County Class Destroyers

[Weaver]

Couldn't find a specific thread for these, and they're relevent to half a dozen "alt.RN" threads.

My pet theory has always been that, as Sea Dart ships of whatever type came into service, instead of scrapping the Counties, the RN should have converted them to DDHs in the same way that Chile did much later with their's. Basically, this entails dumping Sea Slug, extended the flight deck to the stern and fittting a big double hanger. Doing this would have allowed the RN to put 16 Sea Kings to sea without taking up one inch of space on a carrier deck.

I recently found some excellent pictures of the Chilean ones, herewith:





















The last two are a Sea Slug without it's boosters (which you don't see often), and it's Type 901 radar, both of which are now on shore display after the Chileans eventually scrapped their Counties.

All the pictures came from this unofficial Chilean Navy site, which is well worth a look:

http://base.mforos.com/error-forum/

Unfortunately, I can't read the lingo, so I can't give individual picture credits.

[rickshaw]

When the Chileans were refitting their Counties, there was a proposal to replace the Sea Slugs with a large number of Harpoons, using inclined firing tubes under the flight deck (a sort of VLS).  It would have allowed them to still operate the Sea Kings but would have greatly enhanced their firepower.

[Weaver]

When the Chileans were refitting their Counties, there was a proposal to replace the Sea Slugs with a large number of Harpoons, using inclined firing tubes under the flight deck (a sort of VLS).  It would have allowed them to still operate the Sea Kings but would have greatly enhanced their firepower.

Interesting: I wondered if the Exocets could be relocated there, either allowing B-turret to be kept or replaced with a forward point defence weapon.

The Chilean Counties used Super Pumas with Exocet capability.

[GeorgeC]

I had to look twice at this as I thought they had fitted a Seawolf on the top of the hanger.  Then i spotted the T22 mast as well  

[Thorvic]

The former Sea Cat director platforms abreast the aft funnel now house the Isreali Barak VL SAM system to replace the Seacat system.

[Joe C-P]

Dang, I could have used those photos some months ago before I sold my model County. I was thinking of doing a Chilean County, but couldn't find good images.

A couple DDH Counties would have been good replacements for the Tigers. Extend the flight deck and the hangar, replace the old SeaCats with a SeaWolf six-pack, and do the same as our reality forward, since guns and Exocets are a useful combination.

[pyro-manic]

What about putting the Exocets under the flight deck, as mentioned above, and putting a Leander-style Ikara pit in B position to complement the helicopters?

[Thorvic]

Give that the SeaSlug hadling room extended under the flight deck and hanger, it might make sense to rebuild the etern aft of the funnel to create a new lower flight deck and a hanger structurr the full width of the ship. Place a seawolf system and director above the hanger or possibly go for light weight Quad or Twin SeaWolfs in place of the Seacat. Fit Sea Dart in place of B turret/exocet and mount Exocet or later Harpoon abreast the fwd funnel replacing the ships boats. Ratains the full DLG fit but using more suitable and capable systems.

G

[Weaver]

What about putting the Exocets under the flight deck, as mentioned above, and putting a Leander-style Ikara pit in B position to complement the helicopters?

Thought of that, but it wouldn't work. If you look at an Ikara Leander, the launcher in it's "zareba" isn't over the former turret position, it's in front of it. What's over the turret position is the handling room, with a lift from the magazine, which is re-fitted for Ikara. If you fitted this setup to a County in A-position, then the launcher would be too close to the bow. You could fit the magazine & handling room in place of B-position (with the Exocets on the latter's roof), but you'd then have to have the launcher in place of A-turret, thus losing both turrets. That's not an unreasonable decision, but most people seem to want to keep at least one turret.

You could certainly fit Ikara in place of the Sea Slug installation: it's much smaller and the original Aussie magazine system was horizontal, so it should fit no problem. Sea Slug also had a nuclear option, so there must be a deep, secure magazine that could be used for nuclear Ikara warheads too. You could fit the launcher much further back than the Sea Slug, but the extended helo deck would still have to lose a bit, and that might bring into question whether you could still operate two Sea Kings simultaneously, given that the Sea King has a tailwheel layout and a longer wheelbase than the Super Puma.

My pet plan has the Counties being replaced in the "goalkeeper" role by Type-82-derived vessels with 2 x Sea Dart, 2 x Ikara and no helos, so refitted Counties that provide Exocet, helos, guns and maybe a towed array (when they become available) would complement them perfectly.

[Weaver]

Give that the SeaSlug hadling room extended under the flight deck and hanger, it might make sense to rebuild the etern aft of the funnel to create a new lower flight deck and a hanger structurr the full width of the ship. Place a seawolf system and director above the hanger or possibly go for light weight Quad or Twin SeaWolfs in place of the Seacat. Fit Sea Dart in place of B turret/exocet and mount Exocet or later Harpoon abreast the fwd funnel replacing the ships boats. Ratains the full DLG fit but using more suitable and capable systems.

G

I might be wrong, but I don't think the Sea Dart magazine would fit between the exisiting bulkheads forward, which would mean a VERY expensive and lengthy hull-rebuilding job. I'm mindful of D.K.Brown and other's comments to the effect that major structural reconstructions can end up costing as much as a new ship but still give a compromised result, and so possibly arn't worth it. Changing the non-structural stuff like hangers and the flight deck that are built onto the hull is one thing, but changing the actual load-bearing hull structure is quite another.

[DarrenP]

My preference for replacing Sea Slug would be Standard. And like my Canadian Iorquois classes I would like to see them as a Commonwealth standard.