Double-ended Conversion of the Talos-armed Little Rocks

Although the design is apparently flawed (as already discussed above), the drawing itself looks amazing. Great work!

Yes, Tim, if you don't mind, I'd very much like them! I'm still out of a scanner, which is bothersome...

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My Avatar:Петр Алексеевич Безобразов (Petr Alekseevich Bezobrazov), Вице-адмирал , царская ВМФ России(1845-1906) - I sign my drawings as Ari Saarinen

I'd love to offer assistance but I don't know a thing about the post-war missile conversions as they are completely uninteresting to me (having missiles instead of guns, which are of course the one true method of high seas destruction, missiles being cheater's weapons etc).

Giant and crazy and unlikely in many ways, but certainly thought-provoking, and not in an annoyingly silly way. I could do to see more stuff like this.

Well having an all-Talos configuration would ensure that the entire missile battery was reliable (ex-Talos FTM speaking mind you)

Well, seeker, if you actually served on one of the Talos-ships (which one, or ones??) I'd love your informed input on my attempt! That's always such an invaluable asset. Would you mind that???

If you want to evaluate the design, being as it is a syncretic attempt to reconcile the many sketches that were drawn in the 1950s to produce these missile ships. You've probably read all the expert testimony here regarding its feasibility etc. I'm curious to know, whether you'd want to have served aboard the Okie Boat if she'd looked like that! Also it'd be nice, generally, to know your opinion about the 'normal' Talos vessels already posted.
Besides, you haven't told me which ship (-s) you served on!

The site usslittlerock.org has a pretty good basic description of the system. It also described the four kills credited to Talos:

'The first ever "kill" of a hostile aircraft by a missile fired from a ship occurred on May 23, 1968. On that date a Talos fired from the USS Long Beach shot down a Vietnamese MiG at a range of about 65 miles. A second MiG was reportedly destroyed as it exploded among its debris. In September of that year Long Beach shot down another MiG at a range of 61 miles. On May 9, 1972 another MiG was credited to USS Chicago when her forward Talos battery scored a long-range kill. In total, four MiG kills in South-East Asia can be credited to Talos missiles.'

I was on the Long Beach from 1974-77 and served in the AN/SPG49B direcotr, the computer room and was in charge of the telemetry system that measured missile performance.

The 49B in use when I was aboard incorporated a number of improvements. The analog data frfom the mount was processed through a new digital data converter to the MK 152 digital computer for improved processing. I assume you would want this update for your conversion.

It was a very reliable system if somewhat complex, and the DDT was the biggest maintenance headache with its multi-console conversion units. Nevertheless, we we up for every missile shoot and had about a 90 percent hit record. We coild operate in any threat environment including taking out drone boats simulating Soviet PC/FAC.

The major problem would be conversion of the forward part of the ship to a Talos system. I don't know if a double-ender conversion was ever considered for a Cleveland class and the only double-enders were Baltimore class ships where the conversion worked very well according to shipmates who served on those ships. The Albany conversion was something out of sci-fi in appearance but the ship were good weapons platforms for Talos, which had a much better operational rate that the two twin Tartar launchers. The Baltimores were good conversions, but I can see some stabilty problems with the weight and height necessart to mount the system forward on a Cleveland. Still, why not explore it? In its time Talos was an effective fleet air-defence system and such a conversion would not only add more Talso systems to the fleet but could even have been considered for other mothballed Cleveland classes if needed (alas, most were gone by the early 1960s).

The Long Beach was of course a bigger platform and easily accomodated Talos.

Thank you for your insight, seeker. The USN did, in fact, explore the possibility of a full conversion. Oddly enough, but very much understandable in lieu of your comment, it was the Talos system that was the preferred one. Once I've done the Galveston, I'll attempt a similar conversion to this.

Shipbucket

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