Sunday Ship History: Small Ship Firepower

A weapon system of rockets for inshore support - lots of firepower in inexpensive platforms:

Much more on the LCI variations Sunday Ship History: The Original LCSs A larger version of these "rocket ships" shown here:

FIREPOWER OFF VIETNAM aka AMERICAN ROCKET SHIPS BOMBARD VIETNAM

British Pathe (click on image to go to video) That's USS Carronade (IFS-1) shown in the latter video. More about her here:

USS Carronade (IFS-1/LFR-1) was a ship of the United States Navy first commissioned in 1955. She is named after the carronade, a type of short barrelled cannon. As an Inshore Fire Support Ship (IFS), part of the so-called "brown-water navy", Carronade was built to provide direct naval gunfire support to amphibious landings or operations close to shore. Carronade was armed with two twin 40mm anti-aircraft mounts (mounted fore and aft of the superstructure), one dual-purpose 5" .38caliber naval cannon, and eight mk.105 twin automatic rocket launchers. Each launcher was capable of firing thirty spin-stabilized rockets per minute. *** During the Vietnam War, Carronade served as the Flagship of Inshore Fire Support Division 93 (IFSDIV93), working alongside the USS Clarion River (LSM(R)-409), USS St. Francis River (LSMR-525) and USS White River (LSMR-536). Shortly before decommissioning, all ships in IFSDIV93 were re-designated as LFR.

To a certain extent, Carronade and her companions were meant to satisfy US Marine Corps needs for amphibious gunfire support.


Updated to fix spelling.