Falkland War AHC/WI. Have the USS Iwo Jima class in the RN.

If there is no public fanfare, could the RN quietly put into commission 2 of these ships?


  • Total voters
    11
Ok folks, lets have a little fun with this idea. Let's say that Uncle Sam, who we all know never makes any mistakes or bad decisions, decides, in his infinite wisdom, too up and trash all 7 ships of the USS Iwo Jima class, just after the 5th unit of the Tarawa class is commissioned, so let's call that June 1st, 1980.

Please follow the links to both these classes, as well as the link to the Wiki on the Falkland War, so that all posts here are informed and on the same sheet of music.

Let us keep the discussion away from the US decision to DX this ship class years earlier than historically, and also away from anything along the lines of debunking the goal of this thread, which is to have the RN in possession all 7 of these ships, with at least two of them fully operational and capable of using to their fullest extent, at least a few months before the war begins.

The idea here is to explore just what a difference the 7 ships of this class would have had on this conflict, had the US sold them to the UK for scrapping on/by June 1st, 1980. If the UK/RN gets these ships on that date, can they have at least two of them still untouched, and able to be brought into service? Could the UK/RN have decided to keep/use a couple of these ships, while starting to scrap the others?

Have fun with this, and let me know what would have happened...
 
Umm does the RN get USN "volenteers" to help crew the things, if not they really aren't that useful as the RN had a serious personnel problem in the 70s and 80s.
 
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Umm does the RN get USN "volenteers" to help crew the things, if not they really are that useful as the RN had a serious personnel problem in the 70s and 80s.
No, as the deal is made to get rid of them off the USN books, and the war is over a year away. OTOH, if the RN is planning to keep a couple for their own use, I don't see why a few 'training' jobs couldn't be kept on the books, to help the RN get familiarized as quickly as possible.

Another question that pops into my head, would there possibly be a NATO role for a vessel or two of this class? It might help budget wise, if a joint project were to be worked out in some fashion or other.
 
It takes months to work up a warship to even the most basic level. Unless they come with crew they're not going to be ready to serve until the start of the next South Atlantic Summer at the earliest.
 
If you want an extra flightdeck in the Falklands the simplest option is for the Government to have decided to repair Bulwark prior to offering her for sale. They'd have to put her through some trials post refit and would probably have her in limited service as a way of demonstrating her to potential customers.
 
It takes months to work up a warship to even the most basic level. Unless they come with crew they're not going to be ready to serve until the start of the next South Atlantic Summer at the earliest.
So,
  1. North Atlantic summer of 1980, ships transfer to RN.
  2. North Atlantic 1981, ships have had a year to work up?
  3. April 2nd, 1982 Argentine's invade Falklands. Would this in fact be roughly the same as an October 2nd attack in the Northern hemisphere?
  4. April 5th, the RN sets sail.
  5. Argentine's surrender June 14th, 1982. Would this be like a December 14th end if in the northern hemisphere, or do I have that wrong>
So, can a ship like this be rushed into service if they were manned from mid 1980 to early 1982? Am I reading the bolded part correctly, as in North Atlantic winter, ie northern hemisphere winter of 1981? Or do you mean 1982? If we assume a training crew of USN personnel, and all the normal equipment is transferred as part of the deal?

I'm seeing 7 months of 1980, plus all 12 months of 1981, and 3 months of 1982, for a total of 22 months.

Maybe a better question is, what would the normal time be to work up these ships into RN service, with no fore knowledge?
 
I am seeing that the poll is evenly split at the moment, with three yea and three nay votes. Can the Nay sayers explain? In other words, are you saying that they cannot be quietly commissioned into the RN at all, and that folks would take notice of the RN fiddling around with these ships while they were awaiting scrapping of the class, perhaps one at a time? Or perhaps that, working at a non hurried pace, they would not be ready in time?
 
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The RN taking any foreign warship into service will be news, taking on 2 what will be major warships would be huge. There is no way word of this wont leak and the British shipbuilding unions will go ballistic. This is a time of rapidly rising unemployment particularly in the tradition heavy industries like shipbuilding and the fact that the Government has acquired 2 LPH second hand rather than have them built in British yards by British workers paying British taxes and, for the unions more importantly union fees will not go down well. Expect a huge shit storm in the press and Parliament over the issue.
 
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