Naval guns are used against surface, shore, and air targets. They are designed for engaging both air and surface targets. A gun is a metal tube or barrel that shoots projectiles using an explosive force. Guns have components like the barrel, rifling, and mount. Naval gunfire support plays an important role in military operations by bombarding enemy positions, conducting interdiction, and supporting amphibious assaults and mine warfare activities. Projectiles come in different types with various fuzes and purposes like illumination, smoke, or fragmentation.

1. CHAPTER 2
NAVAL GUNS

2. Most naval ships and aircraft are fitted
with various kinds of guns.

3. Guns may be used against surface,
shore, and air targets.

4. Dual-Purpose Systems
Ship guns designed for engaging
both air and surface targets

5. In automatic, gun recoil ejects the
fired powder case and reloads the
gun.

6. Gun
A weapon consisting of a metal tube
or barrel closed at one end, with
mechanical attachments from which
projectiles are shot by the force of an
explosive.

7. Gun Components

8. Gun Components

9. The loading cycle for a large baval breech loader. Notice that there is a
Series of interlocking doors that never permit an open path from the
Gunhouse, down, which a flash might travel to the magazine.

10. Gun Barrel Rifling

11. Rifled Barrel
Spiral grooves cut in the inner
surface of the gun barrel to give
the projectile a rotating motion
and thus a more precise trajectory
Rifling Lands
The system of rifling spiral
grooves cut inside the bore

12. BARREL
Rifling causes the projectile to spin in
flight, which keeps the projectile from
tumbling after it leaves the barrel, thus
providing greater accuracy.

13. Gun Measurement

14. Caliber
The diameter of the bore of a gun
taken as a unit of measurement

15. Caliber = barrel length ÷ bore
diameter in inches.
Gun Measurement for Barrels
over 3" in Diameter

16. 20–millimeter .32–caliber
A 20-millimeter machine gun has a bore
diameter of 20 millimeters. A .32-caliber
revolver has a bore diameter of .32 inches.

17. A gun having a bore diameter of 5 inches and
a barrel 190 inches long is designated 5-inch,
38-caliber (written 5/38).

18. What is the designation of a gun
having a bore diameter of 5 inches
and a barrel 270 inches in length?

19. What is the designation of a gun
having a bore diameter of 5 inches
and a barrel 270 inches in length?
It is called a 5-inch, 54-caliber gun
(5/54).

20. Gun Elevation

21. Arc of Elevation
The total vertical arc through which a
gun barrel can be raised and lowered

22. Gun Train

23. Arc of Train
The total horizontal arc through which
a gun mount may be rotated

24. Cutout cams prevent guns from being fired
into the ship’s or aircraft’s structure.

25. The entire structure between
the gun and ship’s structure
Gun Mount

26. A group of gun
mounts of the
same size, normally Battery
controlled from the
same point

27. Main Battery
Consists of the largest size gun
on board a ship
Secondary Battery
Consists of dual-purpose guns,
or guns of the next smaller size

28. Effective range depends
on:
• Initial velocity
• Weight of projectile
• Caliber of the gun
• Fire control system

29. 5" Projectile
Projectile range on larger caliber gun
projectiles can be extended by rocket
assistance.
5" Rocket Assisted Projectile

30. Rocket-Assisted Projectiles (RAP)
They are designed to extend the
range of the projectiles and are
filled with high explosive (HE)
material.

31. Less than 8 inches
and larger than 4
inches
Less than 4 inches
in diameter

32. 5"/54 Caliber Gun Mount MK 45

33. 5"/54 Caliber Gun Mount MK 45
Firing rate — 40 rounds per minute
Maximum Range — 24,500 yards
(23,700 meters)

34. 5-inch Projectile
Weight – 72 pounds

35. Oto Melara 76mm/62–Caliber
MK 75 Gun Mount

36. Oto Melara 76mm/62–Caliber MK 75
Gun Mount
Firing rate — 80 – 85 rounds per minute
Maximum Range — 17,800 yards
(19,200 meters)

37. Phalanx Close–in
Weapons System
(CWIS) 20mm Gun
System

38. Search Radar
Tracking Radar
A last-ditch
6 – 20mm
gun
weapon against
barrels an antiship
Ammunition cruise missile
drum – 900+
rounds

39. The six-barrel
Vulcan Gatling
gun can fire
3,000 rounds
per minute.

40. The gun is
computer
controlled.

41. Gun Ammunition — Principal
Components:
Projectile
Propelling charge

42. Projectile
An object fired from a gun with an
explosive propelling charge, such
as a bullet, shell, rocket, or grenade

43. DER
Bag Ammunition
Case Ammunition

44. Semifixed Ammunition
Fixed Ammunition

45. Semifixed Ammunition
Refers to a round that consists of a
projectile and a separate case charge
loaded one after the other
Fixed Ammunition
Refers to a round in which the projectile
and powder case are permanently
attached (standard in 3‖ and smaller guns)

46. MAIN CHARGE
IGNITER
PRIMER
Propellant Components

47. MAIN CHARGE
IGNITER
PRIMER
Propellants are chemical compounds
that burn at a rapid rate rather than
detonate or explode.

48. MAIN CHARGE
IGNITER
PRIMER
The first stage in a propellant train is called a
primer
primer; it produces a hot flame that sets off
igniter
the next stage, called igniter; the igniter sets
off the main charge
charge.

49. The three main parts
of a projectile are:
• Its metallic body
• The fuze that sets
off the main charge
• The explosive
burster charge

50. ADF
Explosive (Auxiliary
Body Charge Detonating Nose Fuze
Fuze)
Gun Projectile Assembly

51. ROTATING
BODY OGIVE
BAND
BASE BOURRELET NOSE
Projectile Characteristics

52. Ogive
The curved nose of a missile or rocket

53. Bourrelet
The widest part of the projectile, located
immediately to the rear of the ogive

54. Three classes of projectiles:
• Penetrating
• Fragmenting
• Special purpose

55. Penetrating projectiles are
designed to penetrate the
target before exploding.

56. Armor-Piercing (AP) Projectile

57. Fragmenting projectiles are designed
to damage by blast effect and
fragmentation.
These projectiles have relatively thin
walls and large burster charges

58. Fragmentation Bomb
A bomb designed to break into many
small, high-velocity shrapnel fragments
when detonated
Shrapnel
Shell fragments

59. Antiaircraft Common (AAC) Projectile
AUXILIARY DETONATING FUZE
BASE DETONATING FUZE
MECHANICAL TIME FUZE
Antiaircraft projectiles are normally fuzed to
detonate in proximity of aircraft with the
fragments penetrating the aircraft skin

60. High Explosive–Point Detonating
(HE–PD) Projectile

61. High Explosive–Point Detonating
(HE–PD) Projectiles
These are used against lightly armored
surface targets such as torpedo boats,
shore installations, or personnel.

62. Special purpose projectiles have
a variety of applications, including
illumination, smoke, chaff, and
target practice, and are not intended
to inflict damage by blast or
fragmentation.

63. PARACHUTE
Illuminating (ILLUM) Projectile

64. Parachute Illuminating
Projectiles
Often called star
shells, they contain
a bright flare
attached to a
parachute. The
flare is intended
to illuminate an
enemy target or
terrain as it slowly
descends under
the parachute.

65. White Phosphorous (WP) Projectile

66. Ballistite
A smokeless powder consisting of
nitroglycerine and cellulose nitrate
chiefly in a 40 to 60 percent ratio;
used as a solid fuel for rockets

67. Chaff Projectile

68. Chaff
Strips of metal foil dropped by an
aircraft to confuse enemy radar by
creating false blips

69. Nonfragmenting Projectiles
Produce bursts of various colored smoke
for antiaircraft gunnery practice

70. Target projectiles contain sand or
other inert material to simulate the
weight and balance of burster
charges; they are used for surface
gunnery practice.

71. Fuze
A device that detonates the
burster charge

72. Fuze
A mechanical or electronic device to
detonate an explosive charge,
especially as contained in an artillery
shell, a missile, projectile, or the like
Fuse (different spelling)
A tube, cord, or the like, filled or
saturated with combustible matter,
for igniting an explosive

73. Fuzes are classified by their function
as:
Fuze
• Impact
• Time
• Proximity

74. Controlled Proximity (VT) Fuze

75. Proximity Fuze
A design for detonating a charge, as
in a projectile, within a predesignated
radius of a target

76. Controlled Variable–Time Fuze (CVT)
Delays projectile arming for a set
time after it is fired

77. Firing over a Friendly Ship
Air
Burst
Impact
Burst
Enemy
Note: Impact Backup in VT Mode

78. Mechanical Time Fuze
It contains a clock mechanism that
explodes the projectile after a preset
amount of time elapses.

79. Antiaircraft guns put up a ―flak‖
screen to protect carrier task forces.

80. Flak
A heavy antiaircraft barrage through
which aircraft must fly to attack their
target

81. Iraqi Chemical Artillery Projectiles
Artillery projectiles have been produced that
can dispense chemical or biological agents,
and have been used in some of the conflicts
in the Middle East.

82. Naval Gunfire Support
Shore bombardment was
common in World War II.

83. Naval gunfire support for amphibious
operations must be:
• Carefully planned
• Executed with precision

84. USS Defender
(MCM 2)
Support roles for naval gunfire include:
• Mine warfare activities

85. • Sea/Air rescue missions

86. • Reconnaissance and demolition
operations

87. • Feints
• Raids
• Flak suppression
during air strikes

88. • In interdiction of coastal
roads, railroads, airfields,
and troop assembly areas

89. Interdiction
THE END
Steady bombardment of enemy positions
and communications lines for the
purpose of delaying and disorganizing
progress