Swiss Liparus

[Desertfox]

The Swiss are interested in a Liparus type submarine carrier that an launch submarines at sea. The question is, how would such a ship look like? And I don't want to carry the subs as deck cargo, cause that limits the size of the subs.

[ciders]

A submarine carrier ? I know submarines who can launch others little submarines ( the Italian Maiale during WW2 ), but a submarine carrier...  ???

Is it possible in 1919 ?

[P3D]

It would be like a well-dock amphib ship.

[Walter]

Sounds to me that he recently saw The Spy Who Loved Me one time too many. :)
Considering the size of the Liparus, I have my doubts that NS has a slip/dock big enough to handle a ship like that.

[Ithekro]

Oh...the James Bond supertanker that could "steal" modern attack submarines.

As for a 1920 practical application?  Well some nations's submarines have short ranges compared to say the German World War II boats.  So It would be a vessel that can dock a few 150-200 foot long submarines inside were they would be protected.  This for a long voyage so they can operate within their 1,000 or 2,000 mile range on the surface or extend their underwater range by bringing them closer to the targe area instead of providing a simple sub tender to just refuel them.

[ciders]

Sounds to me that he recently saw The Spy Who Loved Me one time too many

Nobody does it better. ;)

It would be like a well-dock amphib ship.

Like a Wasp class. Why not ?

But I'm not sure Swiss is the better buyer for this kind of ship. Not for a question of money, but of use. Rift Sea isn't a good sea for this kind of carriers : a single attack of Italian torpedoes bombers would be enough to sunk it. And when a submarine carrier is going to an other harbour, spies saw it.

[Logi]

Wasn't there a few Dutch Submarine tenders that Korpen designed? Lifts the Submarine with cranes out of the water and carries it around. Refuels it, etc.

[Desertfox]

Funny, cause I have not seen that movie yet (I know, I know, I'm slacking too much...).

I'm not talking Liparus size, that sucker could carry SSBNs. I'm thinking 2-4 300 ton subs.

Wouldn't be for use in the Rift Sea. But the capability of dumping 4 subs into ANY shipping lane in the world is too much to pass. The question would then be, how do you hide the sub launching capability.

[P3D]

Funny, cause I have not seen that movie yet (I know, I know, I'm slacking too much...).

I'm not talking Liparus size, that sucker could carry SSBNs. I'm thinking 2-4 300 ton subs.

Wouldn't be for use in the Rift Sea. But the capability of dumping 4 subs into ANY shipping lane in the world is too much to pass. The question would then be, how do you hide the sub launching capability.

With Swiss suicide crews I guess. Dumping them sounds great, but if the subs has no range to return to a friendly port, there's no point. Also, a 20,000t non-liner with the usual "auxiliary" weapons will be pretty obvious that the ship will be shadowed 24/7 given the universal N3verse distrust of anything Swiss.
Also a 300t sub won't have that many torpedoes to be useful, and they are too small to have any significant gun armament.

Making long-range subs would be a better idea, and I'd really dispense with deploying anything Swiss in the unfriendly Atlantic.

[Guinness]

I don't know that you could hide the sub carrying capacity. I think a well deck is probably the way to go too, but other ideas like an inclined ramp to haul the boats out is also a possibility, as might be some sort of large lighter.

Also you might look toward seatrain's train ferry's for inspiration.

I might try a sim of a period LSD later...

[Desertfox]

Well the subs would be picked up by the ship. And who said it would be "Swiss" flagged... Not all Swiss ships have auxiliary weapons, especially the ones that don't want to seem Swiss.

I was thinking an LSD might be the way to go, but don't know how to sim one.

[TexanCowboy]

Heh, better than the time he wanted to drop radio-controlled suicide boats like the one that hit the USS Cole from airships...

[Desertfox]

Shhhhh... don't be releasing too many secrets!

I'm not going to drop them from the airships, just controlled them from there.

[P3D]

Well the subs would be picked up by the ship. And who said it would be "Swiss" flagged... Not all Swiss ships have auxiliary weapons, especially the ones that don't want to seem Swiss.

I was thinking an LSD might be the way to go, but don't know how to sim one.

The ship would be too large to be unnoticeable, and there won't be that many ships of the size category (listed in the N3verse equivalent of the Lloyds' Register) worldwide, esp. under NPC flags. Parking the subs will require high freeboards so the ship cannot pass as a regular freighter either.

If you intend to pick the subs up, you are restricting operational flexibility a lot, and you cannot do that without generating significant coded W/T traffic.

A submarine tender resupplying long-range subs might be a better choice imho.

[maddox]

Hmm, a 300ton sub...  what dimensions does it have?

I can imagine a tramp with a hole in the bottom in a reinforced cargo hold, creating a moondock for 1 or 2 of these. But it would be a feat of manouvring getting the subs to surface in such a tiny space.