A comment compares an American automatic 5-inch gun used for Vietnam gunfire support with older 6-inch installations in converted Cleveland-class cruisers. That comparison cannot separate calibre from unequal development effort. Modernization of the 5-inch system did not establish what a 6-inch weapon could have achieved with equivalent technology and investment. Comparable commitment could have produced a more effective automatic 6-inch gun than the one actually built. That remains a counterfactual possibility, rather than proof that the larger calibre would necessarily have performed better.
Notable Point · 58:58-59:36
Why calibre alone cannot explain modern naval-gun performance
Comparisons between modern 5-inch and older 6-inch guns need to account for unequal modernization effort.