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Great drawings Hood,

The designs themselves appear very weak. I look at the County class that came out of these designs and those had some guts to them.

Hope this isn't to much of a derailing.... to Hoods nice thread.

Does anybody have any details/references about the Sea Slug/radars system ?

I was looking at doing a PD with the system shoehorned into a Leander style ship (with maybe a 3" gun) but got a bit stuck on if it might fit/crew....

Great work!

JSB,
GW24 required 450 men to operate the ship and the systems aboard. And GW24 was a pretty austere fit of electronics, arguably below the bare bones to use Sea Slug effectively.
A stretched Leander might do ok, but you'd probably only fit 20 missiles aboard maximum depending on the magazine layout.

Krakatoa,
Don't worry we'll soon be going back into full cruiser territory soon with big guns!

_________________
Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

Can't wait to see next ships! Most of these were unknown to me before.

After a long pause, some new entries.


GW36 (gun-missile cruiser) January 1955

GW36 was drawn up for a cruiser armed with two twin 5.25in mounts and 24 Sea Slug missiles as well as four twin 40mm Bofors. The ultimate aim was a conversion to an all-missile ship. Three 30,000shp YEAD(1) powerplants were installed with triple shafts. Displacement was 10,600 tons. Dimensions were 541 ft (oa) (530 ft wl) x 63 ft x 18ft. Speed was 31kts deep and clean. The radar fit was one Type 901 director, six MRD-3, Type 983 height-finding, Type 960, Type 992 and Type 974. A self-defence Type 176 sonar was likely too.
Drawing Note: This drawing is speculative based on official sketch drawings of GW36 as an double-ended missile cruiser


GW36 (all-missile version) January 1955

The all-missile ship 'conversion' (this is a slightly heavier and beamier design and a purpose-built ship) was illustrated in Friedman's 'Postwar Naval Revolution' but without its designation. Three 30,000shp YEAD(1) powerplants were installed with triple shafts. Displacement was 10,700 tons (deep load). Dimensions were 541 ft (oa) (530 ft wl) x 69 ft x 18.6ft. Speed was 30kts deep and clean, endurance 4,500nm at 20kts. Armament was four twin 40mm L/70 and 54 Sea Slug missiles (24 aft 30 forward), the longer magazine having three elevators, including one amidships, presumably for resupply. The radar fit was two Type 901 director, four MRD-3, Type 983 height-finding, Type 960, Type 992 and Type 974. A self-defence Type 176 sonar was likely too. Armour protection was 1in side and deck except for the machinery areas which had 1.5in deck. Accommodation for 60 officers and 270 ratings was provided.
Drawing Note: This drawing based on official sketch drawings of GW36

_________________
Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

is anything known about the spread of 3 separate propulsion units spread over 2 equal funnels?

anyways, very nice work!

_________________
Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
I ask of you to prove me wrong. Not say I am wrong, but prove it, because then I will have learned something new.
Shipbucket Wiki admin

Very nice drawings. Certainly they're bizarre ships to the modern mind, perhaps illustrating some transitional challenges and perhaps showing a relative lack of understanding of what new ship design challenges came about with the dawn of the missile. By the standards of contemporary US designs (which is my base of familiarity), it's certainly odd to see such substantial directors devoted to 40mm (rather than a Hazemeyer/STAAG like arrangement), and the outfit of air search sets is almost amazingly spartan.

If nothing else, I'm trying to wrap my mind around the wisdom of a traditional armoring scheme when half the length of the ship is covered with solid rocket boosters that might not even have splinter protection!

When was the last RN displacement hull with three shafts? Was there ever one?

in my reference list, the only one I found that was actually build was the illustrious class carrier. I am not certain my list is complete (especially on ships I have no books on to get the data for it) but this at least answers part of your question

_________________
Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
I ask of you to prove me wrong. Not say I am wrong, but prove it, because then I will have learned something new.
Shipbucket Wiki admin

Ace,

The plan shows two boxes aft, so I assume to YEADs were aft (I know the funnel is same size as the forefunnel, but that's the plan!)
I'm more suspicious, Friedman claims triple shafts, saying the high magazine posed no problems for three shafts, yet the plan I was working from has no tunnel you'd expect for a centre shaft and the stern shape suggests the normal twin-screw layout compared to later GW-series designs with 3 props.

Erik_T,

When MRS-3 was designed it was planned to develop an AA only MRS-3 for the Tiger class and 40mm L/70. This became MRS-3 Mod 2 with a smaller, simpler and more accurate mechanical predictor for 10,000 yards full accuracy with +5,000yds at less accuracy. It was cancelled in 1956 as development was making it more complicated to they went with the standard MRS-3. These 1954-56 designs would use a mix of Mod 1 with AA/SU1 predictors for 5-6in guns, AA/SU4 predictors for 3in guns and the Mod 2 for 40mm L/70. Complicated stuff!

The radars were austere, the following design, GW37 was GW36 with a Type 984. It needed 20ft more length just to give it clear arcs. Friedman notes GW37 was the first design where extra deck space was calculated to work out hull growth. Weight and volume were recognised as driving factors and the relatively small displacement and size gains meant from then on Type 984 became a standard item in the designs.

_________________
Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft