Supertest: U.S. Tier IX Premium Hybrid Battleship Kearsarge

We all knew that Ise and Tone were just the beginning but I don’t think anyone thought that the next hybrid ship would arrive so fast and that it would be… this… absolute monstrosity. Seriously the Kearsarge is making the Izumo look beautiful!

Historical background

In 1937, to fulfill Stalin’s plan of a strong ocean-going fleet, the Soviet Union came to the negotiation with the USA to get support from them and overcome the limitations of the Soviet shipbuilding capabilities. The Soviets ordered turbines as well as a license to produce said turbines back home, they were also ready to buy U.S built cruisers, etc. At some point, they also asked if the U.S.A could build battleships for them. While initially, the negotiation failed. The U.S. government reconsidered the idea when the Soviet ambassador brought on the table the argument that such battleship would be used to keep the Japanese Navy in check in the Pacific and, hearing this, the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations agreed with the idea being supported by President Roosevelt.

This is where things are getting crazy. Enter the firm Gibbs & Cox of New York. Apparently, they didn’t quite understand that the Soviets only wanted battleships and also forgot any sort of treaty limitations. In early 1938, they delivered three different designs of a battleship-aircraft carrier hybrid with the largest displacing almost 72 000 tons:

• Project 1058 / Design A with 66,074t standard displacement, eight 456mm guns and 40 planes
• Project 1058.1 / Design B with 71,859t standard displacement, 12 406mm guns and 40 planes
• Project 1058.2 / C with 44,200t standard displacement, ten 406mm guns, and 28 planes

To nobody’s surprise, all three proposals were refused as they were in complete violation of naval treaties and there was simply no infrastructure available to build such monsters.

Later on, Gibbs and Cox would propose a… much more logical design of a normal battleship with 45 000 displacement, armed with ten 406 mm guns and with a maximum speed of 31 knots. In the end, with the situation in Europe spinning out of control, all cooperation ceased in October 1939.

In World of Warships… it looks like Wargaming pulled a bit of a kitbashing. Considering the tonnage, it would appear that they are using the hull of Design A but the armament definitely belongs to Design B. Also, they obviously modernized her anti-air to fit at tier IX. She can deploy a squadron of three attack aircraft armed with Tiny Tim rockets.

In any case, this ship, even though it’s a tier IX is absolutely gigantic as you can see here.

Ship’s commemorative flag

Ship’s preview

Camouflage

For the classic reminder, this is a ship in testing, anything can change so don’t look at her like she would already be released.

Modules

Hull	Engine	Gun Fire Control System	Main battery	Attack Aircraft
Kearsarge	Propulsion: 300 000 hp	‎Mk9 mod. 1	406 mm/45 Mk.6 in a turret	F8F Bearcat

General Characteristics

Main Battery

4 x 3 406 mm/45 Mk.6 in a turret
Maximum Firing Range	19.570 km
Reloading Time	36.0 s
180 Degree Turn Time	30.0 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	35°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	31°
Sigma	1.9 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	256 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 406 mm HE/HC Mk13
Alpha Damage	5 700 HP
Damage	4 620 HP
Penetration capacity	68 mm
Explosion size	2.46
Fire chance	36 %
Projectile Speed	820 m/s
Air Drag	0.346
Projectile Mass	862 kg
Type of Projectile	AP – 406 mm AP Mk8
Alpha Damage	13 100 HP
Projectile Speed	701 m/s
Air Drag	0.352
Projectile Mass	1 225 kg
Projectile Krupp	2 598
Projectile Detonator	0.033 s
Detonator threshold	68 mm
Ricochet Angles	45° – 60°

Attack Aircraft Squadron

Attack aircraft – F8F Bearcat
Tier	X
Hit points per plane	1 660
Cruise speed	176 knots
Maximum speed	216 knots
Engine boost time	5 s
Engine boost reload time	10 s
Size of attacking flight	3
Aircraft per squadron	3
Rocket type	HE Tiny Tim
Rockets per plane	3
Launch delay	5 s
Maximum rocket damage	5 400
Projectile mass	36.29 kg
Penetration capacity	68 mm
Detectability range	10.0 km
Aircraft restoration time	120 s

Secondary battery

14 x 2 127 mm/38 Mk.12 on a Mk.29 mount
Maximum Firing Range	6.950 km
Reloading Time	6.0 s
Sigma	1.00 sigma
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 127 mm HE Mk32
Alpha Damage	1 800 HP
Damage	380 HP
HE penetration	21 mm
Explosion Size	0.38
Chance to Cause Fire	5 %
Projectile Speed	792 m/s
Air Drag	0.347
Projectile Mass	24.5 kg

Anti-air Armament

Consumables

Slot 1	Slot 2
Damage Control Party Work time: 20 s Cooldown: 80 s	Repair Party Number of charges: 4 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 80 s HP regeneration: 0.5%/s Casemate damage regeneration: 50% Citadel damage regeneration: 10%

The Armor

External armor protection:

Front and rear armor protection of the middle section:

Hidden armor deck:

Citadel armor protection:

Turrets armor protection:

Hidden armor protection inside the stern:

Personal Opinion

Well right now… this ship definitely looks scary. It’s not like the Ise or Tone that are losing firepower for the planes they carry. Here, you have, just like the Minnesota, twelve 406 mm guns (with the same gun performances as North Carolina) but with 4 seconds shorter reload.

The survivability might definitely be an issue though with that gigantic 19 mm side armor around the flight deck. This will, without a doubt, lead to a ton of additional damage received.

The plane squadron itself will have fairly limited use in high tier with only three planes but against tier VII ships, their impact shouldn’t come unnoticed.

Thank you for reading this article!

Don’t hesitate to subscribe to our notifications to make sure that you don’t miss any future articles.
Have a good one and see you soon!

About Author

Yuzorah

See author's posts