Inshore firepower: the "Rocket Rainmakers" of the LSMRs

Cheap, slow, rough riding, flat-bottomed and potent.

That's the LSMR- Landing Ship Medium Rocket.
If you wanted firepower, the LSMR provided - One 5"/38 gun, twenty continuous loading 5" SS rocket launchers, two 40 mm twins, four 20 mm twins, four 4".2 mortars. Not bad for a ship of 204 feet in length. It could fire 380 5-inch rockets per minute up to 5 miles away.

Dubbed the "Rocket Rainmakers" by Rear Admiral F.J. Blouin, the ships that made up the IFS 93 were called ..."pound for pound the finest fighting ships the Navy has produced in the Vietnam conflict. Your impressive record in Gunfire Support Operations is unparalleled, and dispute problems of age, lack of speed and a tight operating schedule, the little rocket ships have done a giant sized job" the Rear Admiral said.

Visit the USS Clarion River website here for more information on these little ships.