A British tabloid made an embarrassing error Friday, writing a hysterical piece that incorrectly reported the Defence Ministry had paid hundreds of millions of pounds to buy a five-inch-long gun.
“We just blew £183m on a five-inch gun, but it’s ‘a good value for taxpayers,’” read the outraged headline from The Daily Star. The subheadline also reinforced that the author believed the gun was literally five inches, calling it “the length of a toothbrush.”
The only problem? Five-inch guns are named after their caliber, not their length. They shoot munitions that are five inches in diameter, meaning the guns themselves are necessarily huge.
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A British tabloid made an embarrassing error Friday, writing a hysterical piece that incorrectly reported the Defence Ministry had paid hundreds of millions of pounds to buy a five-inch-long gun.
“We just blew £183m on a five-inch gun, but it’s ‘a good value for taxpayers,’” read the outraged headline from The Daily Star. The subheadline also reinforced that the author believed the gun was literally five inches, calling it “the length of a toothbrush.”
The only problem? Five-inch guns are named after their caliber, not their length. They shoot munitions that are five inches in diameter, meaning the guns themselves are necessarily huge.
The piece quickly attracted the mockery of those who were more familiar with military terminology.
The article has since been corrected, and now reads as a sort of mundane examination of a fairly routine naval purchase.
Read More: Mediaite
Featured Image –The crew of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem (DDG 63) conduct a firing exercise of the MK 45 5-inch lightweight gun at a surface target during Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) Singapore 2016, July 24 –DVIDS
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