Nihon Kaigun 1946

Well, this isn't exactly IJN, but it's part of the AU I'm doing with all the IJN drawings, so I figured I'd post it here. (And it's a rarity for me...my first USN ship!

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By 1941, it was blatantly obvious the IJN was building more battle cruisers, and the USN - while building battleships out the wazoo in an effort to catch up - wanted some more 'cruiser killers' to combat both these new enemy battle cruisers plus the twelve 10-inch-gunned large cruisers that the IJN already had. As such, the United States ordered an upgraded 'cruiser killer' class to go along with the seven Alaskas that were currently under (or about to start) construction. The second class of large cruiser not only had an increase in 5-inch turrets (ten twin mounts versus six on the Alaskas at the expense of any aircraft handling facilities), but also an upgrade in main armament to nine fourteen-inch guns. The large gap in their superstructures affectionately earned them the nickname of the "Bucktooth-class". Even so, most considered them handsome vessels.

By the end of the war, the list of U.S. large cruisers looked like this:
Alaska-class
U.S.S. Alaska (CB-1) - commissioned 17 December 1943
U.S.S. Guam (CB-2) - commissioned 17 March 1944
U.S.S. Hawaii (CB-3) - commissioned 17 June 1944
U.S.S. Philippines (CB-4) - commissioned 17 September 1944
U.S.S. Puerto Rico (CB-5) - commissioned 17 December 1944
U.S.S. Samoa (CB-6) - commissioned 17 March 1945
U.S.S. Aleutians (CB-7) - commissioned 17 June 1945

Constitution-class
U.S.S. Constitution (CB-8) - commissioned 6 February 1945
U.S.S. Constellation (CB-9) - commissioned 6 May 1945
U.S.S. United States (CB-10) - commissioned 6 August 1945
U.S.S. America (CB-11) - commissioned 6 November 1945
U.S.S. Shiloh (CB-12) - commissioned 6 February 1946
U.S.S. Gettysburg (CB-13) - commissioned 6 May 1946
U.S.S. Appomattox (CB-14) - commissioned 6 August 1946

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB

Wow... haven't even had it on the forum for a day and there's a kitbashed version out there.

You should give it the updated Mk.37 and SK radars available on the new Alaska. Also, by this time they would be built with SK-2 air search sets with two SG surface search sets. You'd also see Mk.13 radars on the main battery directors. Also you have two versions of the 5"/38 mount in use...

The Slipways to build that many large cruisers don't exist unless you cut into carrier production. The changes needed for the second batch also are going to eat up the limited drafting-room capacity of the time to the point that you'd lose the Midways as far back as 1943.

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Very impressive!

@TimothyC
That's in the real world - and here we have an AU, where - I suppose - there could be slightly larger production capacity (in the sense that it's not physically impossible as long as we - or rather Author - are keeping it within certain reasonable limits).

If they have the production capacity why not use it to build more Essex's or Midway's?? The Alaska took 21 months to build, the Constitution class would take about the same. That means construction will have to start in May or June 1943 and they'll need a slipway each since construction overlaps. At that point the USN was screaming for carriers and escorts. Those seven slipways and the material needed could instead be used to build 7 Essex class carriers and 8 Gearing class destroyers. Or 117 LSTs for that matter.
The first option would provide a whole lot more cruiser killing than any 7 cruisers, but the second option might be better if the Pacific war drags on.

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Source Materiel is always welcome.

Nice, but it has one massive flaw, it can not be named USS Constitution, as the first one is still In Commission.

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Actually, the first U.S.S. Constitution was planned to have been renamed U.S.S. Old Constitution when the USN had the name slated for a Lexington-class battle cruiser...no reason to expect the same renaming could not have happened in this case as well.

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB

Impressive!

I'm no mod, but since we left out reality and politics out of the KM '46 thread(with some aid from the mods), why not do the same here? The '46 AUs are for awesome, over-the-top ships, not well-evolved background stories.

I agree, sometimes it's fun to just design silly things without realism constraints.

Shipbucket

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