The Ship Model Forum

Very interesting info about the cole damage. Did the explosion destroy the port rear spy panle? My nexy question is, if the HSS held up so good, why not build the entire hull with it?

Is HSS the strongest steel available for ship construction? I have been thinking alot about taking an ASM right into my nuke power plant, and Im thinking i really what that sucker heavily protected. Were the CGN's more protected that the NON-nukes? I just always assumed the virginia was, to protect that plant. but the more i look into it, Im not sure it really was. I know the cores are shielded with lead to protect from radation, but does that necessarily tranlsate into better battle protection. I tell you, anybody that studied the meltdown in japan after the tsunami should really be thinking about battle damage on a nuke war ship. If an ASM rips the plant open, pretty much everybody on board is screwed.

Anyway, so Ive been thinking about arrmor a lot lately. If I were to use HSS for the whole hull, what kind of weight would i be looking at? Is HSS good enough to protect the plant? How would a double hull change things up. I'm thinking the kind of tonnage not seen since WW2. Nobody does that anymore, but who cares. I want thins ship to be able to take the fight right into the enemies face, hit hard, take damage and win the fight.

thats all for now. I thank all of you for your contributions. Some great info on our ASM, or lack there of

Joe

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this is my CVSGN concept i was tellin all y'all about. It has extended flight decks on both sides of the hanger. maybe the could fold up for going pier side?

intresting future project?

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With cool factor aside, what use would the F35s be? How much ordnance would be on the ship? Would any of that be better than a battery of maybe 64 to 128 VLS tubes?

I really like you last design! I hope to see it under construction.

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Yes. It was returned to Moorestown, New Jersey, it was repaired and installed in the Cornfield Cruiser where the FCs get their C-schooling.

Oh, no. How the Navy uses it, HSS is not a good material. HSS is the standard hull material. The good stuff is HY-80/HSLA-80 and HY-100/HSLA-100. HSS is better than "mild ship building steel", but it's not any good in the thicknesses that the Navy uses it (1/4 to 3/8"). At that thickness, it's garbage.

No, if you want to protect your plant, you need to use HY-100. The NGFS ships that were being proposed and designed in the 1970s were to be built with HY-100 armor. That's heavy battleship armor type material.

Great question. The actual design specs are still classified.

I was here for the whole thing.

There's really no change. The whole hull of the DDG-51s is HSS, and the Cole was still super broken.

Do what I did. After all kinds of designs...I discovered all I needed to do was slightly later a WWII combatant design. Chose a CLAA, CL, or CA hull that is about the right size and develop a super structure on top of it. Those ships were designed to take hits, and a Cleveland-class CL could take way, way heavier hits than a DDG-51. A Baltimore, Oregon City or Des Moines-class CA could take many times the damage a DDG-51 or CG-52 could. My "modern day heavy cruiser" carries an Aegis-like AAW system, but it it is built on a slightly modified Des Moines hull.

Keep it coming, man!

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complete dissapointmnet.....My two bunker hill kits finally got here, and they are complete crap....they are from a chinese manufacture called MiniHobbyModles. They are more toys than models. The hulls are one piece and have an electric motor installed. I should have known something was up when they were only $8.99 each.....lets just say the ebay ad was a LITTLE missleading.....CRAP!!

I'll have to do a do over....

On a side note, I have started building my Academy OHP model. I was going for the look of the redesigned OHP thread on this board. I mocked it up with cardboard pieces and its ok, but now I wanna build it like a modern day fletcher class. Low superstructure, no helo, two Mk-45's and two OTO 76mm, two Mk-141, possibly 2 millenium guns, two Ciws, mk-41 vls for tlam, asroc and essm. I will start a thread on this project soon. I already have a couple pictures.

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Sorry about the e-bay buy, but if you have any scale diagrams of the GDM008 35 mm Millenium gun I would appreciate it if you could share them!

The Minihobby kits from the late 1990s early 2000s blah. They are Trumpeter before Trumpeter. Lots of stuff out of scale. the lines are wrong. the detail is like that on an old 1950s ripoff of a ripoff kit. Dragon and Trumpeter only from China. forget the rest. minihobby is to stay away from. I built some old arii kits of Spruances that weren't to good.

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An interesting concept. Did I read you right that you were installing A2W reactors? The "A" stands for air craft carrier, and the 2 Designation is taken. I like the concept but agree with much of the responses you have received. I disagree with the assumption that we have enough AAW. We are the only Navy to operate multiple Aircraft carriers, and Aircraft Carriers need escorts. We are also the only Navy that forward deploys the way we do requiring multiple hulls to maintain pressence. Cruisers have historically had a number of missions. Air defense is just one of them. The nice thing about a nuclear powered boat is they are not as dependant on supply resources as fossil fuel boats. Your boat could be optimized for the Cruising part of a cruiser mission. Operating in lower threat areas showing the flag and training allied navies. In a role like that you would want at least a limited ability to project force ashore using a marine contingent or Special Forces. If you put them in though you have to support them and get them back out. Things to think about. If needed a larger vessel like yours could also operate with the fleet or escort a nuclear carrier at very high transit speeds without need to refuel allowing a carrier to arrive on station faster than possible with fossel fuel ships. I like the idea, and basic design. Looking forward to seeing the model.

Thank you guest. To be honest, I'm not real technical on nuc power plants and such. I actually looked up the gerald ford on wiki to see what kind of reactors it had, being that they would be the lateest and greatest. they were A4W and i was thinking to cut it in half and have two of the halves as my power. good catch. \

and thank you for your other comments as well. I worked really hard on this concept and it took about a year and a half to reach this stage. Now i need to build it.

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Hi CSGN, BTW I have finally registered as Oldnavyguy, but I wrote the guest comment above. I really think this is a cool project and it is going in a direction I believe the Navy ought to consider. Allot of people in congress and elswhere bulk at the initial cost of nuclear powered surface combatants but what they forget is the initial cost covers the fuel expense for about 25 years. When you consider the cost of keeping the gas tanks full in a gas turbine plant nuclear becomes a more economical proposition. Nuclear ships also have no need for uptakes and stacks allowing more flexibility in design. Given an expected lifetime of 50 years for a major surface combatant you do need to plan for refueling them which means a space above both reactors which is relatively clear of obstruction. on your design I would put one just forward of the superstructure and another in the hanger.
Have you thought what you will name it? Traditionally cruisers are named for cities, but then that was done on the LA class subs too. Several of the Nuke cruisers were named for states but the Virginia class of sub is doing that now. Destroyers are typically named for Navy Heroes, and anphib's for Marine Battles or cities. Aircraft Carriers are named for Presidents, or important people.
Anyway, I think your project is great, and I look forward to seeing it.

Thank you ONG, My name is Joe and I was a Fire control technition for the AN/sps-48C onboard the Uss Virginia (cgn-38) from 91-93. I thank you again for you complements. It really seems a little funny to me that the navy balks at nuclear powered escorts, especially since we have (supposedly) passed peak oil in the world. Untill somebody comes up with something a little better than wind and solar power, nuclear will be the only game in town once the price of oil becomes inhibitive. So it would serve national interest to stay ahead of the curve.

Onboard the Virginia, the plants were below the forward and aft superstructures. Durring re-fule the structures would be removed to gain access to the engeneering spaces. for my design i will keep them in roughly the same areas. As for a name, I'm kind of stuck there. earlier in this thread i duscussed that issue and was wondering if i could name it Virgina while there was the sub virginia in active service. I threw the idea around in my head of naming it the Ohio class, but that would probably piss alot of people off here in the forum . Not really sure, maybe since its my world and all I'll call it the Utah class, since i live in utah and love it here? Hummm i just dont know at this point. If you zoom in on the SeaArk in the foreground you will notice that it says USS Virginia on it. Cant see that too good unless yo have the HI-Res which I'd be glad to send anybody if they want it. Just PM me your e-mail and I'll shoot a copy your way

Welcome to the forum, and i look forward to further posts

Joe

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You are absolutly right about naming it. You could call it the USS Jeff if you liked. I kind of like the idea of state names as there are so many unused. The Navy's rules on names is that a name can not be re-used while the previous named ship is still commissioned. As long as there is a USS Constitution, (Old Iron Sides) there can not be another named Constitution. There is a George Washington, Washington Chambers, and Washington in the Navy right now. (The Washington is a Virginia class precom)
I thought it might help you to list all the current State named ships in commission, being built or planned. It was way more than I thought it would be. I note no Utah. BTW my source was Wikipedia.
1. Alabama
2. Alaska
3. California
4. Connecticut
5. Florida
6. Georgia
7. Hawaii
8. Kentucky
9. Louisiana
10. Maine
11. Maryland
12. Michigan
13. Mississippi
14. Missouri
15. Nebraska
16. Nevada
17. New Hampshire
18. New Mexico
19. New York
20. North Carolina
21. Ohio
22. Pennsylvania
23. Rhode Island
24. Tennessee
25. Texas
26. Virginia
27. West Virginia
28. Wyoming
Under construction
1. Minnesota
2. North Dakota
Planned and named
1. Colorado
2. Illinois
3. Indiana
4. South Dakota
5. Washington

I meant to say Iowa class......not Ohio......

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Hey y'all, I've had a rough summer, long story short....I'm getting a divorce. I've missed coming here and reading all the posts. As son as i get reestablished I'll start work on CSGN 138.

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In God we trust all others we track

You might consider half a carrier power plant with one reactor rated at 140,000 shp to the shafts plus 80 Megawatts of electrical power or with nuclear integrated power system or NIPS to four 35.000 shp Azipods which eliminate the need for shaft lines/redesigned stern thus saving valuable space which the conventional mechanical now takes up.
Gas turbines for backup power/propulsion/weapons system using a redundant electrical electrical distribution system.
Norman Palomar wrote of a CSGN Mk II that added a hangar below for 18 AV-8As with a couple of H-60 ASW helos.
Is the beam suffice for the carrier sized reactor?
USN stated in a CRS report that Ford class reactors have a 30-35 years or a life of the ship cores if used in surface combatants.