Principles Of Naval Weapons Systems

Principles of Naval Weapons Systems Edited by CDR Joseph Hall, USN Introduction In the early twentieth century, the instruments of war were simply called weapons. The cannon, the rifle, or the bayonet were all considered separate pieces of weaponry to be used in combat. By the Second World War, technology began to be integrated into combat. The invention of radar and sonar extended the field of combat to greater and greater ranges, and it was no longer necessary to sight targets directly. As technology progressed, the very nature of weapons also changed. Now, it is no longer sufficient to discuss individual pieces of weaponry, they must be taken in the context of the entire weapons system, which is the complete set of interrelating pieces that function together to achieve the goal of destroying a target. The complete description of a weapons system must include all of the means of exchanging information between sub-systems, called communication systems; all means used to locate the target, called sensors; all means used to store, launch and deliver the weapon to the target, called delivery sub-systems; and all means used to inflict damage upon the target, called destruction sub-systems. In this book, we will discuss how the various sub-systems function. The goal is to understand the principles of operation of many different weapons systems. It is expected that the reader will supplement this material with one of the many fine books describing the arsenal of weapons currently in use by the major militaries of the world. To understand how a complicated device such as a weapons system works, it is often helpful to perform some level of abstraction first. In some ways, this is also how weapons systems are designed. The abstraction is simply to ask “what are the inputs and outputs?” This question can be applied at many different levels. To illustrate this concept, consider the overall