The distance between Taiwan's east coast and Guam is about 2700 kilometers, which would mean a firing radius of around 1350 kilometers. But eh, let's take the more conservative 1200 kilometers of firing range.
Here's what the firing radius for this purported land-based 400mm supergun looks like:
- Only by stationing the supergun close to Vladivostok can much of the Japanese home islands (and Tokyo metro area in particular) to be covered. So, not quite ideal.
- By stationing the supergun at the tip of Shandong Peninsula, the entire Ryukyu island chain can be reliably covered, though barely up to Kobe to the east.
- By stationing anywhere in central/southern China, the entirety of Taiwan is easily within reach of the supergun.
- By stationing at Hainan, the most the supergun can reach would be the northern outskirts of Manila metro area.
- By stationing in eastern Tibet, the entirety of the eastern and northeastern India (including Kolkata) can be covered by the supergun.
- By stationing in western Xinjiang, the Delhi metro area is easily within the supergun's reach.
As can be seen, the supergun would excel everywhere with the exception of bombarding the Japanese home islands, especially the major metro regions on the eastern seaboard of Japan (which requires the supergun to be stationed relatively close to the Sea of Japan) + the Luzon archipelago. But if the supergun's range can be raised to 1300-1500 kilometers, then this issue can be resolved.
However, should this gun be first made viable for procurement and deployment by the PLAGF (and its effective strike range being just as absurd as claimed), and that the dimension of the overall system can be keep from reaching improbable realms - Then personally, I believe that having a ship-based variant of this supergun could just be equally as useful.
Here's what the firing radius of the hypothetical ship-based 400mm supergun looks like:
- By sailing at 3/5th the way between Taiwan and Guam, the entirety of the Mariana Islands and Palau can be covered by the supergun.
- By sailing somewhere in between Aogashima and Ogasawara Islands, the entirety of the Japanese home islands (except Hokkaido) is within coverage of the supergun.
- By sailing between Shanghai and Jeju, the entirety of the Korean Peninsular and Taiwan can be reliably covered by the railgun.
- By sailing in the middle of the South China Sea, most of the Philippines can be reached by the railgun.
- By sailing somewhere in the Gulf of Thailand, the railgun can comfortably reach all of the Andaman Islands, Malacca Strait and Singapore.
But of course, all of the above are merely working on claims and hypotheticals.
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