Q&A ยท 3:25:35-3:26:18

Adapting cruiser fire control to a battleship

Fire-control computers were configurable, though changing projectile and main-gun characteristics involved more than swapping a table.

Question

How difficult is it to adapt a cruiser fire-control system for battleship guns?

Short answer

Ballistic tables and inputs can be changed, but main-battery use may require altered sensors and computing; secondary batteries using the same guns are much easier to support.

Notes

Fire-control systems stored gun, shell, and environmental data in replaceable tables and settings. Adapting a cruiser system to battleship main guns would require new ballistic inputs and might also require different sensors. The task becomes easier for secondary batteries because identical guns can retain much of the original computing and control arrangement. The system was configurable, but the size of the change depended on whether the new weapon shared the old battery's characteristics.