1980s Royal Navy Light Cruiser

[Grey Havoc]

Does anyone have any info on this project? I found the below image over at the 'Never Were Catalog'.

 

[Tony Williams]

Looks very suspicious to me - a ship of that size with no helo hangar? And gun turrets which don't look like any western type? I suspect someone might be having some fun...

 

[Voyager989]

I don't have any specific details on the cruiser proper - but I do know whence it came from, after a great deal of hunting through the site you found it - it is part of the series of studies that led to the decision to build the CVF. This is one of the alternatives, a great big "Littoral Cruiser" using some elements of the Horizon CNGF combat suite, which was rejected as they worked their way along. I believe the turrets are meant to be a new-design 155mm gun, and the helicopter hangar was below-deck in the fantail.

 

[MihoshiK]

Looks very suspicious to me - a ship of that size with no helo hangar? And gun turrets which don't look like any western type? I suspect someone might be having some fun...

Gun turrets look like the RN stealth turrets, but that would be the wrong period for em. So yeah, someone is having fun.

 

[Jemiba]

Another drawing of the same the same type, without helicopter, but in slightly better quality can be found here
=light%20cruiser&filters[primary]=images&filters[secondary]=videos&sort=1&o=52]http://media.photobucket.com/user/rebro/media/Never%20Built/litcrus1.jpg.html?filters[term]=light%20cruiser&filters[primary]=images&filters[secondary]=videos&sort=1&o=52
and here [url=http://xoomer.virgilio.it/bk/NWS/Royal_Navy/image-html/litcrus1.html]http://xoomer.virgilio.it/bk/NWS/Royal_Navy/image-html/litcrus1.html

Probably just the heli was deleted, as the profiles show the same slant downwards

 

[Abraham Gubler]

Still super fake. Looks like the aft davit has a mini sub on it! Though the artist who drew it up was probably aiming for a hovercraft. Which slung from a regular davit is not going to get into the water. File this under: fan art, bad

 

[Tzoli]

Unknown Royal Navy Warship Design

I've saved these two images from an old site run by a friend of mine. These two drawings are the same only difference that on the one showing the helicopter is missing the GWS.25 Sea Wolf SAM on the side of the aft mast between the funnels.

It is quite a large ship I'm not sure if it was a Destroyer maybe a Type 43 variant or an abortive cruiser.

Can you guys help me identify this vessel?

 

[Antonio]

Re: Unknown Royal Navy Warship Design

Looks like a large DDG between Type 43/44 and Type 45 but I can't find any mention neither at "British Destroyers & Frigates (Friedman)" nor at "Rebuilding the Royal Navy (Brown & Moore)". Armament systems and Helicopter are from the 90's. Very interesting.

 

[Tzoli]

Re: Unknown Royal Navy Warship Design

Yes, very interesting!
By the drawing(s) I can make of these armaments:
the main guns turrets look similar to the 2002/2007 155mm/39 Future Naval Gun project abandoned in 2010 or
114mm/55 Mark 8 guns in Mark 8 Mod 1 turrets
7x2 30mm/75 Oerlikon KCB in GCM-AO3 twin mountings
2x7 30mm/77 Goalkeeper SGE-30 CIWS
2x6 GWS.25 Sea Wolf SAM
2x VLS block of 7 rows each behind the Goalkeepers

 

[PMN1]

Re: Unknown Royal Navy Warship Design

I've seen the bottom piccie elsewhere, i think it was called 'RN Littoral Cruiser' but there wasn't any information on it.

 

[TomS]

Re: Unknown Royal Navy Warship Design

I doubt that this is an official concept design. There are just too many oddities.

1) Clearly a late 1990s or early 2000s sensor setup, but still with GWS.25 when the RN was firmly onto VL Sea Wolf from the late 1980s.

2) Likewise Goalkeeper and Oerlikon guns when the RN was firmly on Phalanx and DS30.

3) Five (!) 30mm mounts, which is far more than make sense to ensure all-around coverage. (The other one seen in the drawing actually seems to be mounted on a hovercraft).

4) A hovercraft (?) with a 30mm mount on one of the small craft davits.

5) Sketchy helicopter provisions that seem to include a pad that overlaps with line handling capstans. Not ideal. And no hangar unless it's a below-deck one. Which no one professional likes on ships short of a small carrier.

 

[CJGibson]

Re: Unknown Royal Navy Warship Design

Very true TomS, many oddities. Looks like an attempt at a tooled-up cruiser a la Kirov.

I'd say the hovercraft is actually a RIB.

By my rough calcs based on the Merlin (64ft), it's ~850ft long. Feel free to check my working.

Chris (not really my area, merely intrigued by the lack of a hangar)

 

[TomS]

Re: Unknown Royal Navy Warship Design

There's a RHIB abreast of the aft stack but the two davits up front have a hovercraft and an LCM/LCVP ramped landing craft. You can even see the cowl around the hovercraft's propeller.

 

[CJGibson]

Re: Unknown Royal Navy Warship Design

Ah, OK. I stand corrected.

Chris

 

[Mike Pryce]

Re: Unknown Royal Navy Warship Design

Maybe a student project from UCL? RP1 may know.

Or a study to show that 'if we meet the full requirement it would look like/cost this'.

Hangar may be an under deck one with a lift, like the Kirov class. VT proposed some 1970s/80s frigates with such a thing, using sliding deck doors.

 

[Tzoli]

Re: Unknown Royal Navy Warship Design

I've seen the bottom piccie elsewhere, i think it was called 'RN Littoral Cruiser' but there wasn't any information on it.

You might be on track as the file named RNLitCruiser, which I always though of RN Light (Little) Cruiser

 

[TomS]

Re: Unknown Royal Navy Warship Design

Turns out that we have seen this before.

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=20244.0


Thanks for theat clue !

 

[TomS]

Re: Unknown Royal Navy Warship Design

Turns out that we have seen this before.

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=20244.0


Thanks for theat clue !

Glad to help.

Not sure about the connection, but this might be related to the Project 84 studies mentioned in this thread?

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=8881.0

 

[Hood]

To me this feels like a fake.
I don't know its provenience, it appeared on Stafano's site many moons ago but I have never found the online source, presumably long lost to internet history.
The design looks rather odd, a bit like a collection of Type 23 pieces added to a large hull. In addition the weapons systems don't entirely make sense and never has the RN desired this kind of 'littoral cruiser' to support amphibious landings (to me the forward davits look to have an LCVP and a hovercraft). I would bank on this being a clever fictional work by an artists unknown.

 

[Tzoli]

To me this feels like a fake.
I don't know its provenience, it appeared on Stafano's site many moons ago but I have never found the online source, presumably long lost to internet history.
The design looks rather odd, a bit like a collection of Type 23 pieces added to a large hull. In addition the weapons systems don't entirely make sense and never has the RN desired this kind of 'littoral cruiser' to support amphibious landings (to me the forward davits look to have an LCVP and a hovercraft). I would bank on this being a clever fictional work by an artists unknown.

And Stefano passed away, so we will not know where did he get hold of this drawing

 

[RP1]

It's not one of ours, IIRC. It appeared on the Warships1 board many many moons ago. I don't think anyone knew where it came from then, either.