Questers
27-07-2006, 10:32
[OOC: This is a project I have been working on for months. In fact, I set about selling the Hood around ~ but the original writeup was rather small, badly laid out, confusing, and not informative. Therefore I wanted to type this monster out, history, career, design thoughts, and all. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I spent many late hours researching things for it, and if you want to whine, make fucking dumbass statements about ‘lolz I wil n00k 1t’ or anything similar, as I said in the last thread, you can do it. Go cry a river.
But do it somewhere else, please.]
‘Jesus… there’s more guns on this ship than whores in Southampton!’ – Fleet Admiral Riew
SERVICE HISTORY
February 2006: HMS Hood sunk at Gibraltar.
April 2006: After much internal debate and the suicide of First Sea Lord Meredydd Tonkin, the Admiralty put in a request for the design of another Hood sized vessel, which also culminated in the construction of Renown and Yamato classes, after the Prince of Wales classes were sold for scrap.
August 2007: QAE Marine puts in six designs for the Hood, labelled A-F (see attachment), of which E is chosen for its protection and firepower.
September 2007: Admiralty given go ahead for program, and funding begins.
April 2007: Hood laid down at John Brown and Company yards at Portsmouth.
October 2009: Reactors, boilers, and smokestacks fitted.
December 2009: Main guns installed. Three men are killed in the fitting of a barbette by falling into the barbette itself. John Brown and Company upgrades its Employee Health and Safety Program for the duration of the build.
April 2010: After a significantly expensive program to budge the Hood out of its build yard, which costs the life of eleven men and a small tugboat after the ship crushed them, Hood is towed down the Straits of Questers by a cruiser squadron consisting of Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool, Exeter, and Dorsetshire.
August 2010: Hood arrives in Southampton.
November 2010: Hood’s mainmast and conning towers fitted. Superstructure finished.
April 2011: Hood launched.
May 2011: Hood undergoes sea trials.
October 2011: After a problem with her number four boiler, Hood is sent back to Southampton. Further boiler problems kill four men when they are inspecting number two boiler. Hood spends another three months in drydock.
December 2011: Hood undertakes sea trials.
April 2012: Hood commissioned into Royal Navy as Her Majesty’s Ship Hood.
October 2013: Hood goes on a tour of the UK with Renown, covering 23,000 miles of water.
December 2013: Royal Family holds a Christmas Party onboard Hood. The Duke of Sussex, Roger Mountbatten, proposes to his girlfriend onboard the boat, ordering the crew to fire fireworks from the D/P guns that spell out ‘I love you’ in the night.
December 2013: Hood, accompanied by Renown, moors in London to celebrate New Year.
April 2014: Hood, Renown, Repulse, and Musashi form the Supercapital Squadron and conduct exercises and wargames with other fleet battleships, where they manage to sink fourty two battleships before Renown takes a hit to the magazine and promptly explodes. Hood does not record any severe damage in the operation.
October 2014: The 21.5 inch naval shell is tested on Hood’s belt. Admiral Trotter is supposed to have famously said ‘Thank god paint is cheap!’ This is, however, not actually true, and the 21.5 inch shell did do some damage, a lot more than the rumour implies. However, it did not do any real penetrative damage to the belt, such was the thickness and strength of the armour.
December 2014: Hood ferries the Royal Family to South Africa. This is Princess Margaret’s first visit overseas; she was noted to have commented ‘It’s awfully big!’ when first seeing Hood sitting in harbour.
The Juumanistran War
May 2016: Hood is mobilized when it becomes apparent there may be conflict with Juumanistra.
June 2016: Hood leaves Port Hood and proceeds with its battlegroup south to cover Juumanistra. A sea search RADAR malfunction forces Hood to turn back for Port Hood – without any escorts. The Juumanistrans notice, and a force of 4-5,000 aircraft and a hundred ships are mobilised to engage Hood.
At 3:15 PM, the first wave of Juumanistran aircraft attacked. Hood resisted fiercely by putting up wave after wave of anti air shells, the IH/LF rounds, small calibre shells, and missiles. The first, second, and third waves of aircraft do little to Hood.
At 3:32 PM, the second attack is launched. Aircraft launching rocket-propelled torpedoes attack Hood and some damage is done; many hits are taken but the ship is still in working condition. It is steaming at full speed north: it will take Hood thirty hours to reach Port Hood.
At 3:55 PM, another wave is launched. Hood is essentially surrounded by aircraft and bombed, torpedoed, and missiled constantly for half an hour. The skies around Hood are filled with gunfire as the vessel begins its valiant resistance. Light damage is taken to the deck and some of the D/P guns are put out of commission.
At 5:15 PM, Hood is attacked by another wave of long range ‘torpedo bombers.’ Her AA and AAA is effective, but the torpedoes also make their mark on the ship. Finally, some of the watertight compartments break and Hood begins to flood. The pumping system however, counteracts any permament damage.
Hood is left alone for a few hours. Juumanistran command is getting irritated at the lack of damage done by some two hours worth of aerial bombardment, and naturally they wish to sink the ship before it enters Port Hood and the safety of the close range SAM net. They mobilize eight battleships, armed with 20” guns, to attack Hood.
At 6:50 PM, with its sea search RADAR damaged by aircraft attack; Hood is unaware of the enemy battleships until they come into visual range and open fire. The first salvo misses, but Hood is a large target and explosions prance around the deck of the ship. However, Hood manages to escape the Juumanistran battleships temporarily after some ineffective retaliatory fire.
At 7:19 PM, darkness had already hit the theatre. Hood wheels around to engage the Juumanistran battleships bow-first, pinpointing the first with a first bracket of fire from it’s a turret guns and destroying it with the second from both B and C turrets. Questarian night fighting optics comes into play with devastating accuracy and hitting power, another battleship falls to a salvo of the 81cm guns. Retaliating fire hits B turret and a 20” shell hits the face, exploding and causing heavy damage but not penetrating. One gun is destroyed, however. The Juumanistrans retreat before Hood can swing around to bring its rear guns to bear.
At 8:13, after the Juumanistran battleships retreat, Hood was attacked by four more waves of aircraft using torpedoes, bombs, and missiles. She beats off the attack but fatigue, morale, and ammunition affects the crew.
At 10:00 PM, in complete darkness, Hood is attacked again by a further four waves. The rear superstructure is in flames and the Admiral’s Pinnace has been destroyed. The pumping and flooding, however, has done its job admirably and Hood still has 17 metres of freeboard remaining and a list of only six degrees.
Hood is left alone for some hours before being attacked by another three waves of aircraft, with twice the opposing planes as previous waves. The rear superstructure has been essentially demolished and X gun is a flaming wreck. A fire is almost ignited by safety methods flood X gun magazine before it explodes.
By the third wave, anything from X gun to the first funnel has been laid waste to, and Hood is beginning to look like scrap steel. Explosions dance around the forward superstructure and Hood loses another three metres of freeboard. She is reduced to 21 knots.
With a concentrated air attack at 4:30, which knocked out C gun, the Juumanistran battleships return to engage Hood. It is still dark, and once more the superior Questarian superheavy gunnery and excellent nightfighting know-how and optics knocks out another battleship. 20” shells smack into Hood’s belt, which is almost intact throughout the entire engagement, whereas the deck was pounded into rubble. Some damage is done to the citadel but the Juumanistrans once more retreat, their 20” guns proving ineffective.
At 6 AM, Hood is attacked by more waves of aircraft, destroying Y gun entirely. The ship is now smoking black acrid smoke trailing from the back of the armoured citadel where 8.3cm ammunition was set off, to the recently destroyed Y gun. By the end of the fourth wave at 7:22 AM, Hood ceases to be a useful anti air unit with all its VLS expended and the lack of any serious flak capabilities. CIWS and 50mm pompoms still rattle off into the night occasionally but Juumanistran aircraft are basically given free will to attack.
At 9 AM Hood is attacked by six Juumanistran submarines. A total of 48 torpedoes are fired at Hood, but the Juumanistran subs run out of torpedoes before they can do any appreciable damage. If Hood looks damaged from the outside, however, this is the attack that crippled its long overdue pumping system. Many crew members remember a great lurch in the ship when it was hit by eleven torpedoes simultaneously on the port, breaking and flooding the ship but not snapping the anti torpedo defence or doing any damage to the keel.
More and more aircraft bomb Hood between lunch and 2 PM. The last attack comes at 4 PM before Hood enters the SAM umbrella. The bridge is a mess, and 16,000 out of the ships complement of 28,250 have been killed. The freeboard remaining is 5.4 metres, the pumping system long overwhelmed. At 8:32, Hood limps into Port Hood escorted by corvettes and patrol boats and finally turns to a stop under an impressive SAM umbrella of one of Quester’s largest ports. Thousands of people turn out to wave flags to meet the embattled ship. She has been essentially mission killed, but she is still floating and moving at 8 knots.
Fleet Admiral Riew is decorated with six of the highest military medals and promoted to Grand Admiral.
GENERAL ARRANGEMETNS AND HULL STRUCTURE
image (http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f16/MattShipwrighter/Hood/Hoodfinal.png)
HMS Hood, a Heavily Armoured Battleship of the Questarian Royal Navy, the largest warship in the world, as the Admiralty claims. Her final design draught stood Hood at 1,919 metres in length overall and 1904 at the waterline, 282 metres in beam, and 51 metres in draught. Her block coefficient is .635, astoundingly high for a warship. The hull itself weighs 19,833,520 tons – with a normal displacement of 21,275,700. The maximum displacement the hull can take before major structural damage is 21,958,220 tons.
All designs included a bulbous bow, however, the usefulness of this bulbous bow was limited through the different designs. The design chosen has a bulbous bow that reduced water resistance by 11%. Further streamlining added a further 3.3% in reduction, a figure designers and Admiralty staff alike were very pleased with. The ship itself handles extremely well – because of her freeboard of 33 metres, and the high beam figure, many waves simply bounce off the vessel and the weight/draught ratio allows it to stay steady among these. She has a rolling period of 17 seconds, which is an extremely steady figure. Coupled with the metacentric height of 2.9 metres, she was a very stable gunboat and a pleasure to serve on.
One of Hood’s most interesting features is her bow, which curves smoothly up and stops for a forecastle emplacement. It gives the vessel a rather graceful look, which is prevalent when silhouetted. Compared to Renown and Yamato, the two other RN supercapitals, which have pointed prows, it also gives her a distinct difference. It is said that one can point out the different RN supercapitals just with the shape of their eloquent bows. Right on the prow of the Hood, a shield with the ships badge endowed upon it, made entirely from tungsten. Since Hood is as much of a ceremonial vessel as it is a combat one, full detail was made to creating a conference room and a small area where up to 20 VIPs can stay in absolute luxury. Several conferences were held on Hood’s conference room, notably the extension of Hong Kong’s lease from China for a further 99 years.
Hood’s three command rooms are also important. The first command room is known as the ‘Ops Room’ is located deep within the center of the vessel and is virtually invincible. It is provided with a lift straight up to the Bridge, which is the uppermost observation point where the Admiral usually resides, his quarters being almost next to the Bridge. The Bridge is a box with a cylindrical top where the communication electronics is stored. The box was created as an armoured box just like the main armour, and is 1100mm thick. The cylindrical part is 800mm thick. Both are constructed from PH type steel (see Protection). This lift draws its power from the ship’s main energy source but also has two auxiliary batteries. The third command room is located on the aft of the ship behind U turret and is a replica of the Bridge, and holds a lot of the electronic warfare equipment. There are a number of observation decks scattered throughout the vessel.
The first part of the superstructure, before the funnels, is comprised of five different pieces. One main tower, for the bridge, that extended down and was armoured around the sides by 800mm of NPNC and 300mm PH Type. Behind that, the after part of the primary superstructure which covered around the main tower for the bridge and was armoured by 900mm of again, NPNC and 200mm of PH Type. In front of that, on both sides, another citadel that covered the bridge tower and some of the after citadel, which was protected in a similar vein to the after citadel. Ahead of that, a for’ard citadel which was protected by 1,100mm of NPNC and 200mm of PH type. That meant that the bridge tower was protected by another piece of the citadel in every direction (which were all built in different parts and put together by gigantic cranes). The citadels extended a little way down into the main armour box so that the ops room could be located in the after tower, in its own armoured box of 600mm HTNC. This meant the ops room was shielded by at least two different citadel parts, their armour, and the armour belt, which meant in some cases at least 5 metres worth of armour alone.
There are a grand total of 37,347 watertight compartments [WTC} that the hull divides itself into. Hood can maintain 17,356,254 tons of reserve buoyancy, which makes her extremely stable and naturally the battleship can take extremely high amounts of punishment. Estimates fell into 190,000 kg of ordnance before she dropped a metre in freeboard.
Protection
Originally, Hood was designed to resist only the 29.5” shell that the Praetonians used on Iron Duke – however, it was decided, with more and more 30” shells being used, that it would have to have higher resistance, and so specification was;
‘Resistance of a 31” shell hitting at 650 m/s on both deck and belt, and full resistance of 2,000-4,000kg bunker busters from enemy aerial assets.’
Hood’s main protection comes from three great armour boxes. The armour box method was chosen because it can provide greater hull strength and will keep the armour belt from snapping or simply falling off, which is actually a severe problem. Hood’s armour and damage control was the greatest researched part, and many thousands of hours of manpower and billions of pounds went into researching it. Secondly, the choice for three armour boxes over one was made for stability too; it was thought that Hood was too long for just one box. Six different types of armour plating were used on Hood.
[ARMOUR TYPES] (http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f16/MattShipwrighter/Hood/hoodarmour.png)
The three boxes are labeled A,B, and C, and their locations on the ship can be seen on this diagram. [SEE DIAGRAM] The total length spanning the ship with the armour box is 64%, which at a glance does not sound much but is in fact a rather large number when in comparison to most battleships. Box C and A are equally armoured, although box B has more armour because it covers the boilers. Between the boxes, armour plates of 900mm PH type act as ends to cover the joint inbetween.
[ARMOUR BOXES] (http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f16/MattShipwrighter/Hood/Hoodarmourbox.png)
Each box is armoured on its sides and its top, sides hereafter reffered to as belt armour and top as deck armour. Anti torpedo defences and pumping/flooding will be covered later. Firstly, the front and the back of each box were protected by 600-750mm worth of HTNC and construction was assisted by titanium and tungsten rods from one side of a bulkhead to another behind the armour, and inbetween the small space between the armour and the side of the ship to provide hull strengthening and armour strengthening. This was assisted by honeycomb steel rods as well as more tungsten reinforcements behind the honeycomb. The belt, the sides of the box, was protected by an armour scheme classified as ROGER WILLIAMS. It was not named after any historical character, just the firstname of a random employee of John Brown and Co and the surname of a cousins first daughters husband of the design team leader.
The belt consisted of one layer of 650mm worth of PC type, backed by a further 650mm of PH type. In front of that, a layer of HTNC about 400mm strong with a higher tensile strength protects from direct attacks, with a layer of extremely low carbon steel about 100mm thick that protects from direct attacks. At this point the system can ‘bounce’ – Royal Navy slang for resist, 16inch shells with no damage whatsoever. This is the first layer of the belt armour. Behind that a small layer of more tungsten reinforcements with honeycomb steel rod supports and then two layers of 900mm plain NPNC steel. Armour Box B, in accordance with the boiler protection idea, had a further backing of 150mm of CCA and 450mm of HTNC. In total, this adds up to 390cm, 3900mm, or 3.9 metres worth of protection. Armour Box C tallies up to 450cm. In testing, Hood’s objectives where achieved. Whether it is capable of doing this under sustained fire in the field is arguable.
The deck armour pattern was known as the ‘RUSTY IJIKAWA’, the name of the design team leader’s German shepherd. Its first layer was a decapping layer of specialized HSLA steel boxed and 350mm thick underneath the cypress decking. This specialized steel’s low tensile strength allowed it to act better as a decapper, essentially robbing shell’s armour piercing values and its kinetic strength by the time it had penetrated (if it had) the decapper. It was thought that the decapper could effectively carry this out from anything up to as large as an 18 inch gun or a 1000 kg bomb. Behind the deck armour, a layering of 600mm PC Type steel and a further 400mm of PH Type. 550mm of CCA layered thinly between 500mm of HTNC type was the last layer after 500mm of NPNC. The honeycomb method used for the belt armour was also applied for the deck armour. This provides, in total, 250cm, 2500mm, or 2.5metres of armour.
[DECAPPING LAYER] ( http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f16/MattShipwrighter/Hood/Hoodsdecap.png )
Further plating of 215mm of CCA steel over the fore and aft parts around the VLS and up to the armoured citadel, and in fact, ontop of the armoured citadel (underneath fittings like AA guns) this CCA plating could resist a 1000kg bomb. The deck is planked with hinoki cypress wood in some parts.
At Kure Naval Yard’s (the leading armour company in Questers) primary testing basin at Southampton, the deck and belt were tested. A section of the belt was put into the ground, and a 30” gun from HMS Warspite that was being used by John Brown and Co was shipped over by the company to be used. A piece of deck armour was covered on a steel building and Kure even went to such lengths as to charter a monitor, HMS Thiosulphate, to fire at the armour with its 30” gun. Both belt and deck resisted the 8,953kg armour piercing shell fired by Thiosulphate’s B gun.
Ijikawa’s team did not disregard the idea of a missile being shot down the funnel, or a bomb being dropped down it. In fact, they put a lot of effort into stopping this. Research showed that perforated armour was lighter than grating armor, and that significant amount would be needed to stop the missiles or bombs; three perforated plates with 800mm plating and 350mm armoured holes. This was known to be extremely effective in its task. Furthermore, 150mm HTNC Plating was extended around the funnels which were also armoured with two 800mm plates of PH and PC Type (PC Type coming first, as usual). The funnels could resist heavy missiles and 25” shells. Furthermore, the design also gave the funnels considerable anti air armament, so the chance of a missile actually going down the funnel was greatly reduced by a number of CIWS and Pom-Poms covering the entrances. This was something Ijikawa himself was greatly concerned about.
Anti torpedo defence was also extremely important. As well as certain CIWS systems (mentioned later), there was considerable thought gone in to defending Hood from underwater attack. Below the armour belt, special reinforcements had been emplaced to defend from torpedoes and mines. Firstly, honeycombing with titanium rods was done 900mm into the ship, followed by a 350mm layer of NPNC armour. Teak planking backed both sides of this NPNC armour. Further structural supports were added behind this for a metre, and then pressurised void space was built in watertight and airtight compartments. Behind that, a further 600mm layer of NPNC, again backed by teak planking. More void space, then behind that another 600mm layer of NPNC which was also backed by teak planking. Teak was used to improve buoyancy and because it is an extremely strong wood. The keel is supported by horizontal framing; tungsten carbides and titanium rods make up most of the bottom of this framing, and the upper frames are made from 750mm rods of HTNC and NPNC steel. A ‘second keel’ was fitted below the original keel, which was more of a support keel, which was made from HSLA steel and with armoured HTNC supports.
MACHINERY
The decision was straight away made to use nuclear power for Hood’s propulsion. A total of eight reactors was chosen, to be provided by Questarian Atomix Plc, providing 8,000,000 shaft horsepower, and two smokestacks with six boilers, three per smokestack arranged along the breadth of the ship. Special care was taken to have the right amount of SHP, as the engines would be unalterable – they were completely covered by Armour Box C. The main rudder housing was provided with its own armour box, which was 700mm thick – the PH type steel (see Protection) was chosen for this purpose. The rudder was 30m x 25m in dimensions and two auxiliary rudders half that size were also put in place. As per tradition, the rudder was made from steel, filled with teak planks, and then coated over with more steel.
Twelve shafts and six waterjets were also chosen. In sea trials, Hood generated 8,434,219 SHP and accelerated at 26.36 knots. This overachieved expectations and to this day Questarian Atomix uses this as one of their great victories.
ACCOMMODATION
Hood was a fairly pleasant ship to serve on, for the 28,110 ratings and 140 officers. She was fully equipped with air conditioning and proper ventilation systems, central heating, and many toilets for the crew. Each man was provided with 4 square metres living space (average), and there were two recreational rooms, each the size of a football pitch. Two messes, also each the size of a football pitch were situated above the rec rooms, which also had full wireless Internet access so crew members could contact friends and family. Several full five star hotel-esque suites were provided for VIPs around the Officers quarters, which indeed is where the Royal Family stayed for their duration onboard the ship. Considerable thought was gone in to making the ship comfortable for the complement, and Hood had a reputation for being a comfortable ship to serve on.
There was food store space for eighteen months of stores, which was not usually loaded unless the ship was ferrying supplies, and Hood could act as a makeshift supply ship.
Complement is as follows:
27,500 Ratings
135 Officers
5 High Tier Commanders
30 pilots
570 aircrew
ARMAMENT
Mark V RP12 81.0cm 92 calibre guns. These guns were tested at John Brown and Co Testing Facility in North Wolverhampton, providing further range, greater accuracy, and harder hitting power than the 76.25cm guns and the 68.7cm guns mounted on previous super-battleships of the Royal Navy. After the sinking of the Hood in 2006, three calibres had been put forward to the RN for evaluation for the new Hood – the 68.7cm gun, the 76.25cm gun, and the 81.0cm guns. The 81.0cm was chosen for the its better accuracy and hitting power and range, as opposed to the 76.25cm and the 68.7 which had better range and reload respectively.
The design team from John Brown and Co under Richard J Wilkinson was given a significant amount of resources and the first test gun was produced in August 2007. The testing stopped in September and the guns were modified with a higher calibre in September. In October 2007, they were again modified to fire at 52 degrees. This was the last modification to the Mk V RP12. The gun fires at a velocity of 882ms with a striking velocity of 540ms.
The weight of these guns was 1000 tons per gun and 8000 tons per quintuple turret. The gun itself is 74.520 metres long. Six of the turrets were mounted on Hood – three aft and three stern, classified as A, B, C, and X, Y, Z.
The number of projectiles per gun was 120 rounds, with 30 stored in the turret, making for 150 shells stored in each turret. Therefore, altogether 4,800 shells are stored in the ship.
Each turret is equipped with four 1800 hp hydraulic motors for the training of the turret, one motor for each turning gear. This achieved 3 degrees per second rotation rate. Maximum elevation for each gun is 45 degrees and the minimum -3 degrees. A rate of 8 degrees a second was achieved for elevation of the guns. Hydraulic valves in assistance with the pumping system could flood the magazine within 16 minutes, and sprinklers and automatic fire extinguishers were added in each turret and magazine for auxiliary fire defence.
The turret itself consisted of seven boxes, two for equipment and crew support and five for each gun. The equipment compartment stretches out the length of the turret to accommodate the 45m rangefinders and the crew compartment is behind that with a pair of entrance hatches above and two behind.
A pair of 600mm HTNC and PH Type plates protected the face of the turret , providing 1200mm of face protection. The sides and back of the turret were protected by 900mm of HTNC and the top was given even more protection with two 800mm plates of HTNC and PH Type. A mock turret, without any fittings or guns, was created at Southampton Testing Basin and the turret was successful in halting Tomahawk, Harpoon, Exocet, Sunburn, Yakhont, Moskit, and several international missiles, although this design will not specify which ones. In fact, the turret also ‘bounced’ the Questarian main VLS anti shipping missile.
Projectiles
The 81.0cm guns supported two offensive projectile types. The Mark II APCBC – Armour Piercing Capped + Ballistic Cap projectile was the primary projectile used by the RP12 Mk V 81.0cm. This round weighed 9500 kg and was designed to shoot into the water just short of the target and hit the belt ends / torpedo defence were the armour was weakest .The shell was specially made for this purpose and is hydrodynamic in shape – the Royal Navy was highly impressed with testing results. These shells were designed to be used against other superbattleships were standard hits against the strongest part of the armour would prove useless.
The second projectile type was the Mark IIV 8 crh superheavy shell. This shell weighed 10100 tons and contained 2500 kg of tri-nitro anisole (TNA). It was used against smaller battleships were the sheer power of the shell would be enough to annihilate the armour of the vessels completely.
In addition, Hood’s main guns were provided with the Mk II IHF [Incendiary, Heavy Flak) round. This round was specially designed to put up a giant wall of flame to knock down incoming waves of missiles. It was used on the first Hood to good effect and the second variant was tested at John Brown and Co’s testing yard at North Wolverhampton in Spring of 2012 and loaded on Hood and her sister ships in the following year. Renown already had the Mk I.
The IHF weighed 10,150 kg and could achieve the same range as the previous shells. It was filled with 6,000 incendiary tubes and a fuze sets the shell off approximately 60km after firing. Steel and magnesium stays are packed into the warhead and when it explodes, shrapnel and flame are propelled in a 22 degrees cone. A millisecond or so later the incendiary tubes are ignited, burning at 3000 degrees centigrade making a flame about 15 metres long for as long as ten seconds.
The longest range achieved from these projectiles was 142,000 metres at 42 degrees.
Missile Armament
The main missile armament for Hood was four giant vertical launch boxes. Each box contained 5,000 cells and the missiles were launched in opposite order; for example, one missile from the first cell, the next from the last cell. Each cell was 11 metres deep and 1 metre wide and long; they were used for mounting anti air and light anti shipping missiles, and some anti submarine missiles.
The Horizontal Launch System was the main anti shipping armament for the vessel. It was formed from thirty horizontal cells in the after superstructure, fifteen port and fifteen starboard, that were eight metres in diameter and twenty metres deep. The area around them was given further armour with the box they were all mounted in together armoured with 600mm NPNC. These could not be reloaded, but they could mount the most potent of anti shipping missiles in the Questarian arsenal, including nuclear weapons.
HIGH ANGLE GUNS
Hood is equipped with two calibres of High Angle Guns; the Mk XI RP10 twin 13.3cm 70 cal and the Mk XX QF10 twin 8.3cm 70 cal. Both are fitted in shield-covered emplacements around the ship.
Mk XI RP10 twin 13.3cm 70 cal: 22 of the turrets were mounted on Hood. Each gun is capable of 7 RPM and shoots to a range of 29,500metres. The guns originally mounted on Hood were Mk X twin 13.3cm guns but these were replaced with the newer model for a faster rate of fire. The Mk XI has a crew of six, and can use both armour piercing, AHEAD, and the Mk II ILF (Incendiary, Light Flak) rounds. The ILF rounds are identical in construction to the ones used in the Mk V RP12 main guns except proportionally smaller.
Mk XX QF10 twin 8.3cm 70 cal: 78 of the turrets were mounted on Hood. Each gun is capable of 20 RPM and shoots to a range of 15,640metres. These guns were only considered for Hood in two of the designs set forward; the others used purely 13.3cm guns. The 8.3cm was chosen for its rate of fire. The Mk XI has a crew of four, and can use both armour piercing, AHEAD, and the Mk II ILF (Incendiary, Light Flak) rounds. The ILF rounds are identical in construction to the ones used in the Mk V RP12 main guns except proportionally smaller.
LIGHT ANTI AIRCRAFT WEAPONRY
Machine Guns
The vessel, which is essentially a ‘fast’ floating fortress, is covered with machine guns and high calibre AA guns. In fact, wherever there was a space the designers put in a machine gun, which actually led to some widescale inefficiencies. Hood is equipped with 600 quad 15.5mm anti air machine guns, totaling 2,400 15.5mm MG barrels. The Mk 4 L6A2 long barreled anti air machine gun is a fully automatic weapon that fires 15.5x132mm 80 cal anti air shells. The weapon’s barrel is 1,240mm long and four barrels are attached to one aiming piece, each barrel with a RPM of approximately 900. The range is 7,300 metres horizontal and 5,500m vertical. Each gun has a crew of three and enough ammunition for four minutes burst, although the gun cannot achieve that (it would break down after one minutes continuous burst).
This means that Hood can in theory put out 2,160,000 15.5x132mm AA shells per minute. In practice of course this is much lower due to ammunition restraints, however this is still a formidable number.
The second type of AA gun mounted on Hood was the Mk 5 45mm 65 cal ‘Pom-pom’, of which 230 installations were mounted. The pom-pom is an incredibly effective anti aircraft platform. The system consists of an aiming system, a traversing system, a loading system, and eight barrels. The weapon effectively acts as a chaingun and is controlled by a crew of two by remote control. It is manually reloaded. Each barrel is 3250mm long and the weapon can achieve a range of 9,000m with a maximum elavation of 80 degrees. It effectively acts as a secondary CIWS system that is capable of taking down missile waves. The shell is 45x250mm and the weapon operates at 500 RPM.
The weapons are installed in protected mounts for the crew, mostly. As the designers fitted the weapons wherever there was space, the inefficiencies that plagued earlier Hood’s were not fixed. Such problems like ammunition handling and the hard-to-reach areas where the guns were mounted were addressed in later vessels by cutting down the number of MG’s and pom-poms installed. Both Mk 5s and MGs are aimed via the Mk X Fire Director. More Mk X were installed in following refits and sister ships to give the small calibre weapons better fire control.
CLOSE IN WEAPON SYSTEMS AND ROLLING AIRFRAME MISSILES
Hood is well endowed with RADAR guided point defence, as a ship her size should be. The main CIWS system used is the 35mm ‘Sea Guardian’ CIWS. This six barreled, RADAR guided point defence weapon can fire at 1,300 RPM per barrel, giving a total RPM of 7,800 35x221mm shells. The RADAR can track up to thirty incoming targets and prioritise them in order of engagement within split seconds and coordinate with the Mk XI PD Fire Director to either lump with other CIWS or manage targets more effectively. The range is 11km. There are a total of 104 Sea Guardian units installed on the vessel.
The ‘Sea Goalkeeper’ Rolling Airframe Missile System provides AMM support. The Sea Goalkeeper is a four-barreled point defence missile launcher that uses its own RADAR to seek out targets of a certain size, leaving the CIWS to hit the smaller missiles. The Sea Goalkeeper’s missile is designed specially to take out larger missiles, such as ICCMs, SLBMs, or light ICBMs. The ‘Sea Goalkeeper’ can detect its target using the main ships RADAR and engage it from up to 45km out. It may need to fire off all four missiles to achieve a kill. There are a total of 40 Sea Goalkeeper’s and they may not be reloaded at sea.
The ‘Sea Stallion’ Anti Submarine and Torpedo defence system [AST] provides the ASROC support for the vessel. Four launchers are mounted fore and four launchers stern, and each is wired to its own powerful SONAR; four different SONARs, two port and two stern. If the SONAR detects a mine, a torpedo, or a midget submarine, it will inform the missile which will then destroy the target.
The missile section of the Sea Stallion is a rolling airframe missile with six barrels that can rotate and fire its missile extremely fast. It has a heavy warhead that can knock out the heaviest torpedoes and mines and the SONAR can sweep to at least 11,000m underneath the water to ultimate precision.
SENSORS AND FIRE CONTROL
Fire Control
The primary fire control system mounted for the main battery was the Mark III Supercapital Low Angle Fire Director. The main parts of the installation were the rangefinders, which are in the following positions:
Two 60m rangefinders in the after superstructure and one in the main tower, and six 45m rangefinders, one in each turret. The tower bridge rangefinder was stereoscopic. These rangefinders could bracket their targets within several salvos, with notably high accuracy for the calibre chosen. Nightfighting gear was excellent, as was all optics employed in the Questarian arsenal, a speciality somewhat countering the quality of Questarian sensors. The fire directors sent information to the extremely powerful computers in the main bridge and it was relayed back again. A large number of Mk V High Angle Fire Directors were mounted for the 13.3cm guns and the 8.3cm guns. The Mk VIII MG Directors were used for the MGs and Pompoms. The CIWS and RAM had their own RADARs.
Sensors
The Mk 313 Air Search RADAR was mounted in Hood in the largest radome visible on the port drawing. It was able to scan out to 511km for incoming aircraft and could receive up to 11,000 targets, missiles or planes. It had IR, LADAR, and LIDAR backup mounted behind the aft bridge. The RADAR’s wave length was 5m with a 25 gW power source.
The Mk 404 Surface Search RADAR was mounted in the main bridge and received its IR, LADAR, and LIDAR support from the RADAR mounting and from a radome behind the second funnel, and another radome below the main bridge. It had a detection range of 93km for similar sized ships and around 60km for destroyers. A pair of ladder type antennas were fitted on the Fire Directors for assistance and relaying of information for the anti shipping role of the Surface Search RADAR.
The Mk 237 Sea Search RADAR was added to augment the anti aircraft capability of the Mk 404. It was located in the same ‘radome’ and allowed for better accuracy of the RADAR and pinpointing of the targets.
The Mk 999 Missile Guidance Sensor was linked to both the Mk 313, the Mk 404, and later the Mk 237 for assistance in guiding the VLS and HLS missiles.
The Mk 44 A2 C4I suite provided complete Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence support for warships within 30 km of the ship, able to direct attacks, relay information, coordinate attacks and information, encrypt and decrypt orders, interact with satellites.
AIRCRAFT AND BOAT ARRANGEMENTS
Aviation
Hood had scout seaplanes equipped with air and sea search RADARs for ASW, ASAC, and AWACs work. There were 20 seaplanes, all stored in the stern and raised from elevators. There were ten turntables and different tracks leading to either other turntables or the six ramps that launched the seaplanes. They could either be collected by taxiing next to the ship and being picked up by crane, or they could land on a steel mat that was unfurled from the ships stern that the planes could temporarily rest on, allowing them to land and be loaded back on the plane.
Boats
Hood had a considerable number of boats that were stored in the stern with the aircraft and lowered down the sides from opening blast doors. There were fourty fifty-man boats stored in the stern, ten hundred man boats, and a pair of extremely large two hundred man boats that took considerable time to drop. Also, behind X turret was the Admiral’s Pinnace, a converted light frigate that took twenty minutes to deploy, and had enough fuel for 2,000 miles steaming. It was designed specially for an Admiral, or VIPs to travel in. This was located on the port side; on the starboard side were two two hundred man boats. Carley rafts and lifejacket were stocked all around the ship, giving every man a lifeboat, a raft, or a jacket in theory.
Obtaining a HOOD
If you already owned a Hood, then please link to the post where you bought it, and then you may return your Hood to a Questarian port, and then upon the payment of the sum of 250 billion USD, we will construct you this version of the Hood.
If you would like to purchase a single Hood (MAYBE, just MAYBE you can get two) you have to list the following:
1.) Why you are buying it
2.) What you plan to do with it
3.) You must agree to have a Questarian liaison officer whenever the ship sets sail
4.) You must agree to, at all costs, NOT break off parts of the guns, the sensors, the armour, any part of the ship whatsoever, to research it.
5.) You must pay the sum of 900 billion USD.
OOC: THANKS AND RESEARCH
Much thanks to the people on #draftroom for being supportive of me, and the NS Draftroom itself and the people there for providing awesome feedback on my drawings. I would specially like to thank Mekugi, GMC Military Arms, and DontPissUsOff.
Sources and research
Anatomy of the Ship: The Battleship Yamato by Janusjz Skulski,
HOOD: Life and Death of a Battlecruiser by Roger Chesneau,
Anatomy of the Ship: The Battleship Warspite,
Anatomy of the Ship: The Aircraft Carrier Victorious
HMS VANGUARD 1944-1960: The Royal Navy’s last Battleship
http://www.navweaps.com
http://www.combinedfleet.com
http://www.springsharp.com
Thanks to the authors of these sites and books.
If anybody wants the real nice formatted MS Word document, drop me a TG with your email.]
But do it somewhere else, please.]
‘Jesus… there’s more guns on this ship than whores in Southampton!’ – Fleet Admiral Riew
SERVICE HISTORY
February 2006: HMS Hood sunk at Gibraltar.
April 2006: After much internal debate and the suicide of First Sea Lord Meredydd Tonkin, the Admiralty put in a request for the design of another Hood sized vessel, which also culminated in the construction of Renown and Yamato classes, after the Prince of Wales classes were sold for scrap.
August 2007: QAE Marine puts in six designs for the Hood, labelled A-F (see attachment), of which E is chosen for its protection and firepower.
September 2007: Admiralty given go ahead for program, and funding begins.
April 2007: Hood laid down at John Brown and Company yards at Portsmouth.
October 2009: Reactors, boilers, and smokestacks fitted.
December 2009: Main guns installed. Three men are killed in the fitting of a barbette by falling into the barbette itself. John Brown and Company upgrades its Employee Health and Safety Program for the duration of the build.
April 2010: After a significantly expensive program to budge the Hood out of its build yard, which costs the life of eleven men and a small tugboat after the ship crushed them, Hood is towed down the Straits of Questers by a cruiser squadron consisting of Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool, Exeter, and Dorsetshire.
August 2010: Hood arrives in Southampton.
November 2010: Hood’s mainmast and conning towers fitted. Superstructure finished.
April 2011: Hood launched.
May 2011: Hood undergoes sea trials.
October 2011: After a problem with her number four boiler, Hood is sent back to Southampton. Further boiler problems kill four men when they are inspecting number two boiler. Hood spends another three months in drydock.
December 2011: Hood undertakes sea trials.
April 2012: Hood commissioned into Royal Navy as Her Majesty’s Ship Hood.
October 2013: Hood goes on a tour of the UK with Renown, covering 23,000 miles of water.
December 2013: Royal Family holds a Christmas Party onboard Hood. The Duke of Sussex, Roger Mountbatten, proposes to his girlfriend onboard the boat, ordering the crew to fire fireworks from the D/P guns that spell out ‘I love you’ in the night.
December 2013: Hood, accompanied by Renown, moors in London to celebrate New Year.
April 2014: Hood, Renown, Repulse, and Musashi form the Supercapital Squadron and conduct exercises and wargames with other fleet battleships, where they manage to sink fourty two battleships before Renown takes a hit to the magazine and promptly explodes. Hood does not record any severe damage in the operation.
October 2014: The 21.5 inch naval shell is tested on Hood’s belt. Admiral Trotter is supposed to have famously said ‘Thank god paint is cheap!’ This is, however, not actually true, and the 21.5 inch shell did do some damage, a lot more than the rumour implies. However, it did not do any real penetrative damage to the belt, such was the thickness and strength of the armour.
December 2014: Hood ferries the Royal Family to South Africa. This is Princess Margaret’s first visit overseas; she was noted to have commented ‘It’s awfully big!’ when first seeing Hood sitting in harbour.
The Juumanistran War
May 2016: Hood is mobilized when it becomes apparent there may be conflict with Juumanistra.
June 2016: Hood leaves Port Hood and proceeds with its battlegroup south to cover Juumanistra. A sea search RADAR malfunction forces Hood to turn back for Port Hood – without any escorts. The Juumanistrans notice, and a force of 4-5,000 aircraft and a hundred ships are mobilised to engage Hood.
At 3:15 PM, the first wave of Juumanistran aircraft attacked. Hood resisted fiercely by putting up wave after wave of anti air shells, the IH/LF rounds, small calibre shells, and missiles. The first, second, and third waves of aircraft do little to Hood.
At 3:32 PM, the second attack is launched. Aircraft launching rocket-propelled torpedoes attack Hood and some damage is done; many hits are taken but the ship is still in working condition. It is steaming at full speed north: it will take Hood thirty hours to reach Port Hood.
At 3:55 PM, another wave is launched. Hood is essentially surrounded by aircraft and bombed, torpedoed, and missiled constantly for half an hour. The skies around Hood are filled with gunfire as the vessel begins its valiant resistance. Light damage is taken to the deck and some of the D/P guns are put out of commission.
At 5:15 PM, Hood is attacked by another wave of long range ‘torpedo bombers.’ Her AA and AAA is effective, but the torpedoes also make their mark on the ship. Finally, some of the watertight compartments break and Hood begins to flood. The pumping system however, counteracts any permament damage.
Hood is left alone for a few hours. Juumanistran command is getting irritated at the lack of damage done by some two hours worth of aerial bombardment, and naturally they wish to sink the ship before it enters Port Hood and the safety of the close range SAM net. They mobilize eight battleships, armed with 20” guns, to attack Hood.
At 6:50 PM, with its sea search RADAR damaged by aircraft attack; Hood is unaware of the enemy battleships until they come into visual range and open fire. The first salvo misses, but Hood is a large target and explosions prance around the deck of the ship. However, Hood manages to escape the Juumanistran battleships temporarily after some ineffective retaliatory fire.
At 7:19 PM, darkness had already hit the theatre. Hood wheels around to engage the Juumanistran battleships bow-first, pinpointing the first with a first bracket of fire from it’s a turret guns and destroying it with the second from both B and C turrets. Questarian night fighting optics comes into play with devastating accuracy and hitting power, another battleship falls to a salvo of the 81cm guns. Retaliating fire hits B turret and a 20” shell hits the face, exploding and causing heavy damage but not penetrating. One gun is destroyed, however. The Juumanistrans retreat before Hood can swing around to bring its rear guns to bear.
At 8:13, after the Juumanistran battleships retreat, Hood was attacked by four more waves of aircraft using torpedoes, bombs, and missiles. She beats off the attack but fatigue, morale, and ammunition affects the crew.
At 10:00 PM, in complete darkness, Hood is attacked again by a further four waves. The rear superstructure is in flames and the Admiral’s Pinnace has been destroyed. The pumping and flooding, however, has done its job admirably and Hood still has 17 metres of freeboard remaining and a list of only six degrees.
Hood is left alone for some hours before being attacked by another three waves of aircraft, with twice the opposing planes as previous waves. The rear superstructure has been essentially demolished and X gun is a flaming wreck. A fire is almost ignited by safety methods flood X gun magazine before it explodes.
By the third wave, anything from X gun to the first funnel has been laid waste to, and Hood is beginning to look like scrap steel. Explosions dance around the forward superstructure and Hood loses another three metres of freeboard. She is reduced to 21 knots.
With a concentrated air attack at 4:30, which knocked out C gun, the Juumanistran battleships return to engage Hood. It is still dark, and once more the superior Questarian superheavy gunnery and excellent nightfighting know-how and optics knocks out another battleship. 20” shells smack into Hood’s belt, which is almost intact throughout the entire engagement, whereas the deck was pounded into rubble. Some damage is done to the citadel but the Juumanistrans once more retreat, their 20” guns proving ineffective.
At 6 AM, Hood is attacked by more waves of aircraft, destroying Y gun entirely. The ship is now smoking black acrid smoke trailing from the back of the armoured citadel where 8.3cm ammunition was set off, to the recently destroyed Y gun. By the end of the fourth wave at 7:22 AM, Hood ceases to be a useful anti air unit with all its VLS expended and the lack of any serious flak capabilities. CIWS and 50mm pompoms still rattle off into the night occasionally but Juumanistran aircraft are basically given free will to attack.
At 9 AM Hood is attacked by six Juumanistran submarines. A total of 48 torpedoes are fired at Hood, but the Juumanistran subs run out of torpedoes before they can do any appreciable damage. If Hood looks damaged from the outside, however, this is the attack that crippled its long overdue pumping system. Many crew members remember a great lurch in the ship when it was hit by eleven torpedoes simultaneously on the port, breaking and flooding the ship but not snapping the anti torpedo defence or doing any damage to the keel.
More and more aircraft bomb Hood between lunch and 2 PM. The last attack comes at 4 PM before Hood enters the SAM umbrella. The bridge is a mess, and 16,000 out of the ships complement of 28,250 have been killed. The freeboard remaining is 5.4 metres, the pumping system long overwhelmed. At 8:32, Hood limps into Port Hood escorted by corvettes and patrol boats and finally turns to a stop under an impressive SAM umbrella of one of Quester’s largest ports. Thousands of people turn out to wave flags to meet the embattled ship. She has been essentially mission killed, but she is still floating and moving at 8 knots.
Fleet Admiral Riew is decorated with six of the highest military medals and promoted to Grand Admiral.
GENERAL ARRANGEMETNS AND HULL STRUCTURE
image (http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f16/MattShipwrighter/Hood/Hoodfinal.png)
HMS Hood, a Heavily Armoured Battleship of the Questarian Royal Navy, the largest warship in the world, as the Admiralty claims. Her final design draught stood Hood at 1,919 metres in length overall and 1904 at the waterline, 282 metres in beam, and 51 metres in draught. Her block coefficient is .635, astoundingly high for a warship. The hull itself weighs 19,833,520 tons – with a normal displacement of 21,275,700. The maximum displacement the hull can take before major structural damage is 21,958,220 tons.
All designs included a bulbous bow, however, the usefulness of this bulbous bow was limited through the different designs. The design chosen has a bulbous bow that reduced water resistance by 11%. Further streamlining added a further 3.3% in reduction, a figure designers and Admiralty staff alike were very pleased with. The ship itself handles extremely well – because of her freeboard of 33 metres, and the high beam figure, many waves simply bounce off the vessel and the weight/draught ratio allows it to stay steady among these. She has a rolling period of 17 seconds, which is an extremely steady figure. Coupled with the metacentric height of 2.9 metres, she was a very stable gunboat and a pleasure to serve on.
One of Hood’s most interesting features is her bow, which curves smoothly up and stops for a forecastle emplacement. It gives the vessel a rather graceful look, which is prevalent when silhouetted. Compared to Renown and Yamato, the two other RN supercapitals, which have pointed prows, it also gives her a distinct difference. It is said that one can point out the different RN supercapitals just with the shape of their eloquent bows. Right on the prow of the Hood, a shield with the ships badge endowed upon it, made entirely from tungsten. Since Hood is as much of a ceremonial vessel as it is a combat one, full detail was made to creating a conference room and a small area where up to 20 VIPs can stay in absolute luxury. Several conferences were held on Hood’s conference room, notably the extension of Hong Kong’s lease from China for a further 99 years.
Hood’s three command rooms are also important. The first command room is known as the ‘Ops Room’ is located deep within the center of the vessel and is virtually invincible. It is provided with a lift straight up to the Bridge, which is the uppermost observation point where the Admiral usually resides, his quarters being almost next to the Bridge. The Bridge is a box with a cylindrical top where the communication electronics is stored. The box was created as an armoured box just like the main armour, and is 1100mm thick. The cylindrical part is 800mm thick. Both are constructed from PH type steel (see Protection). This lift draws its power from the ship’s main energy source but also has two auxiliary batteries. The third command room is located on the aft of the ship behind U turret and is a replica of the Bridge, and holds a lot of the electronic warfare equipment. There are a number of observation decks scattered throughout the vessel.
The first part of the superstructure, before the funnels, is comprised of five different pieces. One main tower, for the bridge, that extended down and was armoured around the sides by 800mm of NPNC and 300mm PH Type. Behind that, the after part of the primary superstructure which covered around the main tower for the bridge and was armoured by 900mm of again, NPNC and 200mm of PH Type. In front of that, on both sides, another citadel that covered the bridge tower and some of the after citadel, which was protected in a similar vein to the after citadel. Ahead of that, a for’ard citadel which was protected by 1,100mm of NPNC and 200mm of PH type. That meant that the bridge tower was protected by another piece of the citadel in every direction (which were all built in different parts and put together by gigantic cranes). The citadels extended a little way down into the main armour box so that the ops room could be located in the after tower, in its own armoured box of 600mm HTNC. This meant the ops room was shielded by at least two different citadel parts, their armour, and the armour belt, which meant in some cases at least 5 metres worth of armour alone.
There are a grand total of 37,347 watertight compartments [WTC} that the hull divides itself into. Hood can maintain 17,356,254 tons of reserve buoyancy, which makes her extremely stable and naturally the battleship can take extremely high amounts of punishment. Estimates fell into 190,000 kg of ordnance before she dropped a metre in freeboard.
Protection
Originally, Hood was designed to resist only the 29.5” shell that the Praetonians used on Iron Duke – however, it was decided, with more and more 30” shells being used, that it would have to have higher resistance, and so specification was;
‘Resistance of a 31” shell hitting at 650 m/s on both deck and belt, and full resistance of 2,000-4,000kg bunker busters from enemy aerial assets.’
Hood’s main protection comes from three great armour boxes. The armour box method was chosen because it can provide greater hull strength and will keep the armour belt from snapping or simply falling off, which is actually a severe problem. Hood’s armour and damage control was the greatest researched part, and many thousands of hours of manpower and billions of pounds went into researching it. Secondly, the choice for three armour boxes over one was made for stability too; it was thought that Hood was too long for just one box. Six different types of armour plating were used on Hood.
[ARMOUR TYPES] (http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f16/MattShipwrighter/Hood/hoodarmour.png)
The three boxes are labeled A,B, and C, and their locations on the ship can be seen on this diagram. [SEE DIAGRAM] The total length spanning the ship with the armour box is 64%, which at a glance does not sound much but is in fact a rather large number when in comparison to most battleships. Box C and A are equally armoured, although box B has more armour because it covers the boilers. Between the boxes, armour plates of 900mm PH type act as ends to cover the joint inbetween.
[ARMOUR BOXES] (http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f16/MattShipwrighter/Hood/Hoodarmourbox.png)
Each box is armoured on its sides and its top, sides hereafter reffered to as belt armour and top as deck armour. Anti torpedo defences and pumping/flooding will be covered later. Firstly, the front and the back of each box were protected by 600-750mm worth of HTNC and construction was assisted by titanium and tungsten rods from one side of a bulkhead to another behind the armour, and inbetween the small space between the armour and the side of the ship to provide hull strengthening and armour strengthening. This was assisted by honeycomb steel rods as well as more tungsten reinforcements behind the honeycomb. The belt, the sides of the box, was protected by an armour scheme classified as ROGER WILLIAMS. It was not named after any historical character, just the firstname of a random employee of John Brown and Co and the surname of a cousins first daughters husband of the design team leader.
The belt consisted of one layer of 650mm worth of PC type, backed by a further 650mm of PH type. In front of that, a layer of HTNC about 400mm strong with a higher tensile strength protects from direct attacks, with a layer of extremely low carbon steel about 100mm thick that protects from direct attacks. At this point the system can ‘bounce’ – Royal Navy slang for resist, 16inch shells with no damage whatsoever. This is the first layer of the belt armour. Behind that a small layer of more tungsten reinforcements with honeycomb steel rod supports and then two layers of 900mm plain NPNC steel. Armour Box B, in accordance with the boiler protection idea, had a further backing of 150mm of CCA and 450mm of HTNC. In total, this adds up to 390cm, 3900mm, or 3.9 metres worth of protection. Armour Box C tallies up to 450cm. In testing, Hood’s objectives where achieved. Whether it is capable of doing this under sustained fire in the field is arguable.
The deck armour pattern was known as the ‘RUSTY IJIKAWA’, the name of the design team leader’s German shepherd. Its first layer was a decapping layer of specialized HSLA steel boxed and 350mm thick underneath the cypress decking. This specialized steel’s low tensile strength allowed it to act better as a decapper, essentially robbing shell’s armour piercing values and its kinetic strength by the time it had penetrated (if it had) the decapper. It was thought that the decapper could effectively carry this out from anything up to as large as an 18 inch gun or a 1000 kg bomb. Behind the deck armour, a layering of 600mm PC Type steel and a further 400mm of PH Type. 550mm of CCA layered thinly between 500mm of HTNC type was the last layer after 500mm of NPNC. The honeycomb method used for the belt armour was also applied for the deck armour. This provides, in total, 250cm, 2500mm, or 2.5metres of armour.
[DECAPPING LAYER] ( http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f16/MattShipwrighter/Hood/Hoodsdecap.png )
Further plating of 215mm of CCA steel over the fore and aft parts around the VLS and up to the armoured citadel, and in fact, ontop of the armoured citadel (underneath fittings like AA guns) this CCA plating could resist a 1000kg bomb. The deck is planked with hinoki cypress wood in some parts.
At Kure Naval Yard’s (the leading armour company in Questers) primary testing basin at Southampton, the deck and belt were tested. A section of the belt was put into the ground, and a 30” gun from HMS Warspite that was being used by John Brown and Co was shipped over by the company to be used. A piece of deck armour was covered on a steel building and Kure even went to such lengths as to charter a monitor, HMS Thiosulphate, to fire at the armour with its 30” gun. Both belt and deck resisted the 8,953kg armour piercing shell fired by Thiosulphate’s B gun.
Ijikawa’s team did not disregard the idea of a missile being shot down the funnel, or a bomb being dropped down it. In fact, they put a lot of effort into stopping this. Research showed that perforated armour was lighter than grating armor, and that significant amount would be needed to stop the missiles or bombs; three perforated plates with 800mm plating and 350mm armoured holes. This was known to be extremely effective in its task. Furthermore, 150mm HTNC Plating was extended around the funnels which were also armoured with two 800mm plates of PH and PC Type (PC Type coming first, as usual). The funnels could resist heavy missiles and 25” shells. Furthermore, the design also gave the funnels considerable anti air armament, so the chance of a missile actually going down the funnel was greatly reduced by a number of CIWS and Pom-Poms covering the entrances. This was something Ijikawa himself was greatly concerned about.
Anti torpedo defence was also extremely important. As well as certain CIWS systems (mentioned later), there was considerable thought gone in to defending Hood from underwater attack. Below the armour belt, special reinforcements had been emplaced to defend from torpedoes and mines. Firstly, honeycombing with titanium rods was done 900mm into the ship, followed by a 350mm layer of NPNC armour. Teak planking backed both sides of this NPNC armour. Further structural supports were added behind this for a metre, and then pressurised void space was built in watertight and airtight compartments. Behind that, a further 600mm layer of NPNC, again backed by teak planking. More void space, then behind that another 600mm layer of NPNC which was also backed by teak planking. Teak was used to improve buoyancy and because it is an extremely strong wood. The keel is supported by horizontal framing; tungsten carbides and titanium rods make up most of the bottom of this framing, and the upper frames are made from 750mm rods of HTNC and NPNC steel. A ‘second keel’ was fitted below the original keel, which was more of a support keel, which was made from HSLA steel and with armoured HTNC supports.
MACHINERY
The decision was straight away made to use nuclear power for Hood’s propulsion. A total of eight reactors was chosen, to be provided by Questarian Atomix Plc, providing 8,000,000 shaft horsepower, and two smokestacks with six boilers, three per smokestack arranged along the breadth of the ship. Special care was taken to have the right amount of SHP, as the engines would be unalterable – they were completely covered by Armour Box C. The main rudder housing was provided with its own armour box, which was 700mm thick – the PH type steel (see Protection) was chosen for this purpose. The rudder was 30m x 25m in dimensions and two auxiliary rudders half that size were also put in place. As per tradition, the rudder was made from steel, filled with teak planks, and then coated over with more steel.
Twelve shafts and six waterjets were also chosen. In sea trials, Hood generated 8,434,219 SHP and accelerated at 26.36 knots. This overachieved expectations and to this day Questarian Atomix uses this as one of their great victories.
ACCOMMODATION
Hood was a fairly pleasant ship to serve on, for the 28,110 ratings and 140 officers. She was fully equipped with air conditioning and proper ventilation systems, central heating, and many toilets for the crew. Each man was provided with 4 square metres living space (average), and there were two recreational rooms, each the size of a football pitch. Two messes, also each the size of a football pitch were situated above the rec rooms, which also had full wireless Internet access so crew members could contact friends and family. Several full five star hotel-esque suites were provided for VIPs around the Officers quarters, which indeed is where the Royal Family stayed for their duration onboard the ship. Considerable thought was gone in to making the ship comfortable for the complement, and Hood had a reputation for being a comfortable ship to serve on.
There was food store space for eighteen months of stores, which was not usually loaded unless the ship was ferrying supplies, and Hood could act as a makeshift supply ship.
Complement is as follows:
27,500 Ratings
135 Officers
5 High Tier Commanders
30 pilots
570 aircrew
ARMAMENT
Mark V RP12 81.0cm 92 calibre guns. These guns were tested at John Brown and Co Testing Facility in North Wolverhampton, providing further range, greater accuracy, and harder hitting power than the 76.25cm guns and the 68.7cm guns mounted on previous super-battleships of the Royal Navy. After the sinking of the Hood in 2006, three calibres had been put forward to the RN for evaluation for the new Hood – the 68.7cm gun, the 76.25cm gun, and the 81.0cm guns. The 81.0cm was chosen for the its better accuracy and hitting power and range, as opposed to the 76.25cm and the 68.7 which had better range and reload respectively.
The design team from John Brown and Co under Richard J Wilkinson was given a significant amount of resources and the first test gun was produced in August 2007. The testing stopped in September and the guns were modified with a higher calibre in September. In October 2007, they were again modified to fire at 52 degrees. This was the last modification to the Mk V RP12. The gun fires at a velocity of 882ms with a striking velocity of 540ms.
The weight of these guns was 1000 tons per gun and 8000 tons per quintuple turret. The gun itself is 74.520 metres long. Six of the turrets were mounted on Hood – three aft and three stern, classified as A, B, C, and X, Y, Z.
The number of projectiles per gun was 120 rounds, with 30 stored in the turret, making for 150 shells stored in each turret. Therefore, altogether 4,800 shells are stored in the ship.
Each turret is equipped with four 1800 hp hydraulic motors for the training of the turret, one motor for each turning gear. This achieved 3 degrees per second rotation rate. Maximum elevation for each gun is 45 degrees and the minimum -3 degrees. A rate of 8 degrees a second was achieved for elevation of the guns. Hydraulic valves in assistance with the pumping system could flood the magazine within 16 minutes, and sprinklers and automatic fire extinguishers were added in each turret and magazine for auxiliary fire defence.
The turret itself consisted of seven boxes, two for equipment and crew support and five for each gun. The equipment compartment stretches out the length of the turret to accommodate the 45m rangefinders and the crew compartment is behind that with a pair of entrance hatches above and two behind.
A pair of 600mm HTNC and PH Type plates protected the face of the turret , providing 1200mm of face protection. The sides and back of the turret were protected by 900mm of HTNC and the top was given even more protection with two 800mm plates of HTNC and PH Type. A mock turret, without any fittings or guns, was created at Southampton Testing Basin and the turret was successful in halting Tomahawk, Harpoon, Exocet, Sunburn, Yakhont, Moskit, and several international missiles, although this design will not specify which ones. In fact, the turret also ‘bounced’ the Questarian main VLS anti shipping missile.
Projectiles
The 81.0cm guns supported two offensive projectile types. The Mark II APCBC – Armour Piercing Capped + Ballistic Cap projectile was the primary projectile used by the RP12 Mk V 81.0cm. This round weighed 9500 kg and was designed to shoot into the water just short of the target and hit the belt ends / torpedo defence were the armour was weakest .The shell was specially made for this purpose and is hydrodynamic in shape – the Royal Navy was highly impressed with testing results. These shells were designed to be used against other superbattleships were standard hits against the strongest part of the armour would prove useless.
The second projectile type was the Mark IIV 8 crh superheavy shell. This shell weighed 10100 tons and contained 2500 kg of tri-nitro anisole (TNA). It was used against smaller battleships were the sheer power of the shell would be enough to annihilate the armour of the vessels completely.
In addition, Hood’s main guns were provided with the Mk II IHF [Incendiary, Heavy Flak) round. This round was specially designed to put up a giant wall of flame to knock down incoming waves of missiles. It was used on the first Hood to good effect and the second variant was tested at John Brown and Co’s testing yard at North Wolverhampton in Spring of 2012 and loaded on Hood and her sister ships in the following year. Renown already had the Mk I.
The IHF weighed 10,150 kg and could achieve the same range as the previous shells. It was filled with 6,000 incendiary tubes and a fuze sets the shell off approximately 60km after firing. Steel and magnesium stays are packed into the warhead and when it explodes, shrapnel and flame are propelled in a 22 degrees cone. A millisecond or so later the incendiary tubes are ignited, burning at 3000 degrees centigrade making a flame about 15 metres long for as long as ten seconds.
The longest range achieved from these projectiles was 142,000 metres at 42 degrees.
Missile Armament
The main missile armament for Hood was four giant vertical launch boxes. Each box contained 5,000 cells and the missiles were launched in opposite order; for example, one missile from the first cell, the next from the last cell. Each cell was 11 metres deep and 1 metre wide and long; they were used for mounting anti air and light anti shipping missiles, and some anti submarine missiles.
The Horizontal Launch System was the main anti shipping armament for the vessel. It was formed from thirty horizontal cells in the after superstructure, fifteen port and fifteen starboard, that were eight metres in diameter and twenty metres deep. The area around them was given further armour with the box they were all mounted in together armoured with 600mm NPNC. These could not be reloaded, but they could mount the most potent of anti shipping missiles in the Questarian arsenal, including nuclear weapons.
HIGH ANGLE GUNS
Hood is equipped with two calibres of High Angle Guns; the Mk XI RP10 twin 13.3cm 70 cal and the Mk XX QF10 twin 8.3cm 70 cal. Both are fitted in shield-covered emplacements around the ship.
Mk XI RP10 twin 13.3cm 70 cal: 22 of the turrets were mounted on Hood. Each gun is capable of 7 RPM and shoots to a range of 29,500metres. The guns originally mounted on Hood were Mk X twin 13.3cm guns but these were replaced with the newer model for a faster rate of fire. The Mk XI has a crew of six, and can use both armour piercing, AHEAD, and the Mk II ILF (Incendiary, Light Flak) rounds. The ILF rounds are identical in construction to the ones used in the Mk V RP12 main guns except proportionally smaller.
Mk XX QF10 twin 8.3cm 70 cal: 78 of the turrets were mounted on Hood. Each gun is capable of 20 RPM and shoots to a range of 15,640metres. These guns were only considered for Hood in two of the designs set forward; the others used purely 13.3cm guns. The 8.3cm was chosen for its rate of fire. The Mk XI has a crew of four, and can use both armour piercing, AHEAD, and the Mk II ILF (Incendiary, Light Flak) rounds. The ILF rounds are identical in construction to the ones used in the Mk V RP12 main guns except proportionally smaller.
LIGHT ANTI AIRCRAFT WEAPONRY
Machine Guns
The vessel, which is essentially a ‘fast’ floating fortress, is covered with machine guns and high calibre AA guns. In fact, wherever there was a space the designers put in a machine gun, which actually led to some widescale inefficiencies. Hood is equipped with 600 quad 15.5mm anti air machine guns, totaling 2,400 15.5mm MG barrels. The Mk 4 L6A2 long barreled anti air machine gun is a fully automatic weapon that fires 15.5x132mm 80 cal anti air shells. The weapon’s barrel is 1,240mm long and four barrels are attached to one aiming piece, each barrel with a RPM of approximately 900. The range is 7,300 metres horizontal and 5,500m vertical. Each gun has a crew of three and enough ammunition for four minutes burst, although the gun cannot achieve that (it would break down after one minutes continuous burst).
This means that Hood can in theory put out 2,160,000 15.5x132mm AA shells per minute. In practice of course this is much lower due to ammunition restraints, however this is still a formidable number.
The second type of AA gun mounted on Hood was the Mk 5 45mm 65 cal ‘Pom-pom’, of which 230 installations were mounted. The pom-pom is an incredibly effective anti aircraft platform. The system consists of an aiming system, a traversing system, a loading system, and eight barrels. The weapon effectively acts as a chaingun and is controlled by a crew of two by remote control. It is manually reloaded. Each barrel is 3250mm long and the weapon can achieve a range of 9,000m with a maximum elavation of 80 degrees. It effectively acts as a secondary CIWS system that is capable of taking down missile waves. The shell is 45x250mm and the weapon operates at 500 RPM.
The weapons are installed in protected mounts for the crew, mostly. As the designers fitted the weapons wherever there was space, the inefficiencies that plagued earlier Hood’s were not fixed. Such problems like ammunition handling and the hard-to-reach areas where the guns were mounted were addressed in later vessels by cutting down the number of MG’s and pom-poms installed. Both Mk 5s and MGs are aimed via the Mk X Fire Director. More Mk X were installed in following refits and sister ships to give the small calibre weapons better fire control.
CLOSE IN WEAPON SYSTEMS AND ROLLING AIRFRAME MISSILES
Hood is well endowed with RADAR guided point defence, as a ship her size should be. The main CIWS system used is the 35mm ‘Sea Guardian’ CIWS. This six barreled, RADAR guided point defence weapon can fire at 1,300 RPM per barrel, giving a total RPM of 7,800 35x221mm shells. The RADAR can track up to thirty incoming targets and prioritise them in order of engagement within split seconds and coordinate with the Mk XI PD Fire Director to either lump with other CIWS or manage targets more effectively. The range is 11km. There are a total of 104 Sea Guardian units installed on the vessel.
The ‘Sea Goalkeeper’ Rolling Airframe Missile System provides AMM support. The Sea Goalkeeper is a four-barreled point defence missile launcher that uses its own RADAR to seek out targets of a certain size, leaving the CIWS to hit the smaller missiles. The Sea Goalkeeper’s missile is designed specially to take out larger missiles, such as ICCMs, SLBMs, or light ICBMs. The ‘Sea Goalkeeper’ can detect its target using the main ships RADAR and engage it from up to 45km out. It may need to fire off all four missiles to achieve a kill. There are a total of 40 Sea Goalkeeper’s and they may not be reloaded at sea.
The ‘Sea Stallion’ Anti Submarine and Torpedo defence system [AST] provides the ASROC support for the vessel. Four launchers are mounted fore and four launchers stern, and each is wired to its own powerful SONAR; four different SONARs, two port and two stern. If the SONAR detects a mine, a torpedo, or a midget submarine, it will inform the missile which will then destroy the target.
The missile section of the Sea Stallion is a rolling airframe missile with six barrels that can rotate and fire its missile extremely fast. It has a heavy warhead that can knock out the heaviest torpedoes and mines and the SONAR can sweep to at least 11,000m underneath the water to ultimate precision.
SENSORS AND FIRE CONTROL
Fire Control
The primary fire control system mounted for the main battery was the Mark III Supercapital Low Angle Fire Director. The main parts of the installation were the rangefinders, which are in the following positions:
Two 60m rangefinders in the after superstructure and one in the main tower, and six 45m rangefinders, one in each turret. The tower bridge rangefinder was stereoscopic. These rangefinders could bracket their targets within several salvos, with notably high accuracy for the calibre chosen. Nightfighting gear was excellent, as was all optics employed in the Questarian arsenal, a speciality somewhat countering the quality of Questarian sensors. The fire directors sent information to the extremely powerful computers in the main bridge and it was relayed back again. A large number of Mk V High Angle Fire Directors were mounted for the 13.3cm guns and the 8.3cm guns. The Mk VIII MG Directors were used for the MGs and Pompoms. The CIWS and RAM had their own RADARs.
Sensors
The Mk 313 Air Search RADAR was mounted in Hood in the largest radome visible on the port drawing. It was able to scan out to 511km for incoming aircraft and could receive up to 11,000 targets, missiles or planes. It had IR, LADAR, and LIDAR backup mounted behind the aft bridge. The RADAR’s wave length was 5m with a 25 gW power source.
The Mk 404 Surface Search RADAR was mounted in the main bridge and received its IR, LADAR, and LIDAR support from the RADAR mounting and from a radome behind the second funnel, and another radome below the main bridge. It had a detection range of 93km for similar sized ships and around 60km for destroyers. A pair of ladder type antennas were fitted on the Fire Directors for assistance and relaying of information for the anti shipping role of the Surface Search RADAR.
The Mk 237 Sea Search RADAR was added to augment the anti aircraft capability of the Mk 404. It was located in the same ‘radome’ and allowed for better accuracy of the RADAR and pinpointing of the targets.
The Mk 999 Missile Guidance Sensor was linked to both the Mk 313, the Mk 404, and later the Mk 237 for assistance in guiding the VLS and HLS missiles.
The Mk 44 A2 C4I suite provided complete Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence support for warships within 30 km of the ship, able to direct attacks, relay information, coordinate attacks and information, encrypt and decrypt orders, interact with satellites.
AIRCRAFT AND BOAT ARRANGEMENTS
Aviation
Hood had scout seaplanes equipped with air and sea search RADARs for ASW, ASAC, and AWACs work. There were 20 seaplanes, all stored in the stern and raised from elevators. There were ten turntables and different tracks leading to either other turntables or the six ramps that launched the seaplanes. They could either be collected by taxiing next to the ship and being picked up by crane, or they could land on a steel mat that was unfurled from the ships stern that the planes could temporarily rest on, allowing them to land and be loaded back on the plane.
Boats
Hood had a considerable number of boats that were stored in the stern with the aircraft and lowered down the sides from opening blast doors. There were fourty fifty-man boats stored in the stern, ten hundred man boats, and a pair of extremely large two hundred man boats that took considerable time to drop. Also, behind X turret was the Admiral’s Pinnace, a converted light frigate that took twenty minutes to deploy, and had enough fuel for 2,000 miles steaming. It was designed specially for an Admiral, or VIPs to travel in. This was located on the port side; on the starboard side were two two hundred man boats. Carley rafts and lifejacket were stocked all around the ship, giving every man a lifeboat, a raft, or a jacket in theory.
Obtaining a HOOD
If you already owned a Hood, then please link to the post where you bought it, and then you may return your Hood to a Questarian port, and then upon the payment of the sum of 250 billion USD, we will construct you this version of the Hood.
If you would like to purchase a single Hood (MAYBE, just MAYBE you can get two) you have to list the following:
1.) Why you are buying it
2.) What you plan to do with it
3.) You must agree to have a Questarian liaison officer whenever the ship sets sail
4.) You must agree to, at all costs, NOT break off parts of the guns, the sensors, the armour, any part of the ship whatsoever, to research it.
5.) You must pay the sum of 900 billion USD.
OOC: THANKS AND RESEARCH
Much thanks to the people on #draftroom for being supportive of me, and the NS Draftroom itself and the people there for providing awesome feedback on my drawings. I would specially like to thank Mekugi, GMC Military Arms, and DontPissUsOff.
Sources and research
Anatomy of the Ship: The Battleship Yamato by Janusjz Skulski,
HOOD: Life and Death of a Battlecruiser by Roger Chesneau,
Anatomy of the Ship: The Battleship Warspite,
Anatomy of the Ship: The Aircraft Carrier Victorious
HMS VANGUARD 1944-1960: The Royal Navy’s last Battleship
http://www.navweaps.com
http://www.combinedfleet.com
http://www.springsharp.com
Thanks to the authors of these sites and books.
If anybody wants the real nice formatted MS Word document, drop me a TG with your email.]