Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 1:26:26-1:26:51

Could Vanguard follow-ons reuse R-class turrets?

Britain has spare 15-inch barrels, but recovering complete turrets from a sunken R-class battleship would be the difficult part of arming another Vanguard-type ship.

HMS Royal OakHMS VanguardNaval GunneryRevenge Class BattleshipsWarship Salvage
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Question

Could Vanguard follow-on ships use 15-inch guns and turrets recovered from an R-class battleship?

Short answer

Possibly, but Britain has plenty of barrels while salvaging complete turrets from a sunken ship such as Royal Oak would be much harder.

Notes

The proposal is technically possible because Britain retains many 15-inch gun barrels. Complete mountings are the scarcer resource needed for a Vanguard-style reuse program. HMS Royal Oak is already sunk at Scapa Flow, so taking her turrets would require a substantial recovery effort in wartime. An R-class source is therefore possible, though much less straightforward than the existence of spare guns alone suggests.