Shipbucket

The Krasny Krym, modernized to its 1946 armament.

In 1945, the Soviet Navy had begun to look forward to a post-war scenario. It had a large number of older hulls, from the late Russian Empire. These were nearing the end of their service in the roles in which they were originally built for. A new era of naval combat had begun, and the new threat was the aircraft. Expecting to be facing against massed American and British aircraft from carriers, as well as new jet aircraft, it was determined that anti-aircraft ships were to be vital to all Soviet naval actions, especially those in the Pacific.

The soviet navy had a program, the 6 year plan, to modernize its older ships to modern and relevant roles. Within this program, was the E sub-program, to create a collection of anti-aircraft ships. The absolute largest of these was the Krasny Krym. A ship from 1915, she was taken into dry dock in 1945 and began being refitted for her new role. Her entire turret armament was stripped, as were her masts and new engines were installed.

These were replaced by a horrifically complex array of weapons- this was done due to the soviet navy having a large amount of lend-lease equipment, without any spare parts or extra ammunition after 1945. As such, these were given priority to be fitted on the 6 year plans ships, as it was figured it would make more sense to put reliable and supportable soviet equipment on the more valuable, modern ships, and let the older ships deal with the equipment with less support. However, as some reliability was needed, the Soviets did add various types of their own armaments, to ensure even once supplies ran dry they could replace the lend-lease gear with their own (or, scrap the ship after a point due to its age). This also meant that the ships could be used as a testbed for new weapons in active service.

As such, the main battery consisted of a pair of 130 mm/50 B13 guns (a modernization of the original 130 mm guns). An experimental KS-19 100 mm anti-aircraft gun was also fitted in the main battery.

The Secondary battery consisted of a pair of 85mm/52 single anti-aircraft turrets, as well as a pair of 12-pdr 20 CWT QF guns, which were taken from older Soviet submarines delivered through lend lease.

The tertiary battery consisted of 4x40 mm Bofors guns, 2 British Pom-pom 40 mm guns, 18 twin Browning M2 .50 cals, and 12 soviet 45 mm 21-k, taken from older Soviet submarines and later replaced.

Of note is the Wasserfall mounting. This was added following its capture by the Soviets, and was fitted as an experiment to determine the value of long range, guided naval sams. These were guided by a tower on the bridge, which limited capability to clear weather. The expected target was American long range aviation, either defending the fleet from a high-altitude attack (deemed highly unlikely), or to protect Vladivostok from raids by acting as a picket ship.

This ship is as seen in 1946. She served until 1952, upon which she was converted again into a training ship, before being scrapped later that decade.

Following a worldwide realization of the power and capability of aircraft carriers, everyone would devise various methods and approaches to this new era. A common concept was the idea of an anti-aircraft cruiser armed primarily with heavy AA guns in place of more conventional cruiser armament. While this concept would prove exceptional at dealing with aircraft, the otherwise lackluster characteristics resulted in Lasafenia looking into potentially combining the role with more conventional light cruiser characteristics. The core takeaway from this was that an autoloader system would be required in order for the Lasafenian standard 14.6cm caliber to be effective in an AA role, and as such the Nordberg class was designed around these.

The result would be a ship radically different from previous Lasafenian light cruisers whose lineage can be traced back to the Thedrich class from more than a decade earlier. Instead of the standard 5x3 layout and minimalist superstructure characteristic of these, the Nordbergs possessed six 2-gun turrets and a superstructure more in line with a capital ship. She also featured the then-new 50mm enclosed mounts in a set of twin mounts. As versatility was considered a core part of the ship's intent, it was decided to go all the way and up the ships to 35 knots to allow for operation with the destroyers.

Displacement - 14,682 tons standard, 20,003 tons full
Armament - 6x2 14.6cm SK/43 L/61, 12x2 50mm MK 42, 22x2 20mm MK 39
Armor - 13.5cm belt, 8.5cm deck
Propulsion - 138,631 SHP through 4 shafts, 35 knots max
Range - 12k nm @ 18 knots

In service the ships would prove to be less than successful owing to a plague of reliability issues with the main guns characteristic of all similar guns of the period. A few members of the class would see limited service at the end of the war during which their impressive raw rate of fire proved to be significantly less in practice. As they had profiles that resembled the battleships, Lasafenia would add false camouflage to them as per many of their other ships. In this case, the end turrets and the aft funnel were camouflaged and this was then supplemented by a standard latewar camo. Postwar the ships would see most of their issues resolved, however owing to limited budget and the aforementioned issues the concept would not be pursued again. By the time the guns had their issues resolved and the budget went back up, gun-based AA was in decline in favor of more modern missiles and as such the Nordbergs would be relegated to secondary duties before being scrapped in the 1970s.

Ultimately they had impressive capability on paper but in practice they were never worth the greater expense compared to more tried and tested concepts. The only noteworthy area of praise compared to similar ships was that they entered service earlier and as such were the only ships of their kind to see action in WW2 and would also see far more produced with ten ships ultimately finished before postwar budget cuts saw the remainder axed.

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"I don't need you to tell me how cringe my post is, I'm the one who posted it. I know how cringe it is."

Beautiful ship! Love that camo scheme!

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB

Amsterdam-Class Cruiser

In 1601, Jacob Corneliszoon van Neck arrived with the ships 'Amsterdam' and 'Gouda' as first Dutchman in Pattani in order to buy pepper and other merchandise. In December 1602 another two ships of the Old East-India Company came. In the same year two comptoirs were set up, an Amsterdam and a Zeeland. In Songkhla (called Sangora at that time) a comptoir was set up in 1607.

In 1608, the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) installed a permanent resident at Ayutthaya. King of Siam assigned the Dutch a brick house within the city walls In 1613, a VOC trading office was officially opened by Commander Hendrik Brouwer with the appointment of the merchant Cornelis van Nijenroode. Besides Ayutthaya and Pattani, factories were also established at Sangora and Ligor

A warehouse called 'Amsterdam' was built in 1636 on the west bank of the Chao Phraya, where it meets the Bang Pla Kot Canal (west bank). Because large ships were not able to sail the almost 80 Km long distance over the river to Ayutthaya, it was necessary to build this warehouse on stilts, located about 2 miles from the mouth of the river.

In 1960, Modern Flag Ship of Royal Ayutthaya Navy was commissioned, a new 6,840 tons cruiser built in England was given the name 'HAMS Amsterdam'

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General characteristics:

Name: HAMS Amsterdam (CL-25)

Builders: Vosper Thornycroft (UK) Ltd.
Operators: Kingdom of Ayutthaya
Launched: 5 September 1959
Commissioned: 25 October 1960
Displacement: 6,840 tonnes
Length: 159.8 m
Beam: 16.1 m
Draught: 7.0 m (included sonar dome)
Propulsion: COSAG on 2 shafts;
2×Babcock & Wilcox boilers, geared steam turbines
4×Metrovick G6 gas turbines
Speed: 30 kn
Range: 3,800 nmi

Sensors and processing systems

1xType 965 long-range early warning suveillance radar
1xType 294 2D surface-to-air and surface-to-surface radar
1xType 993 shot-range surface-to-air and guided missile radar
4xMRS3 gun directors
2xMRS3M gun and missile directors
1xType 174 medium range search sonar

Electronic warfare & decoys:

Type 667 Cooky radar jammer ECM
UA8/9 radar intercept ESM
2xCorvus chaff launcher a Shipborne chaff decoy launching systems
2xType 182 torpedo countermeasures

Armament:

4×4.5-inch Mark 6 twin guns
6×40mm Bofors L60 Mk5 twin guns
8x20mm Oerikon twin guns
1xOrange Nell surface-to-air missile twin-rail launcher (40 missiles)
2×Mk.20 Bidder anti-submarine torpedo twin-tube launchers (12 torpedoes)

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1960-AA-Gun-cruiser design by RAIDer1_1



Introduction
The phalanx class AAW cruiser was built by IAE in 1956 with the purpose to protect its point of interest from enemies areial threats with displacement of 16500 tons. Max speed 32.5 knots

Armaments consists of DP guns

- 12 6'inch guns in 6 dual turrets (with rangefinders with variable time fuze and proximity shells)
- 10 4'inch guns in 5 dual turrets (with rangefinders and variable time fuze and proximity shells)
- 8 Quad 57mm autocannon mounts ( with AP,HE,Incendiary belt)
- 30 12.7mm machines mounts around the ship

Equipment on board are

Long range air search Radar ( similar to SPS-31)
Radar-heightfinders (similar to SPS-11)
Radio-direction-finders (similar to AN/APN-4)
Surface-search-radar (similar to SG-6)
Navigational radar
GPS navigation
6 smoke generators

Other info
All barrbetts and turret magazines are covered with armor belt has a helipad and under-deck-hanger with space for 1 helicopter
The helicopter is ASW capable .

Hopefully this design will do better than my AA-tank

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RAIDer1_1

When a country goes to war, it goes to war not with the fleet it wants, but with the fleet it has. To this one might add: even when a country refits that fleet, it refits them not with the equipment it wants, but with the equipment it has. Imperial Menghe, the least technologically advanced of the great powers in the mid-20th century, knew both adages all too well.



Gijang-class cruiser (CL Uljin, AA refit, 1942)

Displacement: 6,739 tonnes standard, 7,545 tonnes full load
Length: 165.1 meters at waterline, 168.0 meters overall
Beam: 16.85 meters including bulges
Draft: 5.28 meters at full load
Propulsion: 6 oil-fired and 4 coal-fired boilers supplying two steam turbines at 90,000 shp each
Speed: 32.6 knots
Range: 3,432 nautical miles
Complement: 512
Armament:
- 4x2 Type 32 Mod N 130mm gun in Type 36 dual-purpose mount
- 12x2 Type 38 37.5mm AA gun in Type 41 powered, water-cooled mount
- 13x1 Type 37 20mm AA gun in Type 40 manual single mount
- 2x2 Type 39 550mm torpedo
- Depth charges
- Mines

The four Gijang-class light cruisers, laid down between 1922 and 1925, were originally intended as fleet scouts and forward screen combatants. By the late 1930s, however, it was becoming apparent that they were ill-suited to these roles. With eight manually-traversed 125mm Type 10 guns, seven of which can fire in a broadside, they were outgunned by some of the latest heavy destroyers being built in Sieuxerr. These guns were also low-angle only, with anti-aircraft armament limited to four 75mm high-angle guns and a number of 12.5mm HMGs, making the cruisers vulnerable to air attack. After suffering serious setbacks in late 1940 and early 1941, the Imperial Menghean Navy decided to convert Uljin, one of the two remaining Gijang-class cruisers, into an anti-aircraft cruiser as part of her post-combat repairs.

Uljin's main armament after this refit consisted of eight 130mm dual-purpose guns, specifically Type 32 Mod N guns in Type 36 dual-purpose mounts. These mounts had powered elevation and traverse controls, powered ramming, assisted loading from ready trays, and automatic fuse-setting mechanisms, but they were only partly enclosed, with the traverser, pointer, and hydraulics protected from sea spray and machine gun fire by an open-backed shell and the rest of the mount exposed. The mounts also lacked built-in ammunition hoists: instead, 130mm shells were lifted from the forward and aft magazines by the ship's four original ammunition hoists (plus a fifth hoist added in refits) and carried to the mounts by crew. Though fully enclosed dual-purpose turrets with internal hoists would have been better, this would have also required a major rebuild of the interior hull, including a new aft magazine above the waterline, and by 1941 the Imperial Menghean Navy was working on borrowed time.

On paper, the 130mm Type 32 Mod N was an excellent anti-aircraft weapon. Its 55-caliber barrel gave it a high muzzle velocity, resulting in a long range, good accuracy, and shorter lead times, and its 130mm projectile had good explosive power, especially when using thin-walled flak shells. With single-piece ammunition, ready-shell holders which automatically rammed the next round, and platforms for two loaders to stand near the breeches carrying subsequent rounds, it could fire the first three salvoes in relatively quick succession. In actual practice, however, this gun had serious drawbacks. The single-piece 130mm shells were cumbersome and heavy, and especially in mounts with many manual loading stages, like the Type 36 DP mount, rate of fire quickly dropped off in prolonged engagements. To accommodate the long gun and its long shell at high elevations, the trunnions were high above the deck, and at low elevations, so were the breeches. Apparently copying the Dayashinese 12.7cm/40 Type 89, the Type 36 DP mount had platforms for loaders to stand on, and these platforms elevated and lowered along with the breeches, but passing shells to the loaders at low elevations remained a problem. Finally, while the mounts were powered, their traverse rate (8 degrees/second) and elevation rate (12 degrees/second) were too slow to track passing targets at close ranges, and this problem worsened as the Allies introduced newer, faster models of aircraft. Eighty years later, historians and armchair engineers still debate just how serious these compromises were; IMN 130mm AA doctrine accommodated them by emphasizing focused barrages on specific incoming squadrons rather than sustained flak fire, but Menghean ship designers increasingly favored the 100mm L/40 Type 29 Mod D DP gun late in the war. Accounts by surviving gun crews are very rare, and also reach conflicting assessments.

For close-range AA fire, the rebuilt Uljin relied on 12 twin 37.5mm medium AA mounts and 13 single 20mm light AA mounts. Both of these weapons had a feared reputation among Eastern and Western powers alike, especially as the Uljin's Type 41 37.5mm mounts were water-cooled for sustained firing, powered for faster target tracking, and could be controlled by separate directors.

To accommodate these changes, naval engineers made some modifications to the hull. Torpedo bulges not only protected the large, poorly armored boiler and machinery compartments against air-dropped 18" torpedoes, but also increased stability, compensating for the added topweight. The increased beam reduced top speed from 34 knots to 32.6, but the latter figure was still enough to keep up with Menghean aircraft carriers and battleships then in service. The forward torpedo mounts were removed and their cutout area enclosed to add more crew accommodations. One anti-surface director, two high-angle directors, and one torpedo director were added to the superstructure, and the bridge section was entirely rebuilt, retaining only the small conning tower. Interestingly, by adding aft AA mounts and depth charge racks on the stern and requiring a wide open space around the "Y" AA mount, the designers greatly reduced these ships' minelaying capability in favor of escort capability. This reflects a judgment, confirmed in later documents, that by 1941 the IMN was sufficiently hard-pressed to put surface combatants on the front lines that it could no longer divert cruisers and destroyers to minelaying, a major element of prewar doctrine.

Given wartime exigencies, the refit was still much less thorough than it could have been. As discussed above, while fully enclosed and semi-recessed dual-purpose mounts on barbettes would have been better than semi-open mounts with separate ammunition hoists, this would have required much more extensive internal rebuilding than the IMN could afford. The ship's 1922-vintage powerplant, with coal-fired boilers for cruising and oil-fired boilers to boost steam output in sprints, was retained, partly to speed up the refit process and partly because the IMN was already concerned about its future oil supplies. The aft mast's upper section was cut down to leave an open platform, but no radar system was fitted: Menghe lagged far behind in independent radar research, and Dayashina, already feuding with Menghe over the two powers' poor cooperation in the Themiclesian campaign, refused to share its own radar equipment. Rather than wait until an independent radar system could be developed, Menghean naval engineers sent the Uljin back to sea with a radio support mast refitted forward of the aft mast platform and no radar equipment. Even the torpedo bulges were a matter of some contention, only fitted after engineers complained that 18" air-dropped torpedo hits to the unprotected boiler spaces could easily sink the ship. All in all, the refits reflected the increasing atmosphere of urgency in the midwar IMN, which could spare neither the time nor the resources to build an "ideal" anti-aircraft cruiser. Design sketches for a more thorough anti-aircraft Uljin conversion--with eight new oil-fired boilers, trunked funnels, enclosed dual-purpose mounts, 610mm long range torpedoes, and a larger superstructure--can be found tucked away on arcane forums, shared by Menghean nationalists and embellished by armchair admirals, but such designs would not have met the IMN's strategic needs even if they had been funded.

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Currently posting my latest ship art on my Menghean Navy AU thread, but most of my stuff is on iiWiki.

A bad peace is preferable to a terrible war.

Ambrosia class of 1950

Hi, this is my first challenge entry as well as my first forum entry altogether:
The Ambrosia class were the last light cruiser and conventional gun cruisers to enter service in the Astarian navy.
In WWII the Astarian navy employed a three calibre standard for it's dual purpose guns (100mm, 130mm, 150mm), during the latter stages of the war however it was decided to shrink the standard to just two calibres for the next generation of weapons: 115mm for destroyers and heavy cruisers secondary batteries, and 140mm for light cruisers and CVs and battleships secondaries.
The end of the hostilities meant that the introduction of this new weapons was delayed and the Ambrosia class ships ended up as the only cruisers armed with the 140mm guns; this made this ships both optimised for anti-aircraft duty and formidable surface combatants.
Two ships out of five planned were built in the late '40s; in the mid 1960s both ships started conversion into anti-aircraft missile cruisers but only Ambrosia re-entered service with Eurydice's conversion being halted half-way trough.
Ambrosia continued to serve in the Astarian navy for the following decade while Eurydice was kept for spare parts until bot ships were scrapped starting in 1978.

Ships in class

-B80 Ambrosia 1950
-B81 Eurydice 1952

Armament

-15x 140mm Mk I L/60 in 5x triple Mk I turrets
-33x 55mm/65 HAC-1 in 11x triple Mk I turrets
-20x 30mm/50 Mk IV in 10x twin 'AnTI' powered mounts
-12x Mk XIV 600mm torpedoes in 4x triple launchers
-Depth charges

Air defense cruiser of the Russian Republic "Vyborg"

In this world, in 1914, the Russian Emperor Nicholas II dies as a result of an assassination attempt by terrorists. His son Alexei Nikolaevich becomes the new emperor under the regency of the brother of Nicholas II, Mikhail Alexandrovich. Immediately, the Empire adopted the Constitution, according to which the State Duma became the main state body.

When the First World War begins, an endless debate begins in the Duma on the topic of whether or not Russia should enter the war. As a result, Russia never enters the war, which allows Germany to confidently win by 1916.

As for Russia, which has become the Russian Republic, it is making a pretty good profit on supplies to both belligerents. However, at the same time, the population of the country was in a distressed state, since the resulting super-incomes practically did not reach the population.

As a result, when in 1920 the juvenile Emperor Alexei II died with hemophilia, a real social explosion took place in the country. A wave of strikes and powerful demonstrations is sweeping across Russia, their result is that Mikhail Alexandrovich abdicates the throne in the country, general elections are proclaimed.

The outcome of the elections was shocking both for Russia and for the whole world. The new State Duma included exclusively left-wing parties, with the Socialist Revolutionary Party winning. In addition to this party, the Bolsheviks headed by Lenin, the Mensheviks, and even the Anarchists ended up in the Duma. Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky became the head of the government.
Until 1925, Russia was in a fever, as the populist Kerensky proved completely incapable of managing a power like Russia. Then he announces nationalization, then again privatizes what was nationalized earlier. At the same time, powerful strikes and protests are constantly sweeping across the country, which also does not add stability.

As a result, in 1925, the Bolsheviks won the elections and Vladimir Lenin became the head of Russia. Lenin forms a very strong and professional government, and from that moment on, more or less stable economic growth begins.

Private property in Russia is allowed only in the light and food industries, as well as in the service sector. Everything else, including the banking sector, has been nationalized. There is a reform of agriculture, its result is the emergence of agricultural farms, analogues of our collective farms. Women get equal rights.

Independence referendums are held in the country, as a result of which Poland and Finland will secede from the Republic. At the end of the 1920s, soft industrialization began in the country with the widespread involvement of private capital.

As a result, by the end of the 1920s, Russia was a prosperous dynamically developing power. Which looks especially advantageous against the background of the rest of the world that has begun to depress.

All this led to the fact that Russia, in the early 30s, began an extensive shipbuilding program, which included aircraft carriers, battleships, and a large number of cruisers, including air defense cruisers. To implement this program, Russia used the help of Western engineers, primarily British and Italian.

In the late 30s, Russia placed an order for the development of air defense cruisers in England. The future cruiser was based on the project of the British Dido-class cruiser. True, the Russians made so many edits to the original project that little was left of it.

The main armament of the ships was universal 130 mm two-gun mounts, just developed in Russia. In total, 5 such installations were placed on the ship. The ship also had an extensive list of short-range purely anti-aircraft small-caliber guns.
Specifications:

Displacement - 7150 tons,
Dimensions;

Length - 148.2 m,
Width - 15.5 m,
Draft - 5.5 m,

Power point;

Cars - 4,
Boilers - 4,
Power - 65,500 liters. With.,
Maximum speed - 32.5 knots,
Range - 4,000 miles

Booking;

Main belt - 76 mm,
Deck - 25 mm,
Traverses - 25 mm,
Gun turrets - 25 mm,

Armament;

Main caliber - 5x2x130 mm,
Anti-aircraft guns - 7x2x40 mm,
- 8x2x25 mm,
Mine and torpedo armament - 2x3x533 mm

Eclipse Class Anti-Aircraft Light Cruiser

The Eclipse class light cruisers were a class of six light cruisers initially designed to perform trade protection and flotilla leader roles. As war loomed closer the vessels were modified on the drawing board to also perform anti-aircraft roles in defence of the fleet and the class was to perform all three roles during the course of the war.

HMRS Rowley was the second ship to be completed and was very quickly in action in the Mediterranean where it saw a very active but tragically short life, seeing action at the Battle of Cape Matapan, the evacuation of Greece and Crete, the resupply of Tobruk and the Second Battle of Sirte before being sunk by an Italian submarine.



Useful ships despite the lack of firepower in surface engagements, the ships of the class saw further intense action in the Indian and Pacific Oceans before seeing out the war as picket ships and anti-aircraft escorts for aircraft carriers and amphibious groups.

Standard displacement: 6,198 tonnes
Length: 161.8m
Beam: 16.0m
Draught: 5.3m
Propulsion: 72,000shp through 4 shafts
Speed: 32.5 knots

Armament:
12 x 115mm dual-purpose guns (6 x twin mounts)
12 x 40mm anti-aircraft guns (3 x quad mounts)
16 x 12.7mm Vickers machine guns (4 x quad mounts)
12 x 533mm torpedo tubes (4 x triple mounts)

Class:
HMRS Eclipse (1940)
HMRS Rowley (1940)
HMRS Howe (1941)
HMRS Leveque (1941)
HMRS Shoal (1942)
HMRS Leeuwin (1943)

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Hello, today I bring you the ministry of naval development's class of anti-aircraft light cruisers ordered in 1958, this ship class was a development of a poorly performing light cruiser the Orvech Vonor class, the Paradizna class cruiser which was constructed to address faults in the previous design and improve on the strengths of the predecessor while giving a cost-effective class of 9 ships to be ordered.

The ships would clock out at 17,000 tons on the standard load while also being able to reach 35 kn and with a cruising speed of 18kn it would reach the 9,000 NMI range, in development the MOND looked at the newest jets of the era and estimated that a 76mm cannon would be best to screen for the fleet for that the lightweight model 58 cannon was chosen for service on the Paradizna class cruisers, the MOND also realized that light and a heavy battery would be needed for the ship to screen from slower or farther away targets, the 47mm AA gun model 55 was chosen for the light battery and the heavy battery the 6 inch 47 cal gun was chosen as new fire control made it possible for the new VT fused shells to accurately strike flying targets at range. Then a last minute change was the addition of the defensive CWIS 30mm system that was grafted onto the superstructure on the earlier ships later ships were built with them.

C-128 Paradizna (scraped 1970)
C-129 Nirsk (scraped 1969)
C-130 Altan (sunk 1972)
C-131 Burnton (stricken 1992)
C-132 Octovalis (reconstructed as CG 1973)
C-133 Gennistora (reconstructed as CG 1973)
C-134 Lendiforma (stricken 1983, meuseam as of 2004)
C-135 Wozenfield (completed as command ship 1960, stricken 1999)
C-136 Fardesto (scraped 1973 after extensive mine damage)

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Glory to Arstotzka.