WesWorld

Naval Plans for 1938
The Bulgarian Navy is continuing it's growth but at this time has very little in the way of new ship classes to display here. Although no new classes are being introduced, Bulgaria plans to lay down a number of vessels of existing classes.

First, the contradestroyers Pazardzhik and Kazanlak will be laid down at Varna Voennomorski Korabostroitelnitsa (VVK: Varna Naval Shipyards) - albeit nine months apart. Pazardzhik will be laid down on January 1st, 1938, while Kazanlak's keel-laying is scheduled for October 1st. This will bring the number of Bulgarian contradestroyers to three. The class-leader contradestroyer, BVK Kyustendil, will be completed on March 13th.

Also in October, the Varna yards will lay the keels of the next two Drazki-class destroyers, BVK Zharak ("Ardent") and BVK Slaven ("Glorious"). A few modest changes in AA fit have been made to increase the 40mm battery by removing two 20mm and two .50cal MGs, and the ships are longer by nine feet. Finally, an aft gunnery director is added to improve the performance of the 130mm main guns. The designers also removed a nook used on Drazki for the bosun to store his stash of cigarettes, dirty magazines, and beer; as a result, the light displacement of these vessels is slightly different, and Seaman's Division has commented on the plans "We can't tell you why but we like the old one better".

The biggest project Bulgaria is undertaking for 1938 is the construction of ten (yes, ten) brand new minesweepers of the Rila Mountains class: two per quarter in Q1 and Q2, and three per quarter in Q3 and Q4. The Rilas, while primarily designed with the minesweeper role in mind, are also intended to be used as antisubmarine escorts, coastal patrol ships, gunboats, minelayers, riverine gunboats, harbor defense ships, and partridges in a pear tree. By the end of 1938, the Rilas will be the numerically strongest class of warships in the Bulgarian Navy (aside from MTBs). A final pair of Rilas are expected to be laid down in 1939; combined with the two 1937 Rilas, this will bring the class strength to sixteen, which will permit their assignment in two flotillas.

Good news on the auxiliary front, too: the Navy has funded two more Tants-class tugboats. The Bulgarian Navy thinks it's very important that they can push their ships into docks without having to hire some civilian bum who scratches the paint on the flagship just before His Majesty the Tsar drops by for a royal inspection. In their secondary roles as harbor patrol vessels the tugs carry an 88mm dual-purpose gun. Of course nobody really cares that I'm wasting my money on tugboats, so I won't belabor the issue.

On more exciting fronts, the submarine fleet will grow as three more Delfi-class submarines shall be ordered. The Tsar was reportedly pretty impressed with the first one, particularly when Kapitanleitnant Uzunov, captain of the Delfi, quoted the submariner's adage about "submarines and targets". The Tsar thus approved the submarine force's request for three new vessels, and the Navy high command immediately dispatched Kapitanleitnant Uzunov and the Delfi on Operation Get That Guy Out of Here While We Justify Battleship Expenditures. This operation involved sending the Delfi to visit foreign ports while the dreadnought Varna prowled the coast conducting gunnery exercises. Naval leadership has pronounced the Operation "a qualified success".

Finally, the one actual new design of 1938 will be the experimental motor torpedo boats Otmashtenie and Nepreklonen ("Revenge" and "Relentless"). These new boats will be the most radical craft ever to be built for the Bulgarian Navy. Allegedly, these MTBs were conceived in a single all-night work session when the designers were working a bit late to meet their deadline, and the lead designer, rather than send an ensign for takeout Chinese, decided to swipe a bottle of mavrud from the Chief of Naval Construction's office, whereupon the designers really cracked down and got to work. The aforementioned ensign finally did leave the office and returned an hour later with a lorry full of grape rakia and two policemen on the midnight shift wanting to be in the same place the lorry was going. Once the designers and the policemen passed out from exhaustion, the garbage man penciled in a few changes with the scribble "This could actually work" added up top, exchanging the 450mm gun for a 57mm gun and several dozen sunbathing babes. The Chief of Naval Construction signed off on the plans (though he didn't really look at the boat itself all THAT closely, if you know what I mean) then without any further ado took the rest of the week off at his beach house in Sozopol, leaving the engineers to work out the details. Fortunately the chief designer hired the garbageman as a senior designer and got the bugs hammered out over another few bottles of rakia. Turns out the garbageman moonlighted as a rumrunner in his younger, wilder days and had a surprising amount of knowledge about high-speed planing hulls and associated engines, as well as the ability to drink the rest of the design team under the table without flinching. Unfortunately the Budget Office vetoed the babes as standard equipment, but hinted they may be added in later refits if the experimental boats operate as the garbageman insisted.

[SIZE=3]Drazki-class destroyer Zharak subclass, Bulgarian Destroyer laid down 1938[/SIZE]

Displacement:
1,716 t light; 1,836 t standard; 2,075 t normal; 2,266 t full load

Dimensions: Length overall / water x beam x draught
403.07 ft / 393.70 ft x 36.00 ft x 12.20 ft (normal load)
122.86 m / 120.00 m x 10.97 m x 3.72 m

Armament:
8 - 5.12" / 130 mm guns (4x2 guns), 67.03lbs / 30.40kg shells, 1938 Model
Dual purpose guns in deck mounts
on centreline ends, evenly spread, 2 raised mounts - superfiring
8 - 1.57" / 40.0 mm guns (4x2 guns), 1.95lbs / 0.88kg shells, 1938 Model
Anti-aircraft guns in deck mounts
on side, all amidships, all raised mounts - superfiring
4 - 0.79" / 20.0 mm guns (2x2 guns), 0.24lbs / 0.11kg shells, 1938 Model
Machine guns in deck mounts
on side, evenly spread, all raised mounts
4 - 0.50" / 12.7 mm guns (2x2 guns), 0.06lbs / 0.03kg shells, 1938 Model
Anti-aircraft guns in deck mounts
on side, evenly spread, all raised mounts
Weight of broadside 553 lbs / 251 kg
Shells per gun, main battery: 250
10 - 21.0" / 533.4 mm above water torpedoes

Armour:
- Gun armour: Face (max) Other gunhouse (avg) Barbette/hoist (max)
Main: 0.98" / 25 mm 0.98" / 25 mm -

- Conning tower: 1.57" / 40 mm

Machinery:
Oil fired boilers, steam turbines,
Geared drive, 2 shafts, 38,262 shp / 28,544 Kw = 33.75 kts
Range 5,400nm at 15.00 kts
Bunker at max displacement = 430 tons

Complement:
153 - 199

Cost:
£1.369 million / $5.476 million

Distribution of weights at normal displacement:
Armament: 69 tons, 3.3 %
Armour: 33 tons, 1.6 %
- Belts: 0 tons, 0.0 %
- Torpedo bulkhead: 0 tons, 0.0 %
- Armament: 28 tons, 1.3 %
- Armour Deck: 0 tons, 0.0 %
- Conning Tower: 6 tons, 0.3 %
Machinery: 891 tons, 42.9 %
Hull, fittings & equipment: 668 tons, 32.2 %
Fuel, ammunition & stores: 359 tons, 17.3 %
Miscellaneous weights: 55 tons, 2.7 %

Overall survivability and seakeeping ability:
Survivability (Non-critical penetrating hits needed to sink ship):
742 lbs / 336 Kg = 11.1 x 5.1 " / 130 mm shells or 0.4 torpedoes
Stability (Unstable if below 1.00): 1.35
Metacentric height 1.8 ft / 0.6 m
Roll period: 11.2 seconds
Steadiness - As gun platform (Average = 50 %): 70 %
- Recoil effect (Restricted arc if above 1.00): 0.46
Seaboat quality (Average = 1.00): 1.32

Hull form characteristics:
Hull has rise forward of midbreak
and transom stern
Block coefficient: 0.420
Length to Beam Ratio: 10.94 : 1
'Natural speed' for length: 22.72 kts
Power going to wave formation at top speed: 64 %
Trim (Max stability = 0, Max steadiness = 100): 53
Bow angle (Positive = bow angles forward): 20.00 degrees
Stern overhang: 0.00 ft / 0.00 m
Freeboard (% = measuring location as a percentage of overall length):
- Stem: 25.75 ft / 7.85 m
- Forecastle (20 %): 20.50 ft / 6.25 m
- Mid (50 %): 20.50 ft / 6.25 m (12.00 ft / 3.66 m aft of break)
- Quarterdeck (15 %): 12.00 ft / 3.66 m
- Stern: 12.00 ft / 3.66 m
- Average freeboard: 16.67 ft / 5.08 m

Ship space, strength and comments:
Space - Hull below water (magazines/engines, low = better): 168.7 %
- Above water (accommodation/working, high = better): 93.4 %
Waterplane Area: 9,173 Square feet or 852 Square metres
Displacement factor (Displacement / loading): 76 %
Structure weight / hull surface area: 36 lbs/sq ft or 176 Kg/sq metre
Hull strength (Relative):
- Cross-sectional: 0.50
- Longitudinal: 2.15
- Overall: 0.58
Hull space for machinery, storage, compartmentation is cramped
Room for accommodation and workspaces is adequate
Ship has slow, easy roll, a good, steady gun platform
Good seaboat, rides out heavy weather easily

The recruiting value associated with the garbageman's design would be amazing.

They might also seriously affect an enemy gunner's aim too!

Is this an example of early stealth? "Is that an enemy MTB?" "No skipper just a speed boat with a deck load of sunbathing beauties." "Let's get closer number one." KABOOM!

Quoted

Originally posted by Hood
Is this an example of early stealth? "Is that an enemy MTB?" "No skipper just a speed boat with a deck load of sunbathing beauties." "Let's get closer number one." KABOOM!

Methinks that would be camouflage, not stealth.

And hey, Bulgaria does permit women to become fighter pilots. Maybe the next step is permitting them to serve aboard warships, too. (In real life and modern times, the Bulgarian armed forces has one of the highest ratios of women serving in the armed forces.)