It's a funny thing, but I'm not really much of a modern period wargamer, and yet, I am interested in recent technology. For example, I'm as interest as the next aviation enthusiast when I see next generation fighter airplanes such as Eurofighter or Saab's Gripen in the air at Farnborough. Nut modern wargames - not really a big interest. What makes it a funnier thing is that this article is about an American ship design that could be incorporated into modern period wargames. It's not really historical - due to the twin facts that the design is only a couple of years old and also that the project was axed in the 1997 defense spending review. So it never got built which isn't to say that it never will be built, but that's not really history. It is a what if, though, and so with our editor's permission, I'll sketch out the Arsenal Ship - it's project role, and how it would fit in with a modern fleet (most likely one attached to the USA). The Arsenal Ship concept was for a fleet of six ships - an initial technology proving ship, and five followon production vessels, with the first operational ship available in 2001. These vessels would be highly automated and consequently, would have a small crew, perhaps only fifty men. The vessel's role would be to provide missile support to a naval task force. The ship would in effect be an extension of a command vessel acting independently, the command ship would undertake the complicated battle management and then relay missile launch orders to the arsenal ship. It was suggested that command of the arsenal ship could also be undertaken from an airborne command post or from a land-based control center. The arsenal ship would have some thirty vertical launchers built into the hull with Tomahawk cruise missiles and a range of other anti-land target, anti-ship and antimissile missiles ready to launch with land attack as it's primary mission. As the missiles were expended, reload pallets of missiles would be automatically rolled into place within the launchers from the large cargo areas of the vessel. Freed from having to have all the complicated self-defense equipment of a modern naval vessel, and also not needing to determine targets and launch priorities for itself ' the arsenal ship would be able to carry a very large number of missiles with which to support the actions of the fleet to which it was attached. The possibility of a vertical firing gun - presumably with SMART ammunition - was also suggested. Fitting the gun inside the hull and firing vertically would help to reduce the ship's radar signature. There are problems with such a concept - having a vast quantity of the fleet's firepower concentrated into a single ship would make it the priority target in the same way that an aircraft carrier is today. This can be offset to some extent by making the ship stealthy - with a low signature to radar or infra-red guided missiles. A second problem though is the command ship - this would need to be heavily defended as well because if it is targeted, then there is, at best, a hiccup in the use of the arsenal ship and at worst the arsenal ship is effectively blinded. Maybe it would be easier to just defend that aircraft carrier after all! The arsenal ship concept was to have used one of three possible options - either a conversion from a fleet oil tanker, a conversion of the existing Aegis class destroyers, or a purpose built low signature ship design - Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman submitted designs. These differed quite markedly; Lockheed Martin proposed a long sleek ship along the lines of a conventional destroyer but with a much more "stealthy" superstructure whereas Northrop Grumman proposed a very broad beam ship, but again with minimal superstructure. Well, that was a might have been or perhaps a still might be, to think about. There are so many fascinating "might have beens" or "airshow" designs (loudly trumpeted at the major events then forgotten by the time the next show comes around) which never get past the "we could do this" stage. Another personal favorite of mine is the C-130 Hercules float plane - now that's something I'd have liked to have seen fly off the page! If there's any interest in further articles like this, I'd be glad to try and make them available to Hal. Back to MWAN #115 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2002 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com