Did the USN study how it would have mounted early antiship missiles to its DLs, DDs, and CLs?
Would it have put them on trainable mounts or fixed forward or angled upward?
Regulus was on a trainable mount amidships, ASROC was a trainable box launcher, harpoon can be mounted any which way.
Did the USN study how it would have mounted early antiship missiles to its DLs, DDs, and CLs?
Would it have put them on trainable mounts or fixed forward or angled upward?
Regulus was on a trainable mount amidships, ASROC was a trainable box launcher, harpoon can be mounted any which way
Very little data, since most of those projects did not leave conceptual stage. The only available plans are for SUM-N-2 "Grebe" anti-submarine torpedo-carrying missile installation, planned for "Allen M. Sumner":
Apparently the idea was a trainable launcher with hangar storage in the superstructure directly behind the launcher.
IMHO, but for any kind of 1950s - early 1960s anti-ship missile same kind of installation would be adopted. My reasoning is:
* The trainable launcher installation greatly simplified aiming the missile. No complex autopilot gyro offset was required; the missile just followed the azimuth set by launcher train angle (essentially, early shipborne missiles - like Soviet KsSH and Sweden Rb.08 - followed the same pattern);
* The missiles of 1950s weren't exactly most reliable (especially their vacuum tube electronics) and hangar storage allowed much better maintenance access than for, say, container-based launchers;
* The hit probability was generally underestimated, so a large supply of missiles were required (for example, Soviet early missile destroyers of Project 56EM and Project 57 carried eight missiles per launcher, and Sweden Halland-class destroyes carried about eight per launcher too);
* It's possible that for anti-ship missiles USN would follow Sweden approach with launch rails set above torpedo mounts of existing destroyers (especially of Gearing-class ships); this would generally simplify the installation;
If you had tubes fixed forward and angled upward, wouldn't you just aim the ship?
Or would it have been doctrinally unsound? Would USN have thought of these as big torpedoes and wanted a trainable mount amidships?
The Soviets had missiles in fixed forward mounts but their doctrine was more offensive and less general purpose sea control....
Clearly if you are fitting some sort of Silkworm or Talos sized AShM onto a Forrest Sherman or Mitchner you don't get a hangar or reloads...
Are there any good models or similar situations we can use to think about this problem?
Yes (as well as backward - some Soviet refitted destroyers have rearward-aimed P-15 launchers installed), but it would be generally less accurate and more demanding from the ship. Trainable launcher in 1950s were generally simpler solution, since they allowed precise aiming of the missile into calculated leading point without the need to turn the whole ship.
Erm, no. The Soviet 1950s missiles were mostly launched from trainable launchers. The first missile that was launched from fixed rail was P-15 "Termit" - mostly because it was designed to arm small missile boats, which have no space for trainable launchers.
Actually, you could have a hangar for reloads easily. Look:
That's a missile installation for Halland-class destroyer. The missiles were stored in hangar below rear superstructure, and (with the help of inclined ramp and chain rammer) were raised to the deck, where launch rails were set above rear 21-inch torpedo mount.
The launcher was massive, stabilized mount, but mainly due to the desire to hold a fully loaded & launch-ready missile inside the launcher "cabin". The spare missiles were stored in magazine placed in ship's superstructure:
(the missiles were placed in two rows, in three vertical tires, with an elevator platform moving between them. The upper section was the launch preparation room, where missiles were fueled (they were stored un-fueled), and prepared to be sent on launcher. Usually the launch preparation room also store one missile. The launcher hold one fully combat-ready missile - with wings unfolded - inside the armored cabin.
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