Modern Tirpitz

[OnionSpider13]

Is this build still alive?  I'd love to see the final product!

[Captain Canada]

Good call and thanks for bringing this back up ! I
Need to save that profile when I get home

[kerick]

Would the CIWS be able to lock onto and elevate high enough to target a Tallboy?
Is that too much of a Kendra/Robin/Hannah question?

If the Tallboy is within the 500 metre kill zone then yes, it could target a tallboy.

OK.  But would it do any good if the Tallboy was going to hit the ship?
IIRC the Tallboy casings were made from pretty serious steel.

Precisely, and it would be going like the clappers as well. That's a LOT of kinetic energy to deal with, let alone the RDX or Torpex or whatever they were filled with.

Even if you got the tall boy to explode at that terminal velocity the shrapnel would stil hit like a giant shotgun blast.

[Joe C-P]

Chobham armor is very very heavy, and adding all that mass up high on the ship won't be great for its stability. It's partly made from depleted uranium. Fine for a small thing like a tank, but not practical in the amounts need for a vessel.

Also, the turrets are already the best protected parts of the ship, along with the conning tower. You could add a decapping spaced armor layer to set off explosives on contact before they hit the main armor protection, which should also help reduce the effectiveness of armor-piercing weapons.

The US armed forces have bunker-busting guided weapons (made from old 8" gun barrels) that will penetrate, essentially, any armor a ship could carry, so the better solution is to destroy the aircraft before it can launch the weapon, or confuse it in flight so it misses the target.

[zenrat]

...The US armed forces have bunker-busting guided weapons (made from old 8" gun barrels) that will penetrate, essentially, any armor a ship could carry...

Do you mean the weapons themselves are made from gun barrels?  So they are dropping chunks of old gun which are then guided onto the target?
How eco friendly, recycling ones old weapons.
Got a link?

[NARSES2]

...The US armed forces have bunker-busting guided weapons (made from old 8" gun barrels) that will penetrate, essentially, any armor a ship could carry...

Do you mean the weapons themselves are made from gun barrels? 

That's my question as well. Would mean the supply of weapons is strictly limited.

I know from experience in the industry that a lot of the technology used to make larger calibre naval guns is in danger of being lost which is why I ask

[Hobbes]

They started out using old 8" gun barrels because they were available at very short notice, they later switched to custom castings. The technology being lost is associated with machining the rifling, IIRC? That wouldn't be an issue for this bomb, you just need a pipe of a certain diameter and thickness.

Phalanx can reach an elevation of 85º, so there's a very narrow cone they can't reach.

[NARSES2]

They started out using old 8" gun barrels because they were available at very short notice, they later switched to custom castings. The technology being lost is associated with machining the rifling, IIRC? That wouldn't be an issue for this bomb, you just need a pipe of a certain diameter and thickness.

Thought so Harro but wanted to check, and yes part of the technology in danger of being lost is to do with the rifling. The other is that we have had so many different types of steel "invented" over the last few years that can do things we never thought steel could do that we are in danger of forgetting some of the older ones we had and over engineering the future when we already have the answer. It's not a phenomenon only found in the materials industries but obviously one I know, or at least knew, more about.

[zenrat]

Thanks Hobbes.  I understand now.  Use available high quality steel in the form of old barrels to make test bombs then make production models from new metal.

Haven't we already forgotten some of the steelmaking tricks used by old sword makers?

[Dizzyfugu]

It's the GBU-28, a.k.a. "Deep Throat"... More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBU-28

[NARSES2]

Haven't we already forgotten some of the steelmaking tricks used by old sword makers?

Yup. Toledo steel in particular. However that's more to do with secrecy then anything else. The old masters were so secretive they simply didn't pass it on to enough apprentices. You get plague, pestilence or war and the apprentices die and you've lost the art. The same thing is highly visible in museums in Crete. When you look at Minoan artifacts it's the mid period articles that are the most impressive. Again the masters kept the methods close to their chests as it made them wealthier and when they died so did the secret. Late period Minoan art is no where near as impressive.

As an aside regarding Toledo steel. It is known that the blades would be quenched in urine. Now one or two metallurgists ventured the thought that because of dietry changes our urine is not the same any more thus we can't replicate the process. I still think said metallurgists were taking the pee 

[Hobbes]

AIU the issue with technology for large guns is not that we don't know how to do it anymore, it's that we no longer have the giant machines required to process 16" gun barrels.

[eatthis]

 
i had a very similar idea using a hood and got it part built

[NARSES2]

AIU the issue with technology for large guns is not that we don't know how to do it anymore, it's that we no longer have the giant machines required to process 16" gun barrels.

Yup it's all gone, although some strange stuff has turned up in long forgotten sheds when some of the sites have been redeveloped. Steel works are huge places so we may yet turn one up. There is a growing problem that we would have to relearn skills as well in order to do some of these things and that is not easy. How many people do you know who cannot do long multiplication or division with paper and pencil with no calculator ? Log tables anyone ?

[zenrat]

You'll be bringing up slide rules and vernier calipers next...

I was taught at school how to use logs and verniers but just missed slide rules (although my father has one and taught me how to use it).