Odd naval question...

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by CaptainMattJ.

thats true, Steve. But at the time, the Iowa was one of the best, if not the best, battleship classes around. Its incredible speed, range and accuracy (due to the use of radar guided FCS), and its heavy throw weight, it was quite the match for the Yamato, and any other surface ship built during the era.

The US navy didn't consider them more than a match for Yamato. Have you ever wondered why there were four of them? They never said anything officially but I find it interesting that they were building six, and two of them got cancelled about the same time as Shinano was converted to a carrier.

But, its true that such an event would cripple the battleship without the rangefinders. And the iowa wasnt the only class to be fitted with them, not by a long shot

As I said, every battleship since Dreadnought has had rangefinders in the turrets, because even the shockwave from a near miss can knock the main rangefinder out of alignment, and then there isn't one anymore. This is also why WW2-era battleships had an entire backup Fire Control System in a separate tower.