Per the concept introduced in
Where There Ain't no Ten Commandments and continued in
The Aftermath, the first of my Cold War / Modern series of ship designs for Kætjhasti.
Note that RKN stands for Rauhiranya ha Kætjhasti Navasti--"Navasti" being a loan word from the Portuguese (derived from Nãve) which is used for warships in Kaetjh Javanese (which is about to modern Javanese as Romanian is to Spanish), the primary language of the nation, while a different word derived from the name "Star Raft" for the great junks of Zheng He is used for large merchant ships.
The ship is here:
Designed and created by myself with credits to Alexia for hosting it and cleaning it up.
Kamunashjhad-class CBGs,
Kamunashjhad, Sri Rijhada; commissioned 1957 - 1958 respectively.
Dimensions:
Length: 247.2 meters overall
Beam: 30 meters.
Draft: 10.3 meters at full load.
Full load displacement: 41,200 tonnes.
Maximum speed: 33.5kts designed service; 34.5kts achieved in extremely lightened state on trials.
Armament (as designed):
6 x 11.1in/50cal SK L/50 in two triple turrets.
2 x KI-3 Kulkarna twin-arm SAM launchers (4 arms total), 96 missiles in the forward magazine, 56 missiles in the aft magazine.
2 x KI-4 Srimarta twin-arm SAM launchers (4 arms total), 48 missiles in each beam magazine.
8 x 4.1in/65cal SK C/33 in four twin turrets (Dop. L. C/38).
2 x Triple 53.3cm ASW torpedo launchers (prior to the development of lightweight mounts with smaller, dedicated torpedoes, these homing torpedoes were the only ASW armament actually fitted.
2 x ASW mortar launchers mounted right aft were planned but never fitted; the area was instead cleared for a single extremely small helicopter and provision made for carrying fuel and armament for it under the deck where the mortars would have been installed. A collapsible hangar was also fitted but rarely used in practice.
1 x 'midships launching rail for Rikata nuclear cruise missiles with six carried.
Armour: 350mm belt; 140mm deck (over three decks).
Design history: The
Kamunashjhad class were conceived as cruiser-killers when WW2 began; after the Japanese surprise attacks on Kætjhasti in February of 1942, the design was ordered into high gear. As originally proposed, the ships were to be armed with 12 x 11.1in/55cal guns of a native design in four triple turrets. It soon became apparent, however, that the design was overloaded for the proposed armament, which was also considered excessive as the harsh experience of the early part of the war guaranteed the need for extensive anti-aircraft requirements; the anti-aircraft battery was revised to 24 x 4.1in/65cal over 16 x 4.1in/65cal, with four additional twin turrets being added aft and the fourth 11.1in turret deleted. Construction on the two ships of this class began by the end of 1942, and proceeded until the end of the war with progressively less and less importance, to the point that the turrets and guns were not fabricated, and construction ultimated halted with the hull complete but the superstructure only partially so.
The hulls were retained for possible other use, and conversion to carriers was considered due to the immense losses in the Kætjhasti carrier fleet in the war; the design was, however, considered unnecessary, with eight fleet carriers both available and the only force the Empire could afford. With the dawn of the missile age, problems multiplied for the RKN. Manning needs were to be reduced where possible, which led CNO Samijha Fernandez (of the famous Fernandez family of 16th century shipwrecks) to conclude that the battleship force was doomed; the two in active service and two in reserve would have to go, but a strong gun armament ought be retained. Design studies on their modification into missile ships faltered on the need to trim manning requirements and their speed being insufficient to keep up with the fast carriers.
Attention turned to the
Kamunashjhad class, which promised both the missile firepower required, with two long-range and two short-range launchers, and the retention of some kind of heavy gun capability in the fleet. The design, involving the deletion of 16 of the proposed 4.1in guns--the elimination of eight twin mounts--the seaplane capability, all the innumerable autocannons originally planned, and Turret Bruno, promised the major capability that was greatly desired in the fleet, combining bombardment ship and missile cruiser in the same platform. For the turrets themselves, four would be required, the same number from an old WW1 vintage battleship then being scrapped; the turret rings were compatible in diameter, and so the decision was made to preserve the turrets for installation on the two
Kamunashjhad class ships, accepting the reduced range of the lower elevation (ultimately modified to 32 degrees) 50cal's for the reduced cost when the armour and heavy gun industry had largely collapsed in the wake of the end of WW2.
Conversion and completion was accordingly begun as early as 1952, with the completion of the first ship on 2 December 1957, the
Kamunashjhad herself, the
Sri Rijhada following on 6 June 1958. With the completion of these vessels the very first Kætjhasti missile ships were in service, possessing a comparable firepower to the
Albany-class CGs of the USN which were commissioned several years later, but with the retention of an immense gun armament--on a hull, however, 24,000 tons larger and with a substantially larger crew.
Operational History:
The ships remained flagships of carrier forces--designed for that task where the carriers themselves were not--for their entire lives, the premier fleet elements of the RKN. Except for minor refits their service was continuous from 1957/58 to 1974, when the
Kamunashjhad was removed from service for two years for an extensive refit including a complete upgrade to her electronics systems and massive modifications to the armament. Once she returned to service in 1976, the
Sri Rijhada followed, returning to service in 1978. With these changes the ships continued in active duty service until 1990, when both were placed in the ready reserve on the completion of the last of the
Lajhama-class CSGNs which were meant to provide a full replacement for every single class of cruiser in the entire navy (12 cruisers replaced by 5). The ships remained in ready reserve until late 1993, when they were placed in limited preservation reserve until 1997 and decommissioned in that year; both were subsequently acquired as museum ships.
Their only operational combat service was against Indonesia in the 1973 Timor Boundary Incident, when the
Sri Rijhada was credited with using a Kulkarna missile to successfully shoot down an Indonesian Mig-17, the only successful operational combat use of these missiles.
Armament after 1970s refits:
6 x 11.1in/50cal SK L/50 in two triple turrets.
2 x KI-28 twin-arm launchers for Samandha medium/long range SAMs.
2 x KI-30 10-cell box launchers for Slikha short-range SAMs.
8 x 4.1in/65cal SK C/33 in four twin turrets (Dop. L. C/38).
4 x WIR-14 anti-torpedo rocket launchers.
16 x Nakama SSM in four quadruple launchers amidships.
Added in the 1980s:
4 x Phalanx; provision for two UAVs aft.
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