AA battleships?

[pepe_trueno]

many ships got converted to AA platforms but most of them were old cruisers or coastal defence ships so what about applying the conversion to battleships?  how would that look like?

 

american got the wyoming training battleship so i was thinking of a kansas with a similar treatment where main guns would be replaced with seattle 152 mm dual purpose guns, It will only fire AP in exchange of extended long range AA and good accuracy for a battleship.

 

french got the jean bart AA proposal with 15x2 USN 127mm dual purpose secondary guns at the cost of only having 4 main guns

 

german i could see an odin hull with the 128mm secondary guns replaced with more  of the 55mm AA guns for a total of 14x2 and the 305mm and 150mm replaced with 5x3 dual purpose 152mm as main guns with fast reload but battleship accuracy.

 

 

[kriegerfaust]

Fuso class

http://alternateuniversewarships.com/Japan/BB 1915 Fuso/IJN Fuso-BBAA.htm

As built, the Fusō class was fitted with a secondary armament of sixteen 50-caliber six-inch guns mounted in single casemates along the sides of the hull at the level of the upper deck. Eight guns were mounted per side, and each had an arc of fire of 130 degrees and a maximum elevation of +15 degrees. Each gun could fire a 45.36-kilogram (100.0 lb) high-explosive projectile a maximum distance of 22,970 yards (21,000 m) at a rate of between four and six shots per minute. During their reconstruction in the 1930s, the maximum elevation of the guns was increased to +30 degrees, which increased their maximum range by approximately 900 metres (980 yd).^[25]

The ships also mounted five or six 40-caliber 76 mm anti-aircraft (AA) guns. The 76-millimetre (3 in) high-angle guns were in single mounts on both sides of the forward superstructure, both sides of the second funnel, and each side of the aft superstructure (Fusō lacked the starboard side aft gun). Each of these guns had a maximum elevation of +75 degrees, and could fire a 6 kg (13 lb) projectile with a muzzle velocity of 680 m/s (2,200 ft/s) to a maximum height of 7,500 metres (24,600 ft).^[25] Both ships were equipped with six submerged 533-millimetre (21.0 in) torpedo tubes, three on each broadside.^[13]

The Fusō class's secondary armament changed significantly over time. During the modernizations of the 1930s, all of the 76 mm guns were replaced with eight 40-caliber 127 mm (5.0 in) dual-purpose guns. These guns were fitted on both sides of the fore and aft superstructures in four twin-gun mounts.^[21] When firing at surface targets, the guns had a range of 14,700 metres (16,100 yd); they had a maximum ceiling of 9,440 metres (30,970 ft) at their maximum elevation of +90 degrees. Their maximum rate of fire was 14 rounds a minute, but their sustained rate of fire was around eight rounds per minute.^[26] During reconstruction, the two foremost 152 mm guns were also removed.^[18]

The light AA armament of the Fusō class changed dramatically from 1933 to 1944. During the first reconstruction, Fusō was fitted with four quadruple 13.2 mm (0.52 in) machine-guns,^[27] while Yamashiro was fitted with eight twin 25-millimeter (0.98 in) gun mounts.^[28] Both weapons were license-built French Hotchkiss designs.^[29] The 25 mm guns were mounted on the Fusō class in single, double and triple mounts. This model was the standard Japanese light anti-aircraft gun during World War II, but it suffered from severe design shortcomings that rendered it a largely ineffective weapon. The twin and triple mounts "lacked sufficient speed in train or elevation; the gun sights were unable to handle fast targets; the gun exhibited excessive vibration; the magazine was too small, and, finally, the gun produced excessive muzzle blast".^[30] The configuration of the anti-aircraft guns varied significantly; by the end of their final reconstruction, the Fusō class mounted eight twin mounts. In 1943, seventeen single and two twin-mounts were added for a total of 37.^[31] In August 1944, both were fitted with another twenty-three single, six twin and eight triple-mounts, for a total of 96 anti-aircraft guns in their final configuration.

Kentucky AA

secretprojects.co.uk/threads/iowa-and-alaska-class-conversion-projects

Edited January 10 by kriegerfaust

[pepe_trueno]

18 hours ago, kriegerfaust said:

 

Kentucky AA

secretprojects.co.uk/threads/iowa-and-alaska-class-conversion-projects

i am quite sure i read somewhere that illinois  main guns should be dual purpose

 

speaking of big dual purpose guns, japan was testing "San Shiki" (anti air) shell for the big guns: 46cm, 41cm, 203mm. In real life they did not perform well but they could be introduced.

may be not as a new line but as a module available to ships using guns above 200mm say:

slot 3

-40% HE damage of main gun
+50-100% area of effect of main guns HE
4-5% of main guns HE damage is added to the long range AA aura continuous damage