Once Upon a Maritime in the Western Pacific by Jeff Head

Jeff Head

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Alright my SD friends.

I have had a lot of requests (as in many hundreds) over the last few years to write another book. I have put it off and put if off...but here of late, I can feel the literary juices coming together and have decided to start.

I intend to post some of it here on SD as I develop it, and will ask forum members to respond to what I post. I also intend to ask three or four SD members to help proof the novel as I go.

As I did with Drgon's Fury...I will offer a PDF ebook version of the book to SD members for free when it is completed and after it is published.

Here's the Title I am going to use:

"Once Upon a Time in the Western Pacific"

Here are some initial story line points:

Basic Synopsis said:
Sometime in the next twenty years, a US Navy and PLAN task force have an incident in the East China Sea involving two US Navy LCS and a Zumwalt destroyer and a lager Chinese Naval grouping. The incident spins out of control and explodes into lethal combat.

At the same time, China had, by that time, vastly increased its Island Reclamation in the South China Sea causing Japan, Australia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and India to align together opposing the Chinese influence.

They get drawn into the conflict.

In South America, Argentina, Venezuela, and Nicaraugua align with the PRC.

In Asia, Russia, Pakistan, Iran and North Korea align with the PRC.

In Africa Nigeria, Sudan, Syria, Lybia align with the PRC.

The US works with its Asian allies while in Europe the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, the Ukraine, and Poland align with the U.S.

In the Mid East Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia and others join the US alliance.

The results...well, only the largest Naval warfare contest since World War II as new vessels, new Area Access Denial and Air-Sea battle strategies are implemented...but not in computer simulations, and not in friendly exercise.
Click to expand...

Now, I expect the development of this storyline, the characterization, and the full thing to take several months...like six to nine months and maybe longer depending on how much time I can spend.

I will not tolerate any nationalistic chest thumping on this thread...on either side. The story is going to be fictional...meaning it is not real. It is meant to be entertaining and interesting...entertaining and interesting enough for people to buy the printed books and eBooks.

But I do value the insights and input here and will open some of the development up on a general scale, but will also use some of the more experienced, knowledgeable, and involved members who have had real-world experience from SD who are willing to help proof.

SD overall will be mentioned in the acknowledgements, and those specific members will be mentioned by either their real name, or their screen name here on SD as they prefer.

An initial cut at some graphics for the cover follows, along with the full jacket for the printed book.


Basic web Graphics Draft
cover.jpg

Full Printed book Jacket Draft
Jacket-Image.jpg
​

All of course Copyright 2015 by me, Jeff Head.

should be fun and interesting.
 
Jeff Head

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Jura said:
good luck with the writing, Jeff :) and I can't help to ask you to include one the Iowa-class Battleships reactivated LOL

EDIT
now I was thinking about the conversion: Turret 3 removed, numerous VLS and a huge helicopter deck at stern
Click to expand...


Thank you Jura.

I probably will not refit an Iowa class BB for this story. That would be an interesting fictional take...but I do not think it is actually going to happen at this point and so will probably not include it.

But thanks for the input and suggestion.

This novel is going to present the new tech we are seeing right now being produced by the various nations as mature technologies in the time frame that the scenarios in the book occur in...like the next 15-25 years.

Please continue to comment on what you think as I add excerpts here.

God's speed!
 
Jeff Head

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Jura said:
yeah, I knew I was 100 years behind with my Battleship suggestion
LOL!
Click to expand...

Well...not 100 years behind. The Iowa class were finally removed from the naval roster in 1995, only 20 years ago. They are all now Museum ships, but there is still that Act of Congres requiring a certain readiness state to be maintained just in case. But their reactiviation is very highly unlikely.

if they were, my guess is that they would still maintain the 16" guns and that a LR variant of the shell could be designed...extending their reach (like with the Zumwalt 155mm guns) out to 80 nautical miles or more.

If they also upgraded the 16 anti-shipping missiles to the LRASM, used 32 Tomahawk IV missiles, used four of the latest Phalanx CIWS, and added two RAM Missile launchers, they would still be VERY potent weapons.

But this would be very expensive too, and with the US Navy building towards 100 Burke class DDGs and with the ongoing Virginia class numbers growing...they just probably would never do it.

I would rather see more Zumwalts built and add the rail guns to them (hehehe...that is a hint, hint, hint as far as the subject of this thread is concerned...LOL!)
 
Jura The idiot

Jura The idiot

General
Jeff Head said:
Well...not 100 years behind. The Iowa class were finally removed from the naval roster in 1995, only 20 years ago. ...
Click to expand...

I'm sorry I was cooking my dinner and didn't say what I meant by "100 years behind": the Iowa-class can be considered a Fast Battleship (not a Battlecruiser nor "slow" Battleship) and the first one I know of (I mean a ship actually built) was the IJN Nagato, which probably was designed 100 years ago ... I'll try to look it up, I just quickly checked wiki now
was ordered on 12 May 1916
Click to expand...
and, Jeff, you sure want to write about newer concepts :)
 
S

Scratch

Captain
I don't know if this is the right place to put it or where else this would fit, so I'll just go ahead and see how far I'll get :)
Jura's Battleship proposal reactivated another thought I have on my mind once in a while. And that is one of a "beach assault fire support ship". The large guns of the Iowas are, and probably were for some time, not the weapon of choice in modern AsuW operations. However, up until the end they were very potent fire support assets to marines going ashore.
As of now, all the fire support will come from either airborne assets, organic IDF assets with the maneuver units, or basicly LACMs. The current single barrel 5" guns from a DDG won't do that much against a properly defending enemy of considerable size I believe.
That means the assets available are either really expensive to use, or offer rather small effects in the initial run ashore.
The Zumwalts' AGS, which is specificly meant to that and does have great range & precision, will, by the nature of the very limited number of ships (and tubes per ship), possibly not be able to provide the volume of fire that may be desired.

In light of all that I sometimes wonder if there's a place for a ship class that carries some 4-6 8" guns maybe with ER and optionally precision guided rounds (cheaper than heavy missiles and more punch than two 5" rounds) as well as some kind of upscaled MLRS system.
Except for a proper self defense suit, it wouldn't need any other really expensive systems.
Or maybe such an array of support weaponry can be integrated into a future LPD version.

May or may not be really related to the topic at hand (in that case, sorry Jeff), but in my mind an interesting conceptual thought.
 
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