Koko - ASW Aircraft Carrier Tsugumi.
Last Kokoan evolution of the Shokaku class design, Tsugumi started her life as an anclosed-bow armored flight-deck carrier, laid down at Hoshiguma Navy Yard in January 1945. Still incomplete at the end of the war, her hull built only up to the lower hangar deck, she sat in her own slipway awaiting to be disposed off as surrendering terms dictated. Yet, the newly reformed postwar Koko Kaijou kept Tsugumi at the bottom of the list as the last carrier that had to be scrapped in the hope that restrictions had been somehow modified by the time it was her turn to go to the breakers.
This eventually happened when the Korean war broke out as the US decided to benefit from another Ally in the Pacific region. With restriction on fleet strength removed, Tsugumi was order to be completed again and her design modified with US assistance. She was launched in 1951 and commissioned by the end of 1953, although too late to see service in the Korean conflict.
Compared to the original design, the lower hangar was reduced in size and the upper hangar expanded, the two elevators serving them were also lengthened and widened (only the former for the forward elevator). The hurricane bow was widened, the flight deck strenghtened and its area vastly increased, more powerful hydraulic catapults installed. The planned armored flight deck was replaced by a 76mm upper hangar deck and a 25mm lower hangar deck, all other armor was omitted with the exception of magazine and underwater protection. The original planned armament of eight 100 and sixty-four 40mm guns was replaced by improved unshielded 100mm and nine twin US built 76mm pieces.
Upon commissioning she became Koko Kaijou's flagship, and served mainly as a training carrier before recieving a radar update in late 1955. After that she was designated as an anti-submarine warfare carrier, embarking twenty Grumman S2F-1 Trackers and sisteen Sikorsky HSS-1 Seabat helicopters, the latter for search and rescue operations in addition to ASW, plus eight Douglas A4D-2 Skyhawk fighters for reconnaissance and combat air patrol. By the end of the decade flight operations had become cumbersome on her axial flight deck, so when Sekirei was commissioned in 1958 Tsugumi was drydrocked and refitted with the addition of an angled deck. She served in her new configuration until retirement in 1981.
Tsugumi specifications as of 1958:
-Displacement: 29.112 t standard, 41.532 t full load
-Length, overall: 271,44m (891ft, 6'')
-Length, hull: 269,92m (886ft, 6'')
-Length, waterline: 261,39m (858ft, 6'')
-beam, maximum (3'' gun platforms): 45,36m (148ft, 11'')
-beam, waterline: 29,38m (96ft, 6'')
-mean draft: 9,6m (31ft, 7'')
-Machinery: 8x Oil firing boilers, 4x geared steam turbines, 200.000 shp, 4 shafts
-Speed: 33 kts
-Range: 9.700nm at 18 kts
-Armour: deck 76+25mm (3+1''), magazines 76mm (3''), torpedo bulkhead 51mm (2'', protective internal bulge 3m on each side)
-Armament: 8x 100mm/60 DP guns (4x2, 400rpg), 18x 76mm/50 Mk.27 (9x2, 1.500rpg)
-Electronics: AN/SPS-6 air search radar, AN/SPS-8A height finder, SG-6 surface and zenith search radar, SR-5 backup air search radar, AN/SPN-6 air search aircraft approach control radar, AN/SPN-8 aircraft approach control radar, AN/SPN-12 airspeed indicator, YE-2 aircraft homing beacon, Mark24 GFCS, Mark25 air FC radar (2x1), Mark56 mod-5 director, Mark35 air FC radar (3x1), URN-3 TACAN, URD-4 TACAN, AN/CPN-6 navigation surface reference, DBM-1 RDF (2x1), AN/URD-2 DF (2x1), 66AFJ IFF (2x1), 66015 TBS (2x1), SLR-2 ECM suite (3x1 AS-571, AS-570), AN/SPR-4 ECM suite (4x1 CAGW-66131, CAGW-66132), AN/URR-13 TED (16x1), TBA/TBM (11x1), XMTG/XMTR (13x1)
-Complement: 2854
Flight deck, hangar and airwing:
-Flight deck length: 266,42m (874ft, 11'')
-Flight deck width: 33,49m (109ft, 11'')
-Equipment: 14x arrestor wires, 4x crash barrers, 2x Type3-kai hydraulic aircraft catapults
-Upper hangar: 195,78m (643ft) long, 20,55/27,4m (67ft, 6''/90ft) wide, 5,2m (17ft, 1'') tall
-Lower hangar: 175,83m (577ft, 5'') long, 13,85/17,66m (45ft, 5''/58ft) wide, 4,9m (16ft, 1'') tall
-Forward elevator: 15,22 x 15,68m (50 x 51ft, 6'')
-Aft elevator: 15,22 x 14,15 m (50 x 46ft, 5'')
-Airwing: 44 (8x A4D-2 Skyhawk recon/CAP, 20x S2F-1 Tracker ASW, 16x HSS-1 Seabat ASW and SAR)