Re: Stealth and Countermeasures...

Imre A. Szabo wrote:

> SunBurns will do damage but they will do far less damage to a BB then
a
> super heavy gun.  Why?  Doesn't have the explosive payload or the
ultra
> tough armor piercing airframe...  Probably equivalent to heavy guns.

A bit about comparing 16" shells and Missiles.

A 16" shell weighs on the order of 1 1/2 tonnes. Depending on whether
it's High-Capacity, Armour Piercing or Semi-Armour piercing, this can
vary a bit, but not much.

In cross-section, the normal 16" SAP (Semi-Armour Piercing) shell has
about 50% of the volume occupied by explosives. In terms of weight,
that's maybe 100 kg. For a High-Capaicity shell, it's 200 kg, as the
metal weighs at least 10x more than the explosive, by volume.

The damage that AP and to a lesser extent SAP shells do is from the fact
that they propel 3-4 large chunks of ironmongery around at hypersonic
speeds when they go off, plus thousands of small splinters. More and
Bigger chunks for AP, more splinters and fewer chunks for SAP.

It's for this reason that many small ships have easily survived hits by
large calibre guns. In many cases there was no fuse initiation, and the
shell just made 2 16" diameter holes. In other cases, the 100kg of
explosives did a bit of damage, none of the 3-4 bowling-ball sized
chunks hit anything vital, and the splinters just made the immediate
area (above the waterline) into a collander. The actual explosion is
remarkably small.

With a missile like a Sunburn, or the dreaded AS-6 Kingfish, it's a
different matter. There's far less metal, but a whole heap more
explosive. We're talking at least 100 kg for the small missiles, and
1000 kg for the big ones. Plus the unburnt propellant, which in the case
of solid fuel weapons is as dangerous as the warhead itself. Not merely
that, but as the explosive doesn't have to take a multi-hundred G shock
at the time of firing, a more sensitive and powerful explosive (at least
twice the power for an equivalent amount) can be used.

This will not do more than dish in a big slab of armour: but less than
30% of a Battleship is armoured this way, only the vitals, waterline
etc. So a big explosion that hits from above can cause all sorts of
electrical, hydraulic, fuel feed etc problems, plus fire, as well as
removing large chunks of superstructure, warping decks, etc. Two such
hits in close proximity would not penetrate the armour - but could
easily cause large (10s of square meter) areas to detach from the rest
of the ship's structure, causing massive leaks.

So although an Exocet sea-skimmer hitting an Iowa (ie a small warhead
with large incendiary effects hitting 40cm of armour near the waterline)
would just require a quick re-spray, an Otomat or other small
terminal-diver coming in could cause serious (non-fatal) grief. And 20
of them would almost certainly result in the ship's destruction.

One AS-6 (MUCH bigger missile) would be unlikely to penetrate even the
deck armour, apart from the first one or possibly two decks. But it
might blow a turret straight off its mountings, and would certainly
disable all radars, and most optics.

A Sunburn (Exocet-sized) thus actually has a lot more explosive power
than a 16" shell. Give it a precursor warhead, and its speed would cause
it go through the deck armour too. But better would be to give it an EMP
warhead to KO the ship's electrical system.	 
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