BNS Rio de Janeiro (BB-1912 (1935-mod))
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With Chile receiving the reparations package that included 3 battleships, the
Brazilians, if they wanted to retain their premiere position in South America,
also needed to find more ships of modern lineage to bolster their Navy. The
ships that Brazil wanted to get hold of were some of the Iron Duke class. But
those vessels went to populate the navies of the Commonwealth. Second choice was
the four ships of the Orion class that were being sold off by the Royal Navy as
they could not keep them with the restrictions of the Washington Treaty. As
Brazil was a 'favoured nation', they got the Orion class at virtually scrap
value
These four ships with the two Minas Gerais class were the backbone of the fleet
until the mid 1930's when new construction joined the fleet. Once those ships
started to join the fleet, these four ships were able to go through the
rebuilding phase that all the WW1 battleships went through to be retained into
the 1940's. More speed, more deck armour, better AA armament, better gun
directors, better superstructure, aircraft handling facilities. The whole nine
yards.
I'm happy with that. Between this drawing and the
Pernambuco, I
have established a Commonwealth / Brazilian 'look'.
Displacement | 27,500 tons std 31,750 tons full load | |
Length | 720 ft | |
Breadth | 88 ft | |
Draught | 30 ft | |
Machinery | 4 shaft steam turbines, 80,000shp | |
Speed | 27 knots | |
Range | 8500 miles at 16 knots | |
Armour | 12" side, 5" deck, 11" turrets | |
Armament | As completed 10x 13.5" (5x2) 12 x 4" (12x1) |
Refits to 1938 8x 13.5" (5x2) 20 x 4.5" (10x2) 32 x 2pd (4x8) 18 x 20mm HS (18x1) |
Aircraft | nil | 3 |
Complement | 1350 | |
Notes |
Displacement | 25,500 tons std, 31,100 tons full load | |
Length | 584 ft | |
Breadth | 89 ft | |
Draught | 28 ft | |
Machinery | 4 shaft steam turbines, 70,000shp | |
Speed | 25 knots | |
Range | 6500 miles at 12 knots | |
Armour | 12" side, 4.5" deck, 11" turrets | |
Armament | 8 x 13.5 (4x2) 20 x 4.5" (10x2) 24 x 2pd (6x4) 10 x 20mm (10x1) |
|
Aircraft | nil | |
Torpedoes | nil | |
Complement | 1120 | |
Notes |