Evening star., 1925-04-23
NEW AIR DEFENSE
IS READY FOR NAVY
Gun Three Times as Deadly
Will Replace Present
Anti.PIane Rifles.

A revolution in anti-aircraft warfare
is promised by the Navy, when it will
shortly begin the installation aboard
all ships of a new five-inch anti-air-
craft gun. The. development of this
gun, which has just been completed
after a series of tests at the Dahlgren,
Va. proving ground of the Navy, be-
came known today at the Navy De-
partment.
AS soon as battleships become avail.
able after the present maneuvers on
which they are now engaged the new
guns VIII be placed aboard them and
the present three-inch guns will be re-
moved. The latter guns are all made
obsolete by the development of the
new rife.
Has Ten-sIile Range.
familiar with the new gun, it will be
practically impossible for airplanes TO
escape their raking fire. OF course,
1t will not be possible to test them
against a squadron of planes, as the
danger involved requires that only
one plane be used at a time as a tar
get. The present 3.inch guns have
a vertical range of only 5000 yards.
distance of four nautical miles, where.
yards, or 10 nautical miles in the air.
One of the possible advantages of the
o-1nch gun is that ii is constructed to
use high-power bursting charges The
method of serving the gun with am
munition has been so simplified that
when crews are sufficiently trained it
can fire charge in less than four
seconds and maintain a fire at that
rate. This, it will be seen, will per-
NIT the officers in charge of the fire
to trace the plane in it's path by OBJ
serving the burst, In other words, 1t
is practically the same as tracer am
munition used in small arms to indi-
cate the path of the bullet.
Bursting Charge Trebled.
Another feature of the ammunition
which has been developed for this
gun is that the bursting area has been
more than trebled over that of the
charges used in the three.inch gun.
the chances of injuring the plane due
to the bursting of the shell being in
creased threefold.
With the development of the. gun.
there has also been completed a new
system of f1re-control equipment
which will permit the service of the
rifle with almost machine -gunlike
rapidity. The first to obtain these
cruisers. 1t Is not believed likely
that they will supplant the present
three-inch guns on destroyers, as it
is not believed that the gun plat
forms of these small vessels will be
able to Withstand the recoil of the new
gun.
Reports received at the Navy De-
partment today from ships of the
West Coast. which have been engaged
fy, fafr tar
3-inch guns. shows that they were
quite successful. The sleeve targets
used on the airplanes, at which the
naval gunners fired, are just one.half
the size of the fuSilage. Under war
time conditions when planes are flying
in squadrons, naval officers point out
such successful barrage could be
laid down against them by the few
guns that they could not approach
within miles, hence their usefulness
as bomb-droppers would be destroyed.
Target Is RiddIed.
One of the reports received SAYS
that except on the first one of the
practices the bursts were all either
slightly ahead of the sleeve or right
on. One shell was seen to pierce the
sleeve in direct fight and burst just
beyond probably by conclusion
The sleeve quivered violently from
the burst of several shells and un-
doubtedly was hit badly. Portions
of the slevee could be seen trailing
behind it when it passed over the
ship. An observing plane saw the
hit made and flew along side of the
sleeve after this run and the pilot
reported that the after end of the
sleeve was all torn up and the after
hoop was missing.
The Navy has the new five inch
guns all ready for the ships and in.
stallations are to be promptly made.