Sabot shells

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paul.mercer
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Sabot shells

Post by paul.mercer »

Gentlemen,
In the book 'The Hunt for Red October' the end scene is the US navy preparing to do battle with Soviet forces and one of the US ships is an 'Iowa' class battleship (New Jersey I think). Instead of her normal 16" shells she has a small 8" in a sabot which can be fired at some enormous range.
Is this possible, or is it just made up for the book?
Bgile
Senior Member
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Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2005 7:33 pm
Location: Portland, OR, USA

Re: Sabot shells

Post by Bgile »

paul.mercer wrote:Gentlemen,
In the book 'The Hunt for Red October' the end scene is the US navy preparing to do battle with Soviet forces and one of the US ships is an 'Iowa' class battleship (New Jersey I think). Instead of her normal 16" shells she has a small 8" in a sabot which can be fired at some enormous range.
Is this possible, or is it just made up for the book?
No, it's possible although to my knowledge the Iowa class has never used such shells.
lwd
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Location: Southfield, USA

Re: Sabot shells

Post by lwd »

From http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_16-50_mk7.htm
4) 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. An image of the disassembled saboted round is on the additional pictures page.
...
HE-ER Mark 148 (Planned)
13 in (33 cm) extended-range (ER), sub-caliber projectile with sabot. ET-fuzed with a payload of 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 1,100 lbs. (500 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).

HE-ER Mark ? (Planned)
Another sub-caliber projectile with sabot, this one 11 inches (28 cm) in diameter. This project was also cancelled about FY91. A sketch with additional information for this round is on the additional pictures page.
So they had plans for 13in and 11 in sabot rounds all though none were put in service.
Hartmann10
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Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2006 6:39 pm
Location: Spain, Madrid

Re: Sabot shells

Post by Hartmann10 »

Hi to all :D
Concerning naval use, iI don´t know real use of saboted shells unless th previously said by Lwd, altough Germany made extensive R&D of saboted shells (HE ultra long range for long artillery shot and ultra high velocity FlaK shells) and shots (armour and concrete piercing shots) in various forms, almost all being used, in very limited to "mild-moderate" use in WWII, both in rifled (far more common) and also in smoothbored guns (very rare at all).
Really a very interesting matter although very rare and scarcious in details and data.
Hope this helps
Neoconshooter
Member
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2012 7:20 pm

Re: Sabot shells

Post by Neoconshooter »

Bgile wrote:
paul.mercer wrote:Gentlemen,
In the book 'The Hunt for Red October' the end scene is the US navy preparing to do battle with Soviet forces and one of the US ships is an 'Iowa' class battleship (New Jersey I think). Instead of her normal 16" shells she has a small 8" in a sabot which can be fired at some enormous range.
Is this possible, or is it just made up for the book?
No, it's possible although to my knowledge the Iowa class has never used such shells.
Yes they did test, but not use such shells, but the sub-caliber projectiles were 11" and 13", not eight inches. See this article;
http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_16-50_mk7.htm
GreenJumperTX
Junior Member
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Joined: Mon Jun 06, 2016 1:20 am

Re: Sabot shells - US Navy

Post by GreenJumperTX »

Hi There

In 1972-1973, we utilized experimental sub-caliber sabot rounds in our 5"-54 cal. guns in a gun fire support role. The rounds did not feed well in the hoists from the magazine to the gun mounts but could achieve ranges of 24,000 yards, 6,000 more than our regular ammunition. Since our analog fire control computer of the time would only solve to a maximum range of 24,000 yards, we used a supplemental slide rule in addition to the computer to compute the fire control solution.

GreenJumperTX
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