Shipbucket

Updated ship building programmes. TBD. Some programmes have real ships given as similar examples.

The Great War:
Flagships:
-Shield class light cruiser
-3 built, 1 survived

-Flagship cruiser program (1915)
6 cruisers, Around 4000 tons each
-4 survived

-Heavy Flagship Program (1917)
-4 cruisers, Around 10,000 tons
-3 survived

Escorts:
-Pioneer class destroyer
-20
-4 survived

-Fleet Escort Expansion Program (1914)
-16, 1000 tons (Thornycroft M class)
-5 survived

-Enlarged Escort Program (1915)
-10, 1800 tons (Faulkner)
-2 survived

-Emergency Convoy Escort Program (1916)
-27, 1000 tons (R class)
-7 survived

The Fleet in the 1920's:
-8 surviving flagsips (3 Heavy, 5 Light)
-18 surviving escorts (2 large)

-Long Range Escort Program (1921)
-12, 1400 tons (Admiralty V Leader)

-Flagship Modernisation Programme
-Wondering how much I can do with this. Don't really want to build new flagships, but it might be necessary. Can they be upturreted and such?

The Fleet in the 1930's:
Flagship numbers reduced to 4 (2 heavy, 2 Light)
Escort numbers reduced by scrapping all wartime builds. (12 remain).

-New Escort Programme (1936)
-8, 1800 tons (I class)

The Outbreak of War, 1940's
With only 4 flagships and 20 escorts, the GTC struggled through the early war, especially in 1939 and the first half of 1940. A new class of 6000 ton flagships were commisioned in 1940, 6 of them, as well as a pair of emergency escort programmes, one of 1700 tons (O&P class) and one of 1000 tons (Flower class).
Auxilliary programmes grew in the period. Armed merchants, CAM ships and fleet oilers left the GTC ships at least somewhat protected even when they were unable to provide sufficient escorts. Merchant aircraft carriers, builk oil and grain haulers fitted with a flying deck were rushed into service to replace the dangerous CAM ships, allowing many convoys the cover of a pair of aircraft.
WW2 saw the beginnings of the GTC's aviation arm, with pilots recruited from various places; including americans wanting to be involved in the war effort. Initially small, the air arm grew steadily as the war progressed. Post war, its pilots mostly transitioned into the GTC's newfound commerical cargo and passenger service.

The Fleet in the 1950's:
Various escorts and flagships remaining from the war.
Conversion of flagships to 'Large Escorts'. Name change essentially. Scrapping of pre-war flagships, if any survived the war.
New Flagships are late war bought escort carriers. A pair of Rulers built in mid 1944?
Post war escort programme.

The Fleet in the 1960's:
Modernization programme's. Missile upgrades.
Scrapping of wartime escorts. Replacement?

The Fleet in the 1970's:
Leander introduction.
Scrapping of wartime 'Large escorts'.
Repalcement of Flagships with helicopter and STOVL capable auxiliaries (Engadine?) and repair ships and the like. The Auxilliaries become the flagships of the GTC. The company takes on a more 'rough and ready' outlook on its fleet. They are increasingly viewed as slightly grubby hard workers.

Lookit! An actual image of a thing I did!

Okay, sure it's just a test of recolouring for a swordfish for GTC use (See above fleet history). But yay!

So something like Fastship, only by using it as part of a company you can market it as higher end service. I can see that working.
I'd look at French and US designs - The Floreal has some very nice range as does the National Security Cutter. For something off the wall, look at what Japan is doing.

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𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐍𝐄𝐓- 𝑻𝒐 𝑪𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆

If Fastship is what I think it is then yes. Any info?
But yes, a high end, high speed secure cargo delivery service for bulk good that can't be taken by air.
Bits of ships and so on I suppose. Also, I'm sure someone will want the occasional escort for that super yacht

Japan? With their mini carriers or something else?
The floreals are very nice, yes.

Fastship was a proposal that started in the 1990s and died around 2012 to offer high-speed trans-Atlantic cargo service. The ships looked like large, fat LCS-1s:


I was thinking of the very large "patrol frigates" that their coast guard has - the ones with something like a 20k nm range and a single 35mm twin.
Yes, they very much are. my one complaint is that they have only one helo, and no flex deck. They do have a bit of internal cargo capacity however.

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𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐍𝐄𝐓- 𝑻𝒐 𝑪𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆

Hi Timothy, I posted a John Company Floreal back on page 15 a while back. The image doesn't work however, since majhost is still down.
We discussed the Frigate 4921 version of the National Security Cutter, but decided on the Independence class LCS instead. I see the merits in both designs, and Independence + Patrol Frigate 4921 instead of one of those + the Floreal for example, might be a good away to achieve maximum flexibility (though it would be expensive).
A modification of the USNS Guam will be posted as the fast ship type, as soon as majhost comes back from maintenance.

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Projects:
Zealandia AU
John Company AU
References and feedback is always welcome!

I can't wait to this interesting AU kick-off again!

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

A couple from Trojan, because I use a sensible uploader rather than one that goes dead for weeks

First is the high speed transport idea discussed above for use in high risk areas and for high value bulk cargoes. Based on the Guam.

She appears to be lightly armed with point defence weaponry, and carries drones for extra amusement.

Second is a future flagship concept based, I believe, on the LCS. For some reason I'm having trouble linking at full size right now, but I think this will do for basic concepts.

As much as I enjoy Trojans work on this, I'm not 100% whether the company will actually end up using it. But it will certainly go in the main post as concept work for a new flagship. Depends whether they continue the auxiliary flag idea from the 70's.

They both look good and they're interesting concepts. I'm glad this AU has started back up again, I look forward to seeing how the company responds to present day threats and opportunities.

One minor thing though, the Toplite director on both ships would be much better mounted above the bridge or on the mast, rather than on the Mini-Typhoon mount as it is presently.

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Thank you barnest. It's actually based on a Heuhen personal design, which I thank him for letting me use. I agree about the company using it, we should mull that over some more.

Thank you Rowdy. Both ships have FLIRs/Optical Surveillance already mounted on the bridge, do you think it would be best to just replace those with TOPLITE?

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Projects:
Zealandia AU
John Company AU
References and feedback is always welcome!