The Iowa-class battleships were the only battleships to receive the Computer Mark 48 Mod 1, installed during the Korean War era to simplify the shore-bombardment fire control problem. The Mk 48 operates in conjunction with the gun order computer, stable element, and director to provide an accurate indirect-fire solution. It translates reference-point tracking data into target-location data, combining the director’s line-of-sight to a visible reference point with the known map coordinates of an obscured target to produce offset bearing, slant range, and elevation for the gun order computer.
Ordnance Pamphlet 2074 is the complete technical manual for the Computer Mark 48 Mod 1. It covers physical description of the mechanical and electronic sections, all operating modes (Shore Bombardment, Local Control, Ship-to-Ship, Dead Reckoning), theory and functional description of the horizontal and deck-tilt computing sections, full maintenance procedures including routine tests and troubleshooting, and installation. 303 pages plus appendix, September 1956.
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