Ok, now re-written as part of teh Draft RN paper

Introduction

 

In APOD as in ‘old FFO’, the drivers acting on the RN are very different to OTL. In OTL, the RN was forced by an existential crisis to work its ships much harder than planned, leading to premature aging. In addition, they were forced to shift manpower between heavy ship construction and merchant ship repair. Finally, they forced to abandon most long range and post-war planning considerations and focus on short term efforts to maximise ship utility across the fleet.

 

In APOD and in ‘old FFO’, these  considerations do not apply. The RN must take long range and post-war considerations into its planning.

 

Battleships

 

Vanguard (See discussion at Annex A)

 

This battleship cost £9,000,000 instead of the £7,400,000 average for the KGV because of her protracted building time and major redesign. She was forecast to cost ~£5,500,000. She was a modified KGV design. Despite the opposition of the DNC (Goodall, who viewed BB as a waste of resources) in APOD this ‘fully armoured battle cruiser’ for the Far East will be built as follows:

 

2 March 1940 Vanguard laid down on Duke of York’s recently vacated slip.

1 March 1942 Vanguard launched (Malta class CV laid down on this slip 1 May 42)

1 March 1943 Vanguard completed

Note 1 the shorter time is because her armament already exists

Note 2: She was planned in OTL to be commissioned 36 months from keel laying. In APOD there is no reason at all why this cannot be done because the problem which affected her construction (an excess of 100 old ex-US merchant ships to refit/repair in UK yards and numerous war-damaged merchant ships) are not present.

 

However, this shows a problem. The RN and RAN need flagships for trade protection and ‘presence’ formations on the following stations: China, Australia, Singapore, Indian Ocean South America and West Indies. Six stations means 8-9 ships to maintain that. These are the County replacements. Using a Vanguard-sized ship (she is a ‘second class BB’) is out of the question on cost grounds.

 

So what replaces the County class?

 

 

Lion Class

 

Lion and Temeraire were laid down in 1939, suspended in October 1940 and scrapped in 1941. In APOD, there is no reason to delay these ships, as the Germans may still produce the H class and their allies are continuing construction of the 16” gunned Sovietsy Soyuz class.

 

Lion and Temeraire will complete in mid-late 1943. The major difference from their 1939 design will be an ‘OTL Vanguard’ style bow, to eliminate the forward wetness problem with the KGV class.

 

The need to build ~24 x 16” guns will have an effect on the cruiser program. The addition of 16 + 6 twin 5.25” turrets (the latter for Nelson in her ~Jun-Dec 41 refit) will have a serious impact on the Dido program.

 

Cruisers

 

In OTL, the RN was forced by the events of 1940 and by the losses off Crete to cancel their 1940 6” and 8” cruiser designs. This forced repeat Colonies and Towns to be considered later (Minotaur class).

 

Dido class

 

The Lion and Nelson decisions stop this program cold by re-allocating their armament.

 

Worse, the four completed in 1940 were all weather damaged, the worst being Naiad (the only one with 5 turrets fitted) which was completely disabled, had the bridge start to separate from the hull, had pillar failure forward and deck/shell buckling. This was traced to extreme pitching motions caused by weight concentration forward. The options available are obvious.

 

1937 Program

Bonaventure 24.5.40

Dido 30.9.40

Hermione 25.3.41

Naiad 10 x 5.25” 24.7.40

Phoebe 30.9.40

Euryalus 30.6.41

Sirius 5.5.41

All except Naiad being completed with 8 x 5.25 (C turret being suppressed and replaced by a 4” starshell gun and a quad pompom)

 

1938 Program

Charybdis 3.12.41

Cleopatra 5.12.41

Scylla 12.6.42

All being completed with 10 x 4.5” in Mk II mounts

 

1939 Program

Argonaut 8.8.42

Bellona 29.10.43

Black Prince 20.11.43

Diadem 6.1.44

Royalist 10.9.43

Spartan 10.8.43

All being completed with 10 x 4.5” in Mk IV mounts, and lengthened hulls for longer range and more internal volume

 

A switch to the available 4.5 means these ships are still able to overpower a disguised merchant raider. This means they are the C/D replacement as the fleet screen. AA and minimum trade protection cruiser.

 

Town Class

No change

 

Colony class

The need to build 16” guns means that something has to give at Vickers. Skilled manpower is not quickly to be expanded, and industrial capability has to be freed up for this job.

 

This will be orders for 6” triples. Fiji, Kenya, and Nigeria will be the only ships to commission as 12-gun ships. They will lose their C turrets in 1942 to arm Newfoundland. Mauritius will lose hers before completion.

 

The rest will complete with 9 guns only. This class is the RN ‘general purpose’ cruiser.

 

County Replacement

 

The Washington Treaty CA was a second class capital ship. It was forced into this role due to the mass scrapping of all older BB and BC by that Treaty. War service plus age means these ships will not last to 1950.

 

The County replacement must be a Station flagship with full flagship capability. It must be a second class capital ship in that it must force any enemy to deploy a capital ship to deal with it.

 

The cruisers being examined in January 1940 were 9 gun 12,500t 8” and a 9 gun 15,500t 8”. The other large cruiser being looked at was a 11,000t uprated Town with 12 x 6”.

 

There is no real difference in combat power between these 8” and 6” designs, and no real advantage over the existing Town class.

 

The drivers applying, then, are exactly those which applied to the Elizabethans when it was decided to complete the class in 1919. What is required is a second class capital ship superior to any cruiser building or planned, and demanding a ship of at least capital ship status to deal with it. This ship has to be affordable, as a minimum of 8 are needed. The Australians can be relied on to order one. Ships of this class can be expected to see war service.

 

The central problem is that the 8” gun is too light to demand a capital ship in response. Yet, a ship using 12” guns will be 25,000 tons and that is not affordable.

 

The logical response is an ‘expanded County’ type of hull with 8 x 9.2” guns in four twin turrets. This gun can make a capital ship wince, fires as fast as the 8”, and is superior to any cruiser gun. This is because it hits a ‘sweet spot’ in the range of guns and in shell ballistics. Even better, the RN has much experience with this weapon, which makes development of a new 9.2 a low-risk project. Twin 9.2” mounts have also been built in the past, giving a design basis, and also mitigating risk.

 Oct 2010 Edit: The bit in blue above proved to be a load of total bollocks. Turns out that the RN was examining a 9.2" cruiser with triple turrets. So teh Warrior class becomes a ship with 9.2" triples.

This ship cannot be armoured against guns of 12” and up, so it will be armoured against 8” gunfire and have a 4.5” belt.

 

This cruiser will also be a break with current RN practise. The RN will spend money on the USN tachymetric AA director systems for this class (cash and carry). This is an AC system, so these ships must be AC ships. In 1940, RN DC ships lose up to 10% of their generating capacity wasted in having to convert it to AC for electronic system use.

 

If the ship has to be AC, then the turrets can also be electric, which saves on weight and cost. With this level of innovation occurring, it also makes sense to improve their range and engine efficiency by adopting higher-pressure steam plants for which the resources now exist for R&D.

The bit in blue above ALSO turned out to be nonsense. That might be teh consequence of a 1944 decision, but this is 1940-41. So she does get a lot more generation plant as radar and tropicalisation (air conditioning) demands, but she stays with hydraulic turrets.

The result will be a return to three cruiser classes in the RN. The Armoured Cruiser, a semi-capital ship with full flagship capability, the Cruiser, a general purpose vessel with limited flagship capability, and the Leader, a minimum trade protection ship, AA vessel and fleet surface screen ship with the ability to act as flagship of a DD flotilla.

 

Warrior Class

 

~18,000t

4.5” belt, 2” deck, 4” over magazines and machinery

3 x 3 9.2”

8 x 2 4.5”

32 kt deep and dirty

 

4 ordered 1941 for completion 1944/45 (Warrior, Defence, Bellerophon, Australia ex Minotaur)

4 ordered 1942 for completion 1945/46 (Superb, Tiger, Blake, Minotaur ex Hawke)

 

Late war 6” Design

 

This will be based on Colony with 3 twin 6” automatics. Post-war realities will mean that, at best, some Colony class will be rebuilt with 2 x twin 6” automatics in A and Y positions, utilising the magazines originally built for 6 x 6” at each end.


Last Edited By: MarkLBailey Oct 16 10 8:12 PM. Edited 1 times.