A British tabloid paper ran an article Friday critical of the British Defence Ministry because they thought they had spent hundreds of millions of dollars building a gun less than half the size of a standard ruler.
The Daily Star made the error upon reports that the British Defence Ministry had spent $242 million on a five inch gun, according to Mediaite. However, as most would presume, the naval cannon is not actually five inches long. Rather, five inches refers to the caliber of the round (62 caliber) the naval ship fires.
“We just blew [$242 million] on a five inch gun, but it’s a good value for taxpayers,” the Daily Star headline said. The sub-headline goes on to say that the gun is the “length of a toothbrush.”
Many were quick to jump on this obviously erroneous report, including the U.K. Defence Journal, who posted on their Twitter account.
Yes, the @Daily_Star has printed this. They seem to have confused the calibre of a new gun with the length of it… pic.twitter.com/76YXdpeJ52
— UK Defence Journal (@UKDefJournal) July 29, 2016
The Daily Star has since edited the story and has a revamped headline noting the “cutting edge” nature of the ships, and has done away with any reference to a “toothbrush” sized gun.
The gun in question, the MK 45 MOD 4, is part of the Royal Navy’s Type 26 Global Combat Ship fleet. While the round it fires measures five inches, the gun is substantially larger., measuring 310 inches, or just over 25.5 feet. That is many, many toothbrushes.
One Twitter user was not as kind as the U.K. Defence Journal in their assessment of the hilarious report.
Honestly, the low-calibre of journalism graduates these days…:) pic.twitter.com/YqH6alBGBQ
— Willard Foxton (@WillardFoxton) July 29, 2016
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