Military History | How To Make War | Wars Around the World Rules of Use How to Behave on an Internet Forum
Surface Forces Discussion Board
   Return to Topic Page
Subject: Heliocopters on merchants
jastayme3    11/15/2007 7:52:02 PM
As the heliocopter is more important in modern ASW then then the direct attack from surface, couldn't attachable flight decks be a force multiplier? A Perry class has two heliocopter's, so a convoy with four Perrys would have eight. Suppose however the larger merchants had decks that could carry heliocopters. That would add a dozen or more. A merchant could probably not carry reload torpedos and would be short on sonobuoys. But just having the extras on hand would be useful. The idea was by the way thought of as a prelude to escort carriers. However there were only fixed wings then. This could improve matters. It would not be a substitute for the escort, but a valueable supliment.
 
Quote    Reply

Show Only Poster Name and Title     Newest to Oldest
gf0012-aust       11/15/2007 9:02:57 PM
Atlantic Conveyor and her sisters doubled up as boarding houses as well as miltransport....
 
Quote    Reply

xylene       11/19/2007 6:59:52 PM
Might be possible on some specially designed sealift ships. Ship would have to have adequate deck load strength already or there would need to be a way of shoring up to strengthen the deck. An SL-7 would be a good candidate.  
 
Quote    Reply

RockyMTNClimber    Convoy cover   11/19/2007 9:27:25 PM
Most modern Merchant vessels have an area designated to use a Helo off of if nothing else because of emergencies. It is a great idea. A module could be loaded onto the merchant (remember the civilian Merchies of WWII had guns for AA and ASW) to reload sonobouys and fuelnd change out the flight crew. Leave the heavy weapons reloads to the FFGs and DDGs.
 
Check Six
 
Rocky
 
Quote    Reply

EW3       11/19/2007 9:31:36 PM
Landing/Takeoff space is easy.
But from a ship handling and an acoustic viewpoint , merchant ships are a disaster in an ASW environment. 
 
 
Quote    Reply

gf0012-aust       11/19/2007 9:59:07 PM

Landing/Takeoff space is easy.

But from a ship handling and an acoustic viewpoint , merchant ships are a disaster in an ASW environment. 
it would sound like an underwater re-enactment of kursk.....
 
Quote    Reply

Herald1234       11/19/2007 10:03:26 PM

Might be possible on some specially designed sealift ships. Ship would have to have adequate deck load strength already or there would need to be a way of shoring up to strengthen the deck. An SL-7 would be a good candidate.  


Or you could purpose design such a landing space on the aft of a MV container ship just behind the superstructure

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2251/2048386685_7b0e9c53f5_o.jpg" width=656 border=0>

Simple.

Herald
 
Quote    Reply

gf0012-aust       11/19/2007 10:13:29 PM
It would be ok for ferry and light mission work, but at an acoustic level, it would be one big transducer....
 
Quote    Reply

Herald1234    Cousteau   11/20/2007 4:42:31 AM

It would be ok for ferry and light mission work, but at an acoustic level, it would be one big transducer....


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2078/2049864770_e8dbfc4827_o.jpg" width=648 border=0>
Cheat. Solar and wind makes sense for some freighters anyway.

Herald
 
Quote    Reply

xylene       11/20/2007 1:59:07 PM
I'd suspect that the hatchcover of a modern container ship would be able to support the wieght of a helicopter, since it is designed to hold wieght of containers sometimes stacked 6 to 8 high.
 
On most modern post-panamax or 5th generation containerships the aft section is also used for stowage of containers. To be on solid hatch cover ship would have to sacrifice cargo. Maybe a special module could be set up on top of the containers themselves using the cornerposts as support.
 
Quote    Reply



 Latest
 News 		  Most
 Read 		  Most
 Commented		  Hot
 Topics