ASW dirigible

[Razgriz BSG-27]

Equipped with ASW weapons (asrcoc, various torpedoes)
some for of CIWS
Dunking sonar
Sonobuoys

Jet engines for fast transit
ducted props for fine movement and station keeping






Also do we have Sonobuoys, and dunking sonar drawn?

[Zephyr]

Is it just my comp, or is there no picture there?

[Colosseum]

As unfortunate as it is, the ASW blimp died the day the nuclear submarine was invented...

The primary benefit of a blimp was that they could remain over an area for a long period of time, forcing a submarine to come up for air (back when submarines were in reality submersibles). Nuclear subs, which could cycle their own air and not surface to run diesels and recharge batteries, could stay down practically forever and made the ASW blimp obsolete. There really is a reason they aren't used anymore...

Jet engines on a blimp don't make much sense. I'm sure someone else can elaborate.

ASROC is launched from a big launcher and if you're carrying torpedoes anyway, no need to carry ASROCs as it's just a method of launching a torpedo farther out. In case you didn't know - ASROC is just a torpedo with a rocket attached to it. It launches to a set distance and then the torpedo falls away under a parachute.

Also, we should get our terminology correct: is this a blimp, or a dirigible? Dirigibles have a rigid internal frame; blimps do not. I can't tell from the drawing.

Are those RAM launchers above it?????????

[Razgriz BSG-27]

I was trying to think of some kind of air defense, those are kind of a placeholder
I came up with this earlier today, possibly for quick acting defense against boomers, the jet engines were for getting to the engagement quickly

anyway yeah ascrocs don't make a whole lot of sense I thought maybe there was larger bore torpedoes on a sheet somewhere, couldn't find them, so

also it is a dirigible, I thought the tension lines brought that across, maybe I'll make the whole frame present

[Thiel]

That and the fact that their payload was tiny.
Even with the much reduced engine weight (We'll not get into the issues associated with jet-engines in this context) you'll never be able to carry anything even close to the armament you're showing. The much larger K-class used by the USN carried a total of one .5" Browning machine gun and four 350lb depth charges. Like Colo said, their real weapon was their ability to force the submarine to dive and stay down there until surface units could arrive at the scene.

[Colosseum]

Defense from air attack is not on the list of priorities for this thing. It would probably be given IR flares and chaff and that would be that. Active defense on something like this would be nonexistent. Rely on fighter aircraft for that.

You don't need any type of torpedo other than the Mk.46 (the standard USN air-droppable torpedo).

If you are worried about getting to a contact quickly, that's what you have land-based fixed-wing aircraft for.

[Thiel]

And at a quarter tonne a piece you won't be carrying a lot of them.
In fact, unless you increase the size significantly you'll be lucky to carry one.

[Colosseum]

http://shipbucket.com/images.php?dir=Re ... NP-K-1.gif

K-1 for reference. The yellow thing is a depth bomb.

[TimothyC]

Your best use of an ASW dirigible would be sustained operations over a large area. In short, you'd want to carry a large number of sonobouys and a dipping sonar. What you've got is a helo that doesn't have to land back at the ship quickly. When you start thinking about it that way, the blimp/dirigible decision would become one of commonality (do you use dirigibles for heavy lift?) and weather (the dirigible would be able to operate in slightly worse weather than the blimp). Functionally, I think the best roll would be to supplement static control lines in an environment where you don't have a lot of helicopter equiped small craft, and you don't have a lot of fixed wing ASW aircraft.

[klagldsf]

That airship is far, far too small to fly at any altitude with any weight aside from the gas envelope itself. It amazes me no one has pointed this out yet, on top of everything else discussed.