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Her cannon could fire 250 kilograms of ammunition in a single broadside, and when the heavy iron shot left the muzzles, they travelled near the speed of sound. For a brief few minutes, she was the most powerfully armed ship in the Baltic, if not the world, a floating fortress to be feared from Reval to Copenhagen.
Vasa carried 64 cannon when she set off on her maiden voyage in August 1628, but eight of the gunports were empty; the navy yard could build a ship faster than the royal gun foundry could cast its guns. The main armament was 48 24-pounders, powerful bronze cannon that fired round shot weighing ten kilograms each. The upper deck carried smaller cannon: eight 3-pounders (1.25 kg) and six stormstycken, short thin-walled guns for firing anti-personnel ammunition at short range.
The 24-pounder was a new type of gun developed in 1620 for the army as mobile siege artillery. It weighed only half of the traditional naval 24-pounder, and was part of the king's drive to standardize the weaponry of both the army and navy to make it easier to manufacture and supply ammunition.
The cannon on either side of the ship could fire a broadside of 250 kilograms (not counting the stormstycken), around four times as much as the typical Swedish warship of the 1620's, and twice as much as the largest ships in other northern European navies. Had she been able to carry sail, Vasa would have been a fast ship, and this combination of speed and firepower could have been devastating.
Bofors Test Center - Vasa gun project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGd5HLl3GwE
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