Still working on the update, so have a picture I found in the interwebs of what a healthy Lupus looks like, minus the claws/oversized hands, paint, glowing eyes, and no clothing.
(Btw, a human adult goes to just about under their shoulders.)
…but with a higher bow to keep the foredeck drier:
Name: Light Surface Patroller Type 1 Nickname: Red Sun in Morning (Sailors Take Warning) Type: Offshore Patrol Vessel Branch: Navy Intended Role: Customs & Interdiction, Search & Rescue, Maritime Patrol (Peacetime), ASW & ASuW Helicopter Carrier (Wartime) Notable Quirks:
Relatively Cheap
Swords Into Plowshares (And Vice Versa)
The Modern Evolution of the FAC
Mostly Low Observable
Fluff:
Basics
A relatively cheap 1800 ton offshore patrol vessel for maritime patrol, law enforcement, and search & rescue in peacetime that packs a lot of capability into a light hull, especially with two helicopters
In wartime, it can equip it's helicopters with anti-ship missiles or torpedoes and dipping sonar and turn into a flexible helicopter carrier
It's shaped hull makes it harder to detect, while the use of a helicopter as a shooter allows it to play geometric tricks that makes it harder for the enemy to localize it (which is good because it has basically no defenses worth talking about)
It's got a 76 mm for showing fishermen that you're not fucking around, and for emergency point defense in wartime via airburst shells
Basically, Italy and Germany were one of the few Western powers to actually think hard about Fast Attack Craft, and the conclusion was that even a 40 knot FAC isn't exactly booking it compared to modern recon assets and missiles, and if you really want to do FAC type operations you need an aircraft, hence this incredibly discount helicopter carrier that pays its bills in peacetime by acting as an OPV, so we're going to copy that CONOPS because it doesn't actually require any new tech
Stealth shaping for this one is really down to the basics, just making sure the hull is smooth and the number of seams are minimized, as well as a fiberglass superstructure with some cheap foam RAM underneath to absorb more of a radar ping
Hull
Tumblehome Hull w/ RCS Reduction
Fiberglass Superstructure w/ RCS Reduction
Armament
1x 76mm Naval Autocannon
2x Remote Weapons Stations (25mm Autocanon)
Whatever private Lao can carry up on deck from the arms locker
Rolled: 3 + 8/12 = 11 - World Contemporary Design (without Flipper Propulsion.)/15 - 2/3 Years ahead (with Flipper Propulsion.)
Take a PPA's capabilities:
..and once again, shove them into a Zoomie hull form:
Name: Light Surface Combatant Type 1 Nickname: For the Tyrants (Fear Your Might) Type: Guided Missile Corvette Branch: Navy Intended Role: ASW, ASuW, AAW
Notable Quirks:
Delete This Aircraft
Not Quite AEGIS
Best Bang For Buck
Low Observable
Fluff:
Basics
You know how submarines wrecked the Japanese economy in WW2 and inflicted lasting national trauma, and now the JMSDF bases it's pride on how well it can fuck up submarines and how their ships all either kill submarines or protect the ships that kill submarines?
Well Guangchou has the same kind of national trauma but with bombers, and the Guang Navy's pride rests in their ability to kill the incoming aircraft. Their ships are about killing enemy aircraft or detecting enemy aircraft and telling other ships to kill them, or detecting enemy aircraft and telling Guang aircraft to go kill them
This ship is the purest expression of that: it basically acts as a mobile radar picket that fills in the holes in the Airy's defensive net over Guangchou, and it has the sort of magazine depth that will wipe out whole squadrons if they blunder into its kill zone
127mm gun? Bitch, do I look like I need to do shore support? If we're gonna fuck around on disputed islands that's what the Airy bombing is for - give me 16 VLS cells instead (on top of the 16 I already have), and fill them all with quad packed SAMs
Oh look, somebody's trying to jam my state of the art AESA radar, LMAO (AESA radars are actually no that weird for the time period given our electronics, the Japanese Asagiris debuted them in the 90s, ours are probably a bit weaker on account of smaller ship size, but they do the job just fine)
Saturation attack with AShMs? I have 128 SAMs, 16 close in missiles, and a 76mm airburst capable gun (for home defense, as the founding fathers intended) coordinated by a state of the art combat management system feeding them targeting tracks from a AESA radar, I don't fear a saturation attack (admittedly, this is more SSDS than AEGIS, but it's still a very capable self defense system)
I guess we're also equipped to do some ASW and ASUW on the side, as a treat
Hull
Tumblehome Hull w/ RCS Reduction
Fiberglass Superstructure w/ RCS Reduction
Power & Propulsion
COmbined Gas And Gas (CODAG)
4x Aeroderivative Lotarev D-36
With air bottoming cycle
2x Diesel Generators
Magnetic Gearing
1x Foil Track Propeller
Air Bubble Drag Reduction
1x Dynamic Hull Vane / Stabilizer
Sensors & Processing
2x Navigation Radars
1x Low Probability of Intercept Air & Surface Surveillance Radar System
1x Red String AESA 3D Radar
1x Active Towed Array Sonar
1x Anti-Torpedo Towed Array Sonar
1x Conformal Hull Sonar
Underwater Telephone
Bathytermograph Unit
IFF Sensor
Tapestry Combat Management System
Naval Glass Cockpit
Datalinks
(Added Later: SATCOM, Diver Detection Sonar)
EW & Decoys
E-War Suite
2x Adaptable Decoy Launchers
Acoustic Bubble Countermeasures
Rafted Machinery
Armament
1x Water Canon
2x Remote Weapons Stations (25mm Autocanon)
1x 76mm Naval Autocannon
4x CI-P-VLS
16 Navalized SRAAMs
32x P-VLS
128 x Navalized MRAAMs (usually)
1x Angled Launch System (8 Cells)
2x Triple Torpedo Tubes (stern)
Light Torpedo
Auxiliaries
2x Davits
2x RHIBs
1 Stern Ramp
1X Big RHIB
Helicopter Hangar & Pad
2x Light Helos or 1 Big Helo
1x Crane for ISO Containers
Modular Mission Bay (Under Helicopter Deck)
Up to 5 ISO containers or 3 Big RHIBs
Modular Mission Bay (Middle Ship Bay)
Up to 8 ISO containers or 2 Big RHIBs
Rolled: 12 + 8/12 = 20 - 5+ Years Ahead (without Flipper Propulsion.)/24 - 8+ Years ahead (with Flipper Propulsion.)
Breakthrough: Computing
(Reduced PA cost to all electronics projects, reduced action numbers to all electronics projects)
Must construct GSMC before the economy can support serial production of this class of vessel (beyond first 3 prototypes)
Basically this:
But with an angled flight deck.
Name: Amphibious Assault Vessel Type 1 Nickname: Mother Anarchy (Loves Her Sons) Type: Landing Helicopter Assault Branch: Navy Intended Role: Amphibious Assault, ASW Notable Quirks:
It's Actually Pretty Boring
Guess We Can Into Naval Aviation Now
We Can Make A Big Boat
Fluff:
Basics
40 000 tons displacement
Eventually Guangchou is going to want a actual carrier, and when that time comes the Navy needs to have some experience doing naval aviation - this is a fairly affordable way for them to gain that experience with a full length flight deck
In the meantime it's useful for dicking around in disputed outlying islands, because it's also good for amphibious assault
You can also use all those helos for ASW work
Development is going to be absolute hell tho:
Carrier developed with Soviet naval people because that's a lot of engineering work lmao, and the Soviets prob wouldn't mind observing our fuckups in preparation for their carrier, but hopefully with their help there can be less fuckups
Need to develop the shipbuilding infrastructure, that's the breakthrough really, the necessary cyberdization to minimize the pain of growing our our shipbuilding
First few we build will probably suck as we got experience, just the nature of the game, it's just gonna be a kind of sucky training platform - we probably won't build a good carrier until our third hul… at some point in the future, lmao
Carrier deck mockup is an airport with arresting gear and a catapult in the ground
Wooden full scale mock-ups to practice operations
Stuff you won't see it models: interaction between engine vibrations and electronics, combination of bow shape and high superstructure causing a wet ship, which impacts seakeeping and weapons use and so on and so forth
Giant wave tank to test some of these interactions (applies to all the ships - the giant wave tank the USN built is why the Zoomies have such good seakeeping)
Hull
It's a hull, it keeps the water out
Power & Propulsion
2x 60 MWth Nuclear Reactors
4x 10 MW Open Cycle Gas Turbines
With Air Bottoming Cycle
Magnetic Gearing
1x Foil Track Propeller
1x Dynamic Hull Vane / Stabilizer
Air Bubble Drag Reduction
Sensors & Processing
2x Navigation Radars
1x 3D Air & Surface Search Radar
1x 3D Fire Control Radar
1x Anti-Torpedo Towed Array Sonar
1x Tactical Air Navigation System
1x Precision Approach Radar
IFF Sensor
Naval Glass Cockpit
Tapestry Combat Management System
(Later Added: Red String AESA 3D Radar, Datalinks,)
EW & Decoys
Ewar Suite
2x Adaptable Decoy Launchers
Acoustic Bubble Countermeasures
Armament
4x Remote Weapons Stations (25mm Autocanon)
8x CI-PVLS
32x Navalized SRAAMs
16x P-VLS
32x Navalized MRAAMs (usually)
Auxiliaries
Aviation Facilities
Angled Flight Deck
CATOBAR
Aircraft Elevators
Hangars
Hospital
Rolled: 11 + 8/12 = 19 - 5+ Years Ahead (without Flipper Propulsion.)/23 - 8+ Years
Breakthrough: Heavy Industry Cyberdization
Unlocks: Twin Hammer Heavy Industry Expansion (1 Action)
Heavy Industry cyberdization projects complete over time on their own, due to increased interest from workers and political pressure from the military who want to be able to afford to build cool boats)
Unlocks: Mingxiang Naval Expansion (Free)
Mingxiang gets a naval R&D satellite campus, including a giant wave tank, ground based carrier deck mock-ups, and a yard for full scale wooden mock-ups of ship for testing operations.
Unlocks: Naval Shipbuilding Expansion (9 Actions, auto-complete at 1 action/turn)
We need to train more people and expand our shipbuilding heavy industry. This project will tick over on its own due to military interest and popular buy-in.
Project must complete before we can this ship
Must design and build 20MWe MSR Reactor before ship can be built
Name: Nuclear Attack Submarine Type 9 Nickname: (Now Is The) Time of Monsters Type: Attack Submarine Branch: Navy Intended Role: Attack Submarine Things Notable Quirks:
Far Ahead of Its Time
Troubled Development
Room to Grow
Fluff:
Basics
5000 tonnes
It'll take a long as time to work out all the kinks because Bernoulli's laws don't really scale - you have to try stuff out full scale and the only way to figure out how a nuclear sub will handle is to build one and test it
The design would have absolutely caused a panic in US Naval circles and probably probably some sort of SuperSeawolf program, them not realizing that the early versions of our sub kind of suck because of a lack of institutional knowledge
Relied a lot on Soviet technical input to avoid the worst mistakes, but this sub is also trying out a lot of new stuff at once and it's impossible to not make some sort of fuckup in the process
Once it's had a chance to wring out the issues, it's gonna be a great sub tho
The fin-like planes are there to avoid the bow planes shadowing the flank sonar arrays with flow noise when extended
The biomimetric control surfaces using tubercles like humpback whales can be smaller because they develop better L/D so their cruise drag will be lower than a non biomimetric equivalent - especially since the rear panes have been eliminated in favor of thrust vectoring using variable pitch swirl recovery stators (will absolutely cause a bunch of acoustics issues before they get fixed with experience, as well as a few fun near misses with nearly running into shit until the bugs in the dynamically unstable steering system are worked out)
Compared to a pumpjet, this hull diameter propeller is actually less technically risky because it builds on our foil track propeller experience from surface ships that would have been operating a while before this is built
The propeller ingests the slow boundary layers and re-energises it, decreasing drag
Because it sweeps such a large area, it can spin very slowly, meaning it will remain cavitation free in shallow water even at high power
The gas turbine powerplant is a lot more compact and light than a steam plant, so the sub will be smaller and lighter and cheaper to operate
The MSR's commonality with civilian reactors will make it easier to find trained technicians
The lack of a flat deck is also a deliberate sacrifice to reduce technical risk, alongside the bow planes that stick out perpendicularly from the hull - both simplify the flow field and reduce the odds of weird acoustic vibration when maneuvering
The sheer lack of appendages means it's a very low drag design, so it can move at a decent patrol speed even with the reactor in natural circulation mode and the pumps off
Combined with the very blunt laminar flow bow that keeps the sonar functional at higher speeds, this thing can moonwalk around the Asia-Pacific an 20-25kts, as fast as a surface warship will cruise
If you think Conformal Sonar is a breakthrough at this point in time, I'd like you to read about the British Sonar 2001 system
The periscopes are fairly normal for now - they'll likely stay hull penetrating until the late 90s for us when we can develop a decent non-hull penetrating optronic mast and refit it in
Torpedo tubes mounted above and below the conformal sonar, top ones also used to reload when in dock
Extendable sail with a mission module behind it - can be used for diver airlock, missiles, etc.
Towed array and countermeasure tubes stored in the rear hull cavity, while the annular cavities are given over to ballast tanks
Combination of compact powerplant and power dense 'outboard' propulsion machinery, as well as savings from eliminatitg rear control surfaces allow you to have full capability in a smaller than usual nuclear sub - important for allowing scale models to be closer to the real deal, and thus partially offsetting technical risk
Unlike American and Russian subs that need to transit wide distances, this one is optimized more for quiet patrol around Guangchou, hence this particular propeller setup designed to let it quietly patrol at high speed even in shallower waters and come up to periscope depth without worry
The SMES lets the sub run in an ultra quiet mode with it's reactor and turbines off, and it has equivalent to better energy density than batteries at the time
Must build Superconductor Foundry before submarine can be built
Must design and build 20MWe MSR Reactor before submarine can be built
I ran the numbers on the AIP sub and the fuel mass alone justified replacing it with a reactor. We're already so close to building a MSR that it's not going to delay the subs much - especially since the yards need time to spin up.
[X] Cyber's Coke Fuelled Fever Dreams
-[X] [Boat 1] Red Sky At Night (Sailor's Delight)
-[X] [Boat 2] Red Sky In Morning (Sailors Take Warning)
-[X] [Boat 3] For the Tyrants (Fear Your Might)
-[X] [Boat 4] Mother Anarchy (Loves Her Sons)
-[X] [Submarine] (Now Is The) Time of Monsters
View: https://imgur.com/a/eaFvVKj
I spent waaay too much time (read a few hours but with a mouse and keyboard instead of something sensible like a fucking drawing pad) in MS paint trying to come up with this. Behold! My shitty attempt at a Civilian Model Tiger Link Terminal!
)
