NationStates Jolt Archive

(OOC: These ships are intended for the AMW universe, though I suppose it is likely that they'll appear in the mainstream if I ever have a use for them there. As such they're... not those darn Super Dreadnought dealies, being instead designed for use in real-world geography and built by a sane-sized nation. I just thought that in leaving-out the AMW tag I might be more likely to get input from other players: BG has never designed battleships in the past, so it's all a bit best-guess. I suppose that, unusually, I'll allow this thread to be used for both in and out-of character posts, and AMW/non-AMW contribution... assuming that I can get any at all. Er, also, I finished the design and drew the picture (in MS Paint) while still full of vodka, sooo don't be too cruel!
The Soviets aren't likely to sell any of these: they're battleships, not cookies [not that we sell cookies, either, bad example, heh], but since I don't do battleship design, I thought that I'd try to get it seen before I go using something that doesn't... work.
Most of the background and comparisson with other ships and nations is specifically in reference to AMW.)

Utopia Class Battleships
All Power to the Soviets!
http://www.nationstates.net/images/flags/uploads/beth_gellert.jpg

Background:

On independence in 1947, the Indian Principality had behind it several generations of British colonial heritage, control of islands more than a thousand kilometres from the mainland, and a serious feud with the neighbouring Indian National Union. Still, the Principality did not develop a strong navy, though some advanced projects were undertaken, including the launch of perhaps the world's first trimaran warship -the frigate Ood- and the Alpha Test guided-missile nuclear submarine. Some suggest that the problems encountered in these over-ambitious schemes may have contributed to the aversion of the politically overbearing Prince Llewellyn to further naval expansion.

Towards the end of his rule, Prince Llewellyn, isolated on the island of Victoria Salvadoria (also known as Taprobane, Serendib, Ceylon, or Sri Lanka), began development of gun and armour ships intended to disrupt poorly escorted invasion transport fleets and provide gunfire support for his own counter-invasion plans against the Soviet-controlled mainland. Reunification saw the Prince deposed and his plans scrapped, but the technologies and facilities that survived enabled the First Commonwealth, under a militant-minded Sopworth Igo, to commission two gun and armour ships, which were later titled Black Flag Class Armoured Gunboats.

These gunboats suffered badly from a lack of experience in numerous key technological and tactical fields, and though both ships engaged enemy forces in the Coral Sea Incident, bombarding the French fortifications at Nouméa and absorbing some damage, they were frequently criticised by crews and engineers, who complained of poor seakeeping, suspect reliability, and buggy gun mountings. Still, the experience of building and using heavy guns -the Black Flags carried two triple mounts with 11" (279mm) guns, and forging hundreds of tons of armour plate proved Soviet capacity, and relations with the INU had improved in time to see the Commonwealth's neighbour building and mounting 15" rifles on a class of monitors.

From its inception in 1982, the Soviet Commonwealth has fought a low-intensity conflict with the Roycelandian Empire, initially supporting the USSR and later, after the Union's collapse, as the leading light of world revolution. This struggle has seen direct engagement of Roycelandian dreadnaughts [sic], and even the sinking of one (Elliot Carver), by forces that have felt desperately vulnerable to shellfire. In addition to this, newly independent Australasia soon set about the construction of her own battleships, and, before long, European powers France and Walmington began their own programmes. With all four of these powers plus the Quinntonians maintaining a presence in the Indian Ocean -considered to be the Commonwealth's back garden- it was almost inevitable that the Soviets would eventually get in on the act... in Geletian style.

The first ship of the two-strong class was launched earlier this year and is building, awaiting commission, while the second has been laid-down in its place at Alaric-Galle.

Run: Two hulls
-CS Communism (motto La Sociale)
-CS Anarchism (motto In Victory, Liberty)

Role: Ship-to-ship warfare with gun, missile, and helicopter armament; and, also:
-Survivable command hub through advanced communications and staff quartering in ample design space behind heavy armour weight
-Intimidating presence through sheer size and the ability to survive fire and provide visible proof of these qualities close to shore
-Reduction of coastal defences with cost-effective heavy and rapid gunfire and rocketry
-Augmentation of marine forces thanks to carriage of naval infantry and equipment in designed safety and comfort

Secondary roles include:
-Self defence by heavy armour; modern countermeasures; point-defence gun, rocket, and missile batteries
-Some theatre anti-ballistic-missile duty with a capability for a large and heavy air-burst volley, probably directed by Citadel-S aboard associated vessels
-Potential fleet defence through capable absoption of disproportionate enemy attention and delivery of surpressing fire
-Resupply and refuel of fleet assets through substantial stores and in-built transfer conduits

Ship

Dimensions:
-Length 887ft/270.35m waterline, 921ft/280.72m overall
-Beam 128ft 4in/39.1m
-Draught 33ft 10in/10.3m

Displacement:
-Standard 62,720t
-Full Load 71,490t

Complement:
-Wartime 1,350
-Flag 1,492

Detachment

Aircraft:
-3 to 4 helicopters, Merlin, Super-Helix, Dhruv.
Notes
-Only three of the large Merlin helicopters are supposed to be carried, where as four Dhruv are easily accepted. Merlins tend to be used only when the Utopia is taking part in an amphibious assault and helicopters are required in ferrying troops ashore, Super-Helix are indicated in dedicated anti-submarine warfare taskforces of which Utopia is rarely likely to be a part, and Dhruv are the intended usual aircraft.
-Dhruv are typically used for search-and-rescue, anti-submarine patrol, and often as anti-ship-missile decoys. They also ferry persons and supplies between ships and to ship from shore.

Troops:
-Accommodation for 400 equipped Soviet Marines or 800 under wartime conditions.

Armament

Primary Battery:
-12x16in 52cal guns (4x3)
Notes
-The largest shipboard guns ever built in India, these weapons are designed and made with technical assistance form the Indian National Union, which receives Pinaka MLRS and related technologies in exchange.
-Utopia's guns can be loaded at any angle, meaning that they need not depress and elevate between each salvo. Firing interval is, officially, below 20 seconds.
-A range of 50km is reported for the 16in guns at optimum elevation and with a full charge, but this does not take into account base-bleed and even rocket-assissted shells, both of which are available.
-11in subcalibre rounds give an 80km range and carry similar weight to the warhead element of a Tomahawk cruise missile, while travelling much faster and being ideal for mounting of a penetrator warhead.
-The Soviet 16/52 guns are extremely powerful high-pressure weapons that can generally expect to endure relatively few firings before barrel-change is required: the COG judges that the Utopias will serve mostly within the Soviet sphere of influence, in the Indian Ocean, relatively close to major home ports, and so can more easily put-in than is the case for ships of the imperialist powers, which may face the prospect of a major overhaul in a remote backwater colony and so do not lean the same way in the power/wear balance.
-The main battery can, by fragmentation shells and data-link with Red Sky complex ashore or aboard other warships, be directed in an anti-ballistic-missile role, though the potential engagement envelope is limited by elevation.

Secondary Battery:
-8x110mm 62cal DP guns (4x2)
-72x214mm rocket tubes (6x12)
-16xVanguard anti-ship cruise missile tubes (4x4)
Notes
-High-velocity rapid-fire dual-purpose guns are new-generation long-range weapons with various shell types including air-burst anti-aircraft/missile rounds and guided surface-attack munitions. Range is 35km with conventional shells and 100km with extended-range munitions, and rate-of-fire is over 20 rounds per minute for each gunbarrel, or more than 40 per mount.
-Rockets are evolved Pinaka with dual thrust, and are contained in six boxes, three per side. Range is extended to 120km and payload is 250kg. Maximum thrust accelerates 214mm rockets to Mach 4.7 and 40km altitude, then throttles-down for cruise to target. Rockets strike at Mach 1.8, causing massive damage and destroying potential 3.9sq.km area. Some reports suggest that continued guidance problems plague the evolved system.
-Vanguard are renamed Qian Wei in four ready-to-launch quadruple canisters with a reload in magazine. Agile high-subsonic seaskimmers, these have 145kg warheads and inertial/active-radar guidance. Range is from 5 to 130km.

Air Defence Battery:
-32xLoviatar-S surface-to-air missile silos (4x8)
-8x30mm close-in-weapon-system positions
Notes
-Loviatar-S is a vertical-launch-system dealing with multiple threats from wavetop to 12,500m and close-in to 25km. Guidance uses microprocessor intelligence and frequency agility technology to take full advantage of high-agility gas-dynamic missile control and Mach 4.5 velocity. The system protects against both aircraft and missiles, but it is intended that Utopias would benefit from fleet air defence assets for long-range protection.
-2 BG-Falcon-Scavenger Loviatar-S fire-control radar direct Loviatar. The system has a 65km range, and each of the two sets trace up to 12 targets and direct 4 simultaneous engagements with up to 8 missiles.
-CIWIS are BGGM-30, each position combining a radar-directed 5-barrel 30mm rotary cannon with 4 radar/optics-guided Sumpit high-velocity missiles.

Other Weapons:
-24x214mm Seahammer anti-submarine-warfare rocket tubes (4x6)
-Several machineguns
Notes
-Seahammer is an Indian Soviet system introduced in 2006 following 1st Commonwealth use of RBU-1000 and RBU-6000. It uses rockets derived from a sub-project carried-out by universities involved in Pinaka's development, and can be used against submarines, divers, and torpedoes. Seahammer can attack targets at a depth beyond that attainable by any known combat submarine. Several complete reloads are carried in the magazines, and reloading is automatic. A kill probability of better than 0.8 is reported against the most modern submarines and against homing torpedoes, while successful interception of a straight-running torpedo is close to assured: with digitised multi-target-handling capability, two systems per side, and a range of several kilometres, Seahammer means that an average of better than two-dozen enemy torpedoes are required before the odds favour a hit on a Utopia Class battleship. Soft countermeasures are intended to further enhance this statistic in Utopia's favour.
-Number and type of machineguns may vary, as these weapons are dismountable and may be associated with Soviet Marine detachments transported aboard Utopias. The new 6.5mm INSAS GPMG is far the most likely candidate, and would be mounted for use in last-line-of-defence operation against aerial or surface threats.

Countermeasures
-Infra-red spoofing decive
-Chaff launchers
-Radar Warning Receivers and Jamming system
-Towed torpedo decoy
-Disposable noisemakers
Notes
-Computers with manual over-ride co-ordinate multi-layer defences in each threat-arena, directing hard and soft kill response to every threat as appropriate. For example, so-called noisemakers are deployed as part of Seahammer system and do not interrupt direct intercept of incoming torpedoes.

Armour

Notes
-Steel used in the Utopia's armour scheme is forged of Chhattisgarhi iron, which is rated as some of the finest in the world, and with the benefit of more than two thousand years of high-quality Indian steelsmithing such as that which raised an immortal pillar in Delhi and produced what became famous as Damascus steel.

Belt:
-Up to 17in main belt
-1.5in to 8in internal belt
Notes
-Utopia's large beam -which is, for example, more than 2.5 metres greater than that of its British contemporary, the Courageous Class- is necessitated partly by the incline of the external belt.
-The internal belt has been called unnecessary, given the incline of the outer belt, and it represents a serious expense and provisioning for maintenance access entails further complication. However, the Utopias, as the world's newest battleships, are intended to be its most powerful, and with a run of just two ships planned, they must survive and are allowed to cost more than a Roycelandian, Walmingtonian, Australasian, or French battleship, which are built in larger numbers by smaller nations.

Deck:
-2in top deck
-7in main deck
-0.8in para-aramid lined splinter deck
Notes
-Top-deck is designed to stop some incoming shells, general-purpose bombs, and top-attack missiles, and to defeat some piercing bombs and at least arm the rest for detonation prior to the main deck.
-Main deck is designed to defeat heavy plunging shells and penetrating bombs that pass the top deck.
-Splinter deck contains damage to the main deck.

Main Turrets:
-25in face
-10in top
-11.5in rear
-10.5in sides

Conning Tower:
-9.25in roof
-18.5in sides
-3.75in floor
Notes
-Tower has two main layers. Roof armour represents what is on top, while the floor is that of the upper layer and acts as roof to the second, which generally is the more important in ship operations.

Barbettes:
-17in to 22.5in

Bulkheads:
-Most 12.5in to 17in
-Para-aramid-lined splinter protection common

Torpedo/Mine:
Notes
-The Utopia design incorporates a triple-bottom; the lower part of the side belts are involved in under-water protection; and three-layers of torpedo bulkheads are enhanced by the placement of tanks, some of which are kept void while others carry water or liquid fuel for fleet replenishment missions, all of which are designed to deform and contain shock and absorb leaks from eachother.
-Utopia also has a greatly reinforced keel, and propulsion and steering systems are protected as far as possible.

Propulsion

Powerplant:
-Ashpo T-4 IFEPS Integrated Full Electric Propulsion System
-200,000shp
Notes
-IFEPS enables other systems to be powered by the main drive, easing maintenance, but batteries and several diesel generators are held in reserve should the primary powerplant be compromised.
-Though few corners were cut elsewhere in the design, the use of IFEPS instead of nuclear power represents one saving, and is made with knowledge of the limited operational theatre in which Utopia is intended to serve.

Propellers:
-4
Notes
-Thanks to the IFEPS drive, Utopia's design was able to mount the ships' propellers in pods.
-These can be mounted more quickly than the conventional shaft drive and are easily accessed for maintenance, being removable without drydock facilities.
-The pod design reduces drag by several percent, compensating slightly for the ship's considerable beam in achieving acceptable speed and fuel-efficiency.
-This arrangement also means that the ship has two separate engine-rooms in different parts of the ship, positioned to enhance damage-control and make the best use of available space.
-In addition to pushing the ship, two of a Utopia's pod-mounted propellers can be directed around 360 degrees to steer the ship, which is especially useful in enclosed waters as well as during combat manoeuvre.
-The pods are quite heavily armoured, and signature reduction is evident thanks to electric and streamlining elements.
-Some concerns remain over combat-readiness of an otherwise proven system, mainly in relation to survivability of essential connections during intense vibration caused by explosions and weapon strikes on the ship.

Bunkerage:
-6,800t oil
Notes
-Since Utopia is designed to operate mostly within the Indian Ocean and its surrounding seas, a significant portion of the ship's bunkerage is intended to support the battleship's own escorts.

Performance

Speed:
-29kts maximum offical.
-16kts cruise.
Notes
-Actual maximum speed may be 30kts or more.

Range:
-6,500nm at 16kts with ship-dedicated fuel.
-9,000nm at 16kts with reserve and escort-assigned stores.
-2,150nm at 28kts with ship-dedicated fuel.
-3,000nm at 28kts with reserve and escort-assigned stores.

Silhouette
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/Chivtv/NS1/utopiaclass.jpg
Notes
-Not inclusive of most minor details and secondary weapons.

A nice ship!

One main comment. NERA is useless on battleships. Shaped charges are useless against warships since the penetration is small and not explosive. In order to seriously damage a warship, you need to detonate a large shell inside it... a pinprick from a high speed metal jet isn't going to do much. Further, any large caliber shell that hits will simply crunch through the NERA. It's not useful, and just adds extra weight. Make the decapping plate thicker instead. More useful.

You might want to carry some longer ranged SAMs . Currently, you are unable to effectively engage surface targets at ranges exceeding 65 km, which renders the ship vulnerable to bombers.

Your rockets can destroy a 3.9 square kilometer area? Are they nuclear tipped?

Your design is interesting, but as has been stated, the NERA is useless on a warship.

Those rockets, I take it when you mean they have the potential to destroy 3.9 kilometers, you're talking a volley-fire of the rocket system on a single area target, rather than a single rocket? That is, unless you have some pretty large (and a large number of) submunitions jammed into the Pinaka-derivative.

Thanks.

I was in two minds about the NERA, probably didn't think that through enough and may not have done it, 'in reality' and I suppose that I just wanted something else to point to when indicating the ship's survival against a theoretical barrage. I think that I'll take it off the belt, but I'm wondering if it still may have some utility on the upper deck, perhaps against missiles with a plunging attack profile? It would perhaps be preferable to replace wrecked NERA blocks than two-inch deckplates that, unlike the main belt, may still be relatively vulnerable to large shaped charges?

As to the air defences: I had considered that, and the Soviet Commonwealth has such systems available, but the Utopias are supposed to serve mostly in the Indian Ocean and surrounding waters, and the Commonwealth has air bases in Sri Lanka, Zanzibar, and Vietnam. More importantly, fleet-defence frigates (destroyers to most navies) and a new class of multi-role cruiser are supposed to be attached to the battleships. Granted, those are potentially vulnerable to enemy gunfire, but are supposed to have the range to hang-back behind Utopia while still providing SAM coverage (and we don't have the resources for a truly perfect navy, anyway! :) ). The missiles and air-defence guns aboard Utopia are, in conjunction with soft-kill countermeasures and heavy armour, mostly intended for point-defence once the escort screen is breached. That's the Soviet Commune's reasoning behind the decision, anyway!

Ah, the evolved Pinaka rockets attain much of their destructive potential from the 40km supersonic descent, and has the capacity for a couple of hundred kilos of explosive bomblets.

Unlike armoured vehicles, the sheer mass ensures the survivability of a ship. I could fire an AT-15 "Krizhantema" into your superstructure, probably kill a couple of crewmen and wreck some systems, but I would not destroy your vessel. Your NERA would only really defeat HEAT and other shaped-charge warheads, while most Naval weapons consist of giant packs of explosive strapped to projectiles, often fuzed so that they smash through armour and detonate inside. The stream of molten steel is less damaging than a ton of HE going off inside your superstructure.

Ah, the evolved Pinaka rockets attain much of their destructive potential from the 40km supersonic descent, and has the capacity for a couple of hundred kilos of explosive bomblets.

This makes sense. You will need to be more specific, otherwise the evolved Pinaka rockets may be determined a "Godmod." I recommend you state something along the lines of the "Cluster munition Pinaka-E rockets have the ability to destroy an area target of 3.9 square kilometers" or something ot that extent.

You don't sell cookies? What? But I just ordered a batch of Revolutionary Girl Scout Cookies...

You don't sell cookies? What? But I just ordered a batch of Revolutionary Girl Scout Cookies...


Yeah, those kick the crap out of the Power to the Proletariat Boy Scout cookies...

Okay, I'm going to stop now, before I give in to this urge to derail the thread, because:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/PavelKirilovich/Humour/NetBusiness.jpg

That's right, Armand, you're the one billionth customer to fall for the phoney cookie scam. It's paying for the People's Cosmonautical Co-operative's exploration of the moon, you know :)
No doubt these shall fly the red flag around the oceanic rim to encourage sympathy for the Soviet model rather than ideology espoused by your formative Combine.

As to Pinaka, in its basic form it is a real system developed by India, adopted by the Commonwealth because we're set on the subcontinent. The extended range version with greater destructive capacity is at least a real proposal, though I'm not sure how far development has gone. In keeping with some of India's own limitations (though the ISC's history is quite different, I still don't want to get carried away) I consider the system to be a little prematurely deployed (due to increasing tensions in AMW) and still to be suffering guidance trouble. The little information I have to hand is less than clear about the exact means to achievement of 3.9sq.km's of generally-termed 'destruction', but I'm not too much inclined to demand exact casualty lists and such from opponents in battle and usually content to convey the basic... sentiment of powerful multiple-launch rocket artillery.

I suppose that you're right about the NERA. I'd still like some extra level of protection beyond the conventional weight of armour, since the Soviet Commonwealth has a tradition of doing things a little differently (most foreigners probably suspect that they do it on purpose, even if it doesn't give a clear advantage), but, lacking the university research teams of the imaginary Commonwealth, I'll have to do some thinking on alternatives.

Yes, I understand that feeling. I recently designed a warship myself, the Norseman-class, and while I was doing it, I could only remember the work I'd done on an MBT earlier, wondering exactly why we all use a few inches of steel rather than a few inches of ballistic composite like Chobhom.

An alternative may be some kind of "Blister." Assuming the round is fuzed to detect when it has penetrated something and then detonate, you could have "blisters" of a few centimeters of steel over your primary armour belting, which would act as "Spaced Armour," but in the case of penetrative-fuzed warheads, they would think they've penetrated the armour belt, and detonate outside the main armouring.

In theory, at least, and I don't know how workable that is.

Hm, yes, in a fairly primitive sense that is the basis of the multiple deck/belt/bottom arrangement (well, not exactly with the belts, but close enough). Certainly the decks, with the top being designed to arm any penetrating warheads that it doesnt' stop, hence its relatively slight 2" thickness. I suppose, with thought to replacement in their construction and mounting, those plates will be relatively easy to replace once damaged, at least relative to a single six, seven, or eight inch deckplate. Ho hum.

I was thinking about referencing blow-out panels and such, in some parts of the ship, but it started to sound too complicated when I was trying to work in watertightness (now that's not a word!), pressures in adjacent sections, and other aspects of armouring. I was thinking about fragile vacuum pockets that would rupture in an explosion, but the problems seemed, in my head, to out-weigh the likely value.

Ah well, so long as they Utopias are superior to most Franco-Roycelandian opposition, they don't have to be perfect.

I'm thinking of a second class of battleships or battlecruisers, for the current intercontinental conflict, that would be Utopia-lites with a lot of frills removed. I don't know why I mention that now, but there y'go.

These Utopias will deal out the harshness. I'd be interested in acquiring one or two of them, if they ever go on the open market.

NERA might help protect sensors and tertiary weapon systems from submunition attack, but that's about it.

The problem with the spaced armour concept is most heavy shells are designed to detonate SECONDS after impact. The purpose of a thin preliminary plate is to knock off the ballistic cap off of shells and missiles, dramatically reducing penetration and inducing yaw.

You don't use tank armour packages on ships because tank armour is designed to resist totally different penetration effects. And it's ridiculously expensive =P

You don't use tank armour packages on ships because tank armour is designed to resist totally different penetration effects. And it's ridiculously expensive =P


There, behold a better way of saying what I was earlier.

The use of reactive armour, even if we were going to apply it extensively to the final design, would not be a significant expense in a multi-billion-dollar project. It's a lot less metal than the main armour, we're swimming in rubber, and the USSR used [different] reactive armour when it couldn't even afford to fit all of the conventional armour to its tens of thousands of tanks. Well, it's not like we plan to make the things out of MBT ceramics!

It was never going to be a primary armour element, anyway. The side-fixing proposition was for areas not protected by the main belt, which, though generally less critical, might conceivably be effectively attacked by something smaller than a battleship's main battery. But that's dropped, anyway, I was just being over-cautious in a NationStatesy way, and probably wouldn't have suggested it if I were actually in the Commonwealth Oceanic Guard Supreme Soviet ;)

Hm. I wonder if there was anything else I wanted to ask for tips on? Maybe I'll remember next time I open the vodka. Perhaps I should dedicate more space to talking about the sensors and such. That's something to do, this week, I suppose.

Anyway, I don't do very much with Beth Gellert in the mainstream of NS, these days, paying more attention to AMW, but we're in the 19th Cherry Cup on the NS forum, surprising everyone by our mysterious ability to play hockey without knowing the rules, and that's going well enough, so maybe I'll get back into more military-related RP outside AMW after that, and have a go at exporting weapons ,like this battleship, which we've not done since... 2003. It'd be nice to think that a few Utopias are sailing about once I've moved to Aus and lost touch with NS.

The 3rd Commonwealth's new battleship makes a big impression on Unioners, who not too long ago looked to the Blake as India's premier capital ship. And while it does make the IN swallow its pride and accept Bedgellen primacy on the waves as well as in the air and on land, no few Unioners will be happy to know that the Indian Ocean is well and truly closed to the imperialist powers.

Some Unioners, as critical of the terribly expensive battleship as ever, cite the N-squared law and point out that while the Bedgellens might outgun every other battleship afloat save the Lyong-ti, and while their ships might be some of the largest anywhere, the Commonwealth only boasts a pair of them. The principal adversaries, France and Roycelandia have many more, even if those ships are of lesser quality. Still, the Commonwealth Oceanic Guard has plenty of escorts to throw around, and in this modern age the anti-ship missile will come into play long before the heavy gun.

In addition to the excitement stirred up over the INA's imminent acquisition of the Pinaka, Unioners have also become quite interested in the novel Seahammer system. The Ministry of Defense is interested enough to send a delegation to Raipur with the purpose of discussing a possible IN purchase.

Soviet mariners fully recognise that the rise of the Commonwealth Oceanic Guard since the late 1990s means a change not only for the Commonwealth but also its most agreeable neighbour, and India's greater naval tradtion is recognised in COG nomenclature.

The largely Union-designed JIC in Soviet service is, of course, named for a state within the INU, while one of three planned Defiance Class fleet carriers (the trimaran project having been abandoned for being projected to make the Commonwealth wait many years for a second working fleet carrier) is to be named CS Union, and ships amongst the Gujarat Class include -as well as Gujarat herself- such names as Daman, Maharashtra, Diu, Madhya Pradesh, Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, Rajasthan, and Mumbai.

Needless to say, the Soviet Commune agrees to demonstrate Seahammer and display its mounting aboard the second Chainmail Class cruiser, due for commission in the near future, all of which shall be arranged in the near future (as I'll fall asleep any minute!).

(OOC: Hey, while I'm at it, if you happen to have any famous Unioners whose name may grace a Soviet ship, do share! This latest round of naval expansion has us launching ships called Gibbon, Cucumber, El Aaiún, Wild Ass, Remiped, Jim Connell, Livingstone Miyanda, Dic Penderyn, Prince Suicide, and Ogpu amongst others!)

(OCC: Oh, certainly! There's Prime Minister Sardar Patel, Field Marshal Miroslav Syzko, Admiral Ali Khan Zarovar, Admiral Gopalkrishna Soyal, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Stanley Plum, Kanishka Ghaffar...I've recently broken with the tradition of naming IN ships after towns. The IN's new Bodkins are named Vijay and Vikram, Victory and Hero respectively, and the others are Trishul (trident), Bahadur (valiant), Rakshak (protector), and Shamsher (sword of justice). A bit boastful for IN tastes, but for once they've got ships that can live up to the name!)

Fantastic :) The COG overview will be all kinds of fun once I get it ready. Right now, I'm sure that my PC is about to catch fire. Woot.

I don't think that I've given this any contribution-free bumps as yet, so here's one, though it's probably at the wrong time of day. Probably the thread has served its purpose, but I'll possibly be posting something new, tomorrow, with Indian Soviet cruisers and/or carriers at issue...