Fictional Warships - Novels

[Dilandu]

Unable to outrun them due to earlier damage, Edsall's commander put on a virtuoso display of destroyer handling and managed to avoid everything thrown at him, while making occasional attempts to damage his pursuers. With magazines running dry, an embarrassed Admiral Nagumo called up an air strike which did sufficient damage to bring Edsall to a stop, with a cameraman on Tone filming Chikuma pounding the ship to pieces at close range. Japanese witnesses reported that 'an officer', widely assumed to be Lt. Nix helped his crew abandon ship, then returned to the bridge to share his ships fate.

Well, there are reasons to think that Japanese guuners on heavy ships weren't exactly trained as good as they was supposed to. The first is that Japanese Navy could not afford replacing worn-out barrels as often as other navies; so battleship gunnery exercises were limited by worries to "wear barrels out before decisive battle". The second - Japan obtained their first radio-controlled target ship, the "Settu", much later than other major naval powers. So Japanese crews experience in engaging maneuvering target was likely quite limited.

 

[Graham1973]

Well, there are reasons to think that Japanese guuners on heavy ships weren't exactly trained as good as they was supposed to. The first is that Japanese Navy could not afford replacing worn-out barrels as often as other navies; so battleship gunnery exercises were limited by worries to "wear barrels out before decisive battle". The second - Japan obtained their first radio-controlled target ship, the "Settu", much later than other major naval powers. So Japanese crews experience in engaging maneuvering target was likely quite limited.

Thanks for the additional information, it's another example of how logistics can influence warfare.

In this case, because of a weapons component production bottleneck, taking down one old destroyer with a more than competent commander required two heavy cruisers, two battleships and a three carrier airstrike (The 26 planes involved in the airstrike came from Kaga, Hiryu and Soryu.), a situation the Imperial Japanese Navy rightly regarded as a fiasco.

 

[Graham1973]

Douglas Pratt, Red Light At Twilight (Chase Gordon: 11), 2024

United States Coast Guard

USCGC Divisive
Reliance Class Cutter
Details as per the real ships.
Note: Class determined from name, which while dubious is in line with the naming scheme for the Reliance Class Cutters.

Plot summary: When a lone sailor becomes witness to a tragedy at sea while in the Carribean he quickly realises the coincidence quotient for the event is too high and in trying to find answers finds himself in a world of trouble.

Note: This is the eleventh novel in a series built around a retired US Marine who has a talent for finding trouble and getting out of it.

 

[Graham1973]

There's been a minor update to the thread, all the titles for the 'Dan Lenson' novels by author David Poyer now include their series number based on their publication order.

 

[Graham1973]

David Poyer, Violent Peace (Dan Lenson: 20), 2020

United States Navy Task Force 73.3

United States

USS Savo Island (CGA-91)
Savo Island Class Cruiser
Fitted with Aegis
Armament is only vaguely described, 2 x railgun turrets (A & X), 2 x laser turrets (B & Y), multiple VLS arrays.
Displacement: 'almost' 20,000tons.
Zumwalt Class based hullform.
Exact dimensions are not provided.
Crew: "fewer than two hundred" (Wartime manning), peacetime manning is not specified but implied to be somewhere between 100 to 150 crew.
Clearly a wartime design, engine power is provided by engines salvaged from jet airliners driving engine pods containing electric motors taken from Tesla trucks.
Notes: Optimized for Anti-Ballistic Missile Defense.

Non-warship but interesting

Advanced-ALIS (aka 'Alice')

AI Combat Control Computer

Successor to ALIS, the Ballistic Missile Defense Subroutine that provided an autonomous defensive mode to late model Ticonderoga Class Cruisers. Capabilities are more in line with ACDADS (aka 'Elmo') from the 1980s, this unit can control the ship it's fitted to without a crew, but due to a tendency to misidentify 'friendlies' as 'foes' the ships of this class retain a full crew. The software has a secondary function as ships censorship officer, monitoring all communications and notifying higher command of any deviations from 'doctrine'.

Note: This ship first appears, as far as I know in the previous novel in the series 'Overthrow' (2019) which I covered earlier in this thread.

USS Arkansas (SSN-800)
Virginia Class (Block IV) Submarine
Real ship, details as in service
Note: Launched, but not commissioned as of the date of this post.

USS Idaho (SSN-799)
Virginia Class (Block IV) Submarine
Real ship, details as in service
Note: Launched, but not commissioned as of the date of this post.
In the novel it acts as the controller for the two Orca Class AUSV's in the task force.

USS John Warner (SSN-785)
Virginia Class (Block III) Submarine
Real ship, details as in service

USS Utah (SSN-801)
Virginia Class (Block IV) Submarine
Real ship, details as in service
Note: Under construction as of the date of this post.

USS Dixie Kiefer (DDG-???)
Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer
Details as per the real ships
Note: Described as a "...wartime construction Improved Burke-class destroyer...", no specifics are given for this variant of the class, but they are presumably similar to the actual ships. Further details may be in novels of the series I have not yet read.

USS Christos Katsos (DDG-???)
Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer
Note: Described as a "...wartime construction Improved Burke-class destroyer...", no specifics are given for this variant of the class, but they are presumably similar to the actual ships. Further details may be in novels of the series I have not yet read.

USS Goodrich (FFG-???)
'Guided Missile Frigate' (Wartime Flight 3), class unspecified
No other details provided

USS Montesano (FFG-???)
'Guided Missile Frigate' (Wartime Flight 3), class unspecified
No other details provided

USS Patrick Hart (FFG-???)
'Guided Missile Frigate' (Wartime Flight 3), class unspecified
No other details provided

USV-7
Hunter Class Autonomous Surface Vessel
No other details provided.

USV-16
Hunter Class Autonomous Surface Vessel
No other details provided.

USV-20
Hunter Class Autonomous Surface Vessel
No other details provided.

USV-34
Hunter Class Autonomous Surface Vessel
No other details provided.

USS-4
Orca Class (Flight I) Autonomous Underwater Vessel
No other details provided

USS-13
Orca Class (Flight I) Autonomous Underwater Vessel
No other details provided

Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force

JDS Chōkai (DD-176)
Kongō Class destroyer
Real ship, details as in service
Assigned to United States Navy Task Force 73.3

JDS Ashigara (DD-178)
Atago Class Destroyer
Real ship, details as in service
Assigned to United States Navy Task Force 73.3

Korea (Republic of) Navy

Jeonnam
'Destroyer', class not specified
Fitted with Aegis.
No other details provided
Note: Korean destroyers are named after historical figures, not provinces. Jeonnam is the historic name for the southernmost portion of Korea.
Assigned to United States Navy Task Force 73.3

Russia

Pyotr Velikiy (ex-Yuriy Andropov)
Kirov (Pr. 1144) Class Battlecruiser
Real ship, details as in service
In the novels 'Universe' the ship has been extensively upgraded. The main battery missile armament has been replaced with "...Zircon-C hypersonic antiship..." missiles. No specifics for these are provided.

Unnamed
Priboy Class Carrier
Described as being the equivalent of the US Wasp Class Amphibious Assault Ships
No other details provided

Plot summary: The great war is over, in the end China 'blinked'. Now the combatants struggle to deal with the consequences as the jackals gather around to feast.