sandman455
Posts: 209
Joined: 7/5/2011 From: 20 yrs ago - SDO -> med down, w/BC glasses on Status: offline
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Ah yes, THE BEAST. Said it before, there was nothing better for probably 2 decades. Sadly, though that pic was most likely a PR event and I'm doubtful you'd ever see her used with 2 torps hung for a naval strike. Just too much weight for a very risking mission. You can't pickle those torps together. They have to come off one at a time. The strike profile of a torpedo bomber was bad enough. No need to make it worse by taking a lot of mobility and trading it for even more exposure. And really the issue isn't the plane being able to carry the torps, it is the torps themselves. The Mk13 had some serious limitations that precluded it from every being more effective than just sending in far more bombers to achieve the same results. At least in a historical 1944-45 scenario. Read about the Hwachon damn strike. It says a lot about the viability of the multi-torpedo configuration. If you aren't going to load up the beast for a strike against a damn, then it doesn't really seem too logical trying to set it up for a multiple torpedo strike against a fictional IJN fleet that has managed to stay partially intact come 1945. Not saying it can't be done. Just saying that if they were my AD-1/AD-2's, I'd outfit them with bombs. Let the TBF's get mauled. And of course if this were a strike on shipping or at night, the multi-torp mission becomes far more viable. Night strike with 2-3 torps - now that would be fun to mod.
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Gary S (USN 1320, 1985-1993) AOCS 1985, VT10 1985-86, VT86 1986, VS41 1986-87 VS32 1987-90 (NSO/NWTO, deployed w/CV-66, CVN-71) VS27 1990-91 (NATOPS/Safety) SFWSLANT 1991-93 (AGM-84 All platforms, S-3 A/B systems)
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