Wasn't there a ramp from the vehicle deck??
Still no good for landing craft but I do wonder what the deck loading on the vehicle deck was.
Wasn't there a ramp from the vehicle deck??
Still no good for landing craft but I do wonder what the deck loading on the vehicle deck was.
There was a ramp from the rear vehicle deck and landing craft on davits but no proper dock but that's not a surprise as she was a LPH like the USN's Iwo Jima's and her role was the to provide the heliborne element of the task group while also having some transport capacity for second wave vehicles. In combination with an Albion class the RN had an amphibious capability matched only by the USN, a capacity now enormously enhanced by the QE2's which can do everything she could do and more.
Small question: Let's say that taking opportunity of the WNT, if one hull of a Admiral-class battlecruiser was still available (there wasn't, buy let's say it was), how good was a aircraft carrier conversion of HMS Hood, compared to the Lexington-class, Akagi and the Courageous-class?
Lexington is very similar in key length draft and beam stats to an admiral class so I suspect that all else being equal they would be somewhat similar.
The Admiral would probably have a lot of armour pared back from the original design as you only want so much belt armour on a carrier.
Project 11780 - Wikipedia
How would these vessels have been employed if they were available by early 80s ?
would it have been cheaper to base such a vessel on Moskva class aviation cruisers ?
The reason they were not built was because the Soviets didn't need any surface ships that weren't hunting submarines. The proponents of these ships tried to make them out as ASW carriers, but it would have taken up a yard slot at Nikolayev that could otherwise be occupied by a Kiev class, which was much better for that job. The Moskva class aviation cruisers were a much older design, and had hull forms that were not considered very seaworthy. They would not have been repeated.Project 11780 - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
How would these vessels have been employed if they were available by early 80s ?
would it have been cheaper to base such a vessel on Moskva class aviation cruisers ?
Probably not, it was too small and two worn out. Might be useful for experimentation and concepts but not really more.Was sold in the mid 80s to China for scrap
HMAS Melbourne (R21) - Wikipedia
Can the Chinese navy salvage the ship and redeploy it as a carrier ?
Will it be able to handle j-6 fighters ? Or just helos
What they got for their money was a Steam Catapult, Arrestor Gear and an Optical Landing Sight. The rest of Melbourne was just scrap metal, though I read somewhere that they reassembled the flightdeck on land for experimentation.
Probably nothing there that wasn't easily found elsewhere if needs be, anything classified would have been long gone. All kinds of parts of those ships were ripped out by those decommissioning them.
Why do you think the Soviets didn’t need surface ships that were not ASW ?
They didn’t want any surface ships designed for ASuW ?
They are overall fairly comparable to the finalized Lexington dimensionally. So assuming the British are every bit as clever as the Americans when it comes to the conversion, which given the Nelson's development I would not doubt, then you would probably get a very clever and capable unit. Probably match the weirdness that was the Lexington's heavy cruiser gun armament with multiple flying off decks like the F, G&C IOTL. Would make a very capable unit come WWII.
The question is, what does the RN loose carrier wise to get her?
Probably Courageous and/or Glorious don't get converted but they could be there's still carrier tonnage available in the treaty limits.
I would consider trading one of the twins as a useful trade-off, both probably not. Just hope the ship isnt wasted early war conducting ASW work in the north Atlantic and caught by German surface raiders.
If the hull's available an Admiral would be a valuable carrier, provided she has aircraft to fill her hanger rather than running 2/3's empty.
Driftless
Donor
Possible, probably not plausible..... Sometime after FDR (former naval person in Churchill's reference) is President, the US and UK organize a joint fleet excercise in the Caribbean where the carriers are the main event. The US did those excercises in the mid '30s and they were instrumental in shifting tactical planning for the fleet.
(*edit* One of the lessons learned, or at least re-confirmed was that ALL the ships in a task force, including the Battleships conform to the movements of the carriers (turning into the wind, etc) during tactical operations)
What would be the virtue: both parties get to see what works and what doesn't for fleet carrier operations, along with just good general knowledge refreshed for large unit and multi-national operations.
Politically, on both sides of the Atlantic, how do you get that done? Not a flaming clue.
(*edit* One of the lessons learned, or at least re-confirmed was that ALL the ships in a task force, including the Battleships conform to the movements of the carriers (turning into the wind, etc) during tactical operations)
What would be the virtue: both parties get to see what works and what doesn't for fleet carrier operations, along with just good general knowledge refreshed for large unit and multi-national operations.
Politically, on both sides of the Atlantic, how do you get that done? Not a flaming clue.
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A useful tool by the allies to really f**k over the Soviets. Stalin gets his dream of battleships and his admirals now have the disaster on their hands of manning, equipping, supporting, maintaining them and not to mention the Soviets would need to tool up for munitions as well.
To be honest, I'm a tad surprised the Allies didn't do it OTL as the Soviet resources it would bog down for two large useless ships in the modern (Carrier) world in essence...
Didn't RN give them a Revenge class? Should have been more.
It was returned to the RN at the end of the war in rather terrible shape.
I think they had her from 1944 to 1949 or something, and when they returned her (Royal Sovereign) her turrets were rusted in place facing fore and aft and unable to turn.