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DIRECTOR OF NAVAL CONSTRUCTION AND DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS JOINT REPORT INTO FUTURE NEEDS OF THE ROYAL NAVY

The world is re-arming and Great Britain must rise to the challenge and maintain her standing among the world's navies. Our reliance on maritime trade and commerce dictates the fat that we must adequately protect out supply lines in time of war and protect our colonies and Commonwealth partners. We believe the building plan we outline here will serve the Royal Navy well into the forties without causing alarm aboard but showing enough intent to discourage others nations to exploit any perceived weakness in our fleet.

GUNS

Three new guns are to be developed within the next few years.
a) 4.5in Dual-Purpose: To equip all new carriers, battleships, AA cruisers and destroyers this new weapon will fire a lighter shell than the current 4.7in to allow faster manual loading and a two-piece shell will help further to keep rates of fire high. A new power-operated twin mount will be developed while an automatic loading mount might become possible by the mid 1940s.
b) 6pdr AA Semi-Automatic: Based on an Army design this gun will augment and then replace the current 2pdr Pom-Pom. A rate of fire of 95rpm and an effective ceiling of 15,500ft will cover the gap between the 4.5in and 2pdr weapons. Also this gun will have a secondary anti-torpedo boat capability and will replace the unsatisfactory current experimental 6pdr QF gun.
c) 9.2in Breech-loader: To arm a potential new class of 'Super-Cruisers' this new 9.2in weapon will also be used as a coastal artillery piece.

THE FLEET
It has been decided to create three main identical fleets to span the globe which could contain any regional threat with minimal reinforcements from Home ports.
Each fleet (Home, Mediterranean and Far Eastern) will comprise one Battleship Squadron of five ships, one Carrier squadron of two or three carriers and three to four flotillas of cruisers. These basic plans therefore require the building plan to produce sufficient ships for this plan.

BATTLESHIPS
Each main fleet requires one squadron of capital ships of five ships each. This requires a total of 15. Currently the RN has five QEs, five Rs and two Iron Dukes and Hood and two I class battlecruisers. Another nine battleships of the Saint Vincent and Victorious classes are currently under construction. It is therefore proposed to pay off the two Iron Dukes and the Rs (Commonwealth nations have expressed interest in these vessels) and refit the QEs and HMS Hood. Another Victorious class vessel shall be built to make the total of 15 ships. The three battlecruisers shall remain a separate squadron based wherever the strategic need is most pressing.
Refits: The QEs shall be partially rebuilt with new boilers, bulges, addition of deck armour and will e fitted with the new 4.5in and 6pdr guns. HMS Hood shall receive a very similar refit but with wholly new turbines and boilers and much altered armour.

AIRCRAFT CARRIERS
The Commander in Chief Fleet Air Aim Admiral R. G. H. Henderson has been of great help on this issue and he has many fertile ideas for the future of the Carrier Arm of the RN.
Each main fleet requires one squadron of carriers of two/ three ships each. This requires a total of 6-9. Currently the RN has HMS Glorious, Courageous and Furious, the two new Ark Royal class and three Swiftsure Class carriers currently still on the stocks. How to fulfil the Fleet Plan has caused much discussion. It is now planned each of the three main Fleets will only have two combat carriers and a third smaller carrier or tender for trade protection duties. Since the 'Three Sisters' are now obsolete in design and aging fast it is decided to build a sixth new carrier based on the Swiftsure design armed with the new generation of DP weapons.
Admiral R. G. H. Henderson has argued for the construction of an 'Armoured Carrier' with strong deck and belt armour to withstand level and dive-bombing given the likely operations in Home and Mediterranean waters within range of enemy land-based aircraft. This would follow Nordmarkian practice but the loss of hangar space and the reduction of aircraft and fuel to save weight is too great a loss. The main striking power of the carrier comes from her aircraft, her guns and armour are purely passive to defend the 'aerodrome', and this led to the rejection of the 'Armoured Carrier' in favour of a bigger fleet carrier. The idea may well come to fruition late in the 1930s if a class of four new carriers as a strategic reserve in Home waters is built.
Admiral R. G. H. Henderson has been instrumental in the design of a class of new Trade Protection Carriers. Only two or three of these light carriers will be built to serve as carriers for the smaller Stations. The design will carry around 48 aircraft with minimal armament and armour to save weight. In the event of a major war another eight of this class would be built as an 'Emergency War Standard Carrier'.
Admiral R. G. H. Henderson's call for a dedicated aircraft carrier tender has been heeded and with his requirements a mini-carrier has been designed. It will have a wartime emergency carrier function but its deck is mainly for flying off aircraft to other ships and land based while her hangars are repair shops. One or two of these ships may be built.

CRUISERS
A new class of 9.2in armed 'Super-Cruisers' are under consideration pending foreign competition.
The RNs traditional role of trade protection and patrolling requires light cruisers and the current fleet is aging rapidly with several ships built in 1914. To replace these ships fifteen new light cruisers armed with nine 6in guns will be built as a basic cruiser design that is cheap to build and economical to operate. Another ten cruisers armed with 12-15 6in guns will be built as fleet cruisers.
Refits: Around 15 of the C and D class ships will be refitted as AA cruisers with the new 4.5in gun to offer interim fleet air protection until the advent of larger AA destroyers.

DESTROYERS
Four flotillas of a new 'Standard Type Destroyer' armed with single 4.7in or 4.5in guns will be built to replace the old S and T class destroyers. More will be built if a major war breaks out.
Two flotillas of a new 'Scout Destroyer' are to be built armed with 4.5in twin mounts and heavy AA guns as gunnery destroyers for the main battle line.
Four small destroyer tenders are likely to be built to support the fleet.

SUBMARINES
The P Class will be completed once the Treaty ends. A new long-range submarine is under consideration as is a replacement for the R-Class.
Two 11,000 ton tenders may also be built.

Quoted

Our reliance on maritime trade and commerce dictates the fat that we must adequately protect out supply lines in time of war and protect our colonies and Commonwealth partners.

"fat" is probably not the right word here....


Anyway. Interesting choices here and there: the 9.2" gun, for instance, is an interesting choice, though it is a size with history in the RN and certainly lighter than the next size that the RN has historically used, the 12". The 6 pounder might be problematic from a historical perspective, but it seems that there's plenty of precedent here in WW for it. Germany may have do more work on the 50mm bore size, I suppose.

The idea of paying off the Rs and keeping and refitting the QEs seems quite sensible and reasonable.

IIRC the QE's had more reserve stability than the R's making them better candidates for rebuilds.

n.b nordmark hasn't actually managed to lay down an armoured carrier of its own, but it is building one for Germany.

Edit:-

May be worth replacing the QE's aging turbines as well as they will be quite worn, and new engines should make the ships good for 24-25knots. This seems especially sensible as it is covered by the same level of refit as deck armour changes in the infrastructure rules.

Edit2:-

Gravina produced a very nice drawing & sims for a QE rebuilt around 1930 they are here

Also Nordmark may be interested in buying Courageous or Glorious

SOVERSHENNOYE SEKRETNO

to Fleet Admiral Ivan Pavlovich Ponedelin, Chief of Naval Staff, Russian Federation

Authenticity: Very High

(SS) Our apparat in London have acquired joint report of Royal Navy Director of Naval Plans and Director of Operations concerning future organization and construction programme for Royal Navy. Several aspects of report are judged important to Russian Federation Navy.

(SS) First of all, is proposed strategy of dispersing striking power of Royal Navy into three similar fleets, in Home Fleet at Scapa, Mediterranian Fleet, probably at Suez or Gibraltar, and Far East Fleet, probably at Singapore. This fact indicates that senior leadership of Royal Navy understand that concentration of our main naval strike power in Northern Fleet at Murmansk is not intended as a challenge to them.

(N) You will recall that First Sea Lord Fisher's response to naval challenge from Germany early this century was to concentrate British Empire's battleships from many Stations into Grand Fleet.

(SS) Proposed dispersal of Royal Navy's striking power indicates understanding that our powerful Northern Fleet exists, not to challenge Royal Navy in their home waters, but to protect Russia's main naval power from another "Port Arthur" while still placing it in a position to influence Pacific affairs.

(SS) This dispersal does indicate that Royal Navy leadership are concerned with affairs in Mediterranian Sea and in Far East. We repectfully submit you approach First Sea Lord to determine extent to which we share common concerns and interests, especially in Pacific Ocean.

SOVERSHENNOYE SEKRETNO

The other question is, what comes once the Victorious class BB's are nearly finished, will we see some RL Vanguard types, or fast Vanguards, or some super BB's?

Well with the scrapping of the R's, the RN would have enough turrets for 6 Vanguards (including turrets from Courageous and Glorious). Question is would they have the money for them?

That's IF the R's get scrapped, they might well go to Commonwealth nations instead. Australia might be interested in the Iron Dukes, to go with their 13.5" fleet, but Canada I'm sure will be interested in the Rs.


The plans for the 4.5" gun sound like the RN has developed/is developing the 4.5"/45 (11.4 cm) QF Mark IV, though with a lighter shell than historical.

There are few countries GB would feel safe selling the R's to except for the two Commonwealth nations. However the threat of sales might be a useful blackmail tool [insert evil laugh].

I'd never even thought of "doing a Vanguard" myself (Doh!) since any replacement for the QEs is sure to be a bigger 16in gunned design.

The shell weight for the 4.5in is to be 45lbs but as a seperate projectile and charge with the option of a fixed single round later on. I'm still thinking about the type of mount. Either a basic 4in twin type or something like the historical 5.25in mount or the 4.7in twin of the M and N class destroyers.

Quoted

I'd never even thought of "doing a Vanguard" myself (Doh!) since any replacement for the QEs is sure to be a bigger 16in gunned design.

Or 16.5", since you've already got the guns and shells.

Quoted

The shell weight for the 4.5in is to be 45lbs but as a seperate projectile and charge with the option of a fixed single round later on. I'm still thinking about the type of mount. Either a basic 4in twin type or something like the historical 5.25in mount or the 4.7in twin of the M and N class destroyers.

Probably depends on what ships it's going on first: a more complicated mounting makes sense on a big ship, while the simpler one would make sense on a smaller vessel.