Kurita brought two battleships, two battlecruisers, eight cruisers, and fifteen destroyers, including Yamato's 18-inch guns. On paper their shell weight could match the 36 16-inch guns in Lee's four-battleship line, but calibre alone obscures the American advantage. Kongo and Haruna lacked battleship-level protection against modern American 16-inch fire, while Nagato had not received comparable modernization. Yamato's guns had a very long maximum ballistic range, yet their practical effective range was roughly 25 kilometers against about 38 kilometers for the American 16-inch/50 system. The difference comes from fire control as much as gun size: all four American battleships had consistently strong radar-directed systems, while Japanese radar and fire-control quality varied across the formation. In the confined strait, Center Force would have little room to maneuver while American destroyers screened a battle line able to detect and fire first at night.
Chapter · 59:44-1:05:24
Center Force matches the Americans only on paper
Japanese heavy-gun weight looked comparable, but American radar fire control and a prepared chokepoint would sharply reduce Center Force's practical advantage.