Q&A · 2:00:40-2:02:12

How late-war fire control accounted for ship roll

The suggested explanation links firing delay to the appropriate degree of roll, while leaving the precise up-roll versus down-roll distinction uncertain.

Question

Could late-generation fire control distinguish between firing on the up-roll and down-roll?

Short answer

The answer is tentative: the system is thought to account for ignition-to-muzzle delay and signal at the appropriate roll angle, rather than explicitly select up-roll or down-roll.

Notes

The tentative explanation is that fire control calculated the delay between the ignition solenoid's action and the shell leaving the muzzle. It would then send the firing signal at the appropriate degree of roll. This is offered as an account of how the system used the ship's motion, with uncertainty about whether it explicitly distinguished up-roll from down-roll in the terms of the question. The Iowa-class main-battery equipment illustrates how much calculation fitted into machinery compared in size to a large domestic American oven and cooktop.