What am I supposed to do? a staff study?

 

Give me a day. and I will roll it all together in ONE presentation. 

 

Time start will be 1944.

For a start I would say we would accept two.   For aircraft we would initially have Hawker Sea Fury F.B. Mk.II.   

Carry on folks.

I think two would be a suitable number for the times (scaling down from end of WW2).

 

One for local waters (SE Asia) and one we could deploy to the Med etc (showing the flag).

 

I think aircraft would mirror that of the RN of the day. I think we may have looked at the Supermarine Attacker and probably offload them around 1951-53 to Pakistan in the same manner the Poms did.

 

Without doing a hardcore analysis (hello Herald http://www.strategypage.com/CuteSoft_Client/CuteEditor/Images/emsmile.gif" align="absMiddle" border="0" alt="" />) I would just through some ideas around and suggest that maybe the Sup Scimitar could be a viable choice as an interim fighter and useful striker (well it did fly from HMS Victorious, which is not much larger than a Colly type carrier) post-Sea Venom.

 

The Scimitar was capable of firing Winder in much the same way we used Scooter for the fleet defence role in latter years.

 

I still think Fairey Firefly's and the other props we used in reality would be used here.

 

 

Hmmm...Could we launch the North American Fury from a Colly or are we deck dimmension/catapult averse?

 

I'm thinking that if a Majestic can throw a Scooter into the air then we could have used the Fury (perhaps after initial use of the Scimitar) on the decks as it would have some basic commonality with the RAAF's Sabres.

 

Perhaps use Scimitar for ground attack and Fury for top cover?

 

Curious.

 

Carrying on from the "gift" fleet on the Lightning post.
The RAN is gifted a number of modern ships including one, two or three Colossus class light fleet carriers.

How many would we get, which aircraft would we operate initially and which aircraft would succeed them post war then into the 50's. How would the carriers be modernised / modified, what roles would they be adapted to, how long would they serve and finally what, if anything, would they be replaced with?

I looked at the Fury when we were having the other discussion and it looked to me like it was in the ballpark with the Skyhawk (it was shorter but had bigger, folding spanned wings and comparable weights). I'd imagine if they hadn't decided to turn the Melbourne into a purely rotary ASW carrier in the late 50's then it would have been a contender.

What I was thinking though was if CAC could knock together some sort of hybrid with the tail hook, undercarriage and folding wings from the Fury, the radar and FCS from the F-86K or L, the Avon engine and 30mm Adens from the CAC Sabre and the dual AIM-9B/C capability for head on SARH attack followed by tail chase from the F-8. That would provide a good anti-bomber capability and acceptable anti-fighter capability until the late 60's.

We would undoubtedly do pretty much the same as we did with the Majestics because they were an earlier version of that class. Perhaps you are thinking of the Centaurs?

 

No I was definitely thinking of the Colossus class as these are the ships the RN was looking at transferring to the RAN, free of charge, in 1944 and 45. 

 

The reason these ships were on offer is an acute manning shortage meant the RN was not able to commission all of the war emergency program ships that were nearing completion in 1944. The plan was that Australia and Canada would each take on one or more newly completed carriers allowing the RN to commission the remainder of the ships. Instead, when Australia dilly dallied, the UK delayed the completion of most of the new carriers as there was no point expending further resources completing ships they couldn't crew, meaning only four instead sixteen saw service in WWII.

 

The whole premise of this thread is the RAN receiving their carriers several years earlier than they did in reality, for no cost. There was very little difference between the Colossus class and the Majestic class and as both classes were built concurrently there was no real difference in their potential service lives.

 

End result the RAN gets its carriers and Fleet Air Arm in time to see service in WWII, these ships are still effective and serve with distinction in Korea. Perhaps above all, having not been required to pay for them the RAN has plenty of money to modify or replace them in the second half of the 50's to allow two carriers to be operated through the 60's and 70's, hopefully being replaced in the 80's. 

What I was thinking though was if CAC could knock together some sort of hybrid with the tail hook, undercarriage and folding wings from the Fury, the radar and FCS from the F-86K or L, the Avon engine and 30mm Adens from the CAC Sabre and the dual AIM-9B/C capability for head on SARH attack followed by tail chase from the F-8. That would provide a good anti-bomber capability and acceptable anti-fighter capability until the late 60's.

 

FJ-4B, bring it on!

???????????????????????? The SW Pacific is far more important to you..

Keeping with the operational experience at the time, you can emphasize meduim caliber flak and fit in the usual radars and install a fighter director. Since Australia has to operate the type (1944) the SINGLE critical aircraft type needs to be selected.