Naval Challenges Redux

I guess I'll toss a few into the ring:

With a POD after 1945 have a 130,000 ton CV...no nuclear power! Bonus if it's not American...:)

North Korea conquers South Korea as American troops are involved in China. However China still goes south, and soon Communists rule in both China and unified Korea.

Under heavier pressure the Americans get the Japanese rearming (like the West Germans) and even pay for a lot of it. The Japanese economy lags somewhat behind OTL, but the military side benefits help.

Throughout the 1970s the Japanese redevelop carrier technology with several smaller carriers and one 60,000 ton testbed (in association with the French & other European powers expanding their carrier fleets). In 1985 the Japanese, remaining non-nuclear, deploy a 130,000 ton CV as their counter centrepiece to the Soviet Union's Far East Fleet.

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Totally possible assuming economic growth is within 1% of OTL, and that the Japanese increase their military budget to match Britain's in per capita GDP terms (that would be a real world tripling, roughly)
 
With a POD after 1991, have the UN directly operate a small helicopter carrier (minimum 10 helicopters)..

Thailand break up in big civil war. They transfer their ship to the UN so it doesn't fall into the hands of whoever might win. A bit unrealistic but I just want to have a go at it.

Whit a POD post 1945, havve all major western navies dominated by females. That means at least 75%.
 
UN helo carrier- a stronger UN than OTL (ie more likely to intervene not different powers) finds that it has trouble getting peacekeepers into trouble spots, especially since the countries who lend peacekeepers usually don't have much power projection capability. A large LPH is considered, and a Security Council resolution empowers the UN to purchase one. The ship is named the UNS Trygve Lie, and painted UN white.

Its crew are lent from countries' navies like peacekeepers, although each country only sends a small detachment. The language on board is English. The helicopter complement is also lent by other countries, and the ship flies only the UN flag.

As for female-dominated navies, start with the USN study into all-female submarine crews. Have this taken up, so all major navies are using all-women sub crews.
Then, some bright spark realises that if a ship is built for women, it can be built smaller and slightly cheaper...
 
As for female-dominated navies, start with the USN study into all-female submarine crews. Have this taken up, so all major navies are using all-women sub crews.
Then, some bright spark realises that if a ship is built for women, it can be built smaller and slightly cheaper...

That might require a non-nuclear submarine navy. I think that women are more sensetive to radiation and that it is a cited reason keeping the of subs. It would be more likely having them on surface ships.
 
That might require a non-nuclear submarine navy. I think that women are more sensetive to radiation and that it is a cited reason keeping the of subs. It would be more likely having them on surface ships.

On the other hand, women use less oxygen, which is an issue on subs but not surface ships. Maybe it could start in the Israeli Navy?
 
Other nations with SSBNs is something I want to try. I don't know if this is all that plausible, but here goes......

1956 - After Suez, the British commonwealth decides to work on the idea of their own independent nuclear deterrent. The Americans (and Soviets) soon find out, but the Brits make it clear that this force is just part of NATO.

1960 - The first American SSBN, USS George Washington, is successfully tested. The idea very much appeals to the commonwealth, and the idea quickly runs wild. The British order their own SSBN class to be built as part of the commonwealth program. Canadian PM John Diefenbaker is another enthusiastic supporter.

1965 - the first commonwealth SSBN, HMCS Vengeance, is commissioned. It is the first of four Vengeance-class SSBN, the last of which is completed and comissioned in 1974.

1966 - two milesstones. The latest in American SSBNs, the Benjamin Franklin class, first enters operation. That same year, the world's first gas-cooled pebble-bed reactor enters operation in West Germany.

The gas-cooled reactor appeals to Canadian researchers and they get to work developing the concept under the guise of Atomic Energy of Canada limited. Of course, the side project also exists to use the gas-cooled reactors to make for a silent power plant for submarines.

1974 - the last of the Vengeance-class ships, HMCS Satellite, is launched. It becomes clear that the USA is developing a new class of SSBNs. The first of the "726" class SSBNs is ordered, and intelligence is that this class with museums of everything else out there, as the 688-class attack boats did for attack subs.

The Canadians' first gas-cooled test bed reactor goes critical at Newcastle, Ontario, on September 21, 1974. It proves to be a full operational success. The reactor is soon deemed to be able to operate as a much smaller unit, and plans are drawn up for a new SSBN class.

1977 - existence of the Commonwealth SSBN project gets to the Americans, but figuring that the new class would have the upper edge, they ignore it. That same data gets to the Soviets, too. The Commonwealth, figuring after American involvement in problems in Eastern Europe is learned by them, kicks the program up a gear.

1979 - HMCS Vengeance is damaged by a Israeli patrol boat while on patrol in the Eastern Mediterranean on April 3. The Israelis claim it was an accident, but the excuse gives the Commonwealth a chance to kick the project of the SSBN up a gear. Four days later, USS Ohio, the first of the 726s, is launched in Groton, Connecticut.

1980 - On February 12, the second Commonwealth SSBN class sub is launched in Liverpool, Great Britain. The HMCS London is considered by all - including the Americans, to their shock, to be an equal to the Ohio class. A month later, a second of the Nation class, HMCS Ottawa, is launched in Halifax, Canada. Both are comissioned in 1981 and armed in 1982. 17 London class subs - London, Ottawa, Canberra, Wellington, Dublin, Birmingham, Toronto, Sydney, Singapore, Glasgow, Auckland, Montreal, Vancouver, Salisbury, Melbourne, Edinburgh and Nairobi - are built, the last being commissioned on May 22, 1994.

1982 - HMCS Canberra and USS Ohio meet for the first time on the first patrol for both. Ohio gets first blood when he detects a slight metal squeal, but rough water gives Canberra the ability to return salvo. The two boats both surface and congratulate each other, with Captain A.K. Thompson on Ohio and Commander Robert Allister on Canberra promising to buy each other beers and beat the crap out of each other next time around.

1984 - An Azerbaijani oil facility is blown up by terrorists, and the result is an economic crisis in the Soviet Union. A war results as the politburo tries to take the Arabian and Iranian oil fields by force. The Soviet Army attacks Germany but its commanders keep a tight rein on their missiles. The war stays conventional, but the Soviet Navy is sent out to stop help from getting to Britain. Sheep numbers of naval attack vessels help the Soviets keep an advantage in the Atlantic.

1985 - A starting-to-panic Britain want to order an attack with the SSBNs, but Canadian PM Mulroney and Australia's Bob Hawkes both convince Thatcher that this is unnecessary and that it will bring a much uglier nuclear response. But in July, this game changes.

Brand-new SSBNs USS Rhode Island and HMCS Vancouver decide via NATO communications to operate together to attack Soviet Subs. Both sides' bosses are shocked, but both Captains are convinced they can act as SSNs.

The two subs together take down more than a dozen submarines, which gives both Reagan and Thatcher the idea of using their "black hole" subs as both attack and missile boats. The idea is a success, with both boats only returning because they had run out of torpedoes. Almost immediately the entirety of both navies' submarines attacks the Soviet Navy, effectively shutting down the Navy war. Soon, the American and Commonwealth SSBNs join up, riding shotgun on each other. This tactic causes huge losses to Soviet Subs. One HMCS boat, Canberra, is damaged by a ramming from a Soviet Navy cruiser in an altercation and is sent to Halifax in order to be repaired.

1986 - The Third World War ends without a single usage of nuclear weapons. HMCS Canberra is examined in Halifax, and the Canadians decide to use it as a bed to test out a new idea. Commonwealth command agrees.

The idea would mean stretching the already-huge ship with a slightly wider center beam and a 125-foot beam stretch. The idea is to carry American AH-64 Apache and RAH-66 Comanche attack helicopters. The boat is refitted, as well as having 12 of its Ballistic missile tubes refitted to carry cruise missiles. Also included are an extra 42 berths for the helicopter crews (bring the total to 24 officers, 203 men) and fuel tanks for the helicopters. The most amazing feat of engineering is a carrier-style elevator and opening roof of the sub, allowing the choppers to be stored in the subs.

1989 - Canberra is recomissioned, and is a success. It's first tour in May 1990 also happens across the USS Pennsylvania, and the two commanders - Captain Thomas Mandelbay on Pennsylvania and Commander Eric Jackson on Canberra - play against each other. Mandelbay is shocked to learn that it was not another Ohio playing against him, but one of the HMCS boats.
 
Next challenge: With a POD after 1945, have a navy build a major surface combatant with all-gun armament after 1980.

A USN follow on to an austere version of the LFS (littoral fire support ship) from the 1960s is designed in the late 1980s and enters service (if necessary in a world where the Cold War kicks on for a few more years) in the mid 1990s, sporting two Mk 71s and a couple of Mk 66s, with a decent flight deck aft

The design catches the eye of Thailand and a new, modified, ship is built for them, HTMS Chakri Naruebet; their need for helicopters is fulfilled by including a large rear hangar and flight deck along the lines of the Tiger conversions, along with flag and comms facilities. The guns serve to support Marines and Army forces operating against a Communist insurgency supported by Moscow.
 
Thread resurrection:
New theme is naval aviation
With helicopters remaining available, have surface combatants operating catapult-launched seaplanes instead by 2000. POD post-1945

Have no navy operating a catapult carrier by 2000, POD post-1945. Ships which were built with catapults but had them removed (Hermes/Viraat) are allowed.

Have a country whose navy consists entirely of aircraft, POD post 1900. Airships are allowed, but please, no space navies!
 
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