B. Smitty. The following is more detailed specs of this ship design.
Also, the issues you raise have been brought up and answered already here-
http://www.defencetalk.com/forums/sh...0&page=1&pp=10
U.S.N ships usually have state names, especially BB's, however this one doesn't exist so I'm going to name it after the Army atillery gps shells called Exalibur. My ship design uses guided shells, which is my reason for doing so. But if you really want to give it a state name for the idea of using it in the U.S.N we can call it the Illinois Class.
First lets consider it's mission requirements:
1.) Capable of engaging Sea or Land targets with equal effectiveness.
2.) Capable of defending against Aerial targets as well as submerged force dislocators such as submarines. It is not invincible, but simply designed with the idea that defense is worthwhile.
3.)Must be capable of sustaining half a dozen or more direct hits and continue fighting.
4.) Must be able to fire with guided shells to allow accurate naval engagements and shore bombardment using its main battery.
5.)High speed
6.) Shock and Awe: Offensive and Deffensive with extreme prejudice.
7.) Main guns must be effective. The idea is to allow the ship to use 20,000 dollar guided 16 inch shells rather than 750,000 dollar tomahawks when possible.
Exalibur Class Advanced Battleship-
Role: Multi-Mission Surface Warfare/ Blue Water Patrol
Fleet Characteristic: Carrier Group/ Surface Combat Group/ Tactical Battleship Group
Length: 611 ft.
Beam: 79 ft.
Tonnage: 33,000 Tons
Tumblehome Hull design
30 Water tight bulkheads of computerized control
90 Compartments with a bulkhead on either side (horizontal) arranged in rows of 3.
The armor contributes a great deal to a rather light platform as far as tonnage goes. If you want to attempt to understand my theory for using armor, go to this page:
http://www.battlefield.ru/guns/defin_1.html
This page is less accurate but an alternative the above page:
http://www.navweaps.com/index_nathan/Miscarmr.htm
What I discovered is that an exocet anti-ship missile can penetrate 2.75" of steel armor. A cruise missile much higher than that, but also ineffective against heavy armor. The idea was to design a system to allow the ship to survive several direct hits and continue fighting. Mission requirement states half a dozen direct hits.
Unit Price:
$5.26-5.8 billion dollars.
Price was taken into account under the following factors.
Recycled aluminum: $310 per ton.
Steel: $295 per ton. (overpriced to account for market changes)
Titanium: $0.58 cents per pound.
Labor and shipyard costs: +28%
Armor:
Double Hull: For Advanced Survivability (Armor accounts for both inner and outter hull total)
Outer Hull- Titanium/ Tungsten Alloy Sheeted Steel
Explosive Reactive Armor enhanced
Side: 722mm
Deck: 380mm
Turrent: 645mm
I've wondered about E.R protection, and right now I'm simply mentioning it as a concept for this armor plan.
The double hull is a double hull for a lot of reasons:
Increased armor capacity while maintaining stability.
The superstructure of the ship is composed mostly of aluminum and composites with steel reinforcing. The hull it laterally braced to prevent torpedo kills from kinetic forces. Without a double hull, the bracing would be more difficult to implement. The aluminum superstructure reduces weight by as much as 23% not counting armor. The role of the steel reinforced portions is to keep the ship solid, especially for the lateral bracing arguement.
Crew: 202-369
Possibly compadible with Aegis Combat System
Armament:
x9 Advanced Gun system 16" (406mm)/ .60 Deck guns in 3 triple gun turrents
-Will fire GPS guided 16" shells.
-x6 (3 twin tubes) carrying Mk. 48 533 mm torpedoes
Close-In Gun System (CIGS)-
x 10
BAE Systems Land and Armaments 57mm Mk 110 naval gun.
x16 155mm AGS Single Turrents
-Will fire GPS/IR guided 155mm shells
The CIGS is highly effective against incoming missiles and aircraft.
Peripheral Vertical Launch System-
The solution consists of 50 four-cell PVLS situated round the perimeter of the deck, rather than the usual centrally located VLS. This would reduce the ship's vulnerability to a single hit.
-Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (Raytheon RIM-162)
-SM-3 Standard Missile
-Tactical Tomahawk or Tomahawk TLAM
-Harpoon ASM
-SeaWolf Block 2
The Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile and SeaWolf Missile are both designed to intercept aircraft/ artillary shells and hostile missiles. Combined with the CIGS it makes an effective protective "sheild" although not perfect obviously, still very effective. Combined with the advanced armor survivability is very high. Ship was designed with the idea that defense is worthwhile to prevent loss of investment.
RADAR:
The radar suite will consist of a dual band radar for horizon and volume search, an L-band volume search radar (VSR) integrated with the AN/SPY-3 multi-function radar already being developed by Raytheon for the US Navy. The two radars are to be integrated at waveform level for enhanced surveillance and tracking capability. The AN/SPY-3 Multi-Function Radar (MFR) is an X-band active phased-array radar designed to detect low-observable anti-ship cruise missiles and support fire-control illumination for the ESSM and Standard Missiles.
I used this radar system because it's designed to be highly effective against pop-up style attacks and aerial threats. The biggest threat to a Battleship.
Propulsion:
I've equipped my vessel with MERMAID electrical pods, these give the vessel 360 degrees of movement without a rudder and can operate independantly. Direct hits can no longer disable a rudder or prop. shaft. Greatly increases survivability and fuel efficiency.
6 Alstor MERMAID electrical pods @30MW each Max
Cruise Speed: 31 kts
Top Speed: 41 kts
The new Exalibur Class Advanced Battleship is part of a modern naval fleet, including carrier groups.
The AGS 16" Gun System:
Housed in rounded blister turrets as I like to call them, totally my design. They are blister shaped sticking aobve deck, as low as possible to the hull.
Uses liquid propellant
320+ mile range when using liquid propellant.
Uses hydraulic automatic loading systems controlled electronically. Fire rate as high as 5-6 rds a minute.