WesWorld

Il Mundo 1930

After signs of structural weakness onboard Alberico da Barbiano, an Italian light cruiser, an exhaustive survey was ordered to be carried out. The following report stated that the hull was too highly stressed in its current state, with significant hogging. Numerous ideas were floated as to what to do with da Barbiano; bulging the hull or scrapping being favoured most at the beginning of proceedings. These two were judged to be unsuitable, bulging would destroy her high speed and it made no sense to scrap an essentially new ship. Instead, da Barbiano will be converted into a small aircraft carrier for air defense purposes. The details of her conversion are;



Removal of the 152mm turrets to reduce hogging moment, - 340tons
Leaving the barbettes in place to avoid excessive construction costs
New boilers, with all 4 being trunked into a single funnel venting amidships
Installation of a small island and 4 100/47 AA guns
Installation of flight deck for 75% of the length
Installation of a single pneumatic catapult, type Gagnotto
A small elevator being added aft over X and Y barbettes

No munitions storage space has been allocated because of the tightness of the design. The flight deck is cut down forwards to save weight. An airgroup of 8-12 fighters is imagined with the winner of the 31/32 competition being the type carried.

The Regia Marina's 4th aircraft carrier, and 2nd largest was completed in January after almost 3 years on her construction. The Aquila is currently undergoing sea trials, which are of considerable interest to naval architects due her unique drive system. On the whole it seems satisfactory, but with some reports of vibration occurring at higher speeds. Her trials may last longer than the official 6 month period in order to rectify the problem and to provide experimental data for future projects.

Two merchant vessels are being converted into submarine tenders. The ships, Lago di Como and Lago Maggiore are expected to be deployed to East Africa due to the lack of infrastructure in the immediate area. It is unlikely that they will actually serve as submarine tenders as there are only a handful of submarines reported to be in the region.



A much larger Aliscafo has been ordered to supplement the experimental vessel built in 1929. The new ship, AS-1 is 200tons, considerably larger than the previous 75ton craft and is constructed from steel instead of wood. Her machinery is interesting, with light-weight boilers and turbines being used to produce 10,000shp. Their reliability is in question and sources have indicated that different forms of propulsion may be utilised if more experimental vessels are built.



The aircraft-carrying submarine Ettore Fieramosca has had some slight modifications over the past month. A small catapult was installed on her foredeck and she loaded small aircraft onboard in Taranto on numerous occasions. She was never seen to be unloading aircraft. It is presumed that they landed onshore. Fishing vessels in the area reported seeing small aircraft behaving erratically in the Golfo di Taranto. It is possible that the aircraft, of unknown type is suffering from some problems. The most likely case is that a few one-off aircraft have been built especially for Fieramosca and some corners have been cut for small size.

A new torpedo has been developed and is being fitted to new warships. The small weapon, of 325mm diameter has said to be for anti-submarine use. Against surfaced or submerging targets. The weapon weighs only 250kg and is of small size allowing easy fitting to small vessels. It is battery powered and has a short range of 1500m at 40knts. It has been described as the “adequate” torpedo.

Except for the lift over barbet thing it´s a nice idea to convert the CL into a carrier.

Regarding the hydrofoil - are problems to make it stable solved yet? IIRC these type of vessel is hard to controll if conditions (seastate) are rough...

Lift over barbettes? Nothing really technical about it.

Hydrofoils. Surface-piercing types with Vee foils are inherently stable. Now their problem is that in a following sea the the foil can't tell the difference between falling boat or rising water causing the bow to dig in in a sea crash. Larger vessels don't suffer from this as much as due to their greater length they can span the wavelength of the waves. The boat tends to contour the waves rather than platform, which is bad, but still a lot better than normal displacement hulls. The Vee foils act as stabiliser when you are hull-down.

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Originally posted by Red Admiral
Lift over barbettes? Nothing really technical about it.

Is there enough hull space?

Its a small lift. They don't pierce the deck much, if at all so it shouldn't be a problem.

I like the idea of a small torpedo. Is there any historical precedence?

I also wonder how fast you will develop your hydrofoils into the original PEGASUS-class (http://navysite.de/pboats/phm1class.htm)?

Skip the Harpoons for some normal AA guns and you´re pretty close....

Is that submarine legal under the Cleito Treaty?

I'm curious how Alberico da Barbiano is going to be counted for the Treaty. As a cruiser? A carrier? Both?

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Is that submarine legal under the Cleito Treaty?

As long as it's not over 2,000 tons and doesn't carry over a 130mm gun, yes, it's legal (a Class A submarine). Or if it's unarmed, then it's also legal according to the Treaty (since then it's not a vessel of war).

Small torpedo - 400mm used by France against merchant ships. Not really historical precedent but I extrapolated from the Italian towed torpedoes a bit and got a powered version.

PHM Pegasus works on different principles. AS-1 or others will not have sonar wave-predicting equipment, variable-incidence foils, or gas turbines.

Whats wrong with the submarine? Its just a normal submarine that has a hangar.

Alberico da Barbiano will become an aircraft carrier. Francesco Morosini will be retired and a replacement built, as has been previously stated.

Reason I asked about what was going to happen with Barbiano ties back to last week's discussion of the US and the Sacketts Harbor class CVLs. Rocky's belief was that those ships could be converted to training vessels, but that doing so would not free up the carrier tonnage that they used until their Treaty replacement date came up.

Italy already has(will have) a training carrier.

Are submarines allowed to carry aircraft under the treaty? I don't remember exactly which was why I was asking. I'd assume this would be likened to a seaplane on a cruiser or battleship and thus not a problem. However I wanted to be sure.

(Since Chile is not part of the treaty I don't pay quite as much attention to it as others should.)

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Italy already has(will have) a training carrier.

I know that. But if Rocky's reading of the treaty is right, Barbiano's tonnage will end up counting against both carrier AND cruiser tonnage until her replace-by date is reached.

Fair enough. It doesn't make much difference.

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Are submarines allowed to carry aircraft under the treaty? I don't remember exactly which was why I was asking. I'd assume this would be likened to a seaplane on a cruiser or battleship and thus not a problem. However I wanted to be sure.

There's nothing banning submarines from carrying aircraft in the Treaty. What IS banned on submarines are large-bore cannon (anything over 130mm), thus preventing Surcouf or some of the late-Great War U-boat cruisers.

The Filipino interpretation of the Treaty is that shifting a vessel between limited categories is perfectly permissible, however a transfer of a limited vessel to an unlimited one before its best-by date is reached is a no-no.

(Incidentally, the Philippines interprets

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(3,H, I (in part))
No vessel converted or retained by a Contracting Power in accordance with points (ii) to (vi) above, as more closely described in Articles V-X below, shall be charged against any tonnage allowed that Contracting Power.

to allow for the conversion of pre-expiration-date vessels to certain 'Category H' ships without penalty to limited tonnage. (I think Japan definitly agrees, at least with regard to 3,H,VI and a certain carrier...))

Of course, there's also now the question of whether the other three "Condottieri I" type CLs have similar structural problems...

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Of course, there's also now the question of whether the other three "Condottieri I" type CLs have similar structural problems...

They were all built to 0,77HS, now what about the ships built to 0,75HS? The other 3 ships were also surveyed but the effects were not so pronounced and felt to be within acceptable standards. They just won't leave the Med.