Audacious Class Trio

[Conspirator]

RN frigate names are a fun place for tabloid journalists. The type 23 frigate St Albans may have been named after a Duke but the town with the same name has a rather less serious image.
The Leander frigates Greek Mythology names also have some modern twists. HMS Hermione?
I dont know about the USN but as it is likely that the RN in 2040 will have only 6 frigate/destroyers (each costing the equivalent of a WW1 Dreadnought in prices adjusted for inflation) capital ship names like Hood, Nelson and Rodney seem reasonable.

forgot about the HMS Hood..... what a ship.

 

[NOMISYRRUC]

Perhaps the most tantalising what-if for the RN sees it taking a more rational approach to its postwar carrier fleet.
In particular, building three Audacious class ships and scrapping the remaining heavy carriers.
Initially the RN was right to focus on its light fleet carriers, but by building the Audacious class and disposing of Illustrious and co, it would have had the basis of a carrier force that could have operated into the 80s.
By 1964 Audacious, Ark Royal and Eagle would have been the core of the RN, and two ships would have been the basis of the F4/Buccaneer force, with the third in reserve.
A change for the Centaurs would have been their re-rolling as ASW ships in addition to Commandos. Centaur and Hermes would keep a cat so they could operate S3 Vikings provided under a NATO programme in addition to Seakings.
In this alt, the F4 replaces the P1154 in 1963 and there is no P1127RAF.
Oh and no Falklands (though by 1982 replacing the carriers would have become an issue).

You might like this thread that I wrote on AH.com 4 years ago.

Argus class Aircraft Carrier HMS Glorious

It became so big that I'm spinning it off Alternative Warships of Nations into its own thread...

www.alternatehistory.com

In the thread:

• The third Audacious is still cancelled at the end of World War II.
• Blake, Hermes, Lion and Blake were cancelled at the end of World War II and scrapped instead of being suspended.
• Plans to modernise the Illustrious class were abandoned before 1948 in favour of new ships to be built in the 1950s.
• A class of four 35,000ton aircraft carriers was built under the 1951 Rearmament Programme. They were named Argus, Courageous, Furious and Glorious.

The RN of 1960-65 had 6 strike carriers (4 Argus class, Ark Royal and Eagle) and 3 commando carriers (Albion, Bulwark and Centaur).

However, if I was to re-write it to fit the OP of this thread.

• The third Audacious wouldn't be cancelled at the end of World War II.
  • Instead construction would continue at a slow pace and it would eventually be completed in 1955 to the same standard as Ark Royal in 1955.
  • Or it would be suspended in 1946, resumed in the early 1950s and completed in 1958-59 with two 151ft stroke BS.5 steam catapults, a fully angled flight deck, an AC electrical system, a Type 984 radar, a 48-track CDS and DPT.
• A trio of 1952 Carriers would be built under the 1951 Rearmament Programme instead of the quartet of 35,000 ton ships. They'd be named Courageous, Furious and Glorious.

Another thing that I'd change is the Indomitable class that was built in the 1970s and 1980s. The ships would be at least the same size as the 1952 Carriers that they replaced.