Shipbucket

I heard a former USN guy (I think it was) tell me once "The only helo you can count on is the one you bring with you". To me, that kind of cuts into the idea of mobile resupply platforms.

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𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐍𝐄𝐓- 𝑻𝒐 𝑪𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆

Near-completely redone.

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Probably posting from and iPhone and naval terms befuddle it. If I say a ships' hill, you know what I meant.

When a ship reaches a certain size, a helo is excellent- the Perry is a good example.
Ask the Israelis what happens when you stick one on a ship totally unsuited for operation one.
At what sea state would this ship be able to operate a helicopter which will be about 40% it's overall beam at the flight deck? The chopper pictured takes up 20% of the ship's available deck space... is that even workable? There is a difference in the size of this ship and the size of a Perry class frigate- and a whole heck of a lot of difference in displacement!

Is a helo nice to have- for all the reasons you cited?
Hell yes, as any soldier would be inclined to say!

Does that mean that you can simply stick one on any open stretch of deck where it'll fit?
Of course not- or every convoy rolling in Iraq would have a Little Bird on a flatbed trailer!


The basic flaw with this concept is that a ship is trying to be designed TO DO TOO MUCH.
If you want a vessel to take out a pirate, you don't build a full-sized ship with EVERY feature, you build a boat with ENOUGH features. We already have large ships that can provide aviation support- we don't have cheap, plentiful vessels designed for anti-piracy operations... and the kind of mission creep that you get from adding a helo is the kind of thing that makes them too expensive.

The above post shows what happens- he started with an anti-piracy patrol boat and has now successfully mutated into a light frigate. How much more stuff has to be tacked on before the annual budget committee says 'nah, it's too expensive.'

However, in this case the mission requires a helicopter and little else, which in turn means it requires a hull big enough to support said helicopter.

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“Close” only counts with horseshoes, hand grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons.
That which does not kill me has made a grave tactical error

Worklist

Source Materiel is always welcome.

If the mission requires a helicopter and nothing else, then a LHD is what you need- not a patrol ship.
Why build dozens of smaller ships when the big one is there and paid for? Use a flagship for air support and command/control functions, then have small, cheap and plentiful escorts on the spot for defense. It worked pretty good the last time it was tried.
After all, it doesn't make sense to put a single F-35 on 90 frigates to constitute an air wing... so why insist that every patrol boat have organic helo support if you can deploy more boats by using a resource already around?

First of, last time we had to do large scale convoys was WWII. The nature of the threat has changed quite a bit since.
As for why we're not using LPDs, it comes down to response time. Response time is everything in a situation like this. You have to get there before the pirates can get to the crew. If you don't then it doesn't matter what type of ship or helicopter you have.
At the same time we have to cover a truly enormous area and since helicopters only have so much range that means we need more helo capable platforms and since the number of LPDs and LPHs are fairly limited that means frigates and destroyers. Lastly, it doesn't matter if you send one or ten helicopters, the result will be the same, so the greater capacity of an LPD/LPH doesn't really give you anything.
It's ability to launch helicopters in adverse weather is also of limited utility since the pirates aren't capable of attacking ships during foul weather.

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“Close” only counts with horseshoes, hand grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons.
That which does not kill me has made a grave tactical error

Worklist

Source Materiel is always welcome.

Anyway, returning to the design itself.
Move the stern radar to the top of the hangar. Right now it serves approximately the same function as a microwave oven, but instead of instant popcorn you're frying the helo crew and flight deck crew.

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“Close” only counts with horseshoes, hand grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons.
That which does not kill me has made a grave tactical error

Worklist

Source Materiel is always welcome.

I hope you don't mind, but I spent 10 minutes on your drawing. I'm not sure there is enough room to safely land on the helo deck, also (I'm not too sure on this) is the hangar quite big enough? Raised the mast to ensure systems are working Ok.

I also changed the hull shape slightly, I think it looks slightly more aesthetically pleasing (just my opinion though!)

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Jabba's Worklist

Thanks, I'll probably use a lot of that.

edit:

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Probably posting from and iPhone and naval terms befuddle it. If I say a ships' hill, you know what I meant.

It's turning into a nice, if underarmed, light frigate.
I think it's a prime example of mission creep in action.

Design-wise: A simpler crane might suffice for launching the ship's boats. The slightly more extreme bow suggested by Jabba would probably increase it's ability to deal with foul weather. As for the blue 'UN' funnel, I'd say go with something a bit more visible if you want an identifier- I'm partial to a blue stripe (similar to what the USCG uses) bearing the UN logo myself.