TzoliAfter the First and later the Second London Naval Treaties which forbid (First) the construction of new capital ships but allowed the modernizations and extensive refits of existing ones to improve their fighting capabilities of the signatory nations. For the RN this meant plans were drawn up to modernize their capital ship fleet, to be precise the Renown and Hood class Battlecruisers and the Queen Elizabeth and Nelson class Battleships. The Revenges were deemed for replacement by the newly designed and built King George Class Battleships while the Queen Elizabeths by the Lion class battleships hence the Revenges were never received their extensive refit and the QE's got different modernization proposals to test the new technologies. But there were 3 chokepoints for these rebuilds:
- The Naval Budget
- The capacities of the various shipyards
- The gun and turret manufacturing industry
The Royal Navy had to prioritise which classes and which ships were to be modernized first and they decided that the order was:
Valiant (1st phase)
Barham (1st phase)
Malaya (1st phase)
Warspite
Valiant
Queen Elizabeth
Renown
Repulse
Hood
Nelson
Rodney
But due to shipyard capacity and the war the last 3 (Hood, Nelson, Rodney) and the full modernisations of Barham and Malaya were not carried out still plans and proposals were made for these ships. Here I show you the KGV style modernization scheme for Hood which if were finished would made the ship well protected against both surface threats by improving her armour and both air threats by vastly increasing her AA armament. Her machinery too would had been replaced but it is not known by what kind. Refurbishment of the turbines? Replacement of the Boilers? Full machinery overhaul?
The design had the following characteristics:
Dimensions: 246,9 (pp) x 259,2 (wl) x 262,13 (oa) x 31,7 x 8,7 meters
Displacement: 46.000tons (standard)
Armour: 305mm belt at 10°incline, 76mm over Machinery, 102mm over Magazines deck, 102mm slopes.
Engines: Unknown, minimum 150-160.000shp Parsons Steam Turbines, 4 shafts
Range: 14.200km at 30km/h (7.600nm at 16knots)
Speed: 57km/h (30,75knots)
Armaments:
4x2 15"/42 (381mm/42) BL Mark I Cannons,
8x2 5,25"/50 (133mm/50) QF Mark I Guns,
6x8 40mm/39 QF Mark VIII Pom-Pom AA Guns,
6x4 12,7mm/62 MG Mark III AA Guns
Sensor suite:
2x Type 79 Air-search Radar on both of the masts
1x Type 273 Surface search Radar on the mainmast fighting top or "starfish" structure
1x Type 281 Air-warning Radar on top of the aft mast
6x Type 282 Fire-control Radar sets one for each Pom-Pom director
2x Type 284 Fire-control Radar on the main armament director/rangefinders
4x Type 285 Fire-control Radar sets one for each secondary armament director/rangefinder
2x Type 290 Air-warning Radar on top of the masts
2022-08-30 18:51:20 +0000