Iowa class Battle Carrier Plans Found
The idea of hermaphrodite flattop-equipped hybrid carrier battleships was revisited often over the years. In the Great War, the British converted the battlecruiser HMS Furious to have a 160-foot flight deck and hangar for 10 aircraft forward while keeping a BL 18-inch (not a misprint) Mk I gun aft.
BRITISH SHIPS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR (SP 89) HMS FURIOUS as originally completed, with 18′ gun aft and flight deck forward, 1917 Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205027917
During WWII, you saw the Japanese convert the old dreadnoughts Ise and her sister ship Hyūga to allow them to carry a mix of 22 Yokosuka D4Y Suisei (Judy) dive bombers and Aichi E16A (Paul) reconnaissance aircraft.
Of course, the IJN never had enough aircraft and pilots late in the war to use them realistically as such, but hey…
Japanese battleship Ise or Hyuga firing on attacking planes during the battle off Cape Engaño, 25 October 1944. Note gunfire by the main battery and her empty rear flight deck. NHHC 80-G-288104
Iowa-class carrier conversions
Along similar lines, the U.S. Navy spitballed similar conversions of the Iowa class during the Cold War, but it never got past spitballing.
With that being said…
The Battleship New Jersey Museum & Memorial has just lucked into a set of CV-BB feasibility conversion drawings from 1981 and they are super cool.
The plans included removing all of the 5″/38 dual mounts and replacing them with VLS cells using the handling rooms to accommodate them– allowing for 160 TLAM/TASMs– which also allowed the ships to delete their planned Tomahawk armored box launchers and Harpoon cans as well.
It also shows the removal of the rear turret and the building of a flying deck over a hangar capable of holding a mix of 36~ AV-8 Harriers and Grumman G-698 V/STOL sub-busters.
The good news is that they intend to digitize the plans and make them available.
I expect models and can’t wait to see them.
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Ryan
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This is NOT the “Krasny Kavkas” carrier conversion, its a scheme of her placement into short drydock (it was the only one available for her during the war)
Thanks (again)
You are welcome. There were real Soviet plans of converting capital ships into fast carriers – firsly the incomplete hull of battlecruiser “Izmail” in 1920s, then a hull of battleship “Frunze” (she was heavily damaged by accidental fire and used as spare parts for other battleships) in 1930s, but they weren’t implemented due to the lack of money (and because Soviet leadership at this time preferred to invest in light units and coastal aviation as the main means of maritime defense)