Shipbucket

Hey, fun and a little stupid can be fun as long as one recognizes the little stupid

If one wants to go really, really crazy, I'd agree with Timothy and bail on 30mm and the like entirely. Shift to a 57mm setup. Spam RAM from the VLS (Block II it can quadpack in Mk 41 according to at least one brochure), and the Javelin ATGM is now being tested from the delightfully compact Centurion expendables launcher. Of course, if you're going to spend ALL THE MONIES on a ship like this in the first place, I'd fully expect NLOS/Netfires to be resurrected. I think that could be fired from Centurion, as well. Going with the latter approach is somewhat attractive, in that you could have extremely deep magazines taking advantage of volume deep in the ship, whereas VLS is much more limited by the available area on the weather decks.

The only thing you'd miss at this point is HAIL OF TERRIFYING TRACERS to visually dissuade pilots from getting close or to rattle them and throw off their aim*, and this use really doesn't require a large-caliber gun. I think 20mm or 25mm might be the right choice in such use. Perhaps something like the Japanese Vulcan mounts, radar-laid (insofar as necessary) with AMDR and the like. I think they have onboard optics for more precise aiming or quasi-local casualty use. My focus with these mounts would be on a use much like the Japanese incendiary shrapnel round (sankaidan), but without costing valuable main caliber magazine space and barrel life. Ship, I dunno, a dozen of the things. It's not like cost is an object. Note that modern 20mm ammunition is quite a bit hotter than your average WW2 Oerlikon, with something like 30% higher muzzle velocity. They should push a rather wider effective visual "curtain" than those guns. If you want to hold velocity better, the 25mm round (common to the GAU-12/U gatling, of the F-35 and others) weighs four or five times as much, with that same higher muzzle velocity. I'd expect it to project out nearly as far as 40mm of that era (!!!!).

Anyway, food for thought.

*at this point we're full in a Final Countdown sort of scenario in which Crazy Magic Time Vortex has sent you back in time to fight the entire IJN by yourself, but no matter...

I'd also give considerable thought to replacing the 8" secondary with a 6" outfit. It could be argued that both the Royal Navy and the USN concluded at the close of the gun era that this was the ultimate dual-purpose battery, and there really aren't a ton of targets that are vulnerable to 8" fire but not 6". Arguably, any such would be better handled by the main battery, as something big enough to withstand 6" fire is probably nasty enough that it can do considerable damage to your unarmored upperworks (most importantly the radars!).

Your VLS is also a very serious vulnerability in my eyes; a deck hit to any of the VLS blocks could well imperil the entire ship. I handwaved a proximate solution (inspired somewhat by Mk 26) to this very serious problem in my own Big Dumb Missile Boat effort. You might want to consider a similar approach -- it would get all missiles under the deck armor and mitigate the blast-damage concerns from your main battery, and would probably improve ship stability besides.

Thanks for the suggestions and input.

_________________
My Avatar is
French Vice-admiral Louis-René-Madeleine Le Vassor de La Touche, comte de Tréville
The original spelling of my last name is: LaTouche.

As to the design I really can't comment so I will leave that to the experts. I think it's a very nice drawing especially the plan, bow and stern views. Well done David. One little tip draw the outline on the top down view in 3 pixel wide, black, grey,black. IMHO looks so much better.

In the long run the VLS is simply problematic in its current location no matter what you do. I would clear out the amidships entirely as it's too busy with inefficiently overlapped firing arcs anyway and put the VLS there. Remove the 8" mounts super firing over the main mounts and make these your CIWS decks, perhaps keeping a single SeaRAM amidships port and starboard.

Thank you very much. I’m in the process of a refit to meet all of you suggestions and or counter them. Again, thank you.

_________________
My Avatar is
French Vice-admiral Louis-René-Madeleine Le Vassor de La Touche, comte de Tréville
The original spelling of my last name is: LaTouche.

While you're at it I'd also get rid of all those individual pylons you've got your CIWS on and turn it into one continuous deck

_________________
“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.