How many battleships were built?

[Dreadnought]

Now, really how effective would a little short ranged heat seeker Stinger Missile be in defense of a capital ship?

*Very, it was of the age and according to record has brought down more then 250 aircraft on record (altogether) since its inception in service. Dont get me wrong , not with just the US forces but others as well. You dont fire them at mere chances due to their price and availibilty. But if someones going to be agressive its better then nothing without your escorts chiming in.

[Gun Grape]

Were they part of the Marine Detachment onboard the ships, or were they organic? You say Little Creek, so that sounds like SEAL Team 2, 4, 8 or 10 (though 10 is more oriented towards land ops). I'm guessing SEAL Team 2.

As I stated. Not Marines, Not SEALs.

They were Beachmasters.


No longer required or deployed, although in a pinch the MEU stinger Det may climb up on the island of the LHA/LHD.

The unit disbanded in the early 90s. We needed Stingers. Back in the day Block 0 R2D2s couldn't hit crap and had lots of down time because seawater corrosion.

[surfgun]

*Very, it was of the age and according to record has brought down more then 250 aircraft on record (altogether) since its inception in service. Dont get me wrong , not with just the US forces but others as well. You dont fire them at mere chances due to their price and availibilty. But if someones going to be agressive its better then nothing without your escorts chiming in.

If I'm not wrong, I believe most of those kills were against Soviet helicopters? Any fast movers?

[Dreadnought]

If I'm not wrong, I believe most of those kills were against Soviet helicopters? Any fast movers?

*Several different models of helo (Russian,India etc) and some sources note a MIG-21. They were also in service during the Afghan, Faulklands and Kargil Wars. Several of these missles never made it through the "buy back" process although the US got the majority of them, some slipped quietly into other countries and were "reverse" engineered. Todays category the Stingers fall into are even better then the originals under US patent.

Users:

Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croatia: Yugoslav wars
Chad
Chile
Denmark
Egypt
Germany: Stingers made under license by EADS.[11]
Greece
Hamas.
Iraq
Israel
Italy
Japan: Former user, now using Type 91
Latvia
Lithuania
Netherlands
Norway
Pakistan
Portugal
Republic of China (Taiwan): Republic of China Marine Corps. Supplied to the Taiwanese military.[12]
Slovenia
Republic of Korea
Sweden Few for testing but due to budget cuts the project was shut down.
Spain: Evaluated in the 1980s; lost to the French Mistral. Never in service
Switzerland: Stingers made under license
Turkey: Stingers made under license by Roketsan.[13]
UNITA Inactive
United Kingdom
United States

[Dreadnought]

If you read my list correctly yes even Hamas got their hands on a very few through Iran.

Pitty the dumb ****s couldnt use them correctly and even those that gave them to them (Iran) couldnt operate them properly.:P

*Having a weapon is one thing, knowing how to employ that weapon in a usefull manor is quite another.)

[shadow01]

Practice makes perfect.

Never, underestimate what the opposition can do.

Our current POTUS is a an example.

What did Will Rogers say? "I do not belong to an organized party, I am a Democrat".

[dundonrl]

As I stated. Not Marines, Not SEALs.

They were Beachmasters.


No longer required or deployed, although in a pinch the MEU stinger Det may climb up on the island of the LHA/LHD.

The unit disbanded in the early 90s. We needed Stingers. Back in the day Block 0 R2D2s couldn't hit crap and had lots of down time because seawater corrosion.

I remember back in the mid 90's when I was on the Essex, we had a Avenger weapons system (a HMMWV with I think 4 stingers on a turrent and a electrically fired/cycled .50 cal mounted on the side) stationed onboard. I never saw them fire the Stingers, but they sure went through some .50 cal ammo on a couple shoots..

as for early (pre turn of the century BB's) I remember reading the Indiana class Battleships were called "Coastal Defense Battleships" but that sure didn't stop the USS Oregon from making her mad dash around South America to Cuba in time to give the Spanish fleet a very good drubbing.. (also a major reason why we finished up the French's debacle in building the Panama Canal)

[USSWisconsin]

Here is another small section from part 6

[USSWisconsin]

Here is the work so far on the German Battleship section for your reading pleasure, I have the US, British, and Japanese sections done, and I have already posted the tiny Spanish section. The other nation sections seem to be too large to post - they are around 3-5 MB, less than the listed 10 MB pdf limits, but they consistantly fail on upload.

I would value any suggestions or corrections you may have.
Still working on this one, the French, Italian, and Russian/Soviet sections.
These are supplements to the main section, of which I have posted several chapters.

I think I may just include the export battleships for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Greece, and Turkey as appendices in the sections for the nations that built them. The other approach is to make a battleship importing nations section covering these ships.

Once I get the all content and editing done, I will review the images and work on getting permissions to publish them.

[Chogy]

Good reads so far. Fort Drum, the concrete battleship... I had never heard of its existence. I can see how such an emplacement would be a serious threat to warships, and would be exceptionally difficult to silence.

On the Stingers and other MANPADS... we (fast mover aircraft) considered them to be never more than a modest threat, although that may have been naive. The simplest defense is velocity. Speed, and more speed, which generally defeats the missile kinematically. Also, these little missiles generally do not have the control surface area and throw to be very agile.

The good news about rogue or missing stingers from the USSR/Afghan conflict: AFAIK they all have a shelf life. The obvious areas are the motor and warhead, but one of the more important shelf-life factors is the cooling of the seeker head. Maybe an AD guy who knows the system better can elaborate, but without an ability to cool the seeker just before launch, the missiles become ineffective.

Good Stinger info

And Fort Drum...

The photos of the interior are especially interesting. It was an advanced structure, no doubt.

[USSWisconsin]

here is a section from the end with a detailed glossary and reference list
any comments?

[USSWisconsin]

here are some pictures for the fictional "what if" story

[USSWisconsin]

I have completed more of the "nation" sections of my battleship book, this is the part on the coastal defense ships

[USSWisconsin]

another instalment China Greece and Turkey

[USSWisconsin]

here is the third part of my other battleships section

Looking into all these other battleships has taught me a lot about the history of battleships, and helped me to get a glimpse of how much there is is for me to learn. The armored cruiser was an important step that is often ignored in battleships studies. I intend to add some additional ships to many of the nations sections and mention Portugal and Denmark in the armored coastal ships section. I have also completed Japan and Germany - it is interesting to see the parallels and divergencies in the battlship programs of these two major battleship countries which started on the battleship path at the same same time (developing their respective navies to world power status). I look forward to sharing my findings and discussing them. I hope that my colleages and mentors here will correct me and guide me in this effort to better understand the battleship.