Iowa class guns

[lancer21]

Simple what-if question. As you know a rather laughable set of circumstances led to original plans to fit Iowas with the 16in/50 Mark 2 to be scrapped and they had to build new guns for it, the Mark 7, with the Mark 2s going to the perfectly useless role of coastal guns (did they even fired at anything during the war?). So let's assume the relevant design bureaus are a bit less incompetent/ communicate a bit better and the Iowas receive the Mark 2 as intended.

Now many point out to the industrial might of the US in WW2, but even them were not a bottomless pit of production. So in a scenario in which they DON'T have to build the Mark 7 guns, what else the freed industrial capacity can be used for?

Also, and this interests me greatly, how many Mark 7 guns were built? I can't find any figures for it. For the earlier 16in/45 Mark 6 NavWeaps says 120 were built, but this seems to be overkill for the 6 35,000 tons BBs built (54 guns), even assuming a healthy reserve pool required. Could it be that the production of Mark 6 and Mark 7 guns has for some reason been lumped together?

For the Mark 2, apparently 71 of them were complete, which seems plenty for the 4 or even all 6 Iowas.

 

[SSgtC]

Honestly, nothing. The infrastructure to build heavy naval guns is pretty specialized. Unlike the British that had to reuse the guns and turrets from the Follies for Vanguard because they were physically unable to build more guns and turrets than they already were for the KGVs, the US had plenty of production capacity to build the guns for all the planned battleship classes. If you're not building the Mark 7, you're essentially just idling the line. Maybe you can use the steel for other things, but really, in the grand scheme of the war, 54 guns worth of steel really isn't that much

 

[Forest Green]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1hVKFDzO7s

 

[Foo Fighter]

How big is the crater from the gun? Zero, the crater is made by the shell. I know but standards.

Not having a go at FG, title made by someone else. I know.

 

[Yellow Palace]

For the earlier 16in/45 Mark 6 NavWeaps says 120 were built, but this seems to be overkill for the 6 35,000 tons BBs built (54 guns), even assuming a healthy reserve pool required.

I don't know for sure, but a reserve pool of one barrel ashore for one barrel afloat doesn't seem unrealistic - especially if you're anticipating intense combat. That takes you to 108 guns, leaving just 12 for trials work etc. Those numbers sound pretty plausible to me!