carr wrote:
What would be the mission of a CAH? And what would the helos contribute to the performance of that mission?
Oh, no. Don’t lump me in here. The CAH is kind of cool but beyond me. I am just on the cool-concept roller coaster for this one. I am looking forward to hearing what HvyCgn9 has in mind for the purpose of this ship and his rebuttle to our earlier posts calling this into question.
However, what I do know is that in the '80s, there were two modernization options for the Des Moines and Salem. One was stripping a LOT of its weaponry in exchange for the Iowa-class missile payload (32 Tomahawks and 16 Harpoons). The second was to provide the CAs with a
large helo capability. Since there was so much room, it sounded like they wanted to give it a reasonably large hanger. CH-53s, SH-3s, and SH-60s were thrown around as intended embarked aircraft. They were to be armed with at least 1 Sea Sparrow launcher and probably 2.
The purpose of the CAs in the '80s, though is a little less logical and kind of fuzzy. Now, get ready for this. I did not believe it at first, but the source
is the horse's mouth. He was the project manager for the Iowa-class reactivation and the pre-reactivation project manager for the Des Moines-class. So someone at NAVSEA gave him the mission and an order to refine the proposed modernization scheme, a removal of Turret 3 and the addition of a helo hanger and proper placement of electronics and weapons package. So, grab your balls...here’s what the heavy cruisers were supposed to do:
The Des Moines-class heavy cruisers were supposed to be "consort" ships to the battleships. So, you would have a CA rolling around with a BB, with a large number of helos and some Sea Sparros. They were supposed to provide point defense with Sea Sparrows for the BBs and provide a different artillery option instead of the massive difference between 16" and 5" in bombardment missions. Now, this does not make sense to me. If they had reactivated the CAs with the BBs, I think the CAs would wind up being used as 2 more capital ships, and they would almost never operate with the BBs. It's too easy to put Sea Sparrows on BBs or tell a Spruance to hang with the BB than to reactivate a
heavy cruiser just to follow around a battleship like a little
as a Sea Sparrow and helicopter escort ship.
The idea is cool, however, and is worth a neato model if one can make it. I am going to wind up making one of these for that project manager I referred to above. If anyone wants to offer suggestions as to how the ships might have been configured, let’s get the suggestions and maybe even drawings going!
Had the Des Moines-class been employed operationally in a modern environment, they would not have been consorts for BBs and could possibly have been employed autonomously as the lead ship in a task group environment. They would be especially useful in naval gunfire support, which, had modern technology been applied properly to, could have enabled them to project power well inshore.
I see no particular benefit in removing the after 8 inch turret and replacing it with numerous helicopters, whether for ASW, ASM, or heliborne assault. Other ships in the task force are better suited for those missions.