Regarding your proposed SAM installation, how does a twin launcher mates with a single drum?
Like this:
I don't think there is any particular black magic involved in mating a twin armed launcher to a single drum magazine. The problem with the Mk 11 was it was a badly designed POS, but surely, by the 70s, engineers could make the idea work.
OK, not like I was looking at just that drawing for reference while writing that...
I really had the Volna in mind, I don't know how the autoloader for the Mk.11 works, so the double-drum version seemed more elegant and potentially more reliable. Again, approved by the Soviet Navy
I'll look into other possibilities for the Fast 40; I'm hoping if the design allows it, I can find some bit of extra space for more Fast-40s, as one can never have too many. The hangar is a two helo one, and I presume the magazine that extends down into the hangar deck, nestles between the two birds.
OK, plugging the Fast-40 between the hangars make sense if there is space. I had in mind the Italian configurations, and how the Fast-40s are always paired port and starboard with a common director. Certainly nothing mandatory in that.
For me, 4 guidance channels should be about right. That allows 2 SM-1s and two NSSMs in the air at once. Remember, that half of those eggs act as missile directors. The other halves guide the 76mm OTO and the Fast-40. I'm sure the eggs aren't as good as the STIRs at missile guidance, so I moved the other STIR to the mack, so that one hit that took out the bridge/mast area wouldn't knock out every director. I suppose, I could just use more STIRS instead of the eggs, but do those things direct guns too? It seemed like a cheap solution.
Well, the secondary gun control mission is explicitly listed on
Thales's website, so there's that. Dunno how well that would apply to a late-70s version though, as I can't seem to find other ships using STIRs without an NSSM or Aspide involved. On the other hand, the Dutch Karel Doorman and German F-123 frigates (among others) carry a 76mm and only STIRs as directors, so it might work.
My original design of this did include an SPS-48, but I got worried about expense and topweight, and went to the present configuration. This is supposed to be an improvement on the OHP, not a DDG, which my original example tried to morph into, before I took the sheers to it.
So that's where the Spruance-like masts come from? Again, if this ship is explicitly in the OHP category, I see nothing wrong with having only an SPS49 for air search. On such a hull size, a more extensive radar fit would mean compromising on either the aviation (see DDG-2 Adams class) or the weapons.
fixed and rotating Mk 32 tubes
Yeah, about that, are these really fixed twin Mk.32 Mod.9 just astern of the triple tubes? If so, what for?