 5” gun tech my last couple years in the Navy and I come here every few months to listen to the hum of upper accumulator. The most soothing sound ever.
I got to fire the 5” once. It was nothing than a foot pedal. Over 4 years at sea with 2 of these onboard, this is the first time I have seen this mechanism from the inside. Thank you…so fun!
I had an Uncle that was a 5inch Gun Chief in the Pacific in WW2...used to be 5-6 guys in the turret. If he were alive to see this...he'd sure be impressed!
So what im getting at is that there's two movable cylinders bottom and top, the bottom one works to carry a shell and chamber the gun whilst once loaded, the second one goes into place acting as a hammer to strike the pin and after fired, it brings the empty shell up and disposes it ready to take another.
Nope. The "first" cylinder is bringing the shell/propellant stack(vertical while in drum or at the transfer station/fuze setter while it waits to get fed into the gun) to a position parallel with the gun(mostly horizontal) and ramming them in. The breech closes, and the first cylinder drops back down to the drum and allows the second cylinder to move into place behind the gun. The gun fires electrically, not by percussion. The firing pin doesn't need to smack the back of the propellant hard, as it's purpose is to conduct current into the primer charge running in a small perforated metal tube down the middle of the propellant charge. The firing mechanism is in the breech. After being fired(or not fired), only the propellant casing comes out of the gun(the shell after being rammed can only be fired, not extracted). The breech opens and the casing is extracted into that second cylinder, which then flips up and to the right. The casing is ejected through a small port onto the deck. The second cylinder is just to get rid of the propellant case(which isnot a thing you want in the mount after firing or a misfire)
@@Grimmwoldds Yep To use the proper term for the non-Gunner's Mates out there, the part that swings up from below after disengaging the fuse setter is called the cradle, and the part to the right that pivots downward right before firing, then back upward immediately after firing is the empty case tray.
@@coenogo I assume here is a stack of round ("bullet") and propellant ("powder"). They are two separate things. The round cannot misfire as it doesn't have it's own powder. It is piece of metal with explosive and fuse inside. What can misfire is propellant stack (powder). As described above, propellant casing is extracted and therefore can be replaced by new one to fire the round
the one on the right is the empty case cradle, it moves into the line of the bore after the gun is loaded just before the gun is fired and receives the spent brass. It moves up, to the right ( starboard ) and is ejected out and slightly to the left ( port) after the gun goes back forward (in battery). you cannot see the breechblock and firing pin/squib in this angle. by no means is this full speed for the gun. it is capable of "full auto" firing but this seems like a/an evaluated for accuracy slow fire exercise.
Fun fact. That netting at the bottom of the loading arm is called a "chief catcher." That's because a chief petty officer tried to clear a jam by reaching up into the mechanism and got caught by the loading arm which crushed him against the upper mechanism. If you try to get past that netting it will disable the gun.
I worked on the 3"50 gun and it could fire at an impressive rate, used for small surface vessels and air control. I thought that was cool that this 5"gun is radically different than the bigger guns I was trained on back then. The old 5"36 was a bullet and bag effort and the 5"54 was closer to this system. Anyone remember the Talos? Or Terrier missile systems? I wound up working the Sparrow Mk 5 missile system and on the 3"50. USS Tripoli LPH 10. HyphongHarbor in North Vietnam de-mide-mining the harbor.
Talos was pretty damn impressive for the time what with that 80nm+ range in later variants. Too bad it so was so big that only a few ships could carry it. Scored a few Migs in Vietnam IIRC.
i was a mk 42 5" gunners mate. on that model you had 2 cradles, one on either side of the gun barrel that would swing up and down like arms on either side of your body, loading the projectiles and powder cases.
It's amazing how fast everything happens. With modern projectiles and such a rapid fire rate these 5-inchers would likely give a large WWII cruiser a challenge. Drachinifel had a tour of USS Salem and its interesting to see the subtle similarities between those 8-inch autos and these.
The WWII 5" 38 could fire a round every 3 seconds with a experienced crew. But the single mount took 9 sailors in the mount and about a dozen more in the handling room and magazine. The twin mount even more.
My rack was directly under the aft five inch gun when I was stationed on a destroyer in the 80s. Ain’t no rest for the crew when they light it off. Especially during rapid fire.
The way you can hear the shell coming up from the magazine like a bowling ball... Makes me want to reach into the F O R B I D D E N B A L L R E T U R N
What I would give for the same quality camera and mounting in the 5" and 16" gun houses of the Iowa classes back in their glory days watching everyone doing their jobs.
Most ships don't have 5 inch guns... I suppose it depends on the exact nation and ship, but most Navy boats I've seen (that aren't American) have a single turret that looks like it fires 20 or 30mm
@@JM64 Most ships firgate and up have somewhere between a 3-5 inch gun. But while the gun is a useful weapon and has a lot of utility even when not driectly engaging in combat the main weapons nowadays are the missiles. There is no sense in carrying a second large gun when you could use that space and displacements to fit another 16-48 missiles. The 20-30mm guns are intended for use against small boats and point defense against aircraft and missiles that slipped by the missile screen. Only small patrol boats anbd coast guard vessels use small autocannons as their main armament.
I was a gun tech on this gun for 30 years. You just kept learning every day. It is a marvelous piece of engineering designed in Fridley Minnesota in the 1960's with the first production in '72. From the early eighty's till I retired this was my work. Great video, great piece of Naval Engineering.
@@busguy3053 OEM factory tech. If you were around this gun long enough, you would have heard my name. Taught classes at Louisville on it and the 76mm gun as well.
For all the innovations in modern weaponry, to me, nothing is as cool as a GREAT BIG GUN being fired at a very distant thing with extreme precision. Absolute poetry in motion.
Drum has 20 slots for propellant/shell and the mk160 will usually command a shot about once every 2-3 seconds if more than one shot is requested(varies with sea state and fuze setting/transfer station delays). RoF is however, completely and utterly irrelevant. MT51 is not a primary AA platform.
When someone asks you how its possible that the us military budget is more than every country on earth combine just show them this video of one single gun.
Nice... Interesting system. Loaded from underneath, the canister drops down to receive the empty cartridge case, then when it goes back into position, a ram comes up and ejects the spent casing.
At first was wondering if that was as fast as it could rapid fire until I saw it fire multiple shots in succession there at the end. Because it seemed kinda slow for a modern cannon. I guess it was tracing its shots or something?
In training they unfortunately mostly fire this slow, no rapid fire. The US 5" gun has a fire rate of 20 rounds per minute. The Italian Oto Melara 127mm (so same caliber) can fire even faster, at 40 rounds per minute. It's insane.
Do not remember which ship it was but I'm pretty sure my dad would have been very happy to have a pretty automatic system to load compared to what he had in the Navy in 1952 when he was in Korea I think then compared to now the safety is day and night difference but it don't matter man or woman no matter what branch of the military a big thank you for what you've done and sacrificed
yes, 50 + rounds in a 4 hour period is called a "hot gun" situation. this is why they load the barrel at the last possible second, never subjecting the projo and powder to the barrels heat until the firing key/switch/pushbutton is activated/toggled/pushed.
Most people would not understand why the gun is going up and down. If you don't know it is the gun being synchronized to the roll or pitch of the ship.
exactly, the fire control (fc) radars and electronics are parallax corrected to the gun. it is electro/hydraulic/mechanically stabilized to be able to put "warheads on foreheads"
I don't know if I understand how this is working. Obviously the mechanism on the bottom is loading the warhead. And the one on the side is loading the propellant but how? As soon as the propellant loader drops it fires automatically, is it being pushed in and then firing if so how fast does it happening. Considering as soon as it drops it fires.
Afaik the 5" shells are powder and warhead all in one, it's just the fuse that needs to be set. The bottom one brings the ammunition up to the gun and feeds it, the side one just captures the spent shell and ejects it. This is why we can briefly see sunlight in the upper right hand corner after the gun has fired
I have absolutely zero knowledge so I must ask : That slow up and down movement is meant to compensate for the wave motion so the all thing stay locked on target ?
At first i was wondering why the autoloader was reloading so slowly, but then i got impressed by the fast firerate at which it was capable of firing when it shot twoce before 3 seconds passed. Now why dont we see autoloaders this fast in tanks, specially if this is a 127mm, even bigger than 120mm and 125mm guns in most tanks, yet still faster
Ships are giant floating gun platforms. A tank probably weighs less than that turret and has an engine, tracks, crew, and can go 60 mph and can be carry by a helicopter.
You don't see the barrel or the shell, only the breech in the center. A complete sequence begins at 0:43 - the shell, having been inserted into the auto-loader from below, is completely enclosed in it. The loader is quickly swung up from the base of the turret to a point parallel to the gun, and then rams the shell into the breech (2 seconds). As the loader withdraws, the breech block is closed simultaneously with the casing recovery assembly lining up with the breech (another 2 seconds). The gun is fired, the breech block opens, and the case is ejected from the breech into the recovery assembly which then swings back up and drops out the case (about 1 second).
