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.