Rick DeBay

I've decided to flesh out the Capital Surface Warship proposed in Col. Welch's paper 'A Case Study in Solving the Naval Surface Fire Support Capabilities Gap.'

The fire requirements are already partially defined by the USMC. This sets the range requirements for shore bombardment as between 41nm and 63nm, with a time-on-target of 2.5 minutes (I'm using the initial requirement set, not the later one where it was 2.5 minutes to launch ordinance).
Volume and weight of fire was not defined, so I propose the equivalent of a Marine Artillery Regiment. I'm assuming a forced landing that requires major naval artillery support will be by an entire Marine Expeditionary Force, which normally enjoys the support of a MAR (more or less). To simplify I'll make an MAR equivalent to 96 M777 howitzers.

There needs to be sensors to enable counter-battery fire, and the ability to plan and coordinate the fire missions. From what I remember detection and communication was a major deficiency reported in the USMC requirements document.

The ship needs to operate in a hostile littoral environment, and it should be difficult to mission kill. Therefore it must be able to defend itself against missile, torpedo, and air attacks, and be able to survive a hit(s) from most credible threats. If needed, it should be able to leave the area at a good speed, even with one propulsion unit disabled.

For blue-water missions, I'd require terminally guided ballistic rounds with a range of 200nm+. This number was cobbled together from the maritime strike range of an F/A-18 plus the range of a Harpoon. A future objective would be to meet the greater range offered by the Lightning-II.

Given that this will be a capital ship, it should be able to support a task-group with flag accommodations, maintenance, and communications.

Once the requirements are complete, I'd like to discuss a ship or ship(s) that could meet them.

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We distinguish ourselves from our enemies by our treatment of our enemies. - John McCain