Shipbucket

Thanks for the comments, im still making changes to the Pernambuco using the advice from the comments, but i will be pretty busy next week so i will probably not be posting anything. In the meantime i present a new addition to the Venezuelan Navy.

Aragua class Cruiser
The Aragua class consisted of six large cruisers ordered before World War II for the Venezuelan Navy. The idea for a large cruiser class originated in the early 1930s when the Venezuelan Navy sought to counter Deutschland-class "pocket battleships" being launched by Germany. Planning for ships that eventually evolved into the Aragua class began in the late 1930s after the deployment of Germany's Scharnhorst-class battleships and rumors that Japan was constructing a new battlecruiser class. The Aragua cruisers served with the Venezuelan Navy during World War II. Similar to the Sucre-class fast battleships, their speed made them useful as shore bombardment ships and fast carrier escorts.



Class overview:
Class & type: Aragua-class cruiser
Built: 1936–1944
In service: 1940–1955
Planned: 6
Completed: 6
Cancelled: 0
Lost: 0

General characteristics:
Displacement:
Design: 27.000 tons
Full load: 32,000 tons
Length: 233,18 m overall
Beam: 25 m
Speed: 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph)
Range: 6,800 nmi (12,600 km; 7,800 mi) at 20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement: 1.500
Armament:
12 × 10 in guns
16 × 5 in guns
10 x 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes

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kike-92

Looks nice,
But have to ask why 12x10" ?
What does 12 guns give that cant be done by,

1) 9x or 8x 10" at reduced cost ?
2) 9x or 8x 12+" at increased fire power ?
3) 6x bigger guns 14"/15"/16" ?

Just interested in your reasoning ? (or is it just to give a very nice balanced ship for and aft ? but 8 would also give you that)

Thanks for the reply JSB, the reason i chosed that configuration was basically because i wanted it to have more guns and also bigger guns than most heavy cruisers of the time, like the Hipper or the japanese Takao but without getting into battlecruiser or battleship territory. And also because i thought it looked better like this then other configurations i tested.

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kike-92

Its a good looking big cruiser. 10" is fine if you want it to keep in the cruiser class.

With a 25m beam you do have enough width to have 8x2 5" in place of the singles you have there now.

Thanks for the comment Krakatoa, i must admit i made a little mistake since i thought i was using the single gun turrets from the Cumaná class destroyer but i realized i used the Carabobo's twin turrets, so inadvertantly i already have what you mentioned above.

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kike-92

That's Ok then.

The other thing I did not notice originally was that you seem to have all 20mm guns for the lighter AA armament. I would have thought a few heavier 37-40mm weapons might have been valuable if you are using it as an escort to the carriers.

Hello everyone

Nice looking ship, has a balanced and elegant look to it (although I doubt your admirals could resist arming her with eight 305mm guns, for which she is large enough and which would make her more versatile). One little nitpick: A crane might come in handy somewhere amidships, or boat handling might prove tricky.

Greetings
GD

@Krakatoa: I think i will use the Bofors 40mm anti aircraft guns for this ship.

@Garlicdesign: Thanks for the comment, i agree with the need for a crane, im already looking into it so it will be ready pretty soon. As for the guns, i made different variants of the ship before posting it, one of them had twelve inch guns but i felt it looked a bit bulky so decided to go with the configuration you see above, and as i mentioned above i didnt want this ship to enter the Battlecruiser category.
That said, with all the comments about the guns now i can't stop thinking of using this design as the basis for a battlecruiser.

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kike-92

well for the size of here, and how big she is, and just on the amount of armament and how big those main guns are... I would call them Battle-cruiser.

This are just a couple of different variants of the same design

1)Is the Aragua Class with 12x 10" guns

2) 8x 12" guns

The two ships at the bottom are true battlecruisers with 15 inch guns and a longer hull, althought im not sure of how many guns can be fitted. I was thinking of 8 or 9 but im not sure if tis possible.

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kike-92