RML 16 inch 80 ton gun

• Name — Ordnance RML 16-inch 80-ton gun • Origin — United Kingdom • Type — Naval gun • Is Ranged — YES • Is Artillery — YES • Is Uk — YES • Service — 1880–1902 • Used By — Royal Navy • Wars — Bombardment of Alexandria (1882) • Designer — Royal Gun Factory • Design Date — 1874 • Manufacturer — Royal Arsenal • Number — 8 • Unit Cost — £10,000 • Variants — Mk I • Part Length — 288 in (bore) • Cartridge — 1684 lb Palliser, common, Shrapnel • Caliber — 16 in • Velocity — 1590 ft/s • Max Range — 8000 yd

• Illustration — Gun barrel construction In 1868 trials, the Krupp breechloader 24 cm K L/20 unexpectedly proved itself superior to the British 9-inch muzzle loader. This potentially posed a huge problem for the Royal Navy. The British manufacturers could not produce the huge ingots of quality steel that were required to manufacture comparable guns and relying on imported guns was unacceptable from a strategic perspective. However that might be, the German Navy was very small. Therefore, the British could counter the Krupp guns by simply increasing the size of their less effective muzzle loaders. In parallel to the contest between muzzleloaders and breechloaders, there was a race between armor and guns. On the Krupp side, this race processed gradually up till the 30.5 cm caliber. It then escalated with Krupp producing the 35.5 cm MRK L/22.5 of 56t and the United Kingdom making the 16-inch 80-ton gun. After a long design and experimentation period beginning in 1873, Inflexible with its four guns, became the only ship to mount the 16-inch 80-ton gun, in 1880. By that time such muzzle-loading guns were already obsolescent and were being superseded by a new generation of rifled breechloading guns. Two more guns were mounted for coastal defence in the Admiralty Pier Turret at Dover.

• Illustration — 112½-pound ¼ charge brown prism powder cartridge The gun was constructed of a toughened mild steel inner "A" tube surrounded by multiple wrought-iron coils, breech-piece and a jacket. Rifling was of the "polygroove plain section" type, with 33 grooves increasing from 0 to 1 turn in 50 calibres (i.e. 1 turn in 800 in) at the muzzle. The 16 inch 80 ton was a second-generation RML gun, equipped with polygroove rifling and firing only studless ammunition and using automatic gas-checks for rotation. The maximum range of the gun was 8000 yd. This was the maximum practical range at the low elevations used for firing armour-piercing projectiles on a flat trajectory intended to pierce the armoured sides of ships. Longer ranges would have been attained at higher elevations, but the armour-piercing properties would have been diminished at the lower terminal velocity and oblique angle of impact. The original charge was 450 pounds of prismatic black powder giving a muzzle velocity of 1604 feet/second. However, as this damaged the barrel, it was replaced by brown powder from April 1885. N.J.M. Campbell, "British Super-Heavy Guns". The final velocity was 1590 feet/second firing a 1684-pound projectile, with a charge of 450 pounds Prismatic brown powder (gunpowder).

• Illustration — The two guns in the Admiralty Pier Turret as they are today The only two remaining example are in the ruins of the Admiralty Pier Turret, Dover, Kent, UK.

RML 16 inch 80 ton gun is associated with United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Classified as a naval artillery or rifled muzzle loader.