Steve--good point on the refernce material. I am going to start a trend to see if anyone has the titles of all the Hunnicut books.
DJ

I recall (overheard conversations at the time, and later conversations with guys who crewed the A2) that the size of the missile was a serious issue in actual service. The inside of the turret was pretty cramped and it was frustrating to maneuver that long missile around inside there. The size of the missile also limited the Basic Load, because of available storage space. I also recall that the missiles weren't all that reliable, and had a disturbing mis-fire rate. Again, the cramped turret created difficulties, this time with unloading and troubleshooting or disposing of the missile round. Technology just hadn't caught up with the ideas yet.

BTW, this is one of the real world examples of why I (and a lot of soldiers) are suspicious of all the whiz-bang techno toys that are predicted for the 'near' future. Poor performance of good ideas is a bit of a habit with developing military hardware.