Retrofit: Light bulbs cost five times the electricity they save.
Energy saving light bulbs and “retrofits” are slowly becoming a thing of the past. And now we are talking about the ship. About the world's largest non-aircraft-carrying combat ship, which will undergo an intensive recovery course with the installation of modern systems and weapons. The modernization promises to be serious: absolutely everything will be replaced on the nuclear cruiser “Admiral Nakhimov”, from the keel to the klotik.
The project cost is 50 billion rubles. The costs are enormous: two years ago, when this decision was approved, the modernization of one Orlan was more expensive than buying two Mistral amphibious helicopter carriers. The situation aroused considerable interest, and a discussion broke out among the society about the need to reanimate the old cruisers.
History knows amazing examples when ships completely changed their appearance and purpose. And every time, despite the achieved success of modernization and the multiple increase in combat power, the question remained: was it worth it?
"Leaning Tower of Pisa" of the Italian Navy
A ship of amazing destiny. The battleship "Novorossiysk" is known mainly for its tragic death. But the main vicissitudes of his fate occurred when he went under the Italian flag and bore the name of Julius Caesar.
Dreadnought Giulio Cesare, 1914
In 1933, the battleship "Cesare" got up for modernization at the Cantieri del Tirreno shipyard in Genoa, where the entire superstructure was replaced, the liners of the guns were drilled from 305 to 320 mm and the bullets with anti-torpedo protection of the Pugliese system were installed.
The removal of the middle tower of the main building opened new horizons for the designers. From the depths of the rusty hull, boilers and other rusty junk were shaken out. Dismantled the two outer propeller shafts, leaving only the central ones. At once the rejuvenated battleship received a new power plant three times more powerful (90 thousand hp versus the previous 30 thousand hp). The estimated speed increase was 7 knots. The appearance of boules and PTZs, as well as the need to ensure a high travel speed, required a change in the contours in the underwater part of the hull. "Cesare" welded on a new bow section with an inclined "clipper" stem, which increased the total length of the ship by 10 meters. At the same time, the old stem remained walled up inside the new one.
In the middle part of the battleship, an armored "citadel" capsule with a wall thickness of 70 mm and a roof of 100 mm was formed, which provided more or less adequate protection of the Ministry of Defense and ammunition storage from modern threats - first of all, from air attacks. The main deck in the area of the main battery turrets was slightly reinforced, an additional layer of armor was welded in the stern over the steering gears. The upper deck was removed and a new one was installed: the same thickness, but made of high-resistance silicon-manganese steel.
Weapons, means of navigation, communication and fire control. All new. The main feature of the battleship's silhouette was the “carabinieri hat” in the bow of the superstructure - the director of the “Galileo” class with two 7, 2-meter rangefinders. The elevation angle of the main battery guns was increased to 30 degrees. Instead of 18 casemate 120 mm guns, 12 modern guns of the same caliber were installed, placed in six twin-gun turrets. 13 obsolete three-inch guns were replaced with eight 100 mm anti-aircraft guns. The battleship's air defense system was additionally reinforced with eight twin Breda assault rifles.
The Cesare's standard displacement increased by 4000 tons, the draft increased by almost one meter, and the main armor belt disappeared forever under water. However, this did not bother the chief engineer of the project, General Francesco Rotundi.
Trophy "Novorossiysk" in the form of a modernized "Cesare"
What left the shipyard in 1937 no longer resembled an old dreadnought. It was a new generation battleship, ready to compete with the fast battle ships of the Second World War.
As you know, Italians have only two convolutions in their heads, of which the second is spaghetti. The modernization of the outdated "Cesare" and "Cavura" was equal in cost to the construction of the newest LC of the "Littorio" type.
They counted and wept.
"Littorio" - there is a caliber (381 mm). And the booking (horizontal - 1.5 times thicker, vertical - 350 mm versus 220 … 250 for old people). And the speed is 30 knots, while the old battleships in practice hardly developed 26-27. And a modern PTZ. And no overload problems. And a powerful medium caliber (12 x 152 mm). And much more that was not and could not be on the outdated battleships.
Despite all the design ingenuity and the achieved increase in combat performance, the deep modernization of the Italian battleships was a dubious undertaking. If not stronger - madness.
Rocket extravaganza of the 60s
With the end of World War II, the Americans froze all major shipbuilding programs for 10 years. The reason was not the well-known Anglo-Saxon peacefulness, but the banal oversaturation of the fleet with military equipment.
While the coming era of rocket weapons demanded new solutions. And before unprecedented types of military equipment. So the Yankees had to remake outdated ships, adjusting them to the standards of the new time.
Cruisers (“Cleveland”, “Baltimore”, “Oregon”), which were chosen to play the role of high-speed air defense platforms to cover the aircraft carrier squadrons, were especially hit.
Removal of massive turrets with guns and installation of anti-aircraft missiles. The situation was complicated by the computers of that time: huge machine rooms and monstrous radars. Like the missiles themselves - unlike modern compact launch “cells”, those missiles were stored disassembled and weighed several tons. And the ammunition there was also unlike modern destroyers - a couple of hundred huge missiles each. As a result, the insides of the cruisers turned into a real rocket factory.
In 1958 it was Albany's turn. Three heavy cruisers of the "Oregon City" class have been converted with a complete replacement of artillery weapons with missiles. What came of it - see for yourself:
Cruiser Albany, 1946
Cruiser "Albany", 1962
The 40-meter mast pipes (from a 16-storey building) shot up into the sky, with detection equipment placed on their tops, incl. a three-dimensional radar with a phased antenna array.
The front and rear parts of the superstructure were turned into armored bunkers for storing and assembling long-range Talos missiles with their subsequent conveyor supply to the launcher (5-meter swivel bollard on the upper deck). In the middle part, two more missile storage facilities of the Tartar air defense missile system appeared. The total ammunition load of Albany was 104 Talos missiles (weight with an accelerator - 3.5 tons) and 84 missiles of the Tartar family (launch weight ~ 600 kg).
Rocket bunker SAM "Talos"
There were no special problems with "Tartar", the near-field air defense system with four compact radars for "illumination" of targets. There are many more secrets associated with Talos. An incredible monster that could hit 100 kilometers (subsequent modifications - up to 180 km!), Capable of using missiles with nuclear warheads. It was his fire controls (four "boxes" SPG-49) that determined the bulky appearance of the converted cruiser.
Along the way, under the influence of new threats, "Oblan" was equipped with the latest ASROK anti-submarine complex (missiles with warheads in the form of homing torpedoes), and a sonar was mounted under the keel.
The lack of offensive weapons was compensated by the tactics of using cruisers as part of the AUG. In addition, volumes were reserved on board for the installation of Polaris ballistic missiles (8 mines), the presence of which on the cruiser was later considered unreasonable.
In the legacy of the TKR of the Second World "Albany" got a solid constructive protection, incl. a submerged armor belt and an armored deck three inches thick.
And then dances with tambourines began. The tall aluminum superstructure, missiles and radars could not surpass the mass of artillery pieces and massive towers weighing 450 tons. The disturbance in stability was caused by a shift in the center of gravity, as well as the appearance of a negative “windage” effect from the superstructure and mast pipes.
Poor seaworthiness and low stability have forever remained the "calling card" of the modernized cruisers of the US Navy. The Albany lurched frighteningly around corners and reluctantly returned to an even keel. The Yankees tried to solve the problem, they put a thousand tons of metal in the tanks in the lower part of the hull, instead of fuel. Cruisers' cruising range sharply decreased, but seaworthiness did not improve much.
The high cost of conversion (CA-CG), coupled with insoluble problems in the resulting freaks, put an end to the ambitious program to expand the conversion of WWII ships into missile cruisers. The appearance of new rocket frigates with compact air defense systems, whose layout took into account all the features of modern weapons, finally dispelled doubts about the justification of modernizing rusty junk.
Bainbridge nuclear missile frigate (1962)
Albany is not a complete failure. But he did not bring much joy either. At least, the Americans completely discouraged the desire to continue such experiments. In the nineties, all nine American nuclear-powered cruisers were scrapped together, due to the lack of sense in their modernization with the installation of the Aegis system.
Our history. "Orlan"
Modernization - subject to!
Unlike the examples above, the project to modernize nuclear cruisers of the Cold War era does not repeat the mistakes of the Italians and the Yankees. Unlike the Cesare, the Nakhimov will receive the most modern weapons, which will automatically raise the supership to the rank of the most powerful warships of our era. On the other hand, unlike the American Albany, the mass and dimensions of the new systems and weapons will not exceed those of the dismantled equipment. On the contrary, thanks to technical progress, a reserve load should appear on the “Admiral Nakhimov”, which will be spent on further strengthening the combat capabilities of the cruiser.
