Shipbucket

I would expect Seacat being included in the AU modernisation.
The custom on these cruisers was to cut down the hangar height, and use the internal space for extra accomodation, which was in short supply by the end of the war. The ships boats were then situated on what used to be the catapult platform

Type 18

By 1963 work had begun on a replacement for the older Type 15 and 18 frigates and to fill the need for a cheap corvette vessel to fill in the escort numbers beside the more expensive Type 12s and Leanders then rolling down the slipways.

The DS363 was a cheap diesel-powered design armed with one single 3in/L70 automatic mount, one twin 40mmL/70 Bofors automatic mount, two single 20mm and one Limbo. Sonar was one Type 170B and one Type 177. Radar was one Type 978 only with the usual UA-8/9 ESM fit with HF/DF along with two 'Cooky' jammers and one MRS-10 director. Two 10,000shp Rushton AO16 diesels for a speed of 26kts deep and dirty in the tropics. Endurance was 4,000nm at 18kts and 45 days. 12 ships were built from 1964 as the River Class and remained in commission until the early 1980s.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

I'm very fond of this one (although I think you forgot to fill in some gray aft of the pilothouse, and Corvus (?) seems somewhat mis-shaded). You and PB should probably coordinate your single 3/70 mounts though

I'd have real worries about freeboard right aft. Any compelling reason for the break in the hull, rather than going flush-deck? Not as if Limbo would care either way. I might move such back, though, it's very iffy on firing clearance with that 40mm (which, alternately, could move forward a bit). The 40mm platform is a little odd, going from beam to beam and interfering with passage fore and aft. It almost looks like there's one on each beam.

As I've complained to Bill upthread, I don't see spending the weight and cash on a complicated high-ROF 3" weapon without the appropriate electronics to back it up. You've got the director, sure, but do I read you right in that there is no air search radar whatsoever? Type 293 seems justified, cheap, and was in fact used long postwar.

Would 20kshp be enough for 26 knots? I know she's not big...

At the risk of speaking for Hood, It does look like the one twin 40mm aft, so yes, we need to allow gangway on either side; but maybe factor in twin on each beam? Re gun laying radar I'll let Hood speak for that, but from erik's advice on the FAC's I'd allow a decent set. As you'll all have grasped by now, this is a mixed bag of designs, and we allow each other a lot of slack (its why we stay friends ) So I have to admit to a less than entusiastic appreciation of this design

In 1964, along with the DS363, and the ongoing planning of Type 83 DDG's the RN was trying to save some money by using the Common Hull design (again)
Type 17 was for ASW using the Ikara 2 (a similar weapn to the American Asroc, but having mid-course guidance, like in RL Ikara), as the main armament, and arned with a single 3"/70 in a new stealth mounting.
Type 42 was for AAW using the Sea Dart, but in a pinch could launch the Ikara 2 from the launcher, albeit without any midcourse guidance.


Both ships used the same hull and th same diesel engines (also used by the DS363) but having four engines for 31 kts (28.5 kts loaded and dirty - 6 monthes out of dock)

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Thank you Kim for the crest

"Never fear to try on something new. Remember that the Titanic was built by professionals, and the Ark by an amateur"

Erik,
The DS363 is almost identical to the real-life DS363 I posted in the never-were section of this board.
The only change is the single 3in in place of the undefined 75mm Bofors and the addition of the 40mm aft. The hull break is as drawn in the plans and I assume the low deckhouse is part of the Limbo magazine. The single 3in is an updated version of the older mount being GRP and fully-automatic, a British OTO-Melara rival!
There was no air-radar planned OTL and the gun is meant more for LA work than HA.

_________________
Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

The eight Weapon class destroyers completed were taken in hand as the first Aircraft Direction destroyers, while the Battle class conversions followed later. In terms of the time period introduced I would expect a much earlier date, around the mid 1950's. I'm representing the class with HMS Claymore, one of the actual ships cancelled, so the ships crest is my own design.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Belfast conversion. Of all the Towns she had least mileage on the clock by 1945 due to spending the first half of the war in dry dock, so she would be most suited to some sort of upgrade.

Also do you have any plans for Swiftsure or Superb (or indeed others of that class given that this is an AU and more might have been built)? A pre-Tiger/Blake helicopter carrier might be one possibility.

Thanks for the interest. I'm still working on the real life Belfast modernisation, but will take that as the basis for a further upgrade (straight funnels etc.) I've also begun the Swiftsure/Superb and will have a version here as well. We expect that one of these will also get the full Tiger treatment to allow four of that class. We've got plans for a helicopter carrier as well, with asw as one of the roles, to follow the original plan to have such a type alongside the fleet carriers. I had drawn a version already but wasn't totally satisfied with it (you should see some of the ones that never made it!). Unless I can do a sort of Groundhog Day with pixel bashing, or clone Alvama, its all slow going, though I do tend to agonise over minor details, which also slows things down.

I've always had a soft spot for Swiftsure and Superb, it might have something to do with having the Triang Minic model when I was a wee lad. I wonder where that is now?

Both ships had comparatively short lives and may have suffered due to being emergency war-time construction. One was damaged in a collision which eventaully resulted in her refit being cancelled. Their Canadian sister Ontario was no more fortunate and went to the breakers about the same time.

Conversion possibilites - 2 x twin 6" forward in A & B positions, secondary battery of 4 twin 3" with Sea Slug aft? At least it would reduce the manpower requirment.