[patton]

Fiberglass? Really? Talk about a paper tiger...

[Robert A Cook PE]

Fiberglass?

Sure. All of today’s plastic “turrets” (good enough for spray and water protection) are “not armored” against anything but the environment.

Don’t get fooled by “Well, it’s just a Korean (small) corvette - “our” USN ships are really tough.”

USS Cole was destroyed - put completely out of action by a smaller bomb exploded against its side carried by a outboard-motor fishing boat.

An underwater mine blew a USS destroyer nearly in half i the Gulf - They had to carry it back on a submersible freighter or it would have broken in two Mid-Atlantic.

Since WWII, NO cruiser-destroyer-frigate sized ship of ANY Navy, ANYWHERE worldwide, has “survived” (still able to fight, flee, AND float”) after EVEN one missile, mine, shell, or anti-radar hit.

Once hit one time - by anything - every frigate-destroyer-cruiser (up to CG-47/Spruance sized) ship has been put out of action.

Used to be, we’d brag about “Wooden ships and Iron men.”

Then it became “Steel ships and electronic weapons ...”

Now? “Aluminum boats and wooden men, led by lawyers and bureaucrats, reading procedures to fire blanks.”

-—...-—...

Chains and dragging effects are visible as the rough vertical scars parallel to the chains holding the ship in the air. Chains and lifting forces could have done some of the topside damage, but the impact on the bottom is want “cut off smooth” all of the upper electronic masts and gear.

[jonascord]

There is no point in loading up a gun mount with useless armor and topside weight. During WW2, it was found that even the thickest armor was almost entirely useless. The fiberglass shell is just there to blunt the impact of the sea.

Even the Black Shoe Navy had to admit this unpleasant fact.