> You wrote: "[...] The Gashidda-class 400-ton SDB was designed to penetrate
> the armor of Imperial grav tanks [...]" and "[...] The funnels of the twin
> steam engines restrict the turret rotation to 330° unless the cannon is
> raised for anti-air fire. [...]". And the vessel is TL5.
> 
> All this says to me that the cannon is usually not used for indirect fire:
> for a TL5 artillery firing on moving targets was fruitless as they could
> not perform the required calculations fast enough and then load the gun in
> time - not to forget that they were not capable to determine both positions
> (that of the gun and that of the target) accurately enough.
> 
> That brings me to your design: even if the boat knows where it is, what
> about the forward observer? How will he determine his position? Also with 2
> times 3 sets of navigation instruments?
> 
> I still doubt that such a vessel would have (or need) this additional
> three sets of navigation instruments in the turret.
> 
> Regards
> thr

You're right that they could probably get away with fewer sets in a pinch.
But remember that one set represents 30 lbs. of instruments, to be used 
by a single operator. Three guys in the turret to back up the guys in the 
hull sounds reasonable to me. They don't have to know the position of
the observer if the observer can locate the target relative to a landmark.

You're also right that direct fire is just about the only way this thing could
score a hit on a grav tank, but I think my description made it clear that 
the locals don't have any idea what they are truly facing. 

So I could drop one or two sets of instruments, but that wouldn't really 
change the design. 

Onno
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