Cleveland, United States Light Cruiser laid down 1938 (Engine 1939)
Displacement:
9,260 t light; 10,184 t standard; 12,000 t normal; 13,453 t full load
Dimensions: Length (overall / waterline) x beam x draught (normal/deep)
(635.72 ft / 606.96 ft) x 65.62 ft x (24.61 / 26.64 ft)
(193.77 m / 185.00 m) x 20.00 m x (7.50 / 8.12 m)
Armament:
12 - 6.00" / 152 mm 55.0 cal guns - 120.00lbs / 54.43kg shells, 300 per gun
Breech loading guns in deck and hoist mounts, 1938 Model
2 x 3-gun mounts on centreline, forward evenly spread
1 raised mount
2 x 3-gun mounts on centreline, aft evenly spread
1 raised mount aft
24 - 5.00" / 127 mm 38.0 cal guns - 60.01lbs / 27.22kg shells, 400 per gun
Dual purpose guns in deck and hoist mounts, 1938 Model
10 x 2-gun mounts on sides, evenly spread
4 raised mounts
2 x 2-gun mounts on centreline, evenly spread
2 double raised mounts
24 - 1.10" / 28.0 mm 75.0 cal guns - 0.99lbs / 0.45kg shells, 4,000 per gun
Anti-air guns in deck mounts, 1938 Model
4 x Quad mounts on sides, evenly spread
2 raised mounts
4 x Twin mounts on centreline, evenly spread
2 raised mounts
40 - 0.79" / 20.0 mm 75.0 cal guns - 0.40lbs / 0.18kg shells, 8,000 per gun
Anti-air guns in deck mounts, 1938 Model
12 x Twin mounts on sides, evenly spread
6 raised mounts
8 x Twin mounts on centreline, evenly spread
8 double raised mounts
Weight of broadside 2,920 lbs / 1,324 kg
Armour:
- Belts: Width (max) Length (avg) Height (avg)
Main: 3.00" / 76 mm 394.52 ft / 120.25 m 9.72 ft / 2.96 m
Ends: Unarmoured
Upper: 3.00" / 76 mm 394.52 ft / 120.25 m 8.00 ft / 2.44 m
Main Belt covers 100 % of normal length
- Torpedo Bulkhead - Strengthened structural bulkheads:
3.00" / 76 mm 394.52 ft / 120.25 m 19.28 ft / 5.88 m
Beam between torpedo bulkheads 65.00 ft / 19.81 m
- Gun armour: Face (max) Other gunhouse (avg) Barbette/hoist (max)
Main: 2.00" / 51 mm 1.00" / 25 mm -
2nd: 1.00" / 25 mm 1.00" / 25 mm -
3rd: 1.00" / 25 mm - -
4th: 1.00" / 25 mm - -
- Box over machinery & magazines:
1.00" / 25 mm
Forecastle: 1.00" / 25 mm Quarter deck: 1.00" / 25 mm
- Conning towers: Forward 2.00" / 51 mm, Aft 2.00" / 51 mm
Machinery:
Oil fired boilers, steam turbines, plus diesel motors,
Geared drive, 4 shafts, 91,370 shp / 68,162 Kw = 32.00 kts
Range 14,000nm at 15.00 kts
Bunker at max displacement = 3,269 tons
Complement:
573 - 745
Cost:
£5.361 million / $21.445 million
Distribution of weights at normal displacement:
Armament: 813 tons, 6.8 %
- Guns: 813 tons, 6.8 %
Armour: 2,461 tons, 20.5 %
- Belts: 863 tons, 7.2 %
- Torpedo bulkhead: 844 tons, 7.0 %
- Armament: 174 tons, 1.5 %
- Armour Deck: 534 tons, 4.5 %
- Conning Towers: 45 tons, 0.4 %
Machinery: 2,472 tons, 20.6 %
Hull, fittings & equipment: 3,414 tons, 28.4 %
Fuel, ammunition & stores: 2,740 tons, 22.8 %
Miscellaneous weights: 100 tons, 0.8 %
- Above deck: 100 tons
Overall survivability and seakeeping ability:
Survivability (Non-critical penetrating hits needed to sink ship):
14,534 lbs / 6,593 Kg = 134.6 x 6.0 " / 152 mm shells or 2.4 torpedoes
Stability (Unstable if below 1.00): 1.16
Metacentric height 3.5 ft / 1.1 m
Roll period: 14.8 seconds
Steadiness - As gun platform (Average = 50 %): 70 %
- Recoil effect (Restricted arc if above 1.00): 0.63
Seaboat quality (Average = 1.00): 1.20
Hull form characteristics:
Hull has a flush deck,
a normal bow and a cruiser stern
Block coefficient (normal/deep): 0.429 / 0.444
Length to Beam Ratio: 9.25 : 1
'Natural speed' for length: 24.64 kts
Power going to wave formation at top speed: 54 %
Trim (Max stability = 0, Max steadiness = 100): 58
Bow angle (Positive = bow angles forward): 30.00 degrees
Stern overhang: 13.12 ft / 4.00 m
Freeboard (% = length of deck as a percentage of waterline length):
Fore end, Aft end
- Forecastle: 20.00 %, 27.10 ft / 8.26 m, 22.18 ft / 6.76 m
- Forward deck: 30.00 %, 22.18 ft / 6.76 m, 17.26 ft / 5.26 m
- Aft deck: 35.00 %, 17.26 ft / 5.26 m, 17.26 ft / 5.26 m
- Quarter deck: 15.00 %, 17.26 ft / 5.26 m, 17.26 ft / 5.26 m
- Average freeboard: 19.37 ft / 5.91 m
Ship tends to be wet forward
Ship space, strength and comments:
Space - Hull below water (magazines/engines, low = better): 93.8 %
- Above water (accommodation/working, high = better): 152.7 %
Waterplane Area: 24,983 Square feet or 2,321 Square metres
Displacement factor (Displacement / loading): 118 %
Structure weight / hull surface area: 117 lbs/sq ft or 570 Kg/sq metre
Hull strength (Relative):
- Cross-sectional: 0.95
- Longitudinal: 1.64
- Overall: 1.00
Adequate machinery, storage, compartmentation space
Excellent accommodation and workspace room
Ship has slow, easy roll, a good, steady gun platform
The New Fleet Project had one simple mission, to be properly design and fit the fleet for the wars of tomorrow. The Cleveland class is one of the designs put into production from the New Fleet Project. As the initial light cruiser design of the NFP, it is designed with the latest threats to naval shipping in mind.
The Light Cruisers of the New Fleet Project had the requirement for escort duty, and with the Dutch showing that aircraft can be brought down with enough bullets flying in the air, the United States Navy decided to utilize the new Radar technology to enhance any and all gunnery on new ships.
The primary armament of the Cleveland is the 6"/55cal guns mounted in triple mounts. With a rate of fire of a round every twelve seconds, they can pummel any destroyer or light cruiser currently in operation.
The 5"/38cal dual purpose cannons are the intermediate solution to the dual purpose role problem. Due to the fact that the other variants of the 5" cannon aren't capable enough to be useful, it was decided that until an automatic version was devised, the 38cal variant would be good enough. With a rate of fire of one round every six seconds, these are some of the fastest firing naval rifles in the world.
The 1.1"/75cal anti-aircraft gun is the current model of anti-aircraft autocannon available of the heavier calibers. While the design first showed up in the 1920s, the latest model has none of the problems that where prevailent with the earlier models. The major problem is the fact that many crews believe that the 1.1" guns don't have the necessary hitting power however.
The 20mm autocannon are of Swiss design. Mounted in twin mounts, the 20mm guns have replaced the old standby of the M2 HMG as the last-ditch anti-air weapon of choice. It was discovered that 12.7mm machineguns were useless in the anti-air role. Aircraft have advanced far faster than anticapated and became far stronger as well. The easiest that the USN found to patch this hole in the defenses was to pruchase manufacturing rights for the weapon as an intermediate solution until better weaponry can be found.
Hope that this is way better than the last.
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