The USS Iowa. The USS New Jersey. The USS Missouri. The USS Wisconsin. Four ships. Nine 16-inch guns each. The most powerful surface combatants ever built by the United States Navy. But could they really fire all nine guns at once? The answer is yes — and what happens next is far more violent, complex, and misunderstood than most people realize. In this video, we break down the physics behind a full broadside from an Iowa-class battleship — nearly 6,000 pounds of gunpowder igniting in a single instant, generating over 10,000 tons of recoil force. We explore what that shockwave actually does to a 45,000-ton warship, why the myth of the ship “sliding sideways” is wrong, and how naval engineers designed these ships to survive their own firepower. But this isn’t just a story about guns. It’s a story about the end of an era. We dive into: The real physics of a nine-gun broadside Why each turr

Source: Why The Iowa Class Battleship Could Fire All 9 Guns At Once And Why The Navy Never Built Another One