Recoilless naval guns?

If the grenade hits the target the penetrating power would be far less than an conventional grenade.
Uh... naval artillery strikes from above. You try to hit the deck from as steep an angle as possible. With the projectile on a ballistic course gaining its velocity from the downward slope of its course.
 
Uh... naval artillery strikes from above. You try to hit the deck from as steep an angle as possible. With the projectile on a ballistic course gaining its velocity from the downward slope of its course.
Only at long range, and the velocity is still substantially lower than at shorter range, gravity isn't as effective as gunpowder at accelerating projectiles.

That aside, nothing prevents you from having a recoilless gun with similar mv to a normal gun, just use double the amount of propellant. Though that does mean less ammo being carried.
 
With the low velocity comes much less accuracy on a heaving and pitching ship. A RC rifle will have to be a short range weapon to give a heavy punch during close in fights, unless it is used by anchored ships in shore bombardment.
 
With the low velocity comes much less accuracy on a heaving and pitching ship. A RC rifle will have to be a short range weapon to give a heavy punch during close in fights, unless it is used by anchored ships in shore bombardment.

It'll still be a fairly short-range weapon then, albeit a somewhat more accurate one. Because of that low velocity it'll also have a relatively long flight time and a pretty curved flightpath for the shell, which won't have much kinetic energy and will rely on its HE filling for effectiveness.
The main merit I can see for the idea is the lightness of the weapon, potentially allowing it to be shoe-horned onto much smaller hulls. As has been mentioned, it might find a home as a close-range weapon for destroyers and MGB/MTB designs.
 
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