https://warisboring.com/americas-battleships-almost-became-part-aircraft-carriers-8c5c2b44c699#.940i1lt5x

With World War II finished, the U.S. Navy faced a huge dilemma?—?what to do with the massive fleet of ships that it had constructed to defeat Japan and Germany.
Some of the ships were sunk as part of the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll; others were quickly scrapped.
Many were mothballed, put into reserve in anticipation of a future war against the Soviet Union.
For decades, this reserve fleet would wait for a war that never came.

The Iowa-class battleships symbolized the Navy’s problem.
Constructed at great expense over the course of the war, the four huge battleships (Iowa, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Missouri; two sisters, Illinois and Kentucky, would never enter service) offered capabilities that no foreign navy could match.

A more exotic and ambitious plan emerged in the 1970s.
This involved installing “ski-jump” flightdecks that would give the Iowas the capability to operate AV-8B Harrier “jumpjets” after removing their aft turrets.
Had the USN pursued this proposal, the Iowas could have played a role in their own air defense, as well as better supported a long-range strike mission.
Supporters of this plan hoped that the full conversion would follow a more modest reactivation project.

They were going to put them on the back?

So they were going to put the ship into the wind in reverse?

Harriers don't need to launch into the wind



 

"When Admirals grow desperate, these are the Days of Our Budgets"

Is that how the Soviets came to build the Minsk class? (the Walker spy ring) lol

Sparky masturbates furiously:

A, fuck that guy.

 

2, it is based on one of the concepts that was tossed around.

Look me in the eye and tell me this wouldn't give any true American a raging freedom-erection.  

...Even a woman.  

I had a 1/700 scale model of the Iowa as converted,it was by a Japanese company possibly Aoshima.

Doesn't really make any sense.  If you get close enough to use the guns you put the air capability in danger, but the air capability is going to be virtually nil compared to a purpose built carrier.   The whole point of a carrier is so you can kill battleships without getting in range of their guns.

Plane come in too low and you get burning plane wreckage all over the #3 turret. Plane lose an engine on takeoff and you now have burning plane, plus a full load of fuel and bombs/ammo all over #1 and #2 turrets.

The last of the Iowa-class battlewagons; the keel of the battleship USS Kentucky, BB66 was laid in 1942, but was still under construction at war's end. She and sister ship USS Illinois, BB65 were never completed.

It was an idea from the 70's, there were no other battleships to kill. Yet, our battleships were being used every decade for shore bombardment and also intended to cover amphib landings of Marines, so why not have guns and CAS?

 

If you're going to pull the rear turrets off you ought to replace them with as many VLS cells as you can which, in all likely hood, wouldn't have been very many for the size of the ship. And it becomes a giant hole in the armor protection which makes the rest of the armor kind of pointless.


They make pretty good museums, at least.

Ski jumps and Harriers, bah.

The old Kingfishers could carry like 300 lbs of bombs.

That thing looks like a capsizing disaster waiting to happen...

Would it be cool? Sure. Would it be seaworthy? Aw hell naw.

  The aft turret would have been deleted completely. Before the Harriers entered service,it was proposed to make BBs commando carriers with the #3 turret deleted and a deck and hangar for helicopter and berthing for Marines.

I have a book on the subject, R. Layman's The Hybrid Warship.  Conversion of battleships to aircraft carriers began shortly after WW I when the Chilean battleship Admiral Cochrane was converted to an aircraft carrier, HMS Eagle.  Hybrid ships of the era included the 18" gun (singluar as there was a single gun turret aft) HMS Furious that had a take off deck. Furious was later converted to a full carrier when her after turret was removed and a full length flight deck built.

Other ships include the US battlecruisers Lexington and Saratoga, the Japanese Kaga and Akagi and the French Bearn (ex Normandie class BB).  All of these were converted to full carriers.  WW II hybrids include the Japanese battleships Ise & Hyuga which had their two after turrets replaced with a flight deck.  After the damage suffered during the Battle of Midway, the IJN Mogami had her after turrets removed and a ship handling platform added   There was also a Swedish cruiser Gotland had gun turrets forward and a flight deck aft.

The German heavy cruiser Seydlitz was supposed to be converted to an aircraft carrier, but was never finished (much like the full carrier Graf Zeppelin).

ETA:   The trouble with the hybrid if the guns, bridge and smokestack are placed forward is the draft for the flight deck.  If the flight deck isplaced forward, aircraft can launch, but can't be recovered.  Hence most hybrids operated seaplanes.  Aircraft would be launched via catapult and recovered by crane from the water.

 The USSR operated neither true carriers or battleships at the time. The Iowas were  recommissoned in large  part due to the launching of the Kirovs,which relied upon missiles rather than guns. Of course,the chances of them meeting in battle would have been tiny,the P-700 has an enormous range advantage over Harpoons let alone 16" guns had a Kirov managed to not be hit by USN aircraft or sub,or a volley of Harpoons from a B-52.

Jesus.... Is that from the guy that's been around since with 90's with a hard-on for M113's?

It's the GAVIN!!!!!!!

 

the Gavin could replace every vehicle in the military inventory



aircraft? well, just strap some wings and JATO bottles on it , make sure its the M163 PIVADS variant and boom! instant 20mm all weather air superiority fighter



ships? just lash a bunch of gavins together , they are self propelled and can float so there you go, put a platform on top and you've got the ability to put a raft of ass-kicking freedom on top.



 

Why isn't the North Carolina mentioned in the original post?

'Murica boner engaged.

I still say we should have a fully functional battleship.

Given the gazillions of dollars we waste on stupid shit, wouldn't having one of those around as a showpiece/recruiting tool/ceremonial flagship be money fairly well spent.

Iowa class is about 1/4 more displacement than the North Carolina class.