Mark 16/1 Triple 6 in /47 Turret - 6 Inch /47 Guns

6 Inch /47 Guns

Each gun could fire a 130-pound (59 kg) projectile 13 miles (21 km). Maximum range at 41 degrees elevation was 14.5 miles (23.3 km). Projectiles varied in weight; armor-piercing projectile weighed 130 pounds, a high capacity projectile weighed 105 pounds, and an anti-aircraft projectile weighed 65 pounds. Ammunition was semi-fixed (the projectile and the powder casing were separate). The powder case for these guns was housed in a brass canister and weighed 65 lb (29 kg).

Eight to ten rounds per minute could be fired from each of the 6-inch guns. Each gun weighed 4.31 tons and could be elevated up to 60 degrees. Originally gun ports in the turret faces were cut to allow only 41 degrees elevation, though during World War Two all triple 6 inch/47 gun ports were ordered to be modified to permit the full 60 degrees. The guns could not be loaded at greater than 20 degrees elevation; this reduced the rate of fire when engaging distant surface targets or aircraft. All three guns in each turret were mounted in the same sleeve, but delay coils permitted "split salvos" to be fired; this cured a shell pattern dispersion problem common to many US cruisers of the 1920s and 1930s. The 105 pound armor piercing shell fired at 2810 feet per second could pierce up to 5 in (127 mm) of hardened armor plate out to 9,200 yards; the 130 pound AP shell introduced just before World War Two fired at 2500 feet per second could penetrate out to 15,700 yards.

Gun barrel lives were 750 to 1050 full charge rounds.