Re: Campaigns

At 9:00 AM -0700 8/23/01, David Griffin wrote:
>
>I agree with this, but during wartime, the freighters
>we're talking about (liberties) were built at a rate
>that boggled the imagination not only compared to
>warships, but also with freighters built before the
>war.

But remember, the components of the ships were being built elsewhere. 
They were in essence assembling the ships from component parts on the 
slipways. They were not built entirely in 4 days. In some cases 
sub-assemblies were built in places as far away as Wisconsin and 
floated down the Mississippi.

The escort carriers were a far cry from the larger fleet carriers. 
Both in speed, ability, capacity and durability.

Prefab techniques will help. But you still need industrial capacity 
to make those components.

>Since the only weapons aboard escort carriers would
>be fighters, they could be easy to build too, though
>they might be easy to destroy. They too would be
>"mostly empty" except for fighter cradles and support
>equipment. Perhaps in wartime, this fighter support
>gear would be constructed modularly in a single
>unit (squadron fighter bay) and installed in an
>assembly fashion aboard anything that could contain
>them. It should be easier to convert freighter hulls
>to escort carriers because you don't need a flight
>deck in space.

But you have to add handling gear, armament storage space, shops, 
crew space, pressurized areas for fighter maintenance, etc. Not a 
quick conversion I suspect.

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- Ryan Montieth Gill		DoD# 0780 (Smug #1) / AMA / SOHC -
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