Best warships that should have been built

What are some cool warships of the steel era (1859-present) that should have been built?

My lists are :
Planned Dutch battlecruisers (German invasion in 1940 ended all plans of that)
United States class aircraft carriers
Ersatz Yorck class battlecruisers
HMS Lion
H class battleships
CVA-01
Planned Ticonderoga class successor
Graf Zeppelin aircraft carrier
French and Italian WW2 era ship designs never built or completed (French and Italian warships are my favorite
 
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What are some cool warships of the steel era (1859-present) that should have been built?

My lists are :
Planned Dutch battlecruisers (German invasion in 1940 ended all plans of that)
United States class aircraft carriers
Ersatz Yorck class battlecruisers
HMS Lion
H class battleships
CVA-01
Planned Ticonderoga class successor
Graf Zeppelin aircraft carrier
French and Italian WW2 era ship designs never built or completed (French and Italian warships are my favorite
Graf Zeppelin was mostly completed, and would have been a fiasco as a carrier. Small air group, cruiser guns, and the ME-109 would be a less than optimum fighter.
 
Design A-150 Battleship, commonly referred to as the "Super Yamato" class, given that a certain Californian omnivore hates the Alaska's, i have a feeling hes gonna lose it when he sees this monstrosity.
Malta class carrier, a RN equivalent to the Midway class, never got off the design books iirc.
Lexington Class in battle cruiser configuration (not aircraft carrier)
Joffre Class, a French WW2 carrier design, the Fall of France sealed the fate for them.
PA2 carrier design, another French carrier design that was to supplement the CDG, looks like the RN QE2 if the RN went for catobar configuration, Got cancelled in 2013.

These are just a couple off the top of my head.
 
Design A-150 Battleship, commonly referred to as the "Super Yamato" class, given that a certain Californian omnivore hates the Alaska's, i have a feeling hes gonna lose it when he sees this monstrosity.
Malta class carrier, a RN equivalent to the Midway class, never got off the design books iirc.
Lexington Class in battle cruiser configuration (not aircraft carrier)
Joffre Class, a French WW2 carrier design, the Fall of France sealed the fate for them.
PA2 carrier design, another French carrier design that was to supplement the CDG, looks like the RN QE2 if the RN went for catobar configuration, Got cancelled in 2013.

These are just a couple off the top of my head.
How could I miss the Lexingtons? 😫
 
With Lexington, I'd say that you're looking at "cool," rather than "useful." Lexington would have been cool, but not the most useful ship in the fleet.
 
The Polish Huragan class Destroyers aka Improved Grom class
South Dakota class Battleships
Saint Louis class Cruiser
Greek Battleship Salamis
Sovetsky Soyuz class Battleship (at least would've been better looking than the abomination known as the modernized Gangut class, though would've been equally useless for the USSR)
 
Design A-150 Battleship, commonly referred to as the "Super Yamato" class, given that a certain Californian omnivore hates the Alaska's, i have a feeling hes gonna lose it when he sees this monstrosity.
Let's get those Design B-65 cruisers in there. Yamato-class but half the size and intended in part to counter those pesky Alaska-class.
 
For the USN: the CSGN strike cruiser with AEGIS, and the CGN-42 AEGIS variant of the Virginia class CGNs.

Montana class battleships (BB-67 to -71).
 

SsgtC

Banned
What are some cool warships of the steel era (1859-present) that should have been built?

My lists are :
Planned Dutch battlecruisers (German invasion in 1940 ended all plans of that)
United States class aircraft carriers
Ersatz Yorck class battlecruisers
HMS Lion
H class battleships
CVA-01
Planned Ticonderoga class successor
Graf Zeppelin aircraft carrier
French and Italian WW2 era ship designs never built or completed (French and Italian warships are my favorite
I've got to disagree with a few of these:

Graf Zeppelin was a disaster waiting to happen. And even Hitler realised that. For a country obsessed with "wunderwaffe" it's telling that they never bothered to complete their carrier.

United States was a massive step backwards in carrier design. Yes, she was massive. But she was also flushed decked and had minimal magazine spaces since her one and only mission was nuclear strike.

CVA-01, by the time it was finally put out of it's misery, was a damn near useless collection of compromises that literally no one was happy with. In it's earliest form (a slightly downsized Forestall class) it would have been an excellent ship. But by the end, it had so many compromises forced on it, it's doubtful the ships would have been very useful.

Which H class do you mean? Because there were 5 different designs mounting everything from 16" guns on 60,000 tons up to massive 20" guns on 133,000 tons. The H-39 was the "best"of the designs, and it was still a dog. It would only mount 8x16" guns on a ship the size of the US Montana class, which mounted 12x16".

Now, for me, the best ships never built, were the Montana and Lion class Battleships. Those would have been some seriously impressive ships. Next up for me would be the Malta class. The RN with a Midway sized ship, incorporating the lessons learned from WWII? That would have been interesting. And would even possibly have kept the UK operating CATOBAR carriers up through today.
 
For the USN: the CSGN strike cruiser with AEGIS, and the CGN-42 AEGIS variant of the Virginia class CGNs.

Montana class battleships (BB-67 to -71).
No. The strike cruiser and CGN-42 were right to be cancelled. The economics of the ships - and IMO, nuclear cruisers as escorts in general - just never made any sense. When your escort cruiser costs almost as much as a conventional carrier the cruisers have got to go.

Tax: The original DD-21 concept, the updated Spruance instead of the tumblehome nightmares the US Navy actually got.
 

Riain

Banned
No. The strike cruiser and CGN-42 were right to be cancelled. The economics of the ships - and IMO, nuclear cruisers as escorts in general - just never made any sense. When your escort cruiser costs almost as much as a conventional carrier the cruisers have got to go.


True, but it would be very cool
 
Any thoughts on a conversion of the Iowa class to cruise missile platforms? Tomahawks are much less glamorous than 16” guns, but they could carry a lot of them. The proposal included a 320-cell VLS, a flight deck for Harriers and Ospreys, and short-term accommodations for 800 Marines. It would be fantastically expensive, but it’d offer a lot of force projection in a form adapted to the post-Cold War era.
 
Any thoughts on a conversion of the Iowa class to cruise missile platforms? Tomahawks are much less glamorous than 16” guns, but they could carry a lot of them. The proposal included a 320-cell VLS, a flight deck for Harriers and Ospreys, and short-term accommodations for 800 Marines. It would be fantastically expensive, but it’d offer a lot of force projection in a form adapted to the post-Cold War era.

Puts too many eggs in one old basket.
 
I've always thought the pocket battleships were a great 'out of the box' thinking based on the plan to use it as a commerce raider.

I would have like to seen these improvements:
  1. Increased top speed to 28 kts
  2. Increase length to about 650 ft from the 610 ft.
  3. Add hanger and have 5-6 float planes
I would also like to have a light cruiser (based on armament) designed to pair with a Deutschland while on a Raider patrol. So 500' to 550' length with operational characteristics to match the Deutschlands.

Between the two ships they needed to have;
  1. about 10 float planes. (They needed to use these to scout prey and avoid trouble.)
  2. Excess crew in order to man captured prizes.
  3. Excess brig holding areas for captured crews.
I'm not a ship design wank but from an operational standpoint these seem like they would be easy to incorporate into designs. In my view the lack of air assets for the raiders was a huge oversight. They could have been sooo much more effective.
 

Kaze

Banned
The USS Abraham Lincoln.

Never built, never planned, never named. But the name would be fun to see on a battleship, aircraft carrier, etc.

Descanting opinion - -

If you read Jules Verne, the USS Abraham Lincoln shows up in 20'000 Leagues under the Sea as the ship that hunts the Nemo's boat never knowing it is a U-boat. It does not go well for the USS Abraham Lincoln...
 
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