Brooklyn and six-inch volume of fire

The practical combat math behind light cruisers favored Brooklyn-style batteries. A high rate of six-inch fire could produce many more hits than slower eight-inch guns, damaging exposed systems and reducing the enemy's return fire. Repeated hits mattered cumulatively because each success made it harder for the opponent to maintain its own rate of fire, even when one six-inch shell was less destructive. U.S. planners still wanted eight-inch cruisers when they imagined having to check heavier Japanese units such as the Kongo-class ships.