USS Newport News

USS Newport News

USS Newport News

Description

The Des Moines-class, USS Newport News (CA-148), 1972 is a gift rank American heavy cruiser with a battle rating of (AB), (RB), and (SB). It was introduced during Update "Apex Predators" as a reward for the 2022 Winter Quest event.

General info

Survivability and armour

Talk about the vehicle's armour. Note the most well-defended and most vulnerable zones, e.g. the ammo magazine. Evaluate the composition of components and assemblies responsible for movement and manoeuvrability. Evaluate the survivability of the primary and secondary armaments separately. Don't forget to mention the size of the crew, which plays an important role in fleet mechanics. Save tips on preserving survivability for the "Usage in battles" section. If necessary, use a graphical template to show the most well-protected or most vulnerable points in the armour.

Mobility

Write about the ship's mobility. Evaluate its power and manoeuvrability, rudder rerouting speed, stopping speed at full tilt, with its maximum forward and reverse speed.

Mobility Characteristics
Game Mode	Upgrade Status	Maximum Speed (km/h)		Turn Time (s)	Turn Radius (m)
		Forward	Reverse
AB	Stock	___	___
	Upgraded
RB/SB	Stock	___	___
	Upgraded

Armament

Primary armament

USS Newport News has 8 inch/55 Mark 16 (203 mm) main guns. These are fundamentally the same gun barrels as those on the Baltimore-class heavy cruisers, but now boasts a much higher rate of fire (10 rpm vs. 4 rpm of its predecessors), thanks to an automatic loading mechanism. This provides USS Newport News formidable firepower and makes her a serious threat to enemy cruisers.

Note, however, USS Newport News still carries the same amount of main battery ammunition as the Baltimore-class heavy cruisers. Captains will need to allocate their ammo types carefully and keep an eye out on the ammo count during battle, or they might find themselves out of shells in the middle of a firefight.

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		1,000 m	2,500 m	5,000 m	7,500 m	10,000 m	15,000 m
8 inch Mk.14 Common	Common	110	98	80	66	56	43
8 inch Mk.21 APCBC	APCBC	390	348	289	243	207	165
8 inch Mk.25 HC	HE	61	61	61	61	61	61
8 inch Mk.17 SP Common	SP Common	131	116	95	79	66	50

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (s)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
8 inch Mk.14 Common	Common	823	117.9	0.035	9	4.84	47°	60°	65°
8 inch Mk.21 APCBC	APCBC	762	151.9	0.035	9	2.21	48°	63°	71°
8 inch Mk.25 HC	HE	823	117.9	0	0.1	9.5	79°	80°	81°
8 inch Mk.17 SP Common	SP Common	823	117.9	0.035	9	4.61	48°	63°	71°

Secondary armament

The USS Newport News has 6 dual-purpose, double-barrel 127 mm turrets, a common layout found on late-war US light and heavy cruisers. They have an excellent SP Common shell for use against lightly armored destroyers, and a VT-fused HE shell for use against aircraft.

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		1,000 m	2,500 m	5,000 m	7,500 m	10,000 m	15,000 m
5 inch AAC Mk.34	HE	36	36	36	36	36	36
5 inch AAVT Mk.31	HE-VT	36	36	36	36	36	36
5 inch SP Common Mk.46	SP Common	150	125	93	71	56	45

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (s)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
5 inch AAC Mk.34	HE	792	25	0	0.1	3,220	79°	80°	81°
5 inch SP Common Mk.46	SP Common	792	25	0.01	6	906.5	48°	63°	71°

Proximity-fused shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (s)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Arming distance (m)	Trigger radius (m)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
									0%	50%	100%
5 inch AAVT Mk.31	HE-VT	792	25	0	0.1	457	23	3,220	79°	80°	81°

Anti-aircraft armament

The USS Newport News we have in the game is in her 1962 state, after modifications to be a fleet flagship. The installation of flagship facilities required removal of most of her 3 inch AA guns, leaving only one dual mounts on each side of the bridge. As a result, USS Newport News relies mostly on her secondary 5" guns for air defense. That said, these 3" guns, firing VT-fused HE shells by default, are powerful in their own right, and can be a last resort defense against aircraft and small boats.

Usage in battles

Describe the technique of using this ship, the characteristics of her use in a team and tips on strategy. Abstain from writing an entire guide – don't try to provide a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought. Talk about the most dangerous opponents for this vehicle and provide recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of playing with this vehicle in various modes (AB, RB, SB).

Pros and cons

Summarise and briefly evaluate the vehicle in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark its pros and cons in the bulleted list. Try not to use more than 6 points for each of the characteristics. Avoid using categorical definitions such as "bad", "good" and the like - use substitutions with softer forms such as "inadequate" and "effective".

Pros:

• Well-armored for a cruiser and can take a lot of punishments when angled properly
• Very large crew of 1,799
• Relatively resistant to small-to-medium caliber crew drain, since she isn't covered in AA mounts
• Decent mobility
• Formidable firepower - her main battery is basically 2.5 Baltimore-class heavy cruisers firing together
• Has access to air search and tracking radars

Cons:

• Painful stock grind due to the terrible default common (SAP) shell
• BR of 6.3 means she tends to see battleships more often than her peers at 6.0, but she is similarly powerless against these enemies
• Only two dual-mount 3" guns for AA, one for each side of the ship. Very atypical for a US cruiser, which is normally covered in AA mounts.
• Has the same amount of main battery ammunition as the Baltimore-class cruisers despite a much higher rate of fire. Easy to run out of ammunition if not careful.
• No torpedo armaments, like most WW2 American cruisers
• The magazine of her second turret is above waterline and can be easily hit
• Both of her fire control rooms are also close to the waterline. If they are both destroyed, the ship will be unable to calculate the lead point

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ship in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the ship and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Ship-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the ship's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the ship;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

• [1]

USA heavy cruisers
Pensacola-class	USS Pensacola
Northampton-class	USS Northampton
Portland-class	USS Portland
New Orleans-class	USS New Orleans
Baltimore-class	USS Baltimore · USS Pittsburgh
Des Moines-class	USS Des Moines · USS Newport News