Keep the Essex class as a strike carrier
- Thread starter SsgtC
- Start date
May I contribute to this bout of SCB.101 refit bashing by saying that it wasn't value for money.
J.F.K. was built in 47 months at a cost of $277 million. Midway's SCB.101 refit took 47 months and cost $202 million.
So a new conventionally powered carrier cost about 35% more and was a much better ship. IMHO J.F.K. was twice as good as SCB.101.
The more austere refit that F.D.R. had in the late 1960s cost $46 million, then add $202 million of Midway'r refit for a total of $248 million, which is nearly enough to pay for another J.F.K. type carrier.
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No, and CS stayed in service until 1990 so there’s your answer. Not sure how much her various refits cost though. There are some good overhead shots showing the difference in configuration between CS and Midway but I can’t post because I’m typing from my phone right now.
SsgtC
Banned
Bingo. Refitting FDR to the same standard as CS would have given the Navy a third good sized ship. But she was killed to convince Congress to build more super carriers
And CS was supposed to replace LEX as training carrier in the early 80s but Lehman’s quest for the 600 ship navy saved her. Had FDR hung on for a couple of more years, she probably gets saved too.
That's sort of what happened IOTL. Instead of the projected SCB.101.68 she had a less extensive refit in the late 1960s that cost $46 million.
I'm going to have to come up with a timeline where Britain is persuaded to take on FDR as a replacement for Ark Royal. Probably need a Tory government from 1970 though.
I've got my copy of Conway's 1947-1995 out.
It blames Midway's problems on blisters that were fitted at Yokosuka between April and November 1986. It so increased her GM that roll was reduced to 9 seconds. The projected cure was a waterline slot cut into the blisters (to reduce waterline beam to its original figure, while retaining most of the added buoyancy) but she was retired unmodified.
It blames Midway's problems on blisters that were fitted at Yokosuka between April and November 1986. It so increased her GM that roll was reduced to 9 seconds. The projected cure was a waterline slot cut into the blisters (to reduce waterline beam to its original figure, while retaining most of the added buoyancy) but she was retired unmodified.
If you mean from 1974 that will butterfly away the Mason defence review of OTL, which will help and if the Conservatives win the 1974 elections it will be because the economy is in better shape, which will be helpful as well.
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I think what you need in the late 1960s and early 1970s is middling refits for all three MIDWAY class ships that keep them viable into the 80s instead of doing too much with MID and then going to the other extreme and doing not enough with FDR.
According to my copy of Conway's 1947-1995 Coral Sea was modernised at Norfolk to allow her to stay in service until 1992. It doesn't say when the refit began, but it does say that she re-entered service on 29th January 1985.
I will concede that you could operate and deck park Hummers on an ESSEX. However, you are not going operate and deck park both Hummers and Whales, that's too many big aircraft deck parked on a small carrier so it's one or the other. Additionally, I think operating Hummers off an ESSEX would be still be dicey given the wing span of the aircraft. At 80 feet its longer than the 72 foot wingspan of a Whale and as you can see, the Whale's wingspan covered a lot of flight deck on take off and landing it's that much plus more with a Hummer:
I think that refit took up a lot of 83 and 84. In March 83 she left California for Virginia on an around the world cruise so whenever she arrived in Norfolk she got her refit that took the rest of 83 and all of 84.