Brown was right about the maintenance spaces. CAM Hurricanes were one and done unless the launch was so close to shore that the pilot could get back, so maintenance wasn't relevant. I can see a place for a small ship being able to refuel a Harrier and refill the gun pods - maybe even put a couple of Sidewinders on the wing racks - if it couldn't quite make it back to the CV or find an airborne tanker, but against this you're balancing the loss of range inherent in pure VTOL takeoff over rolling/catapult/ski jump, and you might not get that much extra out of it.
I doubt that it would have been a successful conversion. The Fletcher class weighs in at around 2000 tons. The ship is pretty lively for one handling aircraft of any sort. That would indicate that stabilizers would have to be fitted. That in turn means some rearrangement of the machinery spaces.
Then you need fuel and magazines along with at least some basic maintenance space to support the aircraft. Add in fueling pumps, start stations, and other equipment needed to handle the Harriers, and you are likely to find there simply isn't enough space on the hull to do everything and adding superstructure to house it would create additional instability.
The WW 2 Fletcher class could barely support a catapult and floatplane.
I'd add that the width and heigh above waterline of the flightdeck would be additional issues.
Then, going to all this effort to put Harriers aboard and not upgrading the various weapons and sensors (other than those needed for flight operations which would have to be installed in any case) would make the Harrier version kind of worthless.
I'd assume that helicopters could be an alternate on such a ship, and at that time that means ASW capacity needing the ship to get a much better sonar suite along with some NTDS capacity to make use of the helo's.
On the whole, this idea is too much upgrade to too little ship. Even the Gearing class couldn't handle a small ASW helicopter like the SH-2 Seasprite on about a thousand more tons of hull.
Considering Chakri Naruebet and even Garibaldi are considered by some to be too small to be effective operating Harriers how can anyone seriously contemplate a single Harrier on a WWII vintage destroyer?
I should specify that I like small carriers but only one or two aircraft is ridiculous.
That second drawing in particular. It looks like there's an SPS 39 3D radar ahead of the second stack. That's a pretty large radar. The two SPG 51 looking radars just ahead of the flight deck are definitely not to scale either--although I can't figure out why they're even on the ship given you'd need a tartar launcher or two to use them...
That second drawing in particular. It looks like there's an SPS 39 3D radar ahead of the second stack. That's a pretty large radar. The two SPG 51 looking radars just ahead of the flight deck are definitely not to scale either--although I can't figure out why they're even on the ship given you'd need a tartar launcher or two to use them...
A few years back a company built a device that they mounted on an oil rig support ship - it basically extended a long gangway, the end of which was completely stabilised in 3 dimensions while the ship bounced around underneath it. The idea was that they would put the end of the gangway onto the oil rig, and personnel could simply walk between the ship and the oil rig - it was much quicker, cheaper and safer than transferring them by helicopter, and could be done in much rougher seas.
It's called active compensation, and it was a big deal when the technology was developed to the point where it worked with a ship maintaining position relative to a fixed platform (or a fixed point in the ocean). Making it work between a moving ship and a moving aircraft is a much more complex problem.
As I noted, it probably can be done today, though it would be big and complicated. With the technology available in the 1980s, it was almost certainly impossible.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
