Eli5 how the guns on large navy ships actually work? They are just shooting really large bullets at other ships in the sea? Like, does it use combustion to accelerate the projectile?
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Mostly, yes. They’re cannons, similar to artillery cannons. The main difference from a very large version of a handgun, aside from size, is that the ‘bullet’ part itself often also has explosives, so it explodes when it hits the target.
I also wonder if shooting one doesn’t push the ship back in the opposite direction? Like do they have to get on the gas to stop the combustion from just turning into a temporary rocket propeller?
To add on to all these comments, in modern naval warfare, they usually do not rely on using the guns to eliminate its target. They usually use missiles to target air/surface targets, and torpedoes for submarines. The guns are usually used as warning shots or for smaller vessels.
A naval officer once told me, if you can see the target, its already too late.
In principle, as others have said, yes. Though there’s a lot more options for big guns.
However, big guns like those of artillery and ships tend to fire special rounds that are not *exactly* the same as bullets. Tanks can also fire most of these rounds too. There’s different shells (bullets) for different purposes.
**For People (Anti-Personnel):**
Nowadays we have very sophisticated fuse-based munitions that are designed not to directly impact something, but to explode in its general area and spray it with shrapnel. They have a sort of timer or proximity-based trigger that will cause it to blow up when its close enough or has gone so far.
That’s the same idea as what anti-aircraft used in World War 2, which makes those D-Day scenes much scarier to think about. You’re thinking “oh, those shells aren’t very accurate, phew they’ll be fine” when in reality those buggers are designed to SPRAY shrapnel all over. Even if you’re not hit you can be killed just by a stray piece of metal. The explosions aren’t what gets you, it’s what they propel. They’ll shred through the body of an aircraft, catch in the engines, or tear up the wings.
When it’s used by artillery or ship guns, they are even scarier… they will explode ABOVE you and rain down hot shards of metal on a target.
**Armor-Piercing (as in Tank/Ship Armor):**
There’s also shaped charges which are designed to go through armor / metal plates. It’s a bit more complicated cause it has to do with the geometry of it, but it basically has a mini explosion inside that pushes the main explosive and funnels it inward, causing a jet of hot metal to go into the armor.
If you’re curious, a very common type used against tanks is called a [HEAT round (high-explosive anti-tank)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-explosive_anti-tank)
**Sabot Rounds (Big Bullet go brrr):**
These are probably what you were picturing, they’re definitely a thing too. They’re essentially just big bullets that use raw kinetic energy to do damage.
I believe there’s also thermobaric munitions you can fire too, but I’m not entirely sure on that one. As a concept (mostly in bombs), it disperses an chemical that fills up an area before a secondary charge ignites it and the chemical sucks up all the oxygen as it engulfs the area in flames.
TL;DR – Tanks and ships have a lot of options when it comes to what type of round they’re using, they’re all essentially just big bullets packed with different “fun” things
Battleship New Jersey has a YT video where they explain how a 16″ gun is loaded and fired.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhEUUwXp56I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhEUUwXp56I)
Best part of the Battleship movie, when the old guy says, “Let’s drop some lead on these Mother…”
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