150 Dahlgren 



known now as the SEAFIRE system. In fact, it is being integrated into the 

 guided projectile system that has laser guidance. I don't think that what is 

 known as the Gunnery Improvement Program will ever actually see service in 

 the Navy, per se, but many of the elements have been very successful and are 

 going their own way. 



What do you see for future gun work in the Navy? 



I'm optimistic and I see the same future gun work for the Navy that I saw in 

 1967. I still believe in guns. I believe that the Navy needs them, and I believe 

 that technology has presented us with major opportunities which I believe will 

 be useful in theeventof another war. I think that there will be new Navy guns. I 

 don't believe that the Navy will put ships in retirement in the year 2020 with 

 guns that were built on technology of the 1950's. I think somebody will wake up 

 and say, "We can't do that. We have to put up-to-date modern guns on our 

 up-to-date modern ships." I have more faith in the system than that, and I 

 believe that the new CSGN, the new strike cruiser which the Navy is now setting 

 its sights on, will have a modern gun that's based on technologies of the 1970's, 

 not of the 1950's. That's what I see for the future Navy. I see guided projectiles 

 playing a strong part, but I don't see the demise of the simpler approach to 

 things. I think that's one of the attractive parts of the gun, the fact that you can 

 shoot both simple and inexpensive as well as sophisticated weapons from it. It's 

 no longer limited to "dumb" bullets, but we still need them. We don't seem to 

 have learned that war can just as well be fought with a rock most of the time. 

 You don't need atomic bombs every time you shoot a weapon, so' most of a war is 

 fought with very primitive means. If we take away our primitive means, then we 

 have to escalate to the more spphisticated things right off. We don't want to do 

 that. A lot of times, we don't know what we're shooting at anyway, so we don't 

 want to throw away our whole treasury when we're shooting at things that we 

 can't see or locate. That's the advantage of the gun, and I don't think the Navy 

 will view that any differently. I think there will be very strong support from the 

 Navy for an offensive as well as defensive capability, and guns will play a strong 

 role in that. We're going to have new guns to do that. 



