Last summer USS Dewey (DDG-105) fired 20 hyper velocity projectiles (HVP) from a standard Mk 45 5-inch deck gun in a quiet experiment that’s set to add new utility to the weapon found on almost every U.S. warship, officials familiar with the test have told USNI News.
The test, conducted by the Navy and the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office as part of the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2018 international exercise, was part of a series of studies to prove the Navy could turn the more than 40-year-old deck gun design into an effective and low-cost weapon against cruise missiles and larger unmanned aerial vehicles.
You could potentially get rid of specialized missile defense systems if the guns can do this. If you had more guns on the ship. On existing ships this would just add to the defensive firepower.
No word on range.
And the Army and Marines could sure use it to with all their tube artillery, as the article notes.
And if it has the range, it could be used for offensive missions, too, in place of missiles, which the article also notes.
(I got excited about the potential and started writing about other missions before I got to the parts above that covered my speculation!)
Could we see warships without the vertical launch cells that cover the decks? Would more gun turrets--or even vertically fired guns embedded in the decks--and larger shell magazines for both offensive and defensive use?
Perhaps my worry about the rail gun is misplaced.
