John 3rd
Posts: 17178
Joined: 9/8/2005 From: La Salle, Colorado Status: offline
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Did some serious work prior to Easter Dinner. Michael and I have had several chats over the last few months about Kates and launching them. Shattered Sword makes a pretty big deal about issues with Kates taking of from Kaga's massive deck. In keeping with that issue we kept coming back to the CVL's being smaller yet still maintaining a serious Kate punch. One of the suppositions we have embraced in the Yamamoto side of this Mod is that the Japanese realize early on that the proper CarDiv should be 2 CV--1 CVL. The CVL serves as a Fighter Heavy unit to buttress the two Strike Carriers with either more Fighters for CAP or for Attack. This is pretty much in keeping with Japanese Fighter philosophy from ZERO!, Reluctant Admiral, Kaigun, Sunburst, and Shattered Sword. Additionally, reflecting the desire to STRIKE FIRST, we created a Recon/Air Search variant of the Kate (Kate 2-C). In addition to the traditional Japanese FP Search aircraft many of the Strike Carriers carry a Shotai of 3 Recon Kates who can 'outdistance' the enemy thru search. Taking the culmination of all this thinking, we come to a re-tooling of the Japanese CVL Air Group composition from its traditional numbers. Here are the current classes with their 'regular' plane complement: Ryujo (39 Planes) 21 F and 18 TB Ryukaku (33 Planes) 18 F and 15 TB Zuiho (30 Planes) 18 F and 12 TB Chitose (33 Planes) 21 F and 12 TB Aso (36 Planes) 30 F and 6 Recon/Air Search New Complements: Ryujo (39 Planes) 27 F, 9 TB and 3 R/AS Ryukaku (33 Planes) 21, F and 12 TB Zuiho (33 Planes) 21 F, 9 TB and 3 R/AS Chitose (33 Planes) 21 F, 9 TB and 3 R/AS Aso (36 Planes) 30 F and 6 Recon/Air Search Slightly more F improving their CAP/Strike component, less TB reflecting their shorter decks, and an added Recon/Air Search element for spotting the enemy early and at distance...
< Message edited by John 3rd -- 4/12/2020 7:50:46 PM >
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