12 inch/50 Mk.7 (305 mm)

12 inch/50 Mk.7 cannons on the USS Wyoming

Description

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Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• USS Wyoming
• USS Arkansas

General info

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Available ammunition

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Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		1,000 m	2,500 m	5,000 m	7,500 m	10,000 m	15,000 m
Cl.B HE	HE	68	68	68	68	68	68
Mk.15 APC	APC	562	501	416	348	293	221

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (s)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
Cl.B HE	HE	823	335.65	0	0.1	33.25	79°	80°	81°
Mk.15 APC	APC	884	394.62	0.035	17	11.11	48°	63°	71°

Comparison with analogues

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Usage in battles

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Pros and cons

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Pros:

Cons:

History

Boasting one of the longest continuous services of any large calibre weapon in the United States Navy's history, the 12 inch/50 Mark 7 was developed as an incremental improvement over the 12-inch/45 Mk.5. After the Florida-class was completed, the US Navy considered up-gunning to 14-inch guns as the Royal Navy had just adopted the 13.5 inch/45 Mark 5(H) guns. However, the Navy Bureau of Ordnance feared construction of a new calibre of naval cannon would delay the construction of the ships which became the Wyoming-class battleships, the USS Wyoming and USS Arkansas which entered service in 1912. To improve the capabilities of the 12 inch guns, the length was once again increased by five calibres to improve the range and penetration capabilities. The USS Wyoming and USS Arkansas were the only ships in the US Navy to use this cannon as the Navy would soon upgrade to 14-inch guns after they completed with the extra time given from using 12-inch guns on the Wyoming-class. Regardless, the US Navy would keep the guns in service until 1946 when the USS Arkansas was destroyed in a nuclear bomb test at Bikini Atoll (present day Marshall Islands) in 1946. The only other navy to use the 12"/50 Mark 7 is the Argentinian Navy. Disputes over the Patagonian and Beagle Channels with Chile and the River Plate with Brazil in the late 1800s and early 1900s sparked a dreadnought arms race on the continent of South America. Fore River Shipbuilding won a design bid for the Rivadavia-class dreadnoughts armed with similar twelve inch guns made by Bethlehem Steel Shipbuilding, which kept the Mark 7 in service until 1953.

Media

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See also

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• reference to the article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;
• references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.

External links

• [Wikipedia] 12-inch/50-caliber Mark 7 gun
• [NavWeaps] USA 12"/50 (30.5 cm) Mark 7