Editing Broadside (naval) (section)

==Measurement of firepower capacity==
<!-- "Broadside weight" and "Weight of broadside" redirect here. -->
[[File:BB61 USS Iowa BB61 broadside USN.jpg|thumb|The firepower of a battleship demonstrated by {{USS|Iowa|BB-61|6}} (August 1984). The muzzle blasts are large enough to distort the ocean surface.]]

When the term is used in this way, it can be calculated by multiplying the shell weight of the ship's main armament shells times the number of barrels that can be brought to bear.  If some turrets are incapable of firing to either side of the vessel, only the maximum number of barrels which can fire to one side or the other are counted.  For example, the American [[USS Iowa (BB-61)|''Iowa'']]-class [[battleship]]s carried a main armament of nine {{convert|16|in|adj=on|0}} main guns in turrets which could all be trained to a single broadside.  Each 16-inch shell weighed {{convert|2700|lb}}, which when multiplied by nine (the total number of barrels in all three turrets) equals a total of 24,300&nbsp;pounds (11,022&nbsp;kg).  Thus, an ''Iowa''-class battleship had a broadside of 12&nbsp;[[short ton]]s (11.0&nbsp;tonnes), the weight of shells that she could theoretically land on a target in a single firing.

See [[list of broadsides of major World War II ships]] for a comparison.