DGV

↑In 1980 there was work done, by Boeing, Lockheed and Grumman, for the use of 'turbofan VTOL aircraft' for both offensive and defensive measures for the fleet. The aircraft resulting would have been the Grumman design 698 VTOL aircraft. This aircraft was designed to be able to be used by the ships then in commission, such as the Perry, Spruance and the Hayler DDH design (which at that point was being build, but to the regular Spruance design) but the full potential of the aircraft would be reached with an special build ship. That ship would have been the DGV. The ability of this ship was to give fleets which operated independently from carrier battle groups part of the capabilities of the carrier battle group. Versions of the Grumman design 698 would operate as a surveillance/misseleer aircraft, jammer aircraft, and possibly also ASW aircraft. This would give amphibious groups or merchant escort groups a much longer range against any target then regular escort ships could do. The DGV was designed in collaboration between Litton-Ingalls and Grumman. The design was based on a Spruance hull, lengthened slightly for the installation of an active stabilization system. This made air operations easier. Under the waterline, little else changed from the Spruance to the DGV hull. Above it, everything was changed though. The superstructure was moved to the side, and to the side of it a hangar was build. Landing platforms were added aft, while the bow was filled with a takeoff ramp. At the fore and aft ends of the hangar, offset to the sides, were 2*64 cells VLS. Interesting to see is that the DGV was more than a carrier for these aircraft. The ship carried its own load of Mk. 41 VLS cells, allowing the aircraft to be a guidance unit for standard missiles, tomahawks and ASROC class weapons. apart from an takeoff run which allowed the aircraft to take more stores into the air (such as 2 harpoon anti-ship missiles, a pair of long range air to air missiles (undefined), up to 6 AMRAAM class weapons or 4 lightweight torpedoes) the ship carried its own load of Mk. 41 VLS cells, allowing the aircraft to be an guidance unit for standard missiles, tomahawks and ASROC class weapons. Some specs: Displacement - 12,000 tons Length - 162.2m WL; 173.6m OA Beam - 20.7 WL; 28.6m OA Draft - 10.4m The hangar could take 8 surveillance/missileer aircraft and 2 jammer aircraft. The propulsion unit would have been as Spruance, 4 LM2500 gas turbines, COGAG, resulting in a top speed of more than 29 knots. Interesting to see is that this design originated from later then the flight deck Spruance designs, and while its origins are the same the end result is somewhat different from the others.I look forward to your comments, be them good or bad. Detailing might be off or incomplete, as I will revisit all never builds I have WIP after all real spruances are done (for perfect accuracy) these will be modified, checked and completed when I get that far. Thank you for reading, and I will post notifications when I update this first post in the thread below. Image courtesy of Shipbucket.

航空機搭載ミサイル駆逐艦