Big Gun Turrets on Sci-Fi Warships

Spacedock delves into gun turret emplacements on sci-fi warships.
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[@its_lesser_known6331]

Remember kids, if your big gun turret is big enough, eventually it's the warship that's on the turret and not the turret that's on the warship.

[@tzeentch8228]

Soooo...basically the Civil War Monitor?

[@scepta101]

Every sci-fi fleet should have at least one “gun with ship-like parts attached”

[@mervinreyes3008]

As someone that still plays children of dead Earth I can state with certainty you don't even need ships with your turrets😅

[@mervinreyes3008]

​@@scepta101unsc be like all my gun will be ship like

[@salenereaper]

SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO MENTIONED MORE! YIPPPPEEE

[@Tallacus]

UNSC ships- we are the gun Starfleet ships- check out our phaser strips

[@Fort_Master]

I was going to be very angry if there wasn't at least 1 Yamato clip in this!

[@morrischen5777]

Mean while Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Cries in copyrighted corner btw, when you straight up turn your space battleship into a mech and "hold" the main gun, there's no need for a turret XD

[@shadowsayan3454]

@@Tallacusuncf ships are also the guns since the Wave Motion Gun also runs through the ship and is way stronger than any MAC Cannon will ever be

[@kottylion6302]

*MORE DAKKA*

[@Jetfury-v2x]

Waaaagh

[@Neoth40k]

*THERE IZ NO SUTCH THIN' AZ ENOUGH DAKKA*

[@colinscutt5104]

MOAR!

[@khoipham8303]

No matter the universe, having powerful armament on an armored traverse mechanism will never be uncool. *“TEMPER TEMPER”*

[@nicholaswalsh4462]

I'm a simple man. I see a video about big guns on spaceships, I watch. Simple as.

[@nicholaswalsh4462]

"Hard alarbord, Helm. Guns, train them to port and fire as she bears.

[@awesomehpt8938]

I wish we got to see the insides of the turrets on the Battlestar Galactica and see the crew. They’re like the one group of people we never got to know about.

[@Galvars]

On ships you can call them barbette it fit in most cases.

[@chaszczek]

Turrets on spaceship = Nova dreadnought from Babilon 5 in my mind😅😂

[@sharlin648]

On a big ship like a WW2 battleship the stuff surrounding all the rotating mechanism and ammo hoists is called a barbette. Most modern warships don't have this setup any more as their guns barely penetrate the deck in most cases with them having an ammo hoist, power and water feeds and that's about it going into the hull. Barbettes were much much larger and would have had multiple crew in them as well as hoists, flash proof barriers etc etc.

[@Majere613]

Recoil from the largest modern guns is a literally massive consideration. The first time one of the refitted Iowa-class battleships fired its entire main gun arsenal broadside during a Gulf War fire mission, the entire ship was shoved several meters in the opposite direction.

[@vi6ddarkking]

In space warfare turreted guns tend to be the secondary armaments that support the truly absorb spinal mounted F.U. dispenser. Also a rather common misconception is that a ships armaments aren't guns in the same way we think of WW2 Battleships. But merely a way to transfer the Ship's Power Output into damage, be it kinetic, termal or otherwise. So adding more Gun Turrets to a ship than you can fire at once, is a perfectly valid tactic to solve blind spots.

[@1987tijgertje]

Indeed. The game Eve Online is nice example of this. Each turret comes with two actual fitted turrets. One mounted on each side of the ship. And they work in tandem to cover each others blind spots. Very nice to see up close when you are shooting

[@ryuukeisscifiproductions1818]

and fixed forward facing spinal mount weapons are a bad idea in 99% of cases.

[@vi6ddarkking]

@@ryuukeisscifiproductions1818 Given the distances involved in space battles that statement is false.

[@littlekong7685]

@@ryuukeisscifiproductions1818 Nah. If your ship is manoeuvrable enough, or the target is slow enough then it gives you amazing weapon stability for firing BIG rounds at an enemy.

[@ryuukeisscifiproductions1818]

@@vi6ddarkking no its not, distance is the massive enemy of a fixed forward facing weapon. there is a reason they even went away on tanks, and the only reason aircraft retain them is turrets are real bad for aerodynamics. It is incredibly difficult to engineer an RCS system that is both powerful enough to maneuver an entire ship at a reasonable amount while also being precise enough for fine aiming. It is also far more energy inefficient than turreted weapon, as you would have to expend considerable amounts of fuel and energy just to aim the one big gun. And you better hope the enemy isn't shooting at you and landing hits because hits from even light projectiles will still impart momentum on your ship and throw its aim off. And this is on top of the fact that the one big gun can only fire in one direction at a time at a single target. which means if you get attacked form multiple directions, your one big gun is pretty helpless, and building a ship around one big gun makes it pretty helpless against swarm attacks from smaller cheaper ships. where as ships armed with multiple turreted gun batteries can much more easily deal with swarm attacks from multiple directions, especially if equipped with cluster munitions designed to deal with such threats. And this is on top of the fact that one big gun is also a single point of failure where one malfunction now makes your ship helpless. A single massive gun ship is only ever going to be any good at fighting other big gun capital ships at close range, where as a turreted capital ship can much more easily fight off both other big capital ships as well as kill smaller warships and depending on ammunition load, even deal with fighters very well, as well as being much more tolerant of weapon malfunctions since one malfunction is unlikely to deprive you of your main battery. and dont start with that but turrets are heavy and complex nonsense, turrets are an over 100 year old technology that is pretty well mastered now, and compared to the other technology a spaceship would have a turret would be positively caveman technology by comparison. And building one massive oversized gun is going to be far more expensive than investing in numerous smaller caliber guns.

[@awesomehpt8938]

Need moor Dakka. Can never have enuff.

[@ntnwwnet]

We need a proper finale for The Expanse!

[@tyrreloneal5178]

^^this, even if it ends up being animated!

[@pepsimann0076]

1:17 Gotta love the DS9 references especially to that particular scene 😂

[@Belligerent_Herald]

It doesn’t always make sense, but you do like to see those big guns swinging into battery. Few things in sci-fi so clearly communicate to an audience that significant things are about to happen, it’s the deep space equivalent of racking the slide on a shotgun.

[@Strykenine]

One thing that wasn't mentioned was that a sufficiently large turret rotating will also induce rotation on the attendant vessel, if it is in space. Recoil is not the only effect a gun can have on a spaceship that doesn't need to be considered (as much) on the ground.

[@aleksatanaskovic9172]

Easily fixable by a counter-rotating ring within the construction. Either have it purely counterweight, or additional armor or a hold for more ammo. We kinda solved the counterrotation force issues about the time we invented modern single-prop helicopters. Just gotta upsize it. By a LOT.

[@Edge-wx7hv]

@@aleksatanaskovic9172 also used in space power tools it would be neat to see such systems employed as backups to the normal attitude and maneuver systems in an emergency the same way a gun is also a bad but functional rocket, a turret could be a crappy but functional emergency gyro

[@appo9357]

Big guns good. Me like. 👍🏼

[@The-Ink-Dragon97]

I think the 'turret basket' on battleships are called 'Barbets'.

[@tinatpasselepoivre]

they are indeed called that

[@bluehorizon9163]

Just do like Legend of the Galactic Heroes and turn the Ships into Turrets!!

[@serbianslav5494]

How about Sci-Fi warships which are essentially one big gun?

[@mike7652]

Would recoil be an issue if most are using lasers/DEWs? Could be, I'm no astrophysicist 😂

[@eastindiaV]

Big turrets for long range engagements, and for orbital bombardment. Mid range anti fighter weapons, And fighters, with drop ships for boarding.

[@LordOfCinder85]

You dont need cables to unwind in a turret. Afaik you usually have power rails and carbon pickup brushes to transmit the power.

[@cmedtheuniverseofcmed8775]

Guns on warships (and how you use them) can be a very fun concept in any story. Even in my writings, I have a case where a civilian billionaire, rejected from military service, took the turrets from USS Iowa and Missouri and slapped them onto an older 22nd-century spaceship that he called The Rampage. There were a variety of reasons why this was done (Earth has been mostly abandoned), and the warship's entire frame was rebuilt, including utilizing engines to help counter recoil generation. The ship can essentially fly sideways and fire its guns onto a target. However, it's important to note that this is an ad-hoc design as shells are very slow, and space is absolutely huge. The ship is essentially a raider that does saturation bombardment at stationary targets. There can be other ways that gun turrets can be used in stories. This can include Gatling-like turrets where the barrels cycle to help out in heat reduction. Rings can be used to house large gun turrets, where the rings spin to cycle each turret when firing at single targets. It's important to note that space doesn't care what your ship does. You can lightly spin the ship to fire every turret you need to hit a target. Space isn't a 2D field (which writers can fall into when depicting battles). Up, down, left, right, nobody cares.

[@trevorhsia3124]

Neat that you showed the Gatlantis dome turrets from SBY! That particular design is pretty neat. A relatively weak turret that has a full hemisphere of coverage and can fire in any direction with minimal movement, plus the rate of fire is very high.

[@stuartford5556]

Space under the turret on ships sometimes called a Barbette

[@andrewreynolds912]

As hard sci-fi nerd turrets are very important, i think they will be more numerous on sci-fi ships than those on water naval for multiple reasons they can be for anti missile defenses to CQB and more also because having more volume of fire gives advantages but doesnt mean missiles and lasers will be apart of the game

[@davidtherwhanger6795]

I believe on naval ships they are called Barbettes.

[@Typhyr]

0:38 On a ship the turret basket is referred to as the barbette.

[@Global-yt]

5 minutes ago? Nice

[@Mire-Drive]

The turret baskets on ships are called Barbettes

[@DankGank]

Turrets sit within barbettes, but barbettes are not one with the turret itself

[@tylerromero]

I offer barbaskets

[@50043211]

That is ... wrong! A barbette is armoured housing for a gun with a limited firing arc but easier to create/build because its not a turret.

[@jamesb6102]

Show me your Barbettes 😎

[@CaptChang]

Actually, no. The EXTERNAL MOUNT where you put the turret (and the "basket") in, is the barbette.

[@CaptChang]

Personnally, the question is going to be... how *big* can the guns get in space? If we're talking about spinal mounted guns, like the HALO UNSC MAC, or the Traveller universe "Spinal mount" meson and other super large guns, those are basically the basis of the ship which is built around it, thus, no turret... You rotate the whole ship like an assault gun. The Terran wet navy battleships have turrets because the ships have grown bigger than guns, rather than the other way around. So you need multiple guns, and to concentrate firepower you need to rotate them to aim them, which is inherited from the age of sail days when the way to increase firepower is to carry MORE guns, since there's an upper limit on how heavy the guns can get due to metallurgy limits.

[@Ushio01]

No naval ships have mulitple guns because your accuracy when firing at a moving target at 20km+ away isn't great. Throw enough shit at the wall and you'll hit something. When the Bismarck was sunk the 2 RN battleships had a hit ratio of about 10% for around 80 big shell hits. 1 gun would make aiming very, very hard but with a double or triple turret you can fire one gun at a time to range the target for each turret before firing full broadsides. Ships grew insize because it was a balance of firepower, speed and armour. To make a ship fast it needed to be long. The Iowa class was 67m longer than a South Dakota for 5.5 knots (6.3 mph) more speed that length added weight in armour but mostly in adding 82,000 shp in steam turbines.

[@Tallacus]

If a warship isnt basically a flying gun its not a warship, IE the UNSC ships literally being a rail gun with FTL capabilities

[@Global-yt]

give this man venture cap funding

[@alecdeter1999]

*Squints eyes with hateful intent* It is a Coil gun it does not have rails

[@Tallacus]

​@@alecdeter1999okay coil guns

[@zionleach3001]

@Spacedock I was wondering if diesel/steampunk combat dirigibles and SHIELD's Helicarrier even possible?

[@firstname9954]

spacedock : "only the gun elevates" Stridsvagn 103: "am i a joke to you?"

[@hectorelderflower219]

Can you're next episode be on advanced turrets i.e. the turrets used by the spillage from THEO BOUVIER. And side question, when are we getting a dedicated episode on Advanced Particle Beam🤙🏾

[@nomar5spaulding]

One of the things I like about Eve Online is the massive caliber of Minmatar ships. To quote Captain John Rourke (of the good ship Clear Skies), "Stationary ships don't react well to Fourteen Hundreds."

[@HappilyHomicidalHooligan]

Travers Speed isn't usually a problem for the REALLY big, Massey (Heavy) guns since they're designed to kill other Capitol Ships, NOT the small, fast moving Fighters and Missiles...those are dealt with by the smaller, MUCH lighter and faster moving Point Defense Turrets... The WW2 Battleships didn't use their 16 inch gun Turrets to kill airplanes, they used them to kill other Battleships (or buildings in the Bombardment role)...the small 5 inch guns would be used for small, fast targets...

[@_olli_9485]

Hah! You have a very quite music/sound going on in the background. I thought my neighbours are having a party. A bit distracting and anoying. Say, are your neighbours having a party while you are recording?

[@kuhluhOG]

4:55 That heavily depends on the setting (if we talk SciFi). If you try to be rather realistic with your setting, I would guess it's rather likely to happen. If you basically put fleet combat into space, whatever.

[@tyrreloneal5178]

Keep these videos coming if you can; they're helping some of us write some FIRE ass stories! 😎

[@katherineberger6329]

The major parts of a turret are: Spinny bit on top = Gunhouse Part of the turret that hangs down in the hull = turret stalk (the turret stalk is multiple "baskets" deep - each "basket" is called a "pan" on a ship) Part of the ship that the gunhouse rests on = barbette Also, in all nations' navies, a two-gun turret is called a "twin turret," but in the United States Navy (and ONLY the USN), a three-gun turret is either called a "three-gun turret" if each gun can elevate individually or a "triple turret" if all three guns move together. Also, under almost all circumstances, turrets will not fall out of a ship because they install retaining brackets or "clips" to hold the turret on the roller track.

[@PepRock01]

Barbette would be the term for ships you are looking for.

[@SuperFailzocker]

I like the detail that in The Expanse the PDCs have an RCS thruster on the back to compensate for recoil. And also imagine if the Normandy SR2 from Mass Effect 2 and 3 could also turn it's twin Thanix Cannon to also fire on Targets not directly in front of them. (Or imagine them actually using it more often then just the one time against the Collector-Ship at the end of Mass Effect 2.)

[@ParkourEh]

Definitely appreciate a Spacedock video about the pew pew

[@mrtodddelaroderie]

I would imagine that any orojectile based turret weapons would cause some funky spinning on the ship. And then it could flip on an unexpected axis. Not good.

[@ijmad]

Peacekeeper Command Carrier - my favourite big gun ship! The main guns are on turrets but also on massive tracks around the hull.

[@brandylshey9367]

0:30 I believe it's called a Battery Column. Battery (a grouping of guns) because each barrel is considered a separately maintained gun despite being physically bound to the same direction. Column because you're right, a massive rotating undercarriage that extends 3 decks deep into the ship can't rightly be called a basket, and that word fits the design choice best. Edit: They are apparently called barbettes, which also makes sense for a cluster of hostile protrusions. It also just depends on how you want to name your own fictional universe's terminology.

[@Aotearas]

Kinda surprised that the ship from Spacepirate Harlock didn't get a special mention in the coverage problem segment, considering it has a rather effective mechanism to facilitate exactly that with its turrets on rotating tracks that can circle the turrets around the ships. Also the floating gun platforms on the Iserlohn Fortress in 'Legend of the Galactic Hereos' which could be shifted within the liquid metal layer to wherever they are needed (albeit that one is a massive space station and not a warship, so I understand how that may not have made the cut for a video on warships specifically).

[@sonwig5186]

I think its pretty telling than in Gundam big gun turrets get less and less common and all ships basically become carriers. Also great using Children of a Dead Earth footage! I built such a massive nuke cannon in that game that I could actually turn it around and use it as an orion drive, the only problem was it destroyed my ship in the process.

[@recon_fpv]

I'm just here to see the PDC recoil compensation rockets.

[@ivannovalery6504]

Another alternative you might want to consider is multiple turrets on a rail on your ship hull. Especially in an environment where your foes can appear at any angle, instead of having dozens turret on all side of your ship’s hull to cover all angle, having a few that can be moved from place to place would be sustainable. Less energy requirement. Less mass (more deltaV). And would make sense if your ship is one that has landing capability. Having mech with multiple armaments patrol on your ship’s hull and let them act as a walking turret would also make sense

[@SinisterSlay1]

I like how star trek phaser arrays just side steps all these problems. Exactly like a future solution should. Also, would like to see more discussion on recoil. It seems overstated. It's not as if the ship is firing even 1% of it's mass, so it should have very little effect.

[@Ushio01]

On navel battleships it's called the Barbette which has a casemate with an armoured gunhouse on top which came to be called turrets reusing the term that was originally used for original turrets like those used on USS Monitor which aren't related to WW1 or WW2 battleship turrets at all.

[@marcop1563]

The circular armor below the turret enclosing its ammunition supply in a warship is called barbette.

[@LoneWolf343]

You didn't mention how arms are much more fragile than turrets. The increased complexity would be more than worth the trade off for being able to aim basically anywhere, but one bad pump and that arm might not even be able to fire, much less turn.

[@barbarossarotbart]

In Traveller turrets are the basic weapon emplacements and can carry up to three weapons. Fifty or a hundred times larger than turrets are Weapon bays, but most major warships in Traveller have a spinal weapon as their main gun.

[@mirochlebovec6586]

In my language we call turrets our word for “towers” which fits nicely with the fact that the internal mechanism extending downwards is also a part of it.

[@Arms872]

Gun depression needs more attention! They work better when they are happy.

[@starort1078]

Love the music in the backround

[@Furyhound]

One reason you might do this, is to have an easily replaced major component that needs to cover a wide area, but you cant afford to point out like a hedgehog. Alternatively to allow greater isolation of the component for say, radiation reasons

[@90lancaster]

Someone remind me again ? which (book) franchise covers itself in guns like a hedgehog and then rolls the ship along the centreline to minimise damage on a single spot and keep loaded and functional weapons in play when firing at a single target as well as popping up and down like musket man would in and out of the cover of their comrade vessels.

[@222toastedtoasters3]

THis is THE VIdio IVE been waiting FOR

[@Exodon2020]

On a ship, the inside part of a turret is called a Barbette.

[@ajollyduck]

0:41 the turret sits in its turret well. They're separate systems due to how immensely heavy the turret is. Its much easier to perform maintenance when you could literally lift the turret out if the way.

[@shadowsayan3454]

Im a simple man. I see Space Battleship Yamato i press like.

[@gJ4cktheRipP3r]

coax gun as long as the ship, just rotate the ship not the gun on a turret

[@dstovell]

Please please please do a video on ExoSquad!!! 💜

[@Phoenix_stern]

2:09 Planetenverteidungskanonenkommandant :D

[@90lancaster]

Diaclone Robotbase likes its turrets too !

[@abnurtharn2927]

On a ship the turret basket is most often referred to as the barbette.

[@JustTooDamnHonest]

The Yamato is smiling.

[@OpreanMircea]

Turrets are just cool

[@therealbarista]

me when the uh

[@S1337theoddoneout-ip9xc]

One thing star trek lore has made very clear is, the phaser strip is superior to the phaser turret and cannon when it comes to fields of fire. But on the other hand, defiant's quad cannons go BRRRRRRRRRRR.

[@LoneWolf343]

It's kind of weird how Star Trek Online gave phaser turret a 360 cone of fire, then.

[@Ushio01]

Forward firing only works because it's smaller and more agile than most opponents it's basically a Star Trek equicalent of a heavy fighter or light/medium bomber converted to ground attack in WW2 when they stuck numerous .50cal or 20mm guns in the nose for strafing. When your big you need more arcs of fire.

[@pougetguillaume4632]

I often wonder what would be the ideal shape would be for a spaceship to balance armor and firepower. i think a cone is overall the best design it doesn't have much obstruction for your turret due to its smooth round surface meaning it unlocks 180°+ rotations both vertically and horizontally, the 101 of warship manufacturing is that you need ALL your big guns to be able to focus fire in a certain position, this is what seperate pre dreadnaughts (put more gun to cover your blindspot) from post dreadnaught (put fewer guns that can all fire at the same target). another advantage of a cone is that you can focus so much of your armor in front of the ship and get on top the benefit of the angle to artificially increase the thickness of the armor. Anyone who has played terra invicta knows that armoring the sides is a huge problem and that you pretty much always want to be pointing your nose at the ennemy since there is so much less surface area that needs armoring in front

[@Belligerent_Herald]

Depends on the role and environment really, the pre-dreadnoughts weren’t wrong, they were just built in a time when the combat environment was expected to devolve into a close range melee, same reason the still had ramming bows.

[@hamishsewell5990]

Warhammer 40k, for me, is the prime example of shops having massive guns

[@jakubkvacala1880]

I like Harlock spac pirate guns, they could rotate around the hull so have better covrage, tradeoff is 1 gut shot diseable entire turret

[@Dreamfox-df6bg]

On the other side, the ability to aim most or even all guns on one target makes for devastating broadsides. So good luck getting a shot in without getting ripped apart yourself.

[@jakubkvacala1880]

@@Dreamfox-df6bg i like Honorverse solution, all guns on sides

[@padawanmage71]

The Wave Motion Gun on the Yamato is literally the OG BFG!

[@soulin11]

Bro fell of

[@Global-yt]

?

[@soulin11]

@@Global-yt 0 seconds after upload and 0 views

[@Firefocus-fz2we]

0:38 It's called Barbette. The ships turret is an enclosed, armoured barbette.

[@seraphus6287]

0:37 The word you're looking for for a ship's turret is a "barbette".

[@magicalgirl1296]

1:01 Goodness that thing looks mean

[@kuhluhOG]

0:39 It's called a barbette.

[@SovereignVis]

Yeah, in the game Avorion I design all my war ships to have the maximum possible firing arc for all my turrets. So no matter which way the enemy is coming from, 50% or more of my turrets are able to fire at them. 🙃