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Old 07-15-2020, 01:10 PM
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Arrow USS New Jersey: This World War II Battleship Fired 20,000 Shells During Vietnam

USS New Jersey: This World War II Battleship Fired 20,000 Shells During Vietnam
By: Kyle Mizokami - National Interest News - 07-15-20
Re: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/re...vietnam-164850

Photo link: https://nationalinterest.org/sites/d...?itok=5v56ynYi
(Note: look at (water and see the side way ship displacement) once the guns are fire off!) (**) thread blow this one posted about the shells used).

The battle-wagon fired nearly twenty thousand shells during its tour of duty, bombarding enemy forces the way only a battleship can.

Here's What You Need to Remember: The U.S. Navy, concerned by aircraft losses in the air campaign against North Vietnam, saw the battleship as a low-risk way of bombarding coastal targets without losing aircraft and pilots.

As the war in Vietnam reached its crescendo, the U.S. Navy prepared to recommission one of the most powerful ships ever to serve in the fleet. USS New Jersey, an Iowa-class battleship, was reactivated to provide naval gunfire support for American and allied forces fighting in South Vietnam. The battlewagon fired nearly twenty thousand shells during its tour of duty, bombarding enemy forces the way only a battleship can.

The USS New Jersey was the second Iowa-class battleship ever built, and the third from last U.S. Navy battleship ever built. New Jersey was part of the Navy’s prewar rearmament program, as the United States began to build up its forces in response to war in both Europe and the Pacific. Construction began at the Philadelphia Naval Yard on September 16, 1940, and the ship was launched exactly one year after Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1942. She was finally commissioned into the U.S. Navy on May 23, 1943.

New Jersey was built to the same specifications as her three sister ships: Iowa, Missouri, and Wisconsin. (Two additional ships, Illinois and Kentucky, were ordered but never completed.) Each battleship was 860 feet long, weighed 57,350 tons fully loaded with ammunition and fuel, and were powered by four General Electric steam turbines, giving them a top speed of 33 knots. The battleships were armed with nine sixteen-inch guns, twenty five-inch dual purpose guns, eighty 40-millimeter anti-aircraft guns, and forty nine 20-millimeter anti-aircraft guns.

The Ohio-class battleships were originally designed to duke it out with other battleships, including such Axis ships as the German Bismarck and the Japanese super-battleships Yamato and Musashi. The changing nature of warfare, however, relegated the battleships to providing naval gunfire support for Army and Marine landings across the Pacific and anti-air warfare escort for aircraft carriers. All four briefly saw action in the Korean War, with Iowa, New Jersey, and Wisconsin all reactivated to provide heavy gunfire support from the sea. The Korean War ended in 1953 and New Jersey was again decommissioned in 1957.

In 1968 New Jersey was brought out of mothballs yet again, for yet another war. New Jersey was recommissioned on April 6, 1968 at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard where she had been built a quarter century before. The battleship had only a modest set of modifications: her 40-millimeter guns were removed and a helicopter landing pad was added. The ship was also fitted with SHORTSTOP, a brand new combined jammer and chaff launcher meant to protect the ship from radar-guided anti-ship missiles.

The U.S. Navy, concerned by aircraft losses in the air campaign against North Vietnam, saw the battleship as a low-risk way of bombarding coastal targets without losing aircraft and pilots. North Vietnam, other than tactical aircraft and torpedo boats, had little that could damage a battleship parked off its coastline. A battleship could provide responsive fire support day or night, rain or shine, whenever friendly forces needed it.

USS New Jersey departed Philadelphia on May 16, 1968, traveling down the East Coast and passing through the Panama Canal before arriving at her new home port of Long Beach. The ship fired her guns, including the sixteen-inch guns off San Clemente Island in June 1968, then proceeded to Hawaii and then Subic Bay, the Philippines.

The battleship finally arrived off the coast of Southeast Asia on September 29th, 1968, and fired her guns in anger again for the first time in over fifteen years the next day. New Jersey was on the gun line in South Vietnam for 120 days. She participated in the U.S. Navy’s Operation Sea Dragon, an effort to disrupt North Vietnam’s seagoing supply effort, shell coastal batteries and radar sites. As originally intended, New Jersey was able to relieve U.S. tactical air forces from missions near the enemy coastline. The battleship also responded to calls for fire from the 1st and 3d Marine Divisions, 173rd Airborne Brigade, and 101st Airborne Division.

Over the course of her relatively short Vietnam patrol New Jersey fired 5,688 16-inch gun rounds and 14,891 five-inch gun rounds, far more than she fired during World War II and the Korean War combined. She was never seriously attacked by North Vietnamese forces.

After her Vietnam tour the ship returned to Long Beach. During the workup to her second tour her crew learned that the ship was scheduled to once again go into mothballs, the victim of cost cutting. Even a draftee military found it difficult to financially support a ship with 1,600 crew members and the demands of both Vietnam and the Cold War to satisfy.

New Jersey was inactivated in 1969. The old battlewagon would be reactivated just twelve years later as part of an effort to bring the U.S. Navy battle fleet up to 600 ships. USS New Jersey is now moored in Camden, New Jersey, where she serves as a floating museum.

About this writer: Kyle Mizokami is a writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring and The Daily Beast. In 2009 he co-founded the defense and security blog Japan Security Watch. This first appeared in 2019 and is being republished due to reader interest.

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Battleship Shell Data - U.S. 16"/50 (40.6 cm) Mark 7 shell data
Re: http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_16-50_mk7.php

More powerful than the 16"/45 (40.6 cm) Mark 6 guns used on the North Carolina (BB-55) and South Dakota (BB-57) classes, this was possibly the best battleship gun ever put into service. Originally intended to fire the relatively light 2,240 pound (1,016.0 kg) AP Mark 5 projectile, the shell handling system for these guns was redesigned to use the "super-heavy" 2,700 pound (1,224.7 kg) AP Mark 8 before any of the USS Iowa class (BB-61) battleships were laid down. This heavier projectile made these guns nearly the equal in terms of penetration power to the 46 cm (18.1") guns of the Japanese Yamato class battleships, yet they weighed less than three-quarters as much.

As modernized in the 1980s, each turret carried a DR-810 radar that measured the muzzle velocity of each gun, which made it easier to predict the velocity of succeeding shots. Together with the Mark 160 FCS and better propellant consistency, these improvements made these weapons into the most accurate battleship-caliber guns ever made. For example, during test shoots off Crete in 1987, fifteen shells were fired from 34,000 yards (31,900 m), five from the right gun of each turret. The pattern size was 220 yards (200 m), 0.64% of the total range. 14 out of the 15 landed within 250 yards (230 m) of the center of the pattern and 8 were within 150 yards (140 m). Shell-to-shell dispersion was 123 yards (112 m), 0.36% of total range.

The Armor Piercing (AP) shell fired by these guns is capable of penetrating nearly 30 feet (9 m) of concrete, depending upon the range and obliquity of impact. The High Capacity (HC) shell can create a crater 50 feet wide and 20 feet deep (15 x 6 m). During her deployment off Vietnam, USS New Jersey (BB-62) occasionally fired a single HC round into the jungle and so created a helicopter landing zone 200 yards (180 m) in diameter and defoliated trees for 300 yards (270 m) beyond that.

A persistent anecdote is that the Iowa class suffered from alignment problems until after the Battle of Leyte Gulf. William Jurens, a noted expert on US naval weaponry, together with Iowa crewmembers and the staff at NSWC Dahlgren, performed a search of the official records for detailed data on this specific problem, but could find nothing in the files suggesting that the alignments were in any way out of the ordinary. Mr. Jurens' suspicion is that there may have been an oblique reference to an alignment problem in some document that was taken out of context; perhaps they were waiting for parts.

The Iowa class battleships are the sole survivors of the battleship era that can still be placed into service, although they now exist mainly as memorials.

The weapon is constructed of liner, A tube, jacket, three hoops, two locking rings, tube and liner locking ring, yoke ring and screw box liner. Some components were autofretted. As typical of USN weapons built in the 1940s, the bore was chromium plated for longer barrel life. Uses a hydraulically operated Welin breech block which opens downwards. The screw box liner and breech plug are segmented with stepped screw threads arranged in fifteen sectors of 24 degrees each.

Gun Characteristics:
Designation 16"/50 (40.6 cm) Mark 7
Ship Class Used On Iowa (BB-61) and Montana (BB-67) Classes
Date Of Design 1939
Date In Service 1943
Gun Weight 267,904 lbs. (121,519 kg) (including breech)
239,156 lbs. (108,479 kg) (without breech)
Gun Length oa 816 in (20.726 m) (breech face to muzzle)
Bore Length 800 in (20.320 m)
Rifling Length 682.86 in (17.344 m)
Grooves (96) 0.150 in deep (3.81 mm)
Lands N/A
Twist Uniform RH 1 in 25
Chamber Volume 27,000 in3 (442.5 dm3)
Rate Of Fire 2 rounds per minute

#1. The primer cartridge can be fired either electrically or by percussion. The cartridge is automatically ejected when the breech opens after firing. In the case of a misfire, the cartridge can be manually removed and replaced without opening the breech.

#2. The bore was chromium plated for a distance of 690 inches (17.526 m) from the muzzle.

#3. Projectile travel was 689.67 in (17.518 m) (new gun).

#4. Air purging was used on these guns in order to quench and remove smoldering particles as a preventative measure against flareback. In movies or pictures, this purging can be seen as a small puff of white smoke that is emitted a few seconds after the gun fires.

Ammunition Link: http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS...php#Ammunition

^Approved in June 1939, the AP Mark 8 projectile was originally designed as the longer, heavier "big brother" to the AP Mark 5 projectiles used for the 16"/45 (40.6 cm) guns carried by the Colorado (BB-45) class battleships. Like the Mark 5, the Mark 8 projectiles were designed to be used in long-range gun actions against Japanese ships ("Plan Orange") and for that reason they were to be fired at relatively low muzzle velocities and high gun elevations. These conditions would result in a steeper angle of fall in order to enhance their deck armor penetration capabilities. In almost all respects the 1939 design of the Mark 8 Mod 0 was very similar to the Mark 5 except for length. However, around the end of 1944 the improved Mark 8 Mod 6 version came out with significantly better hardening techniques which gave a noticeable improvement in penetration at impact angles of 35 degrees or so against thick face-hardened armor. This performance was so much better that BuOrd put out a memo stating that battleships were to return all previous Mods of this projectile as quickly as the Mod 6 became available for loading aboard ship. The Mod 6 had an even blunter, rounded AP body nose (with no point) to further enhance penetration against deck armor at high obliquity. The Mod 8 had a heavier cap, blunter nose and harder body from improved heat treating techniques. The AP Mark 8 has a radius of ogive of 144 inches (366 cm) or 9crh and leaves the barrel rotating at about 70 RPS. This round creates overpressures exceeding 50 psi (3.5 kg/cm2) close to the muzzle and 7 psi (0.5 kg/cm2) at a distance of 50 feet (15 m) from the muzzle. The Mark 21 Base Detonating Fuze (BDF) had a delay of 0.033 seconds. Fuze activation required a resistance equal to 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) of armor at 0 degrees obliquity or 0.375 inches (1 cm) at 65 degrees obliquity. AP projectile bodies are painted black. The nose color indicates burster type, with yellow denoting Explosive D. A narrow colored band below the nose indicates the splash color.

^The AP Mark 8 had a nominal 1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg) dye bag but this was allowed to be as large as 3.0 lbs. (1.36 kg) in order to bring underweight projectiles up to standard. The Iowa class was assigned the following dye colors:

USS Iowa - Orange
USS New Jersey - Blue
USS Missouri - Red
USS Wisconsin - Green

^The HC Mark 13 was originally designed for the Colorado (BB-45) class battleships, whose shell handling system limited the maximum projectile length to about 4 calibers. For standardization purposes, the Mark 13 was also issued to all newer battleships, even though their shell handling systems could have accommodated a longer, heavier projectile. This much-needed projectile was introduced in late-1942 and was originally designated as the EX-1. The explosive cavity in the Mark 13 has a relatively thick-wall with a fairly constant sidewall thickness, getting slightly thicker at the nose. It had somewhat less explosive weight in terms of percent than most foreign projectiles of World War II or even earlier USN HE projectiles, since it had as one of its requirements the ability to penetrate light armor and heavy concrete for shore bombardment purposes. The Mark 13 uses both base delay and nose contact fuzes for greater reliability under differing conditions, but can be used with only one fuze if desired. During World War II BuOrd developed AA shells for these guns which were standard HC rounds with a mechanical time fuze replacing the usual nose contact fuze. This meant that the function of the ordnance could easily be changed by simply replacing the nose fuze. These AA shells do not appear to have been issued their own Mark number, as they seem to have been known simply as the HC Mark 13 AA round. Like the AP Mark 8, the HC Mark 13 projectile has a radius of ogive of 144 inches (366 cm) or 9crh. The Mark 14 is identical to the Mark 13, being simply a different designation assigned to indicate manufacturers other than the Naval Gun Factory. The Naval Surface Warfare Center - Crane Division located at Crane, Indiana, manufactured some HC projectiles in 1969 and these were designated as Mark 14, but they were otherwise identical to the Mark 13. HC projectile bodies are painted green. The nose color indicates burster type, with yellow denoting Explosive D.

^Target Mark 9 use blind loaded and plugged (BL&P) AP Mark 8 projectile bodies.

^Target Mark 15 and Mark 16 use blind loaded and plugged (BL&P) HC Mark 13 projectile bodies.

^A total of fifty Mark 23 "Katie" nuclear projectiles were produced during the 1950s with development starting in 1952 and the first service projectile being delivered in October 1956. It is possible that the W23 nuclear warhead used for this projectile may have been installed inside of an otherwise unaltered HC Mark 13 shell body, although one of the sources listed below says that the projectile was slightly smaller than the Mark 13. USS Iowa, USS New Jersey and USS Wisconsin had an alteration made to Turret II magazine to incorporate a secure storage area for these projectiles. USS Missouri was not so altered as she had been placed in reserve in 1955. This secure storage area could contain ten nuclear shells plus nine Mark 24 practice shells. These nuclear projectiles were all withdrawn from service by October 1962 with none ever having been fired from a gun. One projectile was expended as part of Operation Plowshare (the peaceful use of nuclear explosive devices) and the rest were deactivated. USS Wisconsin did fire one of the practice shells during a test in 1957. It is not clear whether or not any of the battleships ever actually carried a nuclear device onboard, as the US Navy routinely refuses to confirm or deny which ships carry nuclear weapons. At least one Mark 23 shell body still exists at the National Atomic Museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as can be seen in the photograph below.

^During the 1980s deployments, several new projectile assemblies based upon the HC Mark 13 projectile body were developed or planned. Some of these were in service during the Gulf War (1990).

HE-CVT Mark 143

HC projectile with a Controlled Variable Time (CVT) fuze. Burster probably same as Mark 13, 153.5 lbs. (69.6 kg).

Anti-Personnel Improved Conventional Munition (ICM) Mark 144

Modified Mark 13 shell body, designed to dispense anti-personnel submunitions. Considered exceptionally effective against personnel, aircraft and other "soft" targets. Carried 400 M43A1 anti-personnel "Bouncing Betty" grenades with time-fuzes.

HE-ET/PT Mark 145
Similar to Mark 143, but with Electronic-Time (ET) and Point-Detonating (PD) fuzes.

Anti-Personnel ICM Mark 146 (Planned)
Similar to Mark 143, but contained 666 M42/M46/M77 SADARM bomblets with time-fuzes. Does not appear to have entered service.

Improved HC Mark 147? (Planned)

During the battleship reactivations during the 1980s, the Navy developed a new HC design that was the same length as the AP Mark 8 (4.5 calibers) and weighed 2,240 lbs. (1,015 kg). Several of these were test-fired from USS Iowa and at Dahlgren, achieving ranges over 51,000 yards (46,600 m) with a new gun muzzle velocity of 2,825 fps (861 mps). This projectile does not appear to have entered general service use before all of the battleships were decommissioned in the early 1990s. The "Mark 147" designation is my guess, I would be interested in learning the exact designation and any other relevant details about this projectile.

HE-ER Mark 148 (Planned)

13.65 in (34.7 cm) diameter, extended-range (ER), sub-caliber projectile with sabot. Length was approximately 72 in (183 cm). Projectile was to be ET-fuzed with a payload of about 300 M48 grenade submunitions. Experiments with this projectile were conducted during the 1980s, but development was cancelled in FY91 when the battleships were decommissioned. Projectile weight without the sabot was about 1,300 lbs. (590 kg) and range was to be in excess of 70,000 yards (64,000 m) at a muzzle velocity of 3,600 fps (1,097 mps). See photograph below.

HE-ER Mark ? (Planned)

Advanced Gun Weapon Systems Technology Program 16/11-Inch Long Range GPS Concept with Sabot.

Another sub-caliber projectile with sabot, this one 11 inches (28 cm) in diameter. This project was also cancelled about FY91.

A sketch of this projectile may be seen below.

Data below courtesy of United States Naval Fire Support Association (USNFSA):

Range: 100 nm
Launch Weight: 650 lbs. (295 kg)
Fly Away Weight: 525 lbs. (238 kg)
Launch Length: 69 in (175 cm)
Payload: 248 M46 Submunitions, total weight of 175.2 lbs. (79.5 kg)
Guidance Modes: GPS and INS

^A 1981 inventory of naval ammunition storage facilities found that there were 15,500 HC projectiles, 3,200 AP projectiles and 2,300 practice rounds in stock.

^The propellant was in six bags for both full and reduced charges. Propellant bags were made from raw silk, although rayon may have been introduced during the 1980 activations. Primer patch was at one end, quilted to ensure even distribution, and usually colored red. The other end had a handling strap. Bags were transferred from hoist to loading tray three bags at a time and then all six bags were rammed into the breech with a single stroke. During the 1980s reactivations, some experiments were performed using five bag loads.

^The D839 propellant grain used for full charges originally issued for this gun was 2 inches long (5.08 cm), 1 inch in diameter (2.54 cm) and had seven perforations, each 0.060 inches in diameter (0.152 cm) with a web thickness range of 0.193 to 0.197 inches (0.490 to 0.500 cm) between the perforations and the grain diameter. In addition to the propellants listed above, Reduced Charges for Target rounds were made with 340 lbs. (154 kg) of SPDN and 325 lbs. (147 kg) of SPCG. Full and AP Target charges were stacked while Reduced charges were dumped.

^During the 1980 deployments, D846, originally manufactured for the 16"/45 (40.6 cm) Mark 6 guns, was issued for use with the 1,900 lbs. (861.8 kg) HC projectiles. The charge weight was 571 lbs. (259 kg) for a MV of 2,690 fps (820 mps). Testing was also performed with rebagged 8" (20.3 cm) propellant for HC reduced charges. This gave good accuracy and predictable performance, but it was not put into service use.

^Each Full Charge powder bag had a 4.463 lbs. (2.1 kg) black powder bag igniter (primer patch).

^When the smokeless propellants (SP) were freshly made during World War II, MV varied no more than +/- 10 fps (3 mps) shot to shot and often no worse than +/- 5 fps shot to shot. As SP will degrade over time, a few years later during the Korean deployments MV varied about +/- 14 fps (4.3 mps) and during Vietnam about +/- 23 fps (7 mps). By the time of the 1980s deployments, shot to shot variation was about +/- 32 fps (9.8 mps). This large variation was a primary contributor to USS New Jersey's poor shooting off Lebanon in 1984. As a result, the NSWC Dhalgren facility and USS Iowa were tasked with improving performance. Old D839 and D846 propellant lots were remixed and proved to bring variation back within the +/- 10 fps requirement.

^When first introduced into service during World War II, the barrel life was 290 ESR, the lower of the two values given above. HC rounds at 2,690 fps (820 mps) were 0.43 ESR and at 1,900 fps (579 mps) were 0.03 ESR. The Target rounds at 1,800 fps (549 mps) were 0.08 ESR. A slight reduction in charge weight raised liner life to 350 ESR by the start of the Korean War. In the 1967 and 1980s deployments, the use of "Swedish Additive" (titanium dioxide and wax) greatly reduced barrel wear. It has been estimated that four AP shells fired using this additive approximated the wear of a single AP shell fired without the additive (0.26 ESR) and that HC rounds fired with the additive caused even less wear (0.11 ESR). The "Swedish Additive" was issued in a packet that was inserted between two of the propellant bags. Later developments during the 1980s deployment led to putting a polyurethane jacket over the powder bags, which reduced the wear still further. This jacket was simply a sheet of foam with a fabric border around the ends that was tied to the powder bag. When the jacket burned during firing, a protective layer formed over the surface of the liner, greatly reducing gaseous erosion. This wear reduction program was so successful that liner life could no longer be rated in terms of ESR, as it was no longer the limiting factor. Instead, the liner life began to be rated in terms of Fatigue Equivalent Rounds (FER), which is the mechanical fatigue life expressed in terms of the number of mechanical cycles. The 16"/50 (40.6 cm) Mark 7 was ultimately rated at having a liner life of 1,500 FER.
^There are conflicting accounts about the number of rounds that could be carried by the Iowa class. Here are two sources that I consider creditable.

Projectile Stowage from OP 769 "16-Inch Three Gun Turrets BB-61 Class"
-
Location Projectile Stowage Turret I Projectile Stowage Turret II Projectile Stowage Turret III
Upper Projectile Flat Outer Ring 120 70 100
Lower Projectile Flat Outer Ring 126 125 126
Each of the two Inner Rings 72 72 72
Fixed Stowage, Third Level N/A 121 N/A
Total 390 460 370
Grand Total 1,220
There were also 9 drill projectiles per turret for a total of 27.
OP 769 was first issued in 1943 and updated when USS New Jersey BB-63 was recommissioned in 1969.


The following projectile and powder canister numbers are taken from notes and sketches made by a chief gunner's mate for USS Missouri BB-63 just before she was decommissioned in February 1955.

Projectile Stowage from USS Missouri BB-63 Notes
Turret Number 16-inch Projectiles 16-inch Powder Canisters
Turret I 387 843 Mark 4 or 989 Mark 8
Turret II 456 928 Mark 4 or 1,148 Mark 8
Turret III 367 743 Mark 4 or 874 Mark 8
Total 1,210 2,514 Mark 4 or 3,011 Mark 8

Each Propellant Canister held three propellant bags. Mark 4 were Full Service Charges, Mark 8 were Reduced Service Charges.

As was typical of US designs, the higher position of Turret II allowed significantly more projectile stowage compared to the other two mountings.

Some powder magazines were converted to other purposes during the 1980s-1990s deployments, but the shell storage does not seem to have ever been reduced.

In the spring or summer of 1967 when USS New Jersey (BB-62) was being activated for Vietnam, Indian Head Naval Ordnance Station proposed taking 23,000 non-nuclear 280 mm (11") shells left over from the Army's "atomic cannon" program and converting them via a sabot and obturator to be used in 16" (40.6 cm) guns. This was apparently a part of or in conjunction with the "Gunfighter" program for developing Long Range Bombardment Ammunition (LRBA) projectiles. Test shots were fired in 1968 and 1969 at Yuma and at Barbados, with the latter location using two 16"/45 (40.6) cm guns welded end-to-end and achieving ranges out to 83,850 yards (76,670 m) with a 745 lbs. (338 kg) shell fired at a muzzle velocity of 4,550 fps (1,387 mps). The program was apparently halted when New Jersey was decommissioned in 1969. A photograph of the disassembled saboted round is shown below. During the 1980s deployment, an investigation was undertaken to consider converting 280 mm projectiles into cargo rounds carrying about 300 sub-munitions, but no prototypes were constructed.

All full-caliber projectiles have a bourrelet diameter of 15.977 inches (40.058 cm) and have two rear bourrelets, one on either side of the driving bands, to improve shot centering as the projectile exits the muzzle.

Range:

Ranges of projectiles fired at new gun muzzle velocities
Elevation AP Mark 8 HC Mark 13
10 degrees 17,650 yards (16,139 m) 18,200 yards (16,642 m)
15 degrees 23,900 yards (21,854 m) 24,100 yards (22,037 m)
20 degrees 29,000 yards (26,518 m) 28,800 yards (26,335 m)
25 degrees 33,300 yards (30,450 m) 32,700 yards (29,901 m)
30 degrees 36,700 yards (33,558 m) 36,000 yards (32,918 m)
35 degrees 39,500 yards (36,119 m) 38,650 yards (35,342 m)
40 degrees 41,430 yards (37,884 m) 40,600 yards (37,163 m)
45 degrees 42,345 yards (38,720 m) 41,622 yards (38,059 m)

With reduced charges, the AP Mark 8 had a maximum range of 24,180 yards (22,110 m) while the HC Mark 13 had a maximum range of 27,350 yards (25,010 m).
The Mark 23 Nuclear shell had about the same weight and ballistic shape as did the HC Mark 13 projectile and, as noted above, the nuclear warhead may have been installed in an otherwise unaltered Mark 13 shell body. For these reasons, I would assume that the elevation/range performance of the Mark 23 would be similar to that of the Mark 13. For the same reasons, the performances of the Mark 143, Mark 144 and Mark 145 projectiles should all be similar to that of the Mark 13.

Time of flight for AP Shell with MV = 2,500 fps (762 mps)
10,000 yards (9,140 m): 13.2 seconds
20,000 yards (18,290 m): 29.6 seconds
30,000 yards (27,430 m): 50.3 seconds
36,000 yards (32,920 m): 66.1 seconds
40,000 yards (36,580 m): 80.0 seconds

Time of flight for HC Shell with MV = 2,615 fps (797 mps)
10,000 yards (9,140 m): 13.1 seconds
20,000 yards (18,290 m): 30.3 seconds
30,000 yards (27,430 m): 53.2 seconds
35,000 yards (32,000 m): 70.3 seconds
39,500 yards (36,120 m): 86.0 seconds

The maximum range with the originally planned 2,240 lbs. (1,016 kg) AP Mark 5 was 47,000 yards (42,980 m). Muzzle velocity would have been 2,700 fps (823 mps) with a charge of 640 lbs. (290 kg) SPD.

At an "average gun" MV of 2,425 fps (1,739 mps), the maximum range with AP Mark 8 at a 40 degree elevation was 40,185 yards (36,745 m).

photo of shell size: http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS...-parts_pic.jpg

Photo of shell storage: http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS...tte_modern.jpg

Photo of the BB-62 USS New Jersey off Australia in 1990.

Note: There is a hell of a lot of photos and data on site too much for here: RE: http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS...php#Ammunition

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O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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