In a nutshell, WWII carrier tactics could be described as (1) move into strike range of the enemy, without detection if possible, (2) launch planes, (3) survive the enemy strike, which comes sooner if the approach was detected, later if the enemy has to launch on the bearing of the incoming strike, (4) repeat until one side withdraws or is sunk, (5) count losses and declare yourself a winner.
Historical submarines with seaplanes used them like cruisers with seaplanes, for scouting or maybe for nuisance raids, but not like a real carrier. A submarine with more (and more capable) planes could try to fight real battles. Being submersible could help with steps (1) and (3), at the expense of capabilities for (2) and (4). To help with the undetected approach, it would be nice if the sub carrier could cover the difference between patrol plane range and strike plane range submerged. Call it 800 miles for patrols and 200 miles for strikes, so the sub needs 600 miles submerged range (for a TL6 boat, that would be impressive even without aircraft). After that, the sub surfaces and starts to fight like a carrier. To help against counterstrikes, submerged speed and range are less relevant. The sub has to surface to launch or recover planes, i.e. every few hours, and excessive moves just complicate the navigation for homecoming planes. What counts here is a rapid transition from submerged to surfaced ops. I don't think much of that is covered by the rules, if our sub carrier has a flight deck and hangars for fully assembled, fueled and armed aircraft. That takes an awesome volume ... A sub carrier to do both would need a large payload space and a large battery room, which makes it incredibly large. And if you can afford that, why can't you afford scores of conventional carriers to punch through the enemy defenses? _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
