Untimely Excursions
Page 19
We are hoping that the new jet fighter selected by British Ministry of Defense will abandon the centrifugal flow engines to go with the more efficient axial flow engines like what our aircraft use. We would likely be chosen to supply those engines in that case.”
“I understand that the new strategic jet bombers that the RAF is transitioning to are going to be powered by four large axial-flow gas turbines.”
“Yes, they are. That will mean that the Royal Air Force will have the most advanced jet bombers in the world. Of course, you never know what the Germans will surprise us with. I believe that we still have the best jet engines though.” Warren confidently said.
“I think that we still do as well. What do you think that our big naval gas turboshaft engines were derived from? We developed the gas turbine core unit for both aircraft and naval applications in conjunction with Rolls-Royce. We are already looking at using the same engine core to drive a propeller so that we can re-engine our Cassowary bombers, AeroPacket medium transports and Cavalier flying boats to give them more speed and power. We just had to work very hard to prevent Mister Hives, the director of Rolls-Royce, from designing the sheer simplicity out of the basic gas-turbine design.”
“I actually don’t mind that the gas-turbine designs have gotten a bit more complicated. But it has to be in order to make the engines a lot more efficient, powerful and reliable. If additional complications don’t accomplish those benefits, then it is not worth doing.”
“We creating a lot of world-beating designs. The old man’s kids are nearly as good as he was about making suggestions that improved everything that we built.” Tom admitted.
“But now, instead of just the old man, we now have all four of his kids looking over our shoulders and making those suggestions.”
“Fair Dinkum. That means that our people are having to work through four times as many suggestions now. But if they are as good as those the old man used to provide while he was alive, things are going to get very interesting.”
“As if things weren’t already interesting enough all over the world. There are at least half a dozen regional conflicts or major civil wars going on right now. Anyone who thought that the fighting was over after the Armistice and the Japanese surrender was sadly mistaken.”
“You are bloody well right about that. Asia is one hell of mess to start with from French Indochina all the way up past Korea. The Muslims and the Hindus are still fighting over what the final partition line is going to be in Kashmir between India and Pakistan. The departure of the British has led to a lot of old grievances being brought back to the surface.”
“That fight is going to continue for a very long time, I’m afraid. There is a lot of bone-deep hatred out there in the South Asian subcontinent. When you add the endemic corruption that exists on both sides of the line, there are going to be very few winners in that entire area now that the British have left. But for most of the population, especially among the poor, there will be a lot of losers though.” Warren grimly noted.
“That is true in a lot of places in Asia. I wonder if the Yanks are going to be able to keep a lid on all of the potential turmoil going on south of their border. America has been reasserting itself down there as a sort of consolation prize for having not done anything really useful during the last war.”
“You are talking about all of the interventions that the US Marines have been involved in during the past fifty years or so, aren’t you?”
“Yes. They have been mostly involved in smaller Latin American countries like Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua. The governments in those places seem to have a history of instability, particularly within their governments.
But some of the larger Latin American nations have been getting nervous too. The South American naval arms race has resumed once again. Only this time, Brazil, Argentina and Chile have been buying surplus aircraft carriers instead of battleships. This means that they are going to actually be able to strike at targets well inland this time.”
“The Latin Americans buy some of these new jets that several nations are building now, then they might even consider challenging the United States for influence in the region. That could get very ugly, very quickly. The Americans don’t like it very much when someone challenges the region’s four-hundred gorilla for influence.” Tom replied.
“The Yanks are going to like it even less now when they learn that both the Brazilians and the Argies have bought French jet fighters to operate from their aircraft carriers. The Americans have been rather slow in introducing jets onboard their aircraft carriers.”
“Those French jet fighter-bombers are not particularly advanced though. They are all of a very conventional configuration with an armament of four twenty-millimeter cannons and a couple of tons of bombs or rockets. These fighter-bombers have only a slight amount of sweepback to their wings so that can only exceed the speed of sound in a dive. But both the Brazilian and Argentinian carriers only have the ability to carry about thirty aircraft each. The French jets are also being sold at extremely low prices as the same time to open up the market.” Tom explained.
“The addition of jet fighter-bombers makes those navies fairly formidable though. Plus the prestige that each navy has from operating jet fighters is pretty impressive.” Warren admitted.
“I would agree, but those two navies do have some other competition in the region in regards to modern naval aviation. Chile bought one of those American carriers that had been originally converted from a flight deck cruise liner though, didn’t they?”
“Yes, it’s actually somewhat larger than any of the carriers that Brazil and Argentina bought from the Royal Navy after the war. But I doubt somewhat that it is quite as robust since it was constructed a mite more closely to mercantile practice, rather than full military standards. However, Cavil Shipyards actually built two of the flight deck cruise liners for an American shipping line before the beginning of the war, including this one.”
The same basic design for the flight deck cruise liner was later used by Cavill Shipyards to build two new aircraft carriers for the Royal Australian Navy. However, it was modified to full military standards with heavier scantlings and armor over its critical areas, including a lightly armored flight deck that extended out to a fully enclosed hurricane bow. This alone made HMAS Australia and HMAS Melbourne far more survivable than their American quasi-sisters even if the flight deck armor was not to the standards of the later Royal Navy fleet carriers with their more heavily armored flight decks. All of them still had the Cavill trademark turbo-electric propulsion system that made the vessels, not only fast, but also very long-ranged due to their great fuel economy.
Melbourne and Australia are about as big as the Americans’ USS Lexington and the Royal Navy’s Implacable. Even though, our two carriers devote some tonnage to armored flight decks, they still also have fairly large hangars. This means that Melbourne and Australia both have excellent aircraft capacity.” Warren explained.
“I was a little surprised that the Americans sold that converted flight-deck liner. But her sister ship had been sunk by a Japanese submarine towards the end of the war. I remember reading that some officials in America blamed that carrier’s loss on what they felt was her inadequate hull structure.
But when you think about it, the Americans immediately initiated a substantial reduction of their military after the end of the Pacific war. The United States Navy eliminated virtually all of its pre-war inventory as a result of this, including their older carriers. I suppose that the Americans felt that they were still protected by their oceans in spite of what the Japanese did with their suicide rockets.” Eric mused.
“The Americans still have a lot of destroyers in their inventory, even after the mass retirement of all of their surviving pre-war designs. Even the pre-war aircraft carriers were not exempt from the auction block or the scrapping yards.
The focus of the United States Navy has moved now from battleships to a combination of new-build aircraft carriers and
destroyers with some modern cruisers like their Wichita-class heavy cruisers and Cleveland-class light cruisers still in service to provide additional gunfire support.”
“That is basically following the trend of virtually all of the major naval forces.”
“That is correct. But, do you think that the Chilean Navy will do anything to modernize their newly acquired carrier? We would be the logical choice to do the refitting since we built the ship in the first place.” Warren asked.
“Yes, we would be. I’m sure that someone at the shipyard in Derby has already sent a proposal to the leaders of the Chilean Navy in Valparaiso. It will certainly be a lot easier to fit an angled flight deck and modern defensive armament on a ship that displaces nearly thirty-five thousand tons than it will be with those smaller carriers on the eastern side of South America.”
“Fair Dinkum, mate. We are also going to improve the carrier’s survivability with strengthening and the addition of larger torpedo bulges. We should also look into developing upgrade proposals for the former American and British destroyers and cruisers that were sold to those same Latin American navies after the war. Those navies are going to need them, especially once they finally decide to scrap the three decade old battleships that they have.
Life will indeed become very interesting in Latin America because of this and more. There are still are plenty of border disputes there that can easily become much more violent in a moment’s notice.”
“If so, there are many nations and other entities who are more than willing to take full advantage of the situation. That much has not changed in quite a long time.” The younger man sadly commented before continuing.
“One thing that hasn’t changed is our limited production capacity back home in Derby. If we do manage to win substantial contracts with more militaries, we will have to give some of the production to the plants here in England or enter into co-production agreements elsewhere.”
I understand. Mister Cavill’s kids are still trying to focus less of their business on military sales and more on civilian products. I really can’t say that I blame them for that. We lost far too bloody many people in the last war. If they can promote more commercial products, perhaps there will be less willingness for our customers to go to war. Fewer wars mean a much lower chance that we would get dragged into one of them.
Anyway, let’s get back to the situation with our proposals to sell new aircraft to the RAF and FAA, shall we?” Tom asked.
“Of course. The Fleet Air Arm has already determined that the Sea Vampires that they purchased to replace our first generation Dragonfly-J’s are not going to be any match for the latest German jet fighter designs. The new swept wing designs that they need are going to need the new angled flight decks on the carriers just to handle these jets’ higher landing speeds. We already know that the Germans are already doing the same sort of conversion with their carriers.”
“I am already aware of that we would need an improved fighter. Hopefully, we can make some purchases to make the comparison far more equal, if not give our lads a clear advantage against anyone flying one of Jerry’s designs.”
“Our engineers at Cavill Aerospace have some very advanced plans for new jet aircraft that will even be able to exceed the speed of sound in level flight. They would clearly outclass the current German Horton, Messerschmitt and Arado jets, we are convinced. I do hope that the Admiralty will reconsider their exclusion of us from the previous aircraft procurement contract.” Warren replied.
“I guess that we will have to wait and see. At least our aircraft will be employed aboard Australia and Canberra in addition to being chosen for service in the RAAF. When the British Admiralty sees just how well our new jets perform, they may just change their minds after all.”
“I certainly hope so.” Warren replied.
Chapter Twenty-Five:
Cavill Shipyards
Derby, Western Australia
August 11, 1957
Alexander Portman was standing by his company pickup truck on one of the hills overlooking the yards when a man in a dusty Australian Army uniform roared up next to him on a motorbike, stopped, got off the little vehicle and walked up to him.
“G’day, Sir. It’s certainly a nice day to take in the sights out here.” The newcomer said after taking off his goggles and reaching out his hand.
“You could say that, mate. I wasn’t exactly expecting company though.” Alex replied while shaking the offered hand.
“My apologies, Sir. My name is Major Alvin Hart. I’m the new liaison for the Derby Militia from the Australian Army. I’m replacing Colonel Burke now that he has finally retired. I had hoped to talk to one of the Cavills. But apparently, they are all either out of town or otherwise indisposed. I asked around to see who the next most senior person from the Cavill organization here was. The young bloke pointed me in your direction. I am guessing that you are Mister Portman.”
“Yes, I am the chief naval architect and senior manager for Cavill Shipyards. So I suppose that puts me as one of the most senior people around here. What can I do for you, Major Hart?” Alex asked.
“I am trying to get acquainted with the organization around here. Your people have quite the reputation for playing with some very interesting equipment. In fact, your little militia gets a lot of things before the regular army does, I have heard.”
“That is true, most of the time. Of course, it also means that we have to deal with any of the initial problems and get them fixed before the regular army begins receiving anything.”
“Very good, Sir. I understand that the Derby militia actually isn’t merely a land force, but also has small naval and aviation elements as well.”
“Yes, Major. That meant in the past that Colonel Harlan had to get familiar with a lot more than a normal Australian Army officer normally has to. He managed to do quite well though he mostly focused on the Army things.”
“Fair Dinkum. Getting educated on the naval and aviation elements here is one of the things that I am trying to do right now, Mister Portman.”
“I’m glad to hear that. What would you like to start with, Major?”
“Since I just came back from the Derby airfield after two days of briefings and a rather exciting flight aboard one of our attack planes, I reckon that I ought to start with what we have here with the naval arm of the militia along with what you are building here.”
“The militia maintains six large armed patrol boats and about ten smaller vessels. Technically, two of our larger vessels, Shinshu Maru and Hayasui, also belong to the militia. They were captured during the war from the Japanese. But we have kept them in a disarmed status for use in technical trials. The patrol boats are usually armed with an automatic six-pounder cannon, a twenty-five millimeter gatling gun and a variety of machine guns. The patrol boats can also carry four torpedoes or other more specialized equipment. They are also frequently employed in the trials of prototype weapons and other systems when necessary.”
“That is very interesting, Mister Portman. So, they could be armed with a variety of different weapons at any given time?”
“Yes, Sir. That is correct. Usually, they only carry the two cannons and a few machine guns though. The naval militia hasn’t done a lot of operational work since the end of the war. They mostly escort some of our barges and other transport vessels in coastal waters. They also keep one or two of the smaller boats watching the coastline around here or near the launch facilities near Kalumburu.”
“I saw that you are doing some pretty unusual work in your shipyards. I was told that your big dry docks were being used to build rockets now rather than ships.”
“Yes, shipbuilding has been pretty slow for the past ten years since the end of the war. Everyone had a large surplus fleet that they needed to get rid of. So it has been a buyer’s market. We’ve actually broken up more ships than we have built in the past decade. One bright element had been that we have had a recent upsurge in ship upgrade work though.”
“
I was a little curious about three other ships that are being built in your yards for us. I was told that they were going to be fleet supply ships. But I was traveling nearby your yards and saw what appeared to be a flight deck being installed on one of those hulls. Are we not going to use those ships to provide supplies for the Fleet?” Alvin asked. The question actually surprised Alex. It was a very insightful question for an Army officer who was learning about naval vessels for the first time.
“These three ships are the first vessels being constructed to supply the Royal Australian Navy while underway. They are virtually identical several ships that we are building in our British subsidiaries at Woolston for the Royal Navy. We are actually taking a page from the Germans in this regards. They had constructed several relatively fast and well-armed supply vessels to keep their ships replenished at sea for an extended period before the warships had to return to port. Our ships have much the same role.
These vessels carry enough fuel to refuel several of our warships before having to return back to base. It is especially important for our destroyers to be able to assist them with their relatively limited range. But these ships can also carry ammunition, dry goods and other supplies as well. These high-speed general supply and tanker ships have twin screws, a diesel-electric powertrain and are built to a modified mercantile construction standard. The latter was mandated because of the cost of building the vessels to full warship standards of compartmentalization and damage control.”
“What is the purpose of the flight deck then?”
“That is because we learned a few additional lessons from the Germans as well concerning the vulnerability of their supply vessels. So we placed not only a flight deck, but also a small hangar, aboard these ships. Mind you, they cannot operate jet fighters or any other sort of high performance warplane. But they can support our new rotary-wing aircraft called helicopters. The flight deck is also long enough to operate light fixed wing aircraft in an emergency.