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Five Inch Directors

Sky 3
Sky Three

Secondary director. Generally used to coordinate the five inch guns. Could be used to direct the main guns. This may be a "FD & Mk37 Director combination.

Like the main guns and the quad 40s, the five inch guns were also usually controlled from a remote director, such as Sky Three, above. The FD is the optical turret. The arm extending towards the camera houses an optical range finder, similar to the one shown inside the 16 inch turret. On top is a Mk37 radar. This combination along with the 5 inch guns was used to target air, sea and ground targets. It could be used to direct the main batteries, as well as the five inch guns.

Sky 1
Sky One

Sky One, identical to Sky Three, but mounted on top of the conning tower, facing forward. The four Sky directors covered forward, starbourd, port, and aft quaters of the ship. The bar of the optical range finder is partially hidden by the conning tower. The main antenna turned with the tower. To the left is an independent height finding antenna. This pivoted up and down to determine the height angle of an incoming aircraft. Thus, range, bearing and altitude information could be obtained through the radar.

In the foreground, the USS Massachusetts' last radar upgrade. A commercial radar was mounted for the tow from Philidalphia to Fore River.

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