Best warship conversion/rebuilt program?

[Brother Stormhammer]

I'm not sure this *exactly* fits the criteria of the original post, but I have to put in a word for the conversions that turned S.S. Worth and S.S. Rose City into the USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort.

Turning two of these:

Into two of these:

[sharlin]

Although hospital ships, am I the only person who heard http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WczHADTsIec in his head when you saw the picture of that ship?

[Matt Wiser]

I'd echo Lexington and Saratoga from battlecruiser hulls to carriers. And the Indpendence-class CVLs and the CVEs intially converted from merchant hulls-the later Commencement Bay class were purpose-built, not conversions.

Those Hospital Ships have served well: Gulf War I, Somalia, Hati relief after the Earthquake, and in several other instances. In GW I, USNS Mercy was the first stop on the way home for 21 American servicemen and women-the POWs held in Baghdad. No one knows how much overattention they got from bored doctors-they hardly had any business during the war, but the nursing care was no doubt well appreciated.

[hairysamarian]

Originally Posted by LostCosmonaut

The Shinano could have worked well, if it wasn't for the IJN deciding not to give it an ASW escort on its first cruise.

It did have an escort. Three destroyers. Shinano sank because of a mistake on Abe's part (believed he was facing a wolfpack) and because proper damage control procedures were not in place (such as watertight doors being kept closed).

[sharlin]

That and she wasn't complete. Her water tight doors in many cases were not in place and she was still loaded with workers and open for work. She was in no way a combat unit when she was moved and sunk.

Personally i'd say that the conversions of the Akagi and Kaga were less successful but thats more due to Japanese design than anything. They had enclosed hulls, like british ships, double hangers like American vessels but no armoured deck and proved startlingly vulnerable when they were tested. They carried a good sized airwing when in their final state but were not tough ships, nor were they good command ships, having a tiny bridge and little room for Officers to plan as well as in the Akagi's case, inadequate radio facilities.

[historyfelon]

Originally Posted by AdA

Good call. We're they better then the Sherman DD to DDG conversions?
And how about the Soviet Krupny to Kynda? (ASuW to AAW/ASW escorts)

The Sherman class DDGs were my favorite ships at the time I served ('70-'74). They had two 5'54s, twin Tartar missile launcher and ASROC..suckers packed a bit of a punch and looked good. Ships now are more powerful, I'm sure, and very stelathy..but look stripped downbecause of things being build flush and being muti-purpose.
As far as the Soviet destroyers...The MacDonough faced off against one near the Strait of Gibralter in '73 (we were sittling on top of one of their subs and they wanted us to move). God that sucker looked impressive. Later I read a booked called "The Threat"..basically it said that Soviet weapons looked good but weren't maintained, their sailors sucked and their ships were for show. I don't know...I'm glad we didn't go any further than stare at each other...we sailors waved and watched each other through binoculars..I think if we had pulled into the same port we would have bought them drinks..being that we got paid a lot better than they did.

[Sandman396]

Ohio Class SSBN to SSGN conversions?

[Pyeknu494]

Three minor proposals for this list:

The rebuild of H.M.S. Powerful into H.M.C.S. Bonaventure in the 1950s. Turning a somewhat obsolete light fleet carrier into a good anti-submarine warfare platform that could take on CP-121 Trackers; given how SMALL the "Bonnie" was, American pilots thought the Canadians were nuts to land a big plane like the Tracker on the deck of the Bonaventure.

There's the conversion of the Saint Laurent-class DDEs in the 1960s to DDHs; the aft 3 inch guns and one of the Mark 10 Limbo mortars was removed to replace it with a flight deck for a CH-124A Sea King. Again, a lot of people thought it was crazy to land such a big helo on the decks of such a small ship type.

Along that path came the conversion of four of the Restigouche-class DDEs in the late 1960s to take on ASROC in lieu of the aft 3 inch guns and one of the Mark 10 Limbos.

And after the dark years of the Trudeau premiership, there was also the TRUMP conversions for the Iroquois-class ships in the 1980s and 1990s. Turning a semi-capable ASW platform into a very good AAW platform. Pity that manning shortages forced Maritime Command to decommission the Huron in the early 2000s, thus seeing her sunk a few years later.

[AdA]

Originally Posted by Pyeknu494

Three minor proposals for this list:


There's the conversion of the Saint Laurent-class DDEs in the 1960s to
And after the dark years of the Trudeau premiership, there was also the TRUMP conversions for the Iroquois-class ships in the 1980s and 1990s. Turning a semi-capable ASW platform into a very good AAW platform. Pity that manning shortages forced Maritime Command to decommission the Huron in the early 2000s, thus seeing her sunk a few years later.

Semi capable? Weren't the Iroquois regarded as the best ASW DDs in the 70s?

[AdA]

Originally Posted by Sandman396

Ohio Class SSBN to SSGN conversions?

Very useful but wasn't that just a case of replacing the Launch Tubes with VLS cells?

[sparky42]

Originally Posted by AdA

Very useful but wasn't that just a case of replacing the Launch Tubes with VLS cells?

Wasn't there also modifications to increase special warfare capabilities, a larger lockout for SEAL team's from memory

[Sandman396]

Originally Posted by AdA

Very useful but wasn't that just a case of replacing the Launch Tubes with VLS cells?

It fits your criteria of a change in the mission of the boats.

[Kissinger]

So could the massive US COnversion program at the end of WW2 count?

[bsmart111]

The first Generation SSBNs (George Washington class) Converted from Tactical submarines into nuclear deterrent ships. Some were later changed back to SSn or SSGNs

[bsmart111]

Originally Posted by Kissinger

So could the massive US COnversion program at the end of WW2 count?

Which conversion program do you mean - Converting everything and anything to troop transports for Operation Magic Carpet?

[Pyeknu494]

Originally Posted by AdA

Semi capable? Weren't the Iroquois regarded as the best ASW DDs in the 70s?

That's my personal opinion.

As built, the Iroquois-class had a good forward gun (1 x Oto Melara 127 mm) foward, two quad Sea Sparrow point defence AAM launchers and two triple torpedo tube mounts under the flight deck for Mark 44 and Mark 46 torpedoes. By that time, the Mark 10s fitted into the Number 2 deck aft of the flight deck were utterly useless save for killing fish (maximum range for them was 1000 yards; torpedoes could reach much farther). The only real strike power these ships had were the two CH-124As they carried in a midships hangar deck.

Unfortunately, with the near freeze of defence spending and the total lack of major equipment purchases for the Canadian military throughout the 1970s (the real downside of the Trudeau premiership IMO), the Iroquois-class ships became quite obscelescent, especially in the face of the experience of the Falklands War and other such minor conflicts.

The TRUMP conversions did them a lot of good, though.

[docfl]

Still think the Liberty ship Hull wins, from the basic Liberty ship they got cve's
tankers, troop ships and all kinds of repair ships. Look at this and you can see several of the diffrent varietys of the basic EC2-S-C1 hull.
Some of the later ships like the C4-S-A1 hull were built as troopships but after the war were converted to cargo and even tankers. Looking at the blueprints you can see where the aft galley and stores were placed for commercial use. The midships area were designed to be ripped out and used as cargo holds.
One interesting conversion planned but never done was to convert the SS United States into a troop ship. Construction was actually halted for the conversion then allowed to be finished as planned.
docfl

[AdA]

Originally Posted by Sandman396

It fits your criteria of a change in the mission of the boats.

Certainly does. Interestingly the soviets did that type of thing first when they converted their Yankee boats to Project 667AT with SS-N-21 Cruise missiles. They also converted some to SSN by removing the Missile section. I guess they could then be called SNUFs (Short Noisy Unreliable Fellas)

[NHBL]

Some Liberty Ships were converted to radar ships in the cold war--great success. Also, freighters converted to Q-ships were successful, as were a variety of raiders (Moewe in particular)

And, freighters made up to look like battleships also did good service.

But--Seeadler should take some sort of prize: In the Great War, a windjammer converted to a highly successful raiding warship...

[CalBear]

Originally Posted by LostCosmonaut

The Shinano could have worked well, if it wasn't for the IJN deciding not to give it an ASW escort on its first cruise.

Not really. Bad hull form, bad internal space, slow (27 knots MAX design speed, real world make it 23-24). 73,000 tons and it would had an air wing the same size as Independence Class CVL, all 11,000 tons of them. The Japanese planned for her to be a combination carrier/replenishment ship (since there just aren't enough things that catch fire on a regular carrier).

The ship wasn't on its first cruise, they were shuffling the damned thing between ports to finish construction.

Want to condemn the IJN for something? Try the fact that they sent the ship out into waters teeming with U.S. subs before installing the watertight door seals and the plugs around all the various conduits. As thing turned out the ship made it all of 200 miles from Yokosura before one of those U.S. boats put four torpedoes into her.

To the OP:

As far as best conversion, the aforementioned Independence Class CVL from Cleveland Class CL hulls would be a good start. The class managed to stay in service until 1989 (USS Cabot, under her new Spanish name Dedalo). The class started out flying Wildcats and finished flying Harriers.