Hybrid Warships

I've just started reading a alternative history novel called "Far aft and faintly " which features Dutch battle cruiser carrier s . It got me thinking about hybrid warships which I see have been discussed a few times before .

Mostly when people start discussing them they cross a battleship with a carrier. I think a bit like the battle cruiser you have danger of someone trying to stick it in the battleline and it not really be fish nor fowl.

I was thinking what about crossing a monitor with a carrier . To give you a kind of proto commando carrier . For use in the island hopping campaigns in the Pacific perhaps . The Americans had enough carriers and battleships in WW 2 so it would have probably have to be a British design .

Monitors were meant to be expendable . The Carriertor would free up British battleships for fleet carrier escort and do the close inshore work that was high risk and once the helicopter arrived it might find its niche .

So one large calibre gun turret , ocean going hull , aviation facilities , air wing of ground attack aircraft , escort and CAP

I did also think of perhaps some kind of hybrid escort carrier to deter german convoy raid or as a raider Hunter maybe a surplus 12 inch turret and aviation facilities .
 
IMO the biggest problem could be weight. Even 12 in. turrets would require significant hull strengthening that may be impractical on a typical merchant hull. Even if you do get the turret mounted, you would now have this massive weight at the extreme fore or aft of the ship, where it could significantly affect roll, pitch, and yaw characteristics that are crucial to the effective operation of aircraft.
 
If you can find it read Layman & McLaughlin's excellent THE HYBRID WARSHIP for all sorts of fascinating (if completely impractical) designs...
 
Furious as she was originally commissioned could stretching a point be called a Carrier/Monitor Hybrid though it would have been slightly more practical if she'd been flush decked for the aft 2/3s to 3/4s of the ship with the turret forward.

(A quick hack job with a shipbucket drawing)

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What about an assault helicarrier with a couple of 8 inch guns and AA missiles?

HMS Tiger says Hi.;)

Probably worth looking at the issues with HMS Tiger (originally a WW2 light cruiser) before scaling up too far; or alternatively look at the concept of a flotilla of smaller ships rather than a single one.
 
In a naval sim some years ago, I used Springsharp to design a light carrier/cruiser hybrid; a pair of triple 150mm turrets and fixed torpedo tubes aft, plus around forty aircraft as an airgroup. The design period was the twenties, so the notion was that the ship was tasked with scouting and might encounter enemy surface combatants that would need to be escaped - hence the battery being aft.

My sketch was thus:

urumi2.jpg
 
A little while later, the same navy got a couple of seaplane carriers that had a significant UNREP capability for refueling convoy escorts.

cvs28e.jpg
 
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