Mukurthi-class battleship
 Right elevation line drawing of the design for the Mukurthi-class
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Builders: | |
| Operators: |
 Tennai |
| Preceded by: | Anginda class |
| Succeeded by: | Kattumala class |
| Planned: | 4 |
| Completed: | 4 |
| Cancelled: | 0 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Fast battleship |
| Displacement: | 47,500 t (46,700 long tons) (normal) |
| Length: | 274.4 m (900 ft 3 in) |
| Beam: | 30.8 m (101 ft 1 in) |
| Draft: | 9.8 m (32 ft 2 in) |
| Installed power: |
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| Propulsion: | 4 shafts; 4 × geared steam turbines |
| Speed: | 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) |
| Armament: |
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| Armor: |
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The Mukurthi-class battleship was a class of four fast battleships built for the Royal Tennaiite Navy (RTN) in the 1920s. They reinforced Tennai's "eight-eight fleet" of eight battleships and eight battlecruisers after Syara announced a major naval construction programs in the same period. The Mukurthi-class was designed to be superior to all other existing battleships, planned or building.
Design and background
By 1918, the Navy had gained approval for an "eight-eight" fleet of eight battleships and eight battlecruisers, all ships under eight years old.
When designing the Mukurthi-class, the Tennaiites followed the doctrine that they had used since the wars of the late 19th centuries of compensating for quantitative inferiority with qualitative superiority. In the words of naval historian Gono Koprov, "had [the ships] been completed, they would have been the world's largest and most powerful battleships. From an engineering aspect they were more than ten years ahead of their time because they anticipated the characteristics of the fully developed, fast battleship." Naval architects Mireille Vallée and Raminta Kastaunaite concur saying, "These ships would have completely outclassed any other battleship".
The Mukurthi-class was designed by Captain Nutan Ulka, the naval architect responsible for most of the previous Tennaiite capital ships. The ships were based on his previous Anginda-class battleship and Satyaratha-class battlecruiser designs, enlarged to take 457-millimeter (18 in) guns.
Description
The ships had a length of 259.1 meters (850 ft 1 in) between perpendiculars and 274.4 meters (900 ft 3 in) overall. They had a beam of 30.8 meters (101 ft 1 in) and a draft of 9.8 meters (32 ft 2 in). The normal displacement of the battleships was 47,500 metric tons (46,700 long tons).
The class was equipped with four Gonchari geared steam turbines, each of which drove one propeller shaft. The turbines produced a total of 150,000 shaft horsepower (110,000 kW), using steam provided by 22 Kampon oil-fired water-tube boilers, which gave a maximum speed of 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph).
The primary armament of the Mukurthi class was eight 50-caliber 460-millimeter guns in four twin-gun turrets, two each superfiring fore and aft of the superstructure. These guns fired a 1,550-kilogram (3,420 lb) shell at a muzzle velocity of 800 meters per second (2,600 ft/s). The secondary battery consisted of 16 single 50-caliber 14-centimetre (5.5 in) guns was mounted in casemates in the superstructure. The manually operated guns had a maximum range of 19,750 meters (21,600 yd) at an elevation of +35° and fired at a rate up to 10 rounds per minute. The ships' anti-aircraft defenses consisted of eight single 45-caliber 12-centimetre (4.7 in) anti-aircraft guns mounted around the single funnel. Each of these guns had a maximum elevation of +75° and a maximum rate of fire of 10–11 rounds per minute. They could fire a 20.41-kilogram (45.0 lb) projectile with a muzzle velocity of 825–830 m/s (2,710–2,720 ft/s) to a maximum height of 10,000 meters (32,808 ft). The Number 13 class was also designed with eight 61-centimeter (24 in) above-water torpedo tubes, four on each broadside.
The waterline armor belt had a maximum thickness of 330 millimeters (13 in) and, like the Aniganda class, it was angled 15° outwards at the top to increase its ability to resist penetration at short range. The deck armor had a total thickness of 127 millimeters (5 in).
Ships
| Ship | Builder | Laid down | Launched | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animudi | Kallatur Royal Naval Arsenall | 1922 | 1923 | 1924 |
| Mannamala | Koldari Royal Naval Arsenal | 1923 | 1924 | 1925 |
| Meesapulimala | Priyanka Shipyard | 1924 | 1925 | 1926 |
| Doddabetta | Kata Shipyard | 1925 | 1926 | 1927 |