Questions about CV armour.

[leisen]

1. How does deck armour and other convetional armour interact with flight side armour and deck side armour? Do they stack in some way or are they unrelative?

2. Does belt armour do anything to airstrike? Do bombs and ASMs hit belt armour?

3. How to calculate how much armour is required to negate the damage of certain size of bomb or missile?

4. If I can't have enough armour to stop bombs and missiles, is it better to have no armour? Or having some armour can still be useful in some ocassion? 

[vonfriedman]

Regarding your question number 3, in www.armouredcarriers.com/hms-illustrious-armoured-aircraft-carrier-design there is an interesting table, relating to the weight and type of bombs, and the release height necessary to penetrate various deck armor thicknesses.

[sjpc302]

On the subject of armor as a whole, I would say your best armor is always CAP, as many DP guns as you can fit and a bunch of LAA spam (for supression). That being said, I have had carriers saved by armor many times. Carriers true cost is always the aircraft as well, so the increase in cost in armor isn't as bad as it looks.

It seems like divebomber penetration has been lowered from RTW2 to RTW3, so I don't think anyone has exact numbers.
As far as armoring, a bomb can hit Flight Deck (FD), Deck (D), both or neither. The deck is protecting your magazine and engine room, and the area below the waterline. Aircraft are below the flight deck though, and most carriers in my experience sink to fires which often occur from only penetrating FD. Before the missile age, hangar side armor is only protective vs gunfire and I don't use it. Vs aircraft, the only time I know of belt armor coming into effect is vs skip bombing attacks, which aren't very likely to happen vs carriers so I wouldn't have the belt armor higher than your deck.

I don't have much experience with missiles but what I have seen is hits on B, BU, HS, BE, and not deck armor. It didn't seem to take to much to stop them from penetrating, but fires would sometimes start anyway. As far as I know we don't have concrete numbers out on missile penetration either, someone might figure that out too eventually.

I would always prioritize highest level torpedo protection, AAA/SAM and aircraft capacity first over armor. You can then use remaining tonnage to add armor, and what is helpful depends a lot on the year. I'll give some armor schemes that I think are very well protected (but I still wouldn't recommend if you have to go below 100AC)
Prior to 1935 - bomb penetration and size are low. Dive bombers aren't very useful, torpedo protection is most important. Example well-armored scheme - B 2", D 2". FD 1.5".
After 1935 - dive bombers rapidly pickup, AP bombs can be researched. Bomb penetration can vary wildly depending on the quality of enemy divebombers and whether they have researched AP bombs yet. 7.5" of deck armor is quoted as the immunity threshold for battleship armor. Example well-armored scheme - B 2.5" (narrow), D2.5", DE 1", BE 1-2" (splinters), FD 4.5". Very heavy armor scheme, but may be worth it.
After 1950 - Missiles are the biggest threat, I don't know too much about combat in this era so I'll just give an example of what I built to be somewhat resistant against missile. B 2.5" BE 2" BU 1", D 2", DE 1", FD 1", HS 2".

Having less armor as I listed here is often still helpful vs bombs, and that probably applies to missiles to. If you are maxing AC, you could go for something like B 2" (narrow), D 2" and leave it at that and it will still protect against some hits. CVLs should also be much more lightly armored.

[dia]

May 26, 2023 7:08:39 GMT -6 sjpc302 said:

7.5" of deck armor is quoted as the immunity threshold for battleship armor.

Is that based on current AP bomb penetration or RtW2 bomb penetration values?

[sjpc302]

May 26, 2023 14:44:08 GMT -6 dia said:

May 26, 2023 7:08:39 GMT -6 sjpc302 said:

7.5" of deck armor is quoted as the immunity threshold for battleship armor.

Is that based on current AP bomb penetration or RtW2 bomb penetration values?

That was for RTW2. I don't know the exact number for RTW3, but it is at least greater than 5".

[dia]

I have noticed myself that DB are less effective. In RtW2 I had ditched TBs by the mid to late 1940s and could penetrate virtually anything with AP bombs. Most of my battleships had at 7.5" of deck armor too.

[elouda]

I've had 4in deck's take 1400lb AP bombs without issue. The French had a CV with 4.5in flight deck in my last game that took a 2000lb AP without penetration (and then proceeded to take a MASM through its 2in belt, haha.) So yeah, deck armour seems a lot more effective (which is fine, considering its impossible to get historical deck thicknesses on most things).

[griffin01]

Rather than armour being more effective, the penetration values for all weapons seem to have been reduced across the board.