Merchant Ships Converted To Military Use

[PR19_Kit]

The Atlantic Conveyor's sister ship, Atlantic Causeway, was fitted with hanger later on in the post war period, but it was at the bows!

Apparently this was to act as a shelter in case rough weather brought waves over the foc'sle. The Causeway was only used to transport helicopters though, mostly Sea Kings, so the hangar was quite small.

[Thorvic]

Hmmn, well the MAC ships were really to give Convoys ASW protection, yes some had Air Defence fighters but that was to counter the Condors, which were used to shadow Convoys and pass the info back to command who would then coordinate the U-boats.

These days the submarine threat is generally countered by ASW helicopters, together with Maritime Patrol Aircraft and warships with the sophisicated sonar and ASW torpedoes. So a modern MAC ship would indeed be a Helicopter carrier, many of the Royal Navys Fleet Auxilaries are designed to carry and operate ASW helicpters which can also act in the VERTREP role too. I know the USN has similar ships but the Helicopters are almost exclusively for VERTREP rather than ASW.

HMS Reliant was modified from the former MV Astrominer post Falkands to test the the viability of a commercial Helicopter carrier conversion using a USN developed steel deck over the the containers to act as landing pad and a hanger created using modifed containers to protect the aircraft and act as workshops, stores, ordanace and offices.

However the design of todays ships make the concept of a MAC ship somewhat more difficult. The tankers are now in the supertanker category and i suspect their design is not suitable to have a flight deck created over the tanker deck together with a hanger, without impact to the performace, fuelling operation and stability. The modern container ships too also have their problems as whilst their deck is nice and flat together with containers making the ideal structure for a hanger, so much space would be required for the air ops that the load carrying ability as a container ship would be seriously impaired as those containers under the flight deck and hanger would be unaccessible.

The modern car transporters are probably the best bet as the deck can be used for Helo ops whilst the RORO car deck can still be used for cargo.

G

[tigercat]

What about grain carriers. I know some of the original MAC ships were converted from them but don't know how they have developed since then and if they would still be suitable.

True some of the tankers if converted would be larger than the purpose built RN Carriers

What about a non oil tanker do they come in smaller sizes?

The USS Tropicana anyone?

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Sounds a lot like the ARAPAHO aviation support ship which was proposed to fill a niche in providing an alternative to an actual aircraft carrier built from the keel up.  The ARAPAHO Aviation Support Ship would have been based on a commercial vessel with suitable modifications.  Somewhere on-line is a drawing of what it was supposed to look like with the flight deck and hangar constructed of shipping containers. 

Now making an ARAPAHO based on something the size of your VLCC or maybe a container ship such as the Colombo Express would certainly dwarf most naval vessels with a similar purpose. 

The keel of the container ship Colombo Express was laid in Corea in early november 2004. Its launching came 10 weeks later and delivery by the end of march 2005. With its carrying capability of 140.000 tons (!) the ship can carry over 8.750 containers. Sailing for shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, the Colombo Express 2005 is the world's largest container ship. The Asia-Europe-Asia route, with a stop-over in its home port Hamburg, lasts barely 56 days. Even with a height of 60 meter and a length of 335 meter it has a draft of less than 15 meters. Power: 68.640 kW/ 93.500 hp, speed 25 knots.

Additional details and image from hastingshobbies.co.uk

Links to ARAPAHO aviation support ship:

Google search results for ARAPAHO Aviation Support Ship
ARAPAHO Army Pre-positioned Sustainment Maintenance Facility (globalsecurity.org)
brickmuppet's blog section on weapons and kit

[Joe C-P]

An old supertanker could be used for the Sea Base concept. Clear the deck to let helos, V-22s, and UAVs operate, and use the holds (once cleaned and rebuilt) for storage - fuel, water, stores, ammo. This would be the follow up to the initial invasion, so the vessel wouldn't need to be fast, but the long range would help.

[PR19_Kit]

Linking two of these posts together.....

Geoff's mention of HMS Reliant reminds me that she was the nearest the British MoD would get to the ARAPAHO idea, but I have yet to see a photo of her anywhere post conversion.

As for doing a model of a current day version, Revell do the Colombo Express in 1/700, and it's GINORMOUS! Goodness knows how many containers are included, but they cover the whole ship to a depth of about 7 containers!

[Jschmus]

RFA Reliant, post-conversion:



Pulled from here:

http://rfaaplymouth.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=3958

[PR19_Kit]

Conversion? 

No wonder they didn't think it worth the effort, I've seen better converted trawlers! The 'Atlantic Converyor' was much more an ARAPAHO conversion than that 'thing', I'm not sure it merits the term 'vessel'.

Thanks for the pointer anyway.

[tigercat]

 
Trawling the net I found this interesting proposal.



Re: Aircraftcarriers that never made it into commission

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the late 1970's, Aberdeen based off-shore support group, Seaforth Maritime proposed to convert a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) into a civil aircraft carrier to transport workers to and from North Sea oil platforms. They invested at least £50,000 into a feasibility study to convert one of Shells' 318,000 dwt 'L' class tankers into what would have been the world's largest carrier, five times the size of the largest US carrier of the day.

The idea was to reduce the costs of ferrying North Sea oil workers by helicopter. Short take-off and landing fixed wing aircraft, carrying up to fifty passengers were envisaged and the vessel, designated (VLAC) Very Large Aircraft Carrier would be based to the east of Shetland. It would be fitted out with various accommodation and amenity facilities. Implementation of the £21,000,000+ project would have depended on the support of the oil companies and necessary consents from the Civil Aviation Authority. I don't know what aspect finally killed the project. Interesting though!

Regards.....Paul

[ChernayaAkula]

Asking Google for "Dragon Soviet Amphibious Group" didn't turn up much in the way of what I was looking for, but it did turn up THIS!

The Afloat Forward Staging Base [AFSB]

GlobalSecurity.org has an overview of the concept >>HERE<<, including some pics (see links on the right).


Found >>HERE<< on Finescale.cs.

Here's a smaller version of the pic:



Hmmm, Revell 1/700 Container Ship Colombo Express, anyone? 

[anthonyp]

Hmmm, Revell 1/700 Container Ship Colombo Express, anyone?  

This is exactly why I have one of them in the stash  

[Thorvic]

Hmmm, Revell 1/700 Container Ship Colombo Express, anyone?  

This is exactly why I have one of them in the stash  

Pity it line the Queen Mary II & the Bismark Class Revell are doing in 1/700 are all full hull wit no waterline option 

[Joe C-P]

Hmmm, Revell 1/700 Container Ship Colombo Express, anyone?  

This is exactly why I have one of them in the stash  

Pity it line the Queen Mary II & the Bismark Class Revell are doing in 1/700 are all full hull wit no waterline option 

It's very easy to waterline a full-hull kit with your Dremel or a fine-toothed saw.

[proditor]

Hmmm, Revell 1/700 Container Ship Colombo Express, anyone?  

This is exactly why I have one of them in the stash  

Pity it line the Queen Mary II & the Bismark Class Revell are doing in 1/700 are all full hull wit no waterline option 

It's very easy to waterline a full-hull kit with your Dremel or a fine-toothed saw.

He speaks the truth.  Many a throughdeck cruiser has seen the toothy maw of my Dremel blade.

[Dork the kit slayer]

Just to turn your heads around a little,I worked on a chilled meat cargo ship in the early sixties,the keel and hull being built as an escort carrier. Never completed before ending of hostilities. I remember the meat hook lockers had the welded inscriptions they were certified ammunition lockers.

OK back to the original WIF.