Quote:
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Originally Posted by Platapus
Quote:
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Originally Posted by WFGood
The 3 inch 50 caliber Mk 21 (76mm)
The largest weapon carried aboard a US submarine was the 5 inch 25 caliber (MK40) cannon. Housed on a moveable mount, submarines located these weapons abaft of the cigarette deck.
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In this context what does the calibre designation mean?
I thought I read a long time ago that it was the ratio between the bore and the barrel length. But that can't be right as the 3 inch 50 cal would be over 12 feet long.
So what does it mean when the 3 inch gun had a 50 calibre designation? |
Based on the pictures of this particular gun (see here:
http://www.valoratsea.com/350.htm ) and other such pictures, I wouldn't think it odd for this gun to be a little over 12 feet long, so I think that must be the way the "caliber" term is being used in this context - I think for small-bore weapons (pistols, rifles, machine guns, etc. of .5 inch diameter or less) it's more commonly used to refer to the bore diameter, but for naval guns/artillery pieces or other large bore weapons it seems to be uniformly used to denote the length instead.