Pinned post for Q&A :)

So the officer from the Enterprise who recommended putting 20mm everywhere finally got his way ..?

SCB-19, object class: keter. SCB-19 appears as an Iowa-class battleship with an inordinate amount of AA guns pointing in all directions. Special Containment Procesures: appears to be invulnerable to regular means of aerial attack, however is uniquely accepting of mk. 14 torpedos. This will not reduce aggression, however it will allow the intended victim sufficient time to escape.

I'm pretty sure I drew ships like these back when I was 8 years old. Little did I know that was actually an unappreciated naval engineer.

"Pre Dreadnaught design"

WWII era US Army: Our tanks need a lot machine guns.

This feels like an exercise in "How many AA systems do you want?" with the answer of "Yes."

Being a resident of the state of Illinois (no, I’m nowhere near Chicago lol), I’m still a little disappointed BB-65 was never completed, even if she was completed as a modified design.

By my math, by mass one could emplace more than twenty 5-inch/54-caliber Mark 16 guns for every 16-inch/50 Mark 7 gun. I'm not sure how one could find the space for 180 5-inch gun mounts, but if anyone could manage that many barrels, it was the WW2 USN.

A humble request for future videos: for those of us who have a hard time picking out small details (especially on phones) of faded schematics, would it be possible to include some digital indicators (arrows, highlights, circles, etc...)?

Y'all probably know this, but the main engines for the USS Sacramento and USS Camden came from the USS Kentucky...They built four Sacramento-class AOEs with the last decomm'd in 2005.

USS Atlanta: I clear the sky for you!

A note of appreciation for your U.S. buddy who researched and then directly asked the National Archives to scan the extant blue-prints (remember those?) to enable this episode. Kudos to both, especially the good'uns who so carefully performed the physical task itself. 75 year old paper once chemically saturated was surely a challenge.

I'm an archivist at one of the Ivies and scan requests is like 30% of my job. You should never feel like you're imposing by asking for scans. Some places will act annoyed, or nickel and dime you, or slow walk it but many, many more places recognize this as one of the essential services and are therefore equipped to handle requests.

BEHOLD

Can you imagine this mighty anti-air BB in today's world fitted with 22 CIWS systems instead of the 22 5-inch guns and some 192 cell mk41 VLS in place of the main turrets.

U.S.S. Gridley CG-21 boiler technician here. 'Skuttlebutt' was our captain was upset when they removed our twin 50 caliber guns and installed the Phalanx CIWS. The other BT's told me he used to shoot an M-16 off the bridge to pass time I suppose(?). They also told me they'd light the boilers off the back wall. I was a 6YO BT and I said that ain't gonna happen, as well as my 'initiation', which they mixed up greases, coffee grounds, cigarette butts, blue dye, etc. and hung you upside down to apply it. It happened, yet I dunked my hand in it and got them good. Only problem was the captain unexpectedly came down for inspection. I hid under the escape trunk until the coast was clear. I miss you Bug, Boo-boo Bair, and French Frie, even though you used to call me Sgt. Joe Friday behind my back("Just the facts!!!")

Imagine a rolling broadside from that lot - especially if it was aimed at some aircraft with the timerity to stray too close

The USS Mo Dakka!!! Would love to have seen what those 8in shells could do saturating a target with doom, hi ex, and freedom...

There is actually and interesting story with the picture of Kentucky you start showing at