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My thoughts are very simple, for pure NGFS nothing says "watchout or opening a major can of whoop a_ _" as the ablity to stay on station and duration of fire.
Well, that's one of the biggest and indomitable reasons to reactivate. They out-perform aircraft in the vast majority of situations.
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So, if the 8" could be replaced and upgrade to rapidfire mode similar that is found on the older 5"/mk45 guns.
That's one of the cool things about the Des Moines-class. They are rapid fire guns. 10 RPM instead of the 2 to 3 as in the earlier heavy cruisers. 90 rounds on target in a single minute.
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Helo support could be the unmanned drones they want to add to the burkes,or even better hellfire to sh-60b.
They had aircraft hangers inside their sterns, and they were big enough to hold an SH-60 Seahawk. UAVs would fit great.
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The biggest problem I see is the propulsion systems, I have been out of the loop for a few years but to my knowledge they don't have BT's (bolier Tech) ratings anymore, so this class would have to be converted to gas turbine.Your thoughts...
Well, really think about that. Which do you think the Navy would rather do, teach people on the existing systems or tear the ship apart, install a gas turbine system, and put it all back together? I think to save $500million if not more, they would just hold OJT. But we have to keep in mind, it does not matter if we have any BTs or not. BTs were merged with MMs, MMs are trained on boilers, and we still have quite a few boiler driven ships. So, the knowledge is in the fleet right now. The boilers in the heavy cruisers are extremely reliable and out-perform gas turbines in all areas except one. Boilers are not push-start. The boilers in heavy cruiser and battleships are the only long endurance propulsion systems other than nuclear.