Airlords of the Ozark Question

[Targan]

"General Characteristics: Keel laid: August 19, 1972
Launched: December 14, 1974
Commissioned: September 11, 1976
Decommissioned: November 10, 1994
Builder: Newport News Shipbuilding Co., Newport News, Va.
Propulsion system: two D2G General Electric nuclear reactors
Propellers: two
Length: 585 feet (178 meters)
Beam: 63 feet (19.2 meters)
Draft: 31,5 feet (9.6 meters)
Displacement: approx. 11,300 tons full load
Speed: 30+ knots
Aircraft: none and no helicopter landing capability
Armament: two Mk-26 missile launcher for Standard missiles (MR) and ASROC, two Mk-141 Harpoon missile launchers, two armored box launchers for Tomahawk ASM/LAM, Mk-46 torpedoes from two triple mounts, two 5-inch/54 caliber Mk-45 lightweight guns, two 20mm Phalanx CIWS, four machine guns
Crew: 39 Officers, 539 Enlisted"

Those are the specs for the ship after 1984. Before that the Virginia had a helicopter hanger and elevator. The following is an excerpt from The Encyclopedia of Modern US Weapons (1998 edition) about the Virginia-class cruisers:

"As in the Californias, the flush-deck design has a split superstructure set relatively far aft with each block topped by a tapered, plated mast. As originally built, the ships had a stern hangar with a folding hatch cover and elevator arrangement to accommodate a single SH-2F LAMPS (Light Airborne Multipurpose System) helicopter.
After encountering problems with the elevators, and in keeping the hangars watertight, the Navy deleted the helicopters in the early 1980s in favor of two Tomahawk Armored Box Launchers (ABL) on the fantail, aft of the second Mk 26 launcher. Earlier proposals to provide a Vertical Launch System (VLS) for Tomahawk missiles in place of the hangar were dropped. Side-by-side Phalanx Close In Weapons System (CIWS) mounts were added abaft the tower foremast during refits."

Wikipedia says this about the USS Virginia:

"In 1984, she entered Norfolk Naval Shipyard for her single major overhaul and was converted to the Navy's first strike cruiser with the addition of the Phalanx CIWS, Tomahawk missile and the SM-2 extension of her surface to air capability. During this overhaul, the aft helicopter hangar and elevator were removed and the space refitted with 2 Armored Box Tomahawk cruise missile launchers (4 missiles each) on deck and an Engineering Department training space below."

What I'm thinking is that the designers of T2K either weren't aware of the Virginia's overhaul or didn't know the details (at the time the details may not have been public knowledge). In the T2K timeline the Virginia could have retained its helicopter facilities I suppose, in which case she wouldn't have carried the Tomahawk launchers.

[Legbreaker]

You'll also note that it wasn't just "light" helicopters which were able to operate from the vessel.



That's a bloody great Chinook on the stern!!!

[Targan]

You'll also note that it wasn't just "light" helicopters which were able to operate from the vessel. That's a bloody great Chinook on the stern!!!

Indeed. But its pre-1984 hanger could only accommodate a light helicopter. Obviously the helicopter landing area can handle a much larger aircraft.