Arsenal Ships

[nightsight971]

Hello,

The Arsenal Ship is a fascinating ship capability whose only drawback is putting all your eggs in one basket. Would a limited number be feasible though? My thought is pair an Arsenal with a Carrier. It could be armed with air and ground attack missiles. Since six Carriers must be deployed with 2 ready to go in 90 days, 8 or 10 Arsenal Ships should suffice. I checked the proposed cost back in 1998 when Congress scratched them and todays cost would be 1 billion. That is less than Arleigh Burk. BUT, we all know how the Zumwalt class exploded in costs and it would depend how many missiles are put on it. Bad idea, poor concept for a ship, or a good idea?

 

[John Fedup]

This concept, if built, would be an expensive target considering its inventory. The inventory would consist of a fairly large number of Uber expensive hypersonic missiles. Food for SSKs and SSNs IMHO.

 

[Redlands18]

Hello,

The Arsenal Ship is a fascinating ship capability whose only drawback is putting all your eggs in one basket. Would a limited number be feasible though? My thought is pair an Arsenal with a Carrier. It could be armed with air and ground attack missiles. Since six Carriers must be deployed with 2 ready to go in 90 days, 8 or 10 Arsenal Ships should suffice. I checked the proposed cost back in 1998 when Congress scratched them and todays cost would be 1 billion. That is less than Arleigh Burk. BUT, we all know how the Zumwalt class exploded in costs and it would depend how many missiles are put on it. Bad idea, poor concept for a ship, or a good idea?

There is a now locked thread for Arsenal ships, just search Arsenal Ships, its about 3 pages back. Worth a read and the general consensus was, they are not worth it. Most navies are going with distributed lethality. Build a Frigate with 32 VLS and a 127mm Gun, you could still fit up to 24 LACMs on it and you have a far more versatile platform, and any Arsenal ships would require 3-4 escorts and they could do the Arsenal ships job 80-90% of the time anyway.

 

[Inverno]

I looked up the thread (-> Arsenal Ships).
Besides the (locked) thread there are new concepts in the making. You might find an interesting read in the Dutch TRIFIC concept. Sort of arsenal-goes-loyal-wingman.
Marineschepen.nl on the concept (Google Translate): The Navy wants large, heavily armed ships with a few crew members in the short term.
Navalnews: RNLN looks at low-manned platform to augment frigate fire power.

 

[nightsight971]

This concept, if built, would be an expensive target considering its inventory. The inventory would consist of a fairly large number of Uber expensive hypersonic missiles. Food for SSKs and SSNs IMHO.

Agreed, so I am thinking to pair them with a Carrier so it is protected by the entire strike group.

 

[nightsight971]

There is a now locked thread for Arsenal ships, just search Arsenal Ships, its about 3 pages back. Worth a read and the general consensus was, they are not worth it. Most navies are going with distributed lethality. Build a Frigate with 32 VLS and a 127mm Gun, you could still fit up to 24 LACMs on it and you have a far more versatile platform, and any Arsenal ships would require 3-4 escorts and they could do the Arsenal ships job 80-90% of the time anyway.

Yes, my thinking was adding this type of ship as part of a Carrier Strike Group only. Definitely wouldn't want them out there alone.