Fletchers combined single 5-inch gun mounts with the Mark 37 fire-control system. The mounts offered little protection, prompting caution about calling them turrets. Later Sumners carried twin 5-inch/38 guns in Mark 38 dual-purpose mounts. Imagining four or five such twin mounts on a Fletcher raises a firepower possibility without establishing a practical design. The single mounts probably helped crews by giving each team room to aim and fire its gun with less interference. That is a suggested working-space advantage, rather than a measured comparison of firing performance.
Notable Point · 15:29-16:58
Single gun mounts and Fletcher crew working space
Lightly protected single 5-inch mounts may have given each Fletcher gun crew useful working space.