Post by lordroel on Apr 29, 2022 13:45:44 GMT
The drawing with the two Major Caliber Light Weight Guns is from the mid-1970s as I recall, when such a conversion would have been useful. But I am not aware of any situation where the USN replaced one reloadable missile launcher with another other than replacing the Terrier launchers on a few CVAs with Sea Sparrows, if those would even count.
Mk 26 would have been a great improvement over the Mk 10 or the Mk 7 of the Talos. I'm not sure what modifications to Long Beach's internals would have been required; the Terrier launchers were drum-fed as I recall (Perhaps oscssw can comment, but the forward Mk 26 would have been over the forward MK 10 launder's drums. How the MCLWGs or the after Mk 26 magazines would fitted, I don't know.
If another 10 years were left to go by, the cost-benefit analysis would have to be made; how likely was Long Beach to serve a longer useful life, how expensive would her modernization with a nuclear refueling be?
On the other hand, later brings up the possibility of fitting the Mk 41 VLS instead of the Mk 26 launchers.
As it was, I think the New Threat Upgrade (NTU) in the '80s made the older Mk 10 armed ships more effective with the Standard SAMs and as Secretary Lehman said, was 'one step short of Aegis'.
That the CGN-42 Aegis cruisers nor a nuclear Aegis cruiser with Mk 41 was never built I think was a missed opportunity. But the Cold War had ended, and there was a false 'peace dividend' to spent on anything but defense!
My thoughts,
Sorry 1Bigrich I just road them. Have no idea what was required to do such a major upgrade. Yes the Terrier did use a vertical drum for the Mk-26. I was told once by a GMMC that the 26 was just two Mk-13s "spliced" together.
This provides some pretty good pictures of the MK-26 and one even shows the drums.
" The Mk 26 Guided Missile Launching System (GMLS) was a US Navy fully automated system that stows, handles, and launches a variety of missiles. The system supported RIM-66 Standard, RUR-5 ASROC, and potentially other weapons. The Mk 26 had the shortest reaction time and the fastest firing rate of any comparable dual arm shipboard launching system at the time. With only one man at the control console, a weapon can be selected, hoisted to the guide arm, and launched. Several mods (0 to 5) provided magazine capabilities of 24 to 64 missiles.
Mk26 mod 0 - 24 missiles, forward Virginia class cruiser
Mk26 mod 1 - 44 missiles, aft Virginia class cruiser
Mk26 mod 2 - 64 missiles, Strike cruiser, not deployed
Mk26 mod 3 - 24 missiles, updated mod 0 systems, forward Kidd class destroyer
Mk26 mod 4 - 44 missiles, updated mod 1 systems, aft Kidd class destroyer
Mk26 mod 5 - 44 missiles, modified mod 4 system for early Ticonderoga class cruiser
Mk26 mod 0 - 24 missiles, forward Virginia class cruiser
Mk26 mod 1 - 44 missiles, aft Virginia class cruiser
Mk26 mod 2 - 64 missiles, Strike cruiser, not deployed
Mk26 mod 3 - 24 missiles, updated mod 0 systems, forward Kidd class destroyer
Mk26 mod 4 - 44 missiles, updated mod 1 systems, aft Kidd class destroyer
Mk26 mod 5 - 44 missiles, modified mod 4 system for early Ticonderoga class cruiser
As you can see the earlier DLG's of the Belknap & Leahy class, the one I served on,along with the Farragut class DDG did not have the MK-26 with their rotary magazines. We had the Mk-10 Mod 5 twin missile launcher forward and the Mk-10 Mod 6 twin missile launcher aft for for RIM-2 Terrier SAM (80 missiles in total) later modified in AAW upgrade to fire RIM-67A Standard SM-1ER missiles (thank God) and modified again to fire RIM-67B Standard SM-2ER missiles in early 1980’ long after I shipped back to the Tin Can Navy and my real home in the SBUs
You can see them here www.seaforces.org/wpnsys/SURFACE/Mk-10-missile-launcher.htm
Note the Deck house aft of the launcher and the fact the arms had to be horizontal for the reload. As best I can remember the birds were stored in horizontal racks and required manual "Finning" and a few other steps before being placed on the rails.
Thanks for the interesting link Senior Chief (oscssw).