Signal boost for CAPT Greg Thomas (Ret) who is placing plaques in the Doherty HS Navy JROTC’s “Hall of Honor.” They have currently saved 90 unwanted plaques, many bought by Thomas off eBay. They have room for 50 more. Thanks in advance.
How about this striking night shot of a recent transfer of fuel (RAS) from the Norwegian tanker and SNMG1 flagship HMoMS Maud (A530) to the British Type 23 frigate HMS Portland (F79) from the group of ships around the British carrier HMS Prince of Wales.
Photo: Danish Forsvaret
Of note, from July 2024 through January 2025, the Danish Navy has the leadership of Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1)– with a Tactical Staff provided by the Swedish Navy.
Besides HMoMS Maud, shown above, the force includes the Danish frigates Absalon (F341) and Niels Juel (F363), the German Braunschweig (Type K130) class corvette FGS Magdeburg (F261), Dutch Karl Doorman-class frigate HNLMS Van Amstel (F831), the Portuguese Doorman NRP D. Francisco de Almeida (F334), and the Belgian Doorman BNS Louise-Marie (F931).
The Swedish corvette HSwMS Helsingborg, French frigate FS La Fayette, and old Tico USS Normandy also tapped in briefly, making for some great shots.
Three sisters under different flags: Francisco de Almeida (F334), HNLMS Van Amstel (F831), and BNS Louise-Marie (F931)
Three sisters under different flags: Francisco de Almeida (F334), HNLMS Van Amstel (F831), and BNS Louise-Marie (F931)
Three sisters under different flags: Francisco de Almeida (F334), HNLMS Van Amstel (F831), and BNS Louise-Marie (F931)
Three sisters under different flags: Francisco de Almeida (F334), HNLMS Van Amstel (F831), and BNS Louise-Marie (F931)
HMoMS Maud from HMS PoW
HMoMS Maud and Portuguese Doorman NRP D. Francisco de Almeida (F334)
French frigate FS La Fayette, and USS Normandy
The Danish-led naval force SNMG1 has in the past week carried out operations and exercises in the North Sea, the English Channel, and the Irish Sea. The Navy has been cooperating with the British aircraft carrier group centered around the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales. The force has also been deployed to monitor Russian naval activity in the area.
40 years ago this month, we see the beautiful clean lines of the Leahy class guided missile cruiser USS Reeves (CG-24) underway on 15 October 1984, likely somewhere in the Western Pacific as she was forward deployed to Yokosuka from 1980 to 1989.
USN Photo 330-CFD-DN-ST-85-05479 via NARA 6396505
Named for Admiral Joseph Mason “Bull” Reeves, known as the “Father of Carrier Aviation,” the above was laid down as a destroyer leader (DLG-24) in July 1960 at Puget Sound NSY, sponsored at her launch two years later by the late Admiral’s daughter-in-law, and commissioned 15 May 1964.
Designed for AAW– with her pair of twin Mk 10 SAM launchers and magazine for up to 88 Terrier ER missiles, she was soon fulfilling the role of an AAW picket and floating CSAR asset on Yankee Station off Vietnam for a rotating series of flattops, spending much of her time over the next four years underway in the Gulf of Tonkin, earning three battle stars for her service in South East Asia.
After an overhaul and re-rating along with the rest of her class as an 8,200-ton “cruiser” continued to be a staple in the West Pac for the remainder of her career– except for two deployments ( 24-Jul-1987 to 26-Sep-1987 and 15-Sep-1989 to 24-Oct-1989) to the Persian Gulf to take part in Operation Earnest Will tanker reflagging escorts.
She is seen above in her roughly final configuration, including not only her Terriers but also a Mk 16 ASROC matchbox launcher between the forward Terrier and the bridge; a pair of Mk 15 Vulcan Phalanx CIWS; eight Harpoon cans, and two triple Mk 32 12.75-inch triple tube launchers.
Part of the “Great Cruiser Slaughter” by the Clinton Administration following the end of the Cold War, Reeves was decommissioned on 12 November 1993, stricken the same day, and sunk as a target in 2,541 Fathoms on 31 May 2001
USS Mississippi (BB-41) bombarding Luzon, during the Lingayen operation, on 8 January 1945. She is followed by USS West Virginia (BB-48) and HMAS Shropshire. Photographed from USS New Mexico (BB-40). Mississippi is painted in camouflage Measure 32, Design 6D. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-301229
While surface ships have continued to fight it out in isolated instances since WWII– such as HMS Zealous (R39)/INS Eilat vs Egyptian Komar in 1967; HMS Cadiz (D79)/PNS Khaibar vs INS Nirghat in 1971, and USS Joseph Strauss vs IRIS Sahand in 1988– they have invariably been one-sided over-the-horizon missile engagements between very light ships. Well, light compared to a battlewagon anyway.
The golden age of battleships duking it out with big guns, while something that could have possibly occurred well into the late 1950s, ended 80 years ago today for all practical purposes.
As noted in 1958 by RADM Samuel E. Morison, USNR (Ret.), at the end of the age of the battleship, specifically between the New Mexico class of dreadnought USS Mississippi (BB-41), and the Japanese Fusō-class dreadnought Yamashiro, with the latter serving as the doomed flagship of Vice-Admiral Shōji Nishimura’s Southern Force at the Battle of Surigao Strait:
“When Mississippi discharged her twelve 14-inch guns at Yamashiro at a range of 19,790 yards, at 0408 October 25, 1944, she was not only giving that battleship the coup de grâce, but firing a funeral salute to a finished era of naval warfare.
One can imagine the ghosts of all great admirals from Raleigh to Jellicoe standing at attention as [the] Battle Line went into oblivion, along with the Greek phalanx, the Spanish wall of pikemen, the English longbow and the row-galley tactics of Salamis and Lepanto.”
A vintage deck gun system that was once a staple of the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard has quietly fired its final shots.
Designed by the famed munitions firm of OTO Melara of La Spezia, Italy, and marketed from 1963 onward as the 76/62C Compact, the remote-controlled 76mm (3-inch) gun with its characteristic bubble dome was an immediate hit with NATO and Western fleets, eventually seeing service with 60 nations.
West German Type 148 missile boats show their 76mm OTO guns during a visit to the UK, in 1977
The reason it was so popular was that using aluminum alloys, a water-cooled gun barrel, and an automatic loader with an 80-round magazine, it delivered much better performance than any manned 3-inch gun mount in service at the time while weighing much less. Guided by the ship’s onboard radar and fire control system, it could engage air targets as high as 13,000 feet and surface targets out to 20,000 yards.
The 76/62 designation comes from the bore (76mm) and barrel length (62 caliber), the latter figure denoting a 4,724mm long barrel, which translates to 15.5 feet.
The 76/62C Compact, seen in its components from a 1980 U.S. Navy training publication:
Note the gun control panel which was mounted in the ammunition handling room below deck under the mount. The mount captain fired the gun from the panel while two ammunition loaders stood by to reload the magazine.
A look under the hood so to speak, showing off the details of the gun itself and its magazine.
The mag used two concentric rings of shells, each holding 35 rounds, with a hydraulic motor rotating the screw feeder– which held another six rounds not unlike that of a common “six-shooter” revolver. Together with the four rounds held in the loader drum, the gun held 80 shells, which could be expended in just under one minute.
A view of the magazine rings of the MK-75 gun aboard USCGC Mohawk (WMEC 913) while underway in the Atlantic Ocean, Sept. 1, 2022. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jessica Fontenette)
The types of “war shot” rounds in U.S. service included High Explosive Point Detonating (HE-PD), High Explosive Infrared (HE-IR), Variable Time Non-fragmenting (VT-NF), High Explosive Variable Time (HE-VT), and High Explosive Radio Frequency proximity (HE-RF).
Exercise and training shells included the Blind-Loaded and Plugged (BL&P) round with a live round that had an inert projectile while wholly inert rammable and non-rammable dummy and gauging rounds were also available.
Crew load 76mm rounds into the magazine of the MK-75 gun aboard USCGC Mohawk (WMEC 913) while underway in the Atlantic Ocean, Sept. 1, 2022. HE-PD rounds can be seen in the outer ring and blue-colored BLP target rounds are peeking out of the inner ring. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jessica Fontenette)
The gun control panel below-deck under the mount, complete with its view of the magazine rings. Seen on the USCGC Midgett (WHEC 721) in June 1999. USCG photo by PA2 Alice Sennott
Shells were brought on and off the packed in grey shipping containers, loaded old-school via chain gangs.
Sailors aboard the Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG 60) move 76mm rounds during an ammunition onload. Rodney M. Davis, based out of Everett, Wash., is on patrol in the 7th Fleet area of responsibility supporting security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Derek A. Harkins/Released)
For a great look at the inner guts of the 76/62C Compact, check out this short video from the German Navy, which has used the gun since 1965. Don’t worry if your German is rusty, the video speaks for itself.
With the U.S. Navy opting to mount a smaller 3-inch gun on its planned Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates in the 1970s– a big change from the manned 5-inch guns mounted on the Knox-class frigates that preceded them– the Pentagon went with the Italian “robot gun” design.
A destroyer escort, USS Talbot (DEG-4), in late 1974 had an Italian-produced 76/62C Compact installed on her bow forward of the superstructure in place of the ship’s original 5-inch manned mount which used a design that dated to World War II.
USS Talbot seen circa 1974-75 with an OTO Melara 76/62C Compact installed. (Photos: U.S. Navy History and Heritage Command)
The Naval Systems Division of the FMC Corporation in 1975 won the U.S. contract to build the 76/62C Compact in Pennsylvania under license from OTO Melara and delivered the first American-built model in August 1978. The Navy, which designated the gun the MK 75, went on to install them in 51 Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates built between 1975 and 1989, along with six Pegasus-class hydrofoil fast attack craft and on the Coast Guard’s 13 new Bear-class cutters that were constructed in the same era.
Likewise, when the Coast Guard’s 12 Vietnam-era Hamilton-class cutters were modernized starting in 1987, they received the MK 75 to replace their outdated 5-inch mounts. The guns were also installed on a series of warships built in the U.S. for overseas customers (Israel, Egypt, Australia, et.al).
The frigates carried the MK 75 atop their superstructure as the bow, the traditional location, was occupied by a missile launcher and its below-deck magazine.
October 2002. USS Sides (FFG 14) fires her 76mm dual-purpose gun at ex-USS Towers (DDG 9) during a SINKEX near San Diego. (Photo: U.S. Navy)
May 2011. The Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate USS Thach (FFG 43) fires its MK-75 76mm mounted gun while underway off the coast of Brazil. (Photo: U.S. Navy)
August 2014. The Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG 60) conducts a live-fire exercise of its MK 75 76mm/62 caliber gun. (Photo: U.S. Navy)
One of the frigates, USS Simpson (FFG-56), part of Surface Action Group Charlie, had the first combat use of the MK 75 in U.S. service when, in April 1988, used the gun to destroy Iranian naval and intelligence facilities on the Sirri oil platform during Operation Praying Mantis.
Another frigate, USS Nicholas (FFG-47) used her MK 75 during Desert Storm in January 1991 to clear Iraqi troops placed on nine oil platforms in the northern Persian Gulf off of occupied Kuwait. As reported at the time, the frigate “fired three shots at each platform to set the range, followed by about 20 rounds of high-explosive shells, ‘for effect.’ The effect was to demolish quickly all the remaining bunkers.”
The speedy hydrofoils, meanwhile, wore their MK 75 as a hood ornament.
As did the Coast Guard cutters.
Coast Guard Cutter Harriet Lane firing a commemorative shot on 30 May 2019 to honor the 158th anniversary of its namesake’s action near Fort Sumter, South Carolina. (Photo: USCG)
The water-cooled barrel, using salt water during the firing process and a freshwater flush from the ship’s onboard supply after the firing ceased, led to often extreme muzzle shots with the intersection of steam and propellant.
The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Northland conducts a live firing of the MK 75 76mm weapons system while underway, on September 20, 2020, in the Atlantic Ocean. (Photo: USCG)
March 2000. The Coast Guard Cutter Tampa’s 76mm gun blasts a projectile at a moving target during live-fire exercises. Participants took turns firing at “robo-ski,” a small, remote-controlled jet ski. Tampa gunners hit the target every time. USCG Photo by ET3 Shane Taylor.
The gun uses a saltwater cooling system and a freshwater cleaning run after firing concludes, seen here on USCGC Escanaba in 2028.
However, there has been a slow-motion end to this story that started with the retirement of the hydrofoils in 1993, and the frigates losing their MK 75s by 2015 in a series of refits. This left the Navy, who “owns” the installed weapons on Coast Guard cutters, still on the hook for logistics contracts with BAE systems and OTO Melara (now Leonardo) for parts and support.
Those days are gone as the 76/62C is out of production both in the U.S. and Italy, with Leonardo replacing the system in its catalog with the faster-firing (though still with only an 80-round ready magazine) and more stealthy 76/62 Super Rapid (SR) Gun Mount.
Eventually, the Ordnance Shop at the Coast Guard yard took ownership of the MK 75 program and was even tapped to support the guns on frigates and cutters transferred overseas.
Since then, the Hamilton class has all retired and has been transferred overseas and now the Bear class cutters are in the process of being stripped of their MK 75s during refits, and replaced by smaller (albeit currently produced) MK 38 25mm guns. Overseas allies are similarly phasing out the gun.
This brings us to the coda of the Bear-class USCGC Mohawk (WMEC 913) firing her MK 75 for the last time this summer, an event that was held during a gunnery exercise in the Florida Straits. The service said in a press release this week that it was a “significant historical event” as Mohawk was “the last in its class to fire the onboard Mk 75 gun weapon system.”
Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk’s (WMEC 613) Mk 75 weapon system fires, Aug. 16, 2024, during a gunnery exercise in the Florida Straits. Mohawk was the last Famous-class medium endurance cutter to fire the onboard Mk 75 mm gun weapon system as large caliber weapon systems onboard these cutters are being modernized for the service life extension program. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Ensign Brian Morel)
Perhaps once the mount is phased out for good, the USS Aries Museum, the only preserved U.S. Navy hydrofoil, can pick up one of the old MK 75s to help complete her Cold War profile.
If the Oliver Hazard Perry Shipyard on Lake Erie ever gets their retired Perry from the Navy, they could showcase one as well.
As it is, the only one on public display is at the USS Recruit landship in San Diego.
105 years ago today. Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania. 22 October 1919. Obsolete “pre-dreadnought” type battleships in the Reserve Basin almost a year after the conclusion of the Great War, awaiting a very near future that would turn nearly all of them into recycled scrap iron or sunk in live fire exercises.
Courtesy of Frank Jankowski, 1981. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 92300
Ships in the front row are, from left to right: USS Iowa (BB-4), USS Massachusetts (BB-2), USS Indiana (BB-1), USS Kearsarge (BB-5), USS Kentucky (BB-6), and USS Maine (BB-10), while at least three other battlewagons are in the rear, almost certainly including USS Missouri (BB-11) and USS Ohio (BB-12). Although some including the three Maine-class ships were rather “low mileage” — Ohio had only joined the fleet 15 years prior and had spent much of her latter career in ordinary, only venturing out of mothballs for summer midshipman cruises– others were relics of the Span-Am War, with Indiana credited with having dispatched two Spanish destroyers at the Battle of Santiago.
While all had seen updates in their service life, switching from pole masts and the gleaming paint schemes and bow crests of the Great White Fleet days to lattice masts and haze grey, they could not compete with the new way of war. For instance, a single Colorado-class super-dreadnought, the first of which would enter service in 1921, weighed 32,000 tons and carried eight 16-inch guns compared to Indiana’s circa 1893 10,000-ton displacement and main battery of four 13″/35s.
Of the above nine or ten battleships, all save for Kearsarge— the only United States Navy battleship not named after a state– would be sold for scrap or sunk (Iowa and Massachusetts) by 1923 to comply with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. They were left to be remembered only by their silver services, bells, and bow crests, typically preserved somewhere in their namesake states.
Soon after the above image was snapped, Kearsarge was converted into a cruising heavy-lift crane ship (AB-1) in 1920, then was unimaginatively renamed Crane Ship No. 1 in 1941, before being finally sold for scrap in 1955.
Heavy Lift Crane Ship No1,(Ex Lead Ship, Battleship USS Kearsarge) pictured in dry dock at Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston. c.1925.
During her “second life,” Kearsarge raised the lost submarine USS Squalus in 1939 and would lift into place much of the heavy guns, turrets, and armor for cruisers and battleships constructed or rebuilt at Norfolk/Newport News through 1945. Here, she is seen, left, alongside the new SoDak-class fast battleship USS Alabama (BB-60), right, fitting out at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1942. Note the size difference between the two hulls. NH 57767
Interestingly, the wreck of Massachusetts scuttled off Pensacola in shallow water in 1923, was still used as a target through WWII when she passed to the ownership of the state of Florida.
80 years ago today. Leyte Operation, October 1944. The day of the first noted use of kamikaze.
Official Wartime caption: “The Australian heavy cruisers HMAS Shropshire (left) and Australia (right), with an unidentified U.S. heavy cruiser, photographed through a ring gun sight on board USS Phoenix (CL-46), off Leyte on 21 October 1944.”
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-291377
The gunsight is on a, likely Detroit-built, Bofors-licensed 40mm L60 quad mount, of which the “Phoo-Bird,” as a Brooklyn class light cruiser, carried six by this time in the war. She put them to good use, too.
In the first 11 days of the Japanese kamikaze attacks in the Leyte Gulf, Phoenix called her gunners to action no less than 55 times.
Her Navy Unit Citation reads, in part:
In encounters with the enemy air forces the ship shot down three of the suicide divers coming at her and assisted in shooting down several others that attacked other ships.
The Swedish-designed 40mm (which needed extensive conversion for inch-pattern mass production) was a godsend both to the U.S. Army who used it for ground-based AAA and to the Navy, who used it to fill the gap between 20mm Oerlikon, the fiasco that was the 1.1-inch “Chicago Piano,” and the excellent 5″/38 DP gun.
The Navy credited the 40mm Bofors with splashing an astounding 742.5 enemy aircraft during the war with 1,271,844 shells– an average of 1,713 per “kill.” Of note, they were credited with fully one out of every three aircraft downed by AAA, a record matched by no other platform.
Not put into U.S. domestic production until early 1942, during 1944-45 alone, no less than 7,440 single mountings, 6,670 twin, and 1,550 quad mountings were produced for the Navy by the time the end of the war halted production.
Only in first-line service for six years (it was officially replaced by the new rapid-fire radar-controlled 3″/50 Marks 27, 33, and 34 in 1948) the Navy still had Bofors afloat on WWII-era auxiliaries until at least 1977, with some reportedly being used from time to time on LSTs engaged in brown water ops during Market Garden during Vietnam.
USS Garrett County (LST 786) in the Co Chien River, Republic of Vietnam, June 1968. Note the PBRs alongside and HAL-3 Seawolf Hueys on deck. Commissioned in 1944, she also has manned 40mm Bofors at the ready in her gun tubs. U.S. Navy Photo K-51442
And of course, dozens of these mounts endure on WWII-era museum ships around the globe.
These images are from one of my recent visits to the SoDak battlewagon USS Alabama.
Back in June, we let you know that the CMP was beginning to sell off a supply of surplus U.S. Navy circa 1960s MK2 7.62 NATO Garand conversions-– of which AMF upgraded 17,050 rifles and H&R another 15,000 rifles using a 3:1 mix of converted .30 caliber barrels (the MK2 MOD 0 rifle) and new-made 7.62mm barrels from Springfield Armory (the MK2 MOD1).
The price at the time was $950 for the MK2 MOD0s and $1,600 for the MK2 MOD1s.
Well, that has now dropped to $900 (Mod 0) and $1200 (Mod 1) plus $35 shipping & handling per rifle.
Guns are available here.
Plus:
After review by the CMP Rules Committee, the following CMP Games Rifle and Pistol Competition Rules Rule G4.2.2 e) has been edited to: As-issued M1 Garands must be chambered for the .30-06 or the 7.62mm NATO (.308) cartridge.
This change will allow CMP MOD 1 7.62mm NATO M1 Garands to be used in As-Issued Military Rifle Matches – including the upcoming Talladega 600 in November!
Learn more about the Talladega 600 at https://thecmp.org/cmp-matches/talladega-600/.
The old ways:
040303-N-6842R-025 Key West, Fla. (Mar. 3, 2004) Ð Lt. Allen Karlson, a student pilot assigned to the ÒTigersÓ of Training Squadron Nine (VT-9), with instructor Cdr. Joe Kerstiens (USNR) sits ÒshotgunÓ(rear seat) evaluating Lt. Allen Karlson before his solo formation training. 1st Lt. Tim Miller flies his T-2C Buckeye down to cross under the lead, on his first formation solo, during a formation training mission over Key West, Fla. VT-9 came to Key West to teach Navy and Marine Corps student pilots formation flying and gunnery techniques. The instructors are part of Squadron Augment Unit Nine (SAU-9), the Reserve component for Training Squadron Nine (VT-9), one of two training squadrons that operate from Naval Air Station Meridian, Miss., under Training Wing One (TW-1). U.S. Navy photo by Ens Darin K. Russell. (RELEASED)
U.S. Navy photograph 330-CFD-DN-ST-89-08969. Photographer Jim Bryant. Via NARA. National Archives Identifier: 6445247
In case you missed it, the Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA) last August announced they are ditching the classic white/orange/black/red scheme used by its aircraft for generations (since the mid-1950s) in favor of sort of a glossy faux tactical look.
From last year’s presser:
CNATRA utilizes four different type/model aircraft, with a fifth on the way, to support intermediate/advanced strike, intermediate/advanced multi-engine and advanced rotary training. These aircraft include the T-45C Goshawk, TH-57 Sea Ranger, TH-73 Thrasher (replacing the TH-57 Sea Ranger), and the T-44C Pegasus, soon to be replaced by the T-54A (King Air 260).
For these aircraft, the new paint scheme will utilize shades of a glossy grey coat to more closely resemble the tactical paint scheme (TPS) covering operational fleet aircraft. The shade of grey will closely resemble the specific counterpart for each training aircraft. For example, the coat of the TH-73 Thrasher will reflect the darker tactical paint scheme of the MH-60S Seahawk, while the T-54A will have a lighter coat similar to the P-8A Poseidon. Colored markings will contrast the grey paint for lettering and symbols like the United States roundel.
Additionally, the tail of each aircraft will feature a distinctive color scheme identifying the specific training air wing (TAW) an aircraft is assigned to, typically referred to as a tail “flash.”
Well, it looks like the first T-45s, those of Training Air Wing 2, have been repainted.
The conversion will slow:
The new changes to CNATRA aircraft will be gradual. An aircraft will only receive its new paint when the current life cycle of its orange-and-white coat is nearly complete. This will result in the last orange-and-white paint coats disappearing in seven to eight years.
As with everything, there are mixed feelings, with many bringing up the fact that the high-viz livery was chosen to help visually deconflict airspace (and ground space!) and make spotting downed aircraft easier.
I’ve always been a fan of the old yellow-chrome “Yellow Peril” look from WWII for trainers and target tugs.
NAMU Johnsonville Curtiss SB2C Helldiver target tug.
N3N pictured at NAS Pensacola, NNAM photo
Sailor cranks the engine of an N3N training flight, circa 1941 Kodachrome NNAM
Stearman N3N-3 N2S trainers NAS Corpus Christi, TX WWII cadets
Harry Greene flies his Boeing Stearman Kaydet Primary Trainer airplane over the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, May 30, 2016. Greene is a helicopter pilot at Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point and an aircraft enthusiast in his off-duty time. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Tara Molle/Released)
Yellow is my favorite
Alternatively, I think that the high-viz 1920s look or 1940s-early-50s fleet blue would be great choices.
USS Boxer CV-21 March 10, 1948, off San Diego First operational jet fighter squadron VF-5A FJ-1 Fury LIFE Kodachrome.
Plus, this new gray Goshawk look greatly resembles the gag-filled privately-owned Folland Gnats and HF-24 Ajeet used in 1991’s Hot Shots!
Who knows, maybe someone in CNATRA is a fan.
Clip ensues.
Official caption: “Sailors shoot a Mark 38 25mm machine gun during a live-fire exercise on the fantail of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) in the Pacific Ocean, Oct. 14, 2024. Nimitz is underway in 3rd Fleet conducting routine training operations.”
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Timothy Meyer
To be clear, the mount is a stabilized BAE Mk38 Mod2/3, which can be fired remotely and reportedly has a two to three-fold increase in Probability of Hit (POH) versus the old Mod 1. It has a cyclic rate of 175-to-200 rounds per minute, at least until its onboard 150 linked rounds run out.
Nimitz and her sisters, for the past decade, have carried at least four MK38s for use against surface targets as needed.
The Navy’s program of record for the Mk38 is 501 guns, which may or may not include the USCG that uses the mount on its remaining handful of 210-foot Reliance class cutters (where they replaced the last WWII-era 3″/50 DP wet mounts in U.S. service) and 60+ 158-foot Sentinel-class patrol boats.
Keep in mind that all installed armament on cutters “belongs” to the Navy while the Coasties are on their own to purchase small arms, hence their use of Glocks rather than SIG P320 M17/M18s.
USCGC Benjamin Bottoms (WPC-1132), note her Navy-owned MK38 forward