8-inch/55-caliber Mark 71 gun

Common card · No. 459694

The U.S. Navy's Major Caliber Lightweight Gun (MCLWG) program was the 8"/55 caliber Mark 71 major caliber lightweight, single-barrel naval gun prototype (spoken "eight-inch-fifty-five-caliber") that was mounted aboard the destroyer USS Hull in 1975 to test the capability of destroyer-sized ships to replace decommissioned cruisers for long-range shore bombardment. United States naval gun terminology indicates the gun fired a projectile 8 inches (203 mm) in diameter, and the barrel was 55 calibers long (barrel length is 8" × 55 = 440" or 11.165 meters.)

Read on Wikipedia · Image Photographer's Mate 1st Class Carl R. Begy, Public domain