WesWorld

To rapidly veer the topic in another direction....

It strikes me that you'd be better off converting some lightships (or building new ones, to merchant construction standards for economy's sake) and outfitting them with Radar and flak instead of the big light-emitting stuff. Aren't those kinds of ships already designed for....exactly the same mission? Staking out a troublesome patch of ocean and squatting on it for a lengthy duration?

Quoted

Originally posted by Hrolf Hakonson
What I find very odd about the historical German AA batteries is how poorly they're armed in comparison to their own destroyers.

I think this is because they were quick and dirty modifications to avoid wasting too many resources: Cut away their original superstructures and take whatever gun is easily available.

Quoted

historical German AA batteries

don't forgot the former Dutch ones!
Gelderland --> Niobe, Hertog Hendrik, etc,etc
And those from Norge.

you could make soomething Like the Vice-admiral Popov and Novgorod

To be honest, a ship, no matter its size is not going to be a perfect AA platform. Ideally you would need something akin to an oil rig.

Even though they cant take the armament you want to give then, the Maunsell Forts built mainly in the mouth of the Thames Estuary during WW2 are probably the best OTL example of the way forward. There is info on them here

The Maunsell Army Forts would, with a bit of enlarging or an additional platform or two, carry a similar armament. The Sea Forts, no, those are too small.

I've thought of another technical problem, nothing to do with SS.

Radar equipment of 1938 is big, it needs a lot of space for the electronics, all those valves need lots of cool air blowing around (so you need air con basically), you need generating power (diesels I guess) to operate all the time, you need a plotting room or some kind of CIC on board to make sense of those squiggles on the scope (days before PPI plots), then you need to get that info back via radio or line to shore to fed into your defence system. All this will require extra men and equipment and to cram all this in your looking at a small sloop in size.
It's no good having a radar on the AA ship unless its linked to shore otherwise the whole defence system is open to gaps and lack of info and you don't need a long-range radar for gunnery.

Also its worth noting the Stukas of 1940 found it very hard to destroy the land radar sites. One decent bomb in your boat and its sunk. An easy way to rip open gaps in the aerial defence network. Yes it would be costly in planes but the second wave would have a clearer field.

However in wartime as additional firepower inside harbours with a short-range gunnery radar it might be more useful.

Quoted

Originally posted by Kaiser Kirk
4. As for need, the Dutch field a couple hundred bombers with torpedo carrying capability. In the unfortunate and very painful event of war with the Germans, they will hope mightly the Germans chose to attack somebody else first, and might indeed just seek to emulate the SAE harbor strike.

Exactly. Is it the most likely event? No. Is it a possible event? Absolutely (especially if the Dutch/Danes are listening to the Italians, who seem overly concerned about Germany).

Another thing the KM is looking into is improved torpedo nets/booms for in-harbor operations, particularly against smaller, lighter aircraft torpedoes. They're a pain in the neck, agreed, but if nets/booms can be designed that work against aircraft torpedoes, they might be worthwhile.

Well the Germans would likely know the Dutch never did get around to building one of these smaller lighter aircraft torpedoes, instead they lug around a modified version of the ship based one and set the motor on "high"
...which is mainly an artifact of my being lazy and not looking up weights & performance for aerial torps when I had the Dutch sub site to available to grab torp information from.

Edit: The Dutch are not terribly concerned about the Germans. There is little basis for any conflict there. The trend of annexing portions of other countries that have region german majorities is of mild concern, related to the post WWI German colonist/refugees given land in Dutch Guiana and Eastern Kongo... as well as precedent for others.

The Belgians are definitely not trusting. But between the two there is a fortified border and 30+ divisions, which they believe unpalatable for German planners. Not to mention blockading Rhine import/exports* will be really darn easy.

*that word was more interesting with my typo which started it with "s"

Quoted

Originally posted by Kaiser Kirk
Well the Germans would likely know the Dutch never did get around to building one of these smaller lighter aircraft torpedoes, instead they lug around a modified version of the ship based one and set the motor on "high"
...which is mainly an artifact of my being lazy and not looking up weights & performance for aerial torps when I had the Dutch sub site to available to grab torp information from.

Actually, the information in the encyclopedia seems to say that the Dutch are using fairly normal 18" lightweight airborne torpedoes: 18", 820kg torps are the weapon load on all of the torpedo bombers listed.....

Canada's pursuing a universal torpedo suitable for all platforms...

Atlantis is taking a slightly different route.....

Quoted

Originally posted by Hrolf Hakonson

Actually, the information in the encyclopedia seems to say that the Dutch are using fairly normal 18" lightweight airborne torpedoes: 18", 820kg torps are the weapon load on all of the torpedo bombers listed.....

Really? The 820kg sounds familiar. Maybe I wasn't as lazy as I recall. Wonder if what I was recalling was how I started and then later I got motivated. But you're correct, I've got this as my standard :

Type IV 45 18" Aerial Torpedo
In Service : 1927 Fokker T.III, T.IV and T.IVa seaplanes
Diameter 18"
Weight 820 Kg
Length 5.83m
Warhead 180 Kg TNT
Range
2500 m at 40 kts
6000 m at 28.5 kts
7500 m at 26.5 kts
Power plant Power plant 4 cylinder radial engine,
compressed air.

and all my torp planes carry them- including the T.V & T.VIIs carry them, so I've been doing for a bit.
Hmph, interesting, net away !

Quoted

Originally posted by ShinRa_Inc
Canada's pursuing a universal torpedo suitable for all platforms...

To be fired from those 0.0" torpedo tubes, of course!

Quoted

Originally posted by thesmilingassassin
Atlantis is taking a slightly different route.....