Conjectural: Modernization of IJN "battlecruiser" Kurama

[FDRLincoln]

Here is an idea for a conjectural ship I have been toying with.

Let's say that under the terms of the Washington Treaty, the Japanese had been allowed to retain the "battlecruiser" Kurama as a training vessel. Although classed by the IJN as BCs and armed with 12-inch guns, Kurama and her sister Ibuki were more properly considered large armored cruisers, given that they weren't as fast as the standard BC, being 21-knot ships.

Anyway, let's say that the terms of the WT are slightly different, and the Japanese retain Kurama. Let's say in the mid-30s, they decide to modernize her for use as "second class heavy cruiser." Ideas:

1) Retain but modernize the 12-inch turrets
2) Remove the 8 8-inch secondary gun turrets and replace them with 8 5-inch DP.
3) Remove the tertiary 120-mm battery.
4) Add modern light AA.
5) Use the weight savings from 2 and 3 to bolster deck armor slightly around vulnerable spots
6) Lengthen the ship slightly and install more modern machinery, bolstering speed from 21 knots to 24.

You can't use this ship as a regular heavy cruiser, it isn't fast enough, but it would be good for shore bombardment, convoy escort, and could be fast enough to operate with the older battleships.

Any other ideas?

[Dili]

Lengthen the ship slightly

This is going overboard IMO.

[DuckofTindalos]

Too old to be worth the rebuild for the IJN, in my opinion.

[DuckofTindalos]

Also too small. If you want a shore bombardment vessel, how about remillitarizing the Settsu instead?

[DuckofTindalos]

And as for adding 12.7cm DP, those would be reserved for much newer vessels.

[msieving1]

ORIGINAL: Dili

Lengthen the ship slightly

This is going overboard IMO.

This was done with the Japanese BBs and the Kongos, so in principle it's possible. But those ships were fairly up to date. The Kurama was an obsolete concept, a pre-dreadnought armored cruiser with BB class main battery. Rebuilding that ship would be a waste of time, and a waste of resources in operating her.

[FDRLincoln]

OK, how about a more austere modernization for use as a coast defense ship: replace the 8 inchers with 4.7inch AAs, convert to oil and refurb the machinery but don't bother with the lengthening, add light AA. Use for training.

OR...how about taking the available 12 inch turrets from Kurama and Ibuki and using them to build a "supercruiser" on the cheap? Sort of like a Japanese Vanguard concept.

[FDRLincoln]

And just to be clear, I'm not suggesting the Kurama ideas as a serious "they should have done this" proposal. This is more along the lines of "it would be cool to play around with this".

I had a personal "toybox" mod for WitP that had things like this for my personal entertainment.

[DuckofTindalos]

ORIGINAL: FDRLincoln

OK, how about a more austere modernization for use as a coast defense ship: replace the 8 inchers with 4.7inch AAs, convert to oil and refurb the machinery but don't bother with the lengthening, add light AA. Use for training.

That would be along the lines of the Chinese cruisers. Would be more realistic.

[Shark7]

At best you modernize the secondaries and AAA, maybe re-tube the mains, and re-rate it for a coastal gunboat. In other words, you'd treat them exactly like Iwate and Izumo were.