Shipbucket

Traditional battleships were strongly beam-limited by building ways, canals and the like; they were the largest ships of their day. This is no longer the case; Newport News, for example, can handle a 250ft extreme beam.

In other words: all sponsons, all the time. A 12-16ft width sponson on each side of the ship can keep RHIBs, liferafts and the like out of the weather, and can be pierced by damned near as many doors and openings as you like. They're not supporting the actual structural weight of the ship.

You're probably not going to fit through Panama anyway, and even if you could, who really cares? You're nuclear; you can cruise at 32 knots until the cows come home.

Incidentally, since you are so powerful, and since steel is cheap, I'd deepen the hull considerably. Might as well; we're not constrained by any form of sense. I'd make it as draw as much water as possible and still transit Chesapeake Bay. Don't quote me on this, but I think Norfolk is a 50ft channel. So take your design full load draft to, I dunno, 45 feet or so. That way you can still make port if you're damaged and somewhat flooded.

Of course, there are other considerations that really make me wonder about the size of the main battery. Even if we're back in the silly "gotta go gunfight the entire IJN" scenario, I'd rather have something like four quad 16", or possibly even something smaller that we can fire more rapidly. It's hard to think of any non-super-BB target that is vulnerable to 20" but not to 16", and in the ground fire support I'd much rather throw lots of smaller (smaller as in 16"!!!) shells. Meanwhile, good gunlaying and VT fuses should allow us to smear any and all lightly armored and un-armor-able upperworks (and therefore rangefinders, radars, etc) with relatively small shells, on any conceivable super-BB of any scale, and then it's an exercise in mopping up. Even subcaliber rounds, in the 8" class, are more than deadly enough to deny the enemy any sort of director control for their heavy guns, and that at arbitrarily long ranges (probably 40nm+). Of course guided missiles will do this quite a lot better, but we aren't using those. For... reasons.

At that point, if I really need to sink something like a directorless battleship that's tough but otherwise not terribly threatening, I'll approach very close and pound it into submission, or more likely torpedo it. When I muse on comical and hilarious SUPER DEATH BATTLESHIPS, my mind tends to wanders towards the idea of having a GMLS-like power-loaded above-water torpedo launcher, loaded from a torpedo room below the waterline. Something like an upsized Mk 26, with only a small ejection charge to throw the weapon clear of the ship. This way we avoid the damage-control issues of a submerged torpedo room. The torpedo-GMLS (GTLS?) doesn't have to operate very fast, of course; the ability to launch four Mk 48 per minute is going to be a ferocious and terrifying capability against any combatant real or imagined. It'll sink ships very much more effectively and rapidly than heavy gunfire, and at an absolute pittance of a ship-impact compared to extremely heavy-caliber guns. I bet you could build a 40-torpedo launcher in not much more than 24W x 40L x 30H, and it would pose zero blast damage concerns and require minimal or zero armor (since there would be no volatile or explosive material above the waterline).

If I could have 4x4 16" and a 21" GTLS on each beam, I'd take that in a hot second over 4x3 20" in any scenario you care to name.

It's in the works. I'll be back and a few days.

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

This is a suggestion, but please leave the old one up (so we can compare), and just post the next revision in this thread. No need for a new thread with every revision.

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Gotcha. I well under way with Erik's 4x4 16" configuration and all of the other suggestions. See you all in a few days.

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

Actually now you mention the mk 48 rapid launchers, it makes me wonder if a torpedo cruiser like the IJNs Kitakami could provide well enough deterence or such to deny access to the sea for surface vessels until dealt with.

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Well here is the USS VErmont (BBGN-72) again revised along the lines of your suggestions.

1. Gone are the hatches in the hull.

2. The bridge has been modified and an armoured conning tower added.

3 The 4x2 20in guns have been replaced with 4x4 16in guns.



Let me know what you think of her.

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

Hi David,

I'm by no means an expert on this, but if you move the 8in guns closer toward the centre, which I believe is feasible, you could then move them inboard and benefit from better torpedo defence \ armour belt protection. Or, I think (again, no expert) you could move both aft turrets back a little way - you seem to have quite a lot of deck aft of your main battery turrets, which could permit you to stretch out the arrangement slightly and not force the 8in guns right onto the side.

Regards,
Ad

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NSWE: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5695

I'm still wondering what the 8in guns are actually for?

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Worklist

Source Materiel is always welcome.

Here's the dorsal view Thiel.

The missiles ar on the 01 Deck as you suggested.

About your last coment . . . the 8" guns are the secondary battery intended for shore support--given the range and payload and for anti- destroyer and such defense (obviously a small boat does not warrent an 8" round. However the USS Newport News, one of my former duty stations, did do such once.

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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.