Unimpressive Royal Naval gunnery?

matt_fsr · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:43

Just watched this clip on BBC news:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8163293.stm

Now I suspect that the only reason the gun was turned on it was due to the cameras being there, or due for some target training anyway. (2 or 3 charges of C4 or similar would work much better, cheaper and can be set on timer before navy personnel leave the boat surely?)

However, I'm mildly peturbed by the general rubbishness of the shooting there - looks like 30mm AA ordnance there, plus various other small arms seemingly being fired at it, and rather a lot of water being displaced and not too many hits on the boat itself.

Do we train our naval gunners these days or was that one of the TV crew having a shot at it? :confused:

Edit - Corrected gun calibre, that's a 30mm Oerlikon cannon he's using.

~J~ · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:45

To be fair it's always harder to hit a target without a mouse and keyboard.

nex20 · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:47

~J~ said:
To be fair it's always harder to hit a target without a mouse and keyboard.

Voltar · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:48

~J~ said:
To be fair it's always harder to hit a target without a mouse and keyboard.

Von Smallhausen · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:49

I thought it looked rather fun.

Also, if the 20mm rounds were FMJ, they would likely pass through such a fragile boat and not every round would hit due to the human error question be it 20mm or small arms.

Nuking it wasn't an option I dare say.

Your only guaranteed hit is with guided missiles ( extortionate cost ) or something like the CIWS ' Goalkeeper ' which would have been completely over the top.

It probably was a show for the TV cameras and I saw nothing wrong with the whole show.

Westie · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:49

~J~ said:
To be fair it's always harder to hit a target without a mouse and keyboard.

Rroff · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:50

Not quite sure what your getting at - they hit it several times just below the waterline - which is the standard way to sink a ship.

EDIT: I guess some of the shots near the end were a bit off - assuming they didn't pass through the ship.

998cc · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:54

Rroff said:
Not quite sure what your getting at - they hit it several times just below the waterline - which is the standard way to sink a ship.

EDIT: I guess some of the shots near the end were a bit off - assuming they didn't pass through the ship.

Yep, unlike video games things dont generally go boom and explode into millions of pieces when shot

spicypixel · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:54

Needs more Bofors tbh.

matt_fsr · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:55

Thing is if it was done purely for the cameras, why not do it right and pop a 4.5in shell into it - that'd make it go "pop" in an amusing manner!

V4NT0M · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:57

It's a very small boat tbh.

TaKeN · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:57

Skyfall said:
It's a very small boat tbh.

Plus choppy waters..

Rroff · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:59

C.P said:
Yep, unlike video games things dont generally go boom and explode into millions of pieces when shot

Oh I dunno... when I got to work with some guys from 1st para things were going boom and exploding into a million pieces when they got shot...

...the fact they were "disposing" of milans that were past their "use by" date might explain why...

KaHn · 22 Jul 2009 at 16:02

I would have said it was a show for the cameras, bit of gun fire etc.

KaHn

spicypixel · 22 Jul 2009 at 16:04

The ship should have gone to ramming speed, far better.

Helium_Junkie · 22 Jul 2009 at 16:19

matt_fsr said:
However, I'm mildly peturbed by the general rubbishness of the shooting there -

they shoot it just fine... you cant sink a boat by putting a hole at the top of the side you know... the hole needs to be below the waterline.

Also, its pretty far away, moving, and small.

Or hit it with your keyboard, of course.

uber soldat · 22 Jul 2009 at 16:22

C.P said:
Yep, unlike video games things dont generally go boom and explode into millions of pieces when shot

They do you're just blowing up the wrong boats

antijoke · 22 Jul 2009 at 16:24

~J~ said:
To be fair it's always harder to hit a target without a mouse and keyboard.

Hahahahahahahaha.

Jono8 · 22 Jul 2009 at 16:30

??
what do want them to use? guided missiles? :confused:

it was a small speedboat. All it needed was some 30mm rounds though it.

You try shooting something that far away whilst out on a choppy sea...see if every bullet hits with pinpoint accuracy.

D D Danneh · 22 Jul 2009 at 17:28

I don't see any nuking from orbit.