Soviet 180 mm guns offered performance and a treaty problem

The 180 mm gun is introduced as the largest caliber Soviet industry could then make and as a useful weapon family developed through earlier cruiser work. The quoted mountings allowed elevation to 60 degrees in a single mounting and 50 degrees in a triple mounting. Performance figures include four to five rounds per minute, a muzzle velocity of 900 meters per second, and a maximum range of 38.5 kilometers at 50 degrees. Those characteristics made the gun attractive for Soviet cruiser requirements. A separate difficulty arose from the ship category: cruisers treated locally as light cruisers would fall into the heavy-cruiser category under the discussed treaty definitions. Potential entry into later naval agreements would therefore complicate a design choice that otherwise suited Soviet needs.