The Challenge

The NATO ASW Challenge was an Shipbucket challenge held in 2012. It was set up by acelanceloet/J.Scholtens and Thiel.

It was tried to emulate the real shipbuilding industry a bit by setting an set of specifications, but still leaving the contestants free to do what you want as long as it stayed inside the specs.

The idea is an ASW/ASuW vessel from about 1980. About everything from a VDS tug to an Iroqouis is acceptable. The ships are restricted to real life or close to real life weapons (so the mad part of never build is not allowed :P) Further specifications below:

• Country: NATO member
• In commision: 1975-1985
• Displacement: 3000-5500 metric tons full load
• Speed: Sustained: 20kts, Sprint 30kts
• Range: Designers choice
• Primary mission: Anti Submarine Warfare
• Secondary missions: Self defence AAW, ASuW
• Aviation facilities: Designers choice
• Armament: Designers Choice

The Judges Verdict

The challenge was judged by Erik_T and TimothyC.

The designs were graded on a scale of 0-3 (Zero being the lowest) on the following categories:

   Feasibility
   Cost
   Sea Keeping & etc..
   Stand-off ASW
   Short Range ASW
   Survivability
   Drawing Quality

These scores were then tallied up meaning there was a maximum of 42 points up for grabs.

It ended up with a tie between Rowdy's "Vampire Class" and Ace's "Vandalia Class". To this end Rowdy36 wins the "Best Practical" award while Ace wins the "Best Totally Awesome" Award.

The following are the final rankings:

   Rowdy36 & Acelanceloet (33)
   Novice (32)
   Heuhen #3 [With ASROC] (31)
   Heuhen #1 [With Mk 141] & Hood & Jabba #2 [Flight 2] & Thiel (30)
   Heuhen #1 [With Terne III] (29)
   LEUT_East (27)
   MC Spoilt B'stard (26)
   Jabba #1 [Dortmund] (25)
   Clone Commander & Jabba #3 [Dortmund, Goalkeeper Mod] (23)
   Rifleman (22)

It is important to note that there was only an 11 point spread and that everyone got over half of the possible points!

Both Erik and TimothyC have posted the reasoning behind the scores in the spreadsheet:[[1]]

Some thoughts on the designs by the judges:

• Riflemans NATO ASW Proposal: Standard layout. It’s not a bad design, but it feels very kitbash-y. The sensor suite makes sense for the weapons load. My biggest concern is going to be the bow – it looks like it could be seriously wet in the North Atlantic.
• Heuhen's Modular NATO ASW Ship: With Heuhen we got a family of designs. The thought put into the power plant was a nice touch. The only concern that I have with the designs is that the electronics seem a bit overloaded for the hull. I might drop the dedicated Sea Sparrow guidance radar aft. It definitely feels like he hit the mark. I would however remove the 30mm turrets in favor of a larger hanger and door.
• Clonecommander6454: Not a bad layout. Very Spartan, could probably use a few more details (like lights both running and otherwise). I’m honestly surprised that it doesn’t have enclosed torpedo tubes on the sides or a large diameter tube aft. The AAW Design feels like flight ops have been seriously compromised, but I don’t see an easy way to fix it. This isn’t on the ships, but the grey text on the B-Sides is a little too light.
• Novices D17: Very T21 looking design. My only concern is the hanger layout. I’m not sure two Sea Kings can fit, but then again, I like big, expansive hangers.
• Rowdy36's Vampire class: It’s a Super MEKO hull. My major concern is the same that I have for almost all Australian ships – Lack of range. There is a hatch or something abaft the hanger that has me confused as well.
• Thiel: It’s just so Austere! And Cute!
• Acelanceloet's FFHN-1: The application of the phrase ‘make it nuclear’ has never been applied to a frigate so well. It suffers from the same problem that the early designs for the DE(N) proposals suffered from, and that is a lack of speed on the nuclear plant alone. Going CONAG is a good solution. If anything, I think that a more full electronics set would be nice (Mk 24 TAS in place of the Mk 23, and a WM series egg for AA with the gun and as backup for the NSSM system for example) would be nice, but I understand why they were left off.
• Jabba's Dortmund class: The Flight 2 is good, but I think that the Flight 1 and the Mod both miss the mark with the lack of a helicopter hanger. Even by 1970, the helo was known to be the stand-off ASW platform of choice.
• Hood's Type 25 Very Early T22ish with the missiles and the lack of a main gun. Really the T22 Flight 1’s little sister. I’m not sold on the aft Sea Wolf configuration though. Time wise it is a bit later than the original post outlined.
• MC Spoilt B’stard's NATO Submarine Hunting Frigate Proposal 1981 Very compact, very Dutch. Again, I wonder about how wet it is forward, and that takes on an added importance here with the ASW mortars behind the main gun. I think it suffers a bit because it is limited to a single (smaller) helicopter, but that is closer to historical than many of the other designs that have been entered in the challenge. Now if only you could start drawing things where they can rotate…
• Leut_East's F45: Much earlier than a lot of the designs, there is nothing wrong with this one, it’s just earlier, and the notation of SQS-53 makes SeaCat seem a bit anachronistic.

Note by acelanceloet: The drawings by Thiel, Clonecommander and Rifleman have been lost over time, if anyone happends to have them I will add them.