Grays Harbor Designs

[jabba]

Great design, really aesthetically pleasing I reckon!

[Zephyr]

What I believe may be the finalized design.




Thanks to everybody for your ideas and suggestions.

[Thiel]

Please toss the 20mm gun and its sponsoon. You've already got full coverage from your CIWS, and if that's not enough for you there's a pair of perfectly usable bridge wings just above. Your current setup is going to act like a giant radar reflector which kinda defeats the purpose of the proto-stealth features.

[Zephyr]

To go along with the Kastens, I also have a Group 2 (Port Lucie Class) and Group 3 (Olympia Class). On these the aft turret was replaced with a 48-cell VLS. A deckhouse was added aft of the helipad to permit sufficient space for the magazine. The Kastens were built from 1991-94, 16 boats.

Port Lucie Class (Built 1995-97, 13 boats)


Olympia Class (Built 1997-2001, 19 boats)

[Zephyr]

Please toss the 20mm gun and its sponsoon. You've already got full coverage from your CIWS, and if that's not enough for you there's a pair of perfectly usable bridge wings just above. Your current setup is going to act like a giant radar reflector which kinda defeats the purpose of the proto-stealth features.

umm ... hadn't thought of that.

EDIT: OK, fixed.

[Zephyr]

I've revisited my Mars, St Edwards, Kasten, Port Lucie and Olympia Classes; made a few tweaks, hopefully improved them some.

Comments as to whether I was succeded or not are, of course, welcomed.

[TimothyC]

There is something missing (design wise), but I'm having a hard time putting my finger on it (probably because I'm studding for exams). I think it might be the aft SPY-1 faces - I'd think about raising them up even half a deck (like they are on the Flight IIA Burkeswarm).

[Zephyr]

Raise them a bit? Hmm. I'll play with that some and see what happens.

"Burkeswarm" I like that.

[Thiel]

I'd change the St. Edwards class to have angular funnels rather than the round ones ist has now, get rid of the sponsoon with the 20mm gun and find space for ASW torpedo tubes.
Oh and either replace the Mk. 29 launcher with a dedicated VLS or leave out ESSM altogether.

[Zephyr]

I'd change the St. Edwards class to have angular funnels rather than the round ones ist has now, get rid of the sponsoon with the 20mm gun and find space for ASW torpedo tubes.
Oh and either replace the Mk. 29 launcher with a dedicated VLS or leave out ESSM altogether.

I'm not a big fan of angular funnels. I really prefer gently rounded ends. It just looks better to me. Is there a reason to go angular instead of rounded besides aesthetics?

Why no sponson? Just curious.

ASW tubes. I kinda forgot those. made room midships for a pair of triple tubes.

I don't really see the problem with having a Mk.29 on there. This ship, after all, was designed with a single purpose, to be a surface strike ship. AA is purely point defense. The ship as designed was literally built around the Viper NSM, to be nothing more than an efficient delivery system for SSM's. I chose the Mk.29 because it has a relatively small footprint, no deck penetration and an effective missile in the SeaSpike Mk IV (RIM-162 ESSM). Putting the ESSM in the regular VLS tubes would take space away from packing in more Vipers. Being quadpacked, admitedly not much, but some nonetheless. I also couldn't find a reasonable slot for a Mk.48 VLS except maybe the small Mod 0 or Mod 1. As it stands though, I remembered I also use the SeaDagger (RIM-116 RAM) so I replaced the Mk.29 with a Mk.49 with the bonus I guess you could say of having 21 missiles instead of only 8.

If any of that makes sense ...