nsaqam.
Sir Thank You For Your Service..
You are right about that gun system it was not changed when the Iowa class was updated during the Reagan years..
Thank you sir.
Down in the bowels of the ship are two Plotrooms. Plot 1 forward and plot 2 aft. This was where most of the gunlaying computing was done with inputs from all around the ship. The main brains of the Mk. 38 GFCS was the Mk. 8 rangekeeper. This was a large electromechanical computer which with input from the Mk. 38 gun directors, the Mk. 41 stable vertical, radar, compasses, pitometers, and various other systems did a remarkable job of laying the guns. This big ass box full of gears, shafts, motors and switches took into account even the most minor variables like the Coriolis effect and the Magnus effect on spinning projectiles.
We rarely had problems with the rangekeeper. It was robust and well designed. We sometimes had issues with the Mk. 41 stable vertical which is a big gyroscope but several of these Mk. 41's and other gyros around the ship could provide the stable vertical if there was a failure of the gyros in the plots.
I primarily worked in either of the two Mk. 38 gun directors, Spot 1 forward and Spot 2 aft. Spot 1 was the highest manned space on the ship. IIRC it was 13-14 decks above the main deck. Spot 2 was lower and therefore the LOS was shorter than that from Spot 1 but they were otherwise identical. The GFCS radar system fitted to the Iowa class was only used for ranging targets and it was remarkably good for the time and far outclassed any radar fitted to any ship of any Nation at that time. It was so effective and reliable that it was retained during the 1980's refit and upgrade. Should the radar go down it was up to skilled operators running stereoscopic coincidence optical rangefinders to provide ranging information to the Plots. They had these in both Spots and longer ones were in each of the three turrets. Very few people could learn to operate these optical rangefinders accurately or effectively but with a skilled operator they were very accurate in use. I'm proud to say that I became quite good at it. Because of the wider separation of the lenses of the optical rangefinders in the turrets they were more accurate in theory. They had a much shorter LOS due to being much lower than the ones in the Spots however. I didn't like using the ones in the turrets and was never as accurate with them as I was with the ones in the Spots, theoretical advantage or not.
Another thing I heard in the video was concern over noise while the filmer was in the turret. Actually the turrets were one of the quieter places to be while we were firing. I suppose due to the blast being directed away and also due to the 3-4 foot thick breechblock and 18 inches of armor steel making up the face of the turret.
All in all these BB's of the Iowa class were the pinnacles of battleship design and since they were designed and built when the BB was THE capital ship of any Navy they were given the finest of engineering teams and the best most accurate equipment which could be produced at that time. The gunnery systems stood the test of time.
Finally, the four Iowa class BB's recommissioned in the early '80s would still be in the Fleet if they could be operated by a crew of 500. They can't however and need a crew of 1500 which makes them expensive to operate. All four are now serving as museums but these four, of all the ships in the USN, are mandated by law to be kept in such a state that they could quickly be put back into active service should the need arise. I like that a whole lot!