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Yeah well... 1 obsolete Swordfish was enough to cripple the Bismarck...
And remember the Fritz X. 3 were enough for the Roma...
Well, the USS Enterprise CVN-65 was nearly sunk by a badly parked tractor, anything can happen. The Fritz X could be jammed, and CAP makes it ineffective - the mother ship needed to be unmolested. This design also has a 10" armor deck, under a 1.5" bomb deck - with an armored splinter deck below the armor deck. It is the subject of a painting, not a proposal for a funded project.
Anti-aircraft BB: 16 twin 5", radar-guided turrets; 20 quad 40mm. Battlecruiser-type armor, 30+ knots speed. 4-6 seaplanes for recon and SAR duties. Massive AAA to protect the carriers. Use old BBs or cruisers for bombardment.
Nice design, IMO, need more space between the funnels you dont want one direct hit taking the powerplant down from an aerial dropped bomb. It may also produce too much heat from one area for the FCR radars to be effective. I do like the design.:)
Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.
Nice design, IMO, need more space between the funnels you dont want one direct hit taking the powerplant down from an aerial dropped bomb. It may also produce too much heat from one area for the FCR radars to be effective. I do like the design.:)
Thanks, I made a change based on your suggestion, added another pair of AA directors between the funnels (she now has 12 plus the two DP main directors) :)
1x Midway class aircraft carrier (45,000 tons) 33 knots
1x Oregon City class heavy cruiser (17,000 tons) 32 knots
1x Fargo class light cruisers (10,000 tons) 32 knots
3x Gearing class destroyers 36 knots (7884 tons combined)
3x Allen M Sumner class destroyers. (6600 tons combined) 34 knots
8" x 9
6" x 12
5" x 78
40mm x 244
20mm x x 209
torpedo tubes x 60
depth charge racks x 6
combat aircraft x 100
scout planes x 7
men x 8284
minimum range x 4500nm un-refueled
Total weight x 86,484 tons standard displacement
I have 1/2 to 1/3 the un-refueled ranged and 2.5x the men but have 19x the combat striking range.
At 500 miles from the carrier (at take off) with 36 fighters, 32 dive bombers and 32 torpedo bombers I can deliver 32x 2000lb bombs and 32x 22.4" torpedoes. Assuming your BB's AAA fire is 3x more effective than the Musashi I will lose 54 of my bombers before you sink.
But you are on my side, and won't be attacking your own ship - your force is the rest of the task force that the big BB is part of, along with 40 additional destroyers and a logistics group
Imagine the Musashi and the Yamato attack this group during a typhoon - the big guns will be the only effective weapons in these conditions - the long 18"/55 rifles will trump the 18.1"/45's of the Yamatos, and USN radar will let them walk the Japanese decks at 50,000 yards - the 4,000# super heavy projectiles will explode under the two Yamato's magazines.
Yes it is a fictional scenario, for battleship enthusiasts. The setting sun in the painting is symbolic too, the heyday of the battleship had passed before this design might have been built.
Imagine the Musashi and the Yamato attack this group during a typhoon
My last name isn't Halsey....
Ok can battleships even fight in a Typhoon? I know they can in a typical North Atlantic storm but don;t have a clue about hurricanes and typhoons.
1. 10m waves as seen during Typhoon Cobra rolled the USS Cowpens hard enough that the flight deck normally 44' above the water was within 12-15' of the sea.
2. Typhoon waves change direction as the storm passes. Can ships that have to stay a certain couse to prevent capsizing even conduct a battle of movement?
3. Could WWII era radars sea through weather? I know the images of Typhoon Cobras eye wall are radar images.
That beign said, 50,000yd gunnery with 4000lb shells is impressive. Although I think such a ship if it had been built would have been retitred and left out of service post Korean war. As missiles developed and the public aversion to massive amounts of area damage grew the 4000lb shell might not sit well with the public. But if it had stayed in service what would the Soviet missile response be? A super Kirov, armor piercing anti-ship missiles, more Kirovs.....
How would a megadreadnought(s) in US service have influenced the post war world? 18" could likely have fired a modified version of the W40 boosted fission device or a modified version of the W49 thermonuclear device.
I was under the impression that aerial torpedoes were 18" types, that explains a little more about how they sunk the Yamato's so effectively..
Also thanks for the thought provoking questions - I will take a shot:
1. 10m waves as seen during Typhoon Cobra rolled the USS Cowpens hard enough that the flight deck normally 44' above the water was within 12-15' of the sea.
2. Typhoon waves change direction as the storm passes. Can ships that have to stay a certain course to prevent capsizing even conduct a battle of movement?
3. Could WWII era radars sea through weather? I know the images of Typhoon Cobras eye wall are radar images.
Cowpens was a much smaller ship (an 11,000 ton CVL, which had particularly bad seakeeping and rolled and pitched badly even in normal service, the CVL type was discontinued because of this - replaced by the more stable CVE, which behaved much better for flight opps), the actual USN battleships were in no serious trouble with the typhoon - they lost deck equipment, like boats and floatplanes - but were in no danger of capsizing. Destroyers always suffer in bad weather.
Firing at the height of the bad weather might have been a problem, but the Battle of the North Cape was in similarly terrible weather. This particular design has very high freeboard, about 45 feet forward and amidships, and has a special sheer deck forward to permit any green water to run off aft of turret one, it also has a 158' beam, the wider than any actual battleship. The deck forward is also heavily flared to keep it dry under most sea conditions. Capsizing would be very unlikely in a typhoon, it would take a wave like the one in the Perfect Storm to endanger it.
Radar would be more trouble, but the storm would have gaps, and that might be enough. The long wave radar of the early war would have had trouble for sure, but the later centimetric or proposed millimetric radars would be much more penetrating in heavy weather. The loss of Scharnhorst's radar antenna during the Battle of the North Cape was decisive, so radar can function usefully in heavy weather, DOY used radar to get so many hits during the same battle.
If battleships had remained in favor, and the race to build bigger ones had gone on longer, it is conceivable such ships could have been built, lighter projectiles could have been used, like subcaliber rounds with sabots. They definitely could have fired nuclear projectiles - significantly more powerful than the Katies the USN had in the 1950's. The Soviet reaction would have been interesting, the Sovietski Soyuz class BB's might have been completed, and then larger follow on types - I explored this direction in my short story "Worthy Of Our Steel" http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/bat...tml#post748074
In the days before the missile submarine, a nuclear armed BB would have been an important strategic weapon with high visibilty and a substantial fear factor.
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