Warships that should never been built?


1579468974961.png
1579469041577.png
 

SsgtC

Banned
On the second page and nobody has mentioned the Alaska-class big cruisers yet? Useless hunks of shit those were.
Eh. They weren't really a bad ship in and of themselves (excluding the single rudder, that was just stupid). They were simply OBE. By the time they entered service the ships they had been designed to hunt and kill had already been hunted and killed. There are a slew of other reasons why they never should have been built, but the ships themselves weren't bad
 

Deleted member 94680

IMO the prime example of a warship that should never have been built: RN K-class submarines.

Wow. Wiki does not make good reading.
“they gained notoriety and the nickname of "Kalamity class" for being involved in many accidents”
“what has been described as typical "K" luck”
“However, these were extremely large and often collided with each other”
 
Probably the Pocket Battleships. While one can understand German desire to get around treaties they were neither fish nor fowl and it cost them. 11 inch guns meant they would be unable to respond if a Battleship found them and River Plate proved they were no where near being real capital ships as Spee got Mission killed by three lightish cruisers. A good try but best kept in the Baltic with the later ships cancelled and resources moved to getting actual capital ships ready.

And the R class, a step backwards from the Queen's, they were slower, weaker and the WNT meant the RN was stuck with them. Far better to have taken a risk over oil and built a repeat Queen Liz class which could be refit in the 30's and given the RN an even more powerful battleline rather than ships so weak they were kept thousands of miles from the enemy as much as possible.

Also having a bigger effective battleline might take pressure off the idea to build Vanguard and as others have said that might have seen resources freed for another high quality carrier.
 
Probably the Pocket Battleships. While one can understand German desire to get around treaties they were neither fish nor fowl and it cost them. 11 inch guns meant they would be unable to respond if a Battleship found them and River Plate proved they were no where near being real capital ships as Spee got Mission killed by three lightish cruisers. A good try but best kept in the Baltic with the later ships cancelled and resources moved to getting actual capital ships ready.

Pocket Battleships definitely don't belong on this list. The Germans needed to start somewhere and the Deutschland's were much more useful than any traditional cruiser or coastal defense ship they could have otherwise built within the limitations of the time period. The Germans were always going to be on the backfoot in ship numbers regardless of their building plan, so an unconventional design like the Deutschland's is the perfect upset the Germans needed. Graf Spee went down because her captain foolishly decided to directly engage enemy warships while undergoing a raiding mission many thousands of miles from home. Graf Spee even so had a fairly decent showing outnumbered 3-1 and constantly splitting her fire between multiple enemy ships. Germany waiting to not build anything is just putting them at even more of a disadvantage when they get into an engagement with their expected enemy, France.
 
How about the RN's Type 21? . . . cheap and nasty.

download (2).jpg


They'd been better off waiting a few years then building more Type 22's instead . . . and that's before we get on to the Alli' used in it's structure.

Did the job (barely) . . . but don't set fire to them

download (3).jpg


images.jpg


Best part . . . the RN are about to make the same mistake in the Type 31's.
 
Last edited:

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
An ursine is incoming.
Way too obvious a candidate.

Lets go modern. Both varieties of the Littoral Combat Ship are massive failures. Damned things can't even pass the standard USN shock testing, which should render them non certifiable for combat operations. Navy needs to paint them white with an orange stripe and give them to the Coast Guard. At least that way they can use their speed to catch drug runners and the Fleet can procure a proper FFG.
 
Way too obvious a candidate.

Lets go modern. Both varieties of the Littoral Combat Ship are massive failures. Damned things can't even pass the standard USN shock testing, which should render them non certifiable for combat operations. Navy needs to paint them white with an orange stripe and give them to the Coast Guard. At least that way they can use their speed to catch drug runners and the Fleet can procure a proper FFG.

Could the US Coastguard pay their fuel bills, I mean at full speed don't they burn fuel like it's going out of fashion?
 
Im gonna go out on a limb here and say the Baden-Wurttemberg Class frigates. These ships, for their size and displacement seem inadequately armed, especially in the Anti air missile department, the BW only have 2 RAM launchers. These frigates seem to be designed in similar train of thought with the USN LCS, designed and built to deal with "asymmetric" threats and provide support. However, ironically, it seems that the previous frigates (Bremen Class) that the BW class are replacing seem more heavily armed to deal with any threats then the BW itself. If there is to be a traditional "shooting war" with missile attacks against NATO/ German naval forces, the BW class are in serious trouble, what good are water cannons (yes, these ships have water cannons) are gonna be against mach 1 capable sea skimming anti ship missiles?
https%3A%2F%2Fapi.thedrive.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F12%2Fjjajajajd1.jpg%3Fquality%3D85
 
Last edited:
Im gonna go out on a limb here and say the Baden-Wurttemberg Class frigates. These ships, for their size and displacement seem inadequately armed, especially in the Anti air missile department, the BW only have 2 RAM launchers. These frigates seem to be designed in similar train of thought with the USN LCS, designed and built to deal with "asymmetric" threats and provide support. However, ironically, it seems that the previous frigates (Bremen Class) that the BW class are replacing seem more heavily armed to deal with any threats then the BW itself. If there is to be a traditional "shooting war" with missile attacks against NATO/ German naval forces, the BW class are in serious trouble, what good are water cannons (yes, these ships have water cannons) are gonna be against mach 1 capable sea skimming anti ship missiles?
It would be nice for the Bundesmarine to get destroyers
 
What are some steel era warships (1859-present) that should never been commissioned?

In my opinion, the USS Maine was one of the worst battleships ever built. It was already obsolete when she was commissioned. Her design was just so ugly and bad. However, she was important to creating the modern US Navy and turning the US Navy into a real blue water navy, and the US Navy (or even the USA as we know it) would not exist without her.
While American super dreadnoughts and World War 2 era battleships are good, early American battleships were hunks of shit. The USS South Carolina was so bad her engine broke down in World War 1.

From Wikipedia : On 16 September, the three battleships left the convoy in the Atlantic and steamed back to the United States, while other escorts brought the convoy into port. On the 17th, South Carolina lost her starboard propeller, which forced her to reduce speed to 11 kn (20 km/h; 13 mph) using only the port shaft. On 20 September, the port engine stopped after a throttle valve broke down. She got underway temporarily using an auxiliary throttle before severe vibration forced her to stop for six hours while the main throttle was fixed. Four days later, the ships reached the United States and South Carolinamade her way to Philadelphia for repairs.
 

SsgtC

Banned
While American super dreadnoughts and World War 2 era battleships are good, early American battleships were hunks of shit. The USS South Carolina was so bad her engine broke down in World War 1.

From Wikipedia : On 16 September, the three battleships left the convoy in the Atlantic and steamed back to the United States, while other escorts brought the convoy into port. On the 17th, South Carolina lost her starboard propeller, which forced her to reduce speed to 11 kn (20 km/h; 13 mph) using only the port shaft. On 20 September, the port engine stopped after a throttle valve broke down. She got underway temporarily using an auxiliary throttle before severe vibration forced her to stop for six hours while the main throttle was fixed. Four days later, the ships reached the United States and South Carolinamade her way to Philadelphia for repairs.
That's really not that unusual for any ship of that era. Even today it's not unheard of for a ship to throw a prop. Neither was it uncommon for a throttle valve to go bad. Considering the congressionally imposed limits on their size, the South Carolinas were amazing ships. They were both well armed and well armored. They managed a broadside equal to any ship then afloat on several thousand tons less displacement. They were superior ships to Dreadnaught in all respects except speed.
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
Eh. They weren't really a bad ship in and of themselves (excluding the single rudder, that was just stupid). They were simply OBE. By the time they entered service the ships they had been designed to hunt and kill had already been hunted and killed. There are a slew of other reasons why they never should have been built, but the ships themselves weren't bad
I tried SO hard not to have to pore more venom out on the Alaska Class, but no...

The Alaska's were not fine ships. They had an exceptional 12 inch gun, possibly one of the best naval rifles every designed. Unfortunately those 12" guns were located on a battleship size hull (808 feet long, 91 feet wide, 35,000 tons full load) with heavy cruiser protection. Had the ship been a balanced design (i.e. proof against its own main battery) it would have had a displacement greater than the North Carolina class (728 feet L, 108 feet W, 45,000 tons full load) and South Dakota class (680' L, 108' W, 45,200 tons full load) battleships. The only ships the U.S. built during WW II that cost more than the Alaska class were the Iowa class battleship, the Kearsarge (which managed to cost $22M dollars more than the rest of the Essex Class for some bloody reason), and the Midway. Yep, the Alaska class cost MORE (fractionally, but still more) than a full on battleship with 9 sixteen inch guns and 20 5"/38s (the Alaskas carried 12 5"/38 and 1/3 fewer 40mm guns than the fast BB classes).

The ships handled like a pig in a poke (ONE rudder! 800 feet long, 35K tons, and ONE GODDAMNED RUDDER, which resulted in an 800 YARD turning radius), were extremely vulnerable to battle damage for a ship of their size due to the aforementioned single rudder and the complete lack of torpedo blisters or any other enhanced underwater protection (hey, it was only a $78 million, in 1940 USD, ship, who cares if a single torpedo can stop it dead if not sink it outright), and quite literally had no useful function that could not to fulfilled by either an actual battleship or by the two heavy cruisers or three CLAA that could be built for the same cost.

While BuShips can be forgiven for starting the design process while the Deutschland class "pocket battleships" were all the rage, the fact that the program officer spent one dollar on these insults to naval architecture after December 10, 1941 comes close to criminal.

BTW: NONE of the hulls had even been laid down before Pearl Harbor, they kept going with the building plans even AFTER it was obvious that the ship had no useful purpose. They were even built in the SAME YARD that built the Independence class CVL. SAME YARD. Five of the Independence class were laid down AFTER the Alaska. They wouldn't have even needed to change the destination for the building materials if they had changed over to carrier construction. Think about that for a second.

It was an abomination. Thank God the U.S. had so much excess capacity and an nearly unlimited supply of money.
 
Top