How disruptive would a Vickers battleship-calibre autoloader be before the First World War?
Short answerA system raising heavy-gun fire to four or five rounds per minute would alarm rival navies, but it would be relay-and-mechanism control rather than the sensor-rich automation of today.
NotesA pre-war Vickers autoloader would use switches, relays, and mechanically triggered sequences to move ammunition through the loading cycle. That differs from modern control using sensors and computers, even though both arrangements can be called automation. A hypothetical increase from two to five rounds per minute would raise a ten-gun broadside from twenty to fifty rounds per minute, matching the shell output of two and a half otherwise comparable battleships. Such a change would alarm rival navies. Early control equipment would occupy much more space and need people stationed throughout the system, while modern electronics could centralise supervision. Even so, a highly mechanised arrangement could substantially reduce the total gun crew. The rough estimate offered is a reduction from perhaps two hundred people, including those below the turret, to about forty.