On betasom forum (Betasom - XI Gruppo Sommergibili Atlantici (Powered by Invision Power Board)) I've found such project of conversion of Di Guisssano class Italian light cruisers to AA cruisers. View attachment 13672 How do you think was such project realistic or would converted cruisers have problems with stability due to bigger weight of AA armamemnt? Regards,
By 1937 the Regia Marina knew the Barbiano class had litttle value as cruisers, they construction was too light to survive a fight with the bigger foreign ships and their machinery was no longer able to reach the speed needed for use as "destroyer killers". So it was looking for an alternative use of the still relatively young hulls, two projects one wirh 18 90/48 similar to those of the Littorio and Doria and one with 4 135/45 (in twin mounts but probably with a higher elevation tha on the Capitani Romani) and 12 90/48 were put forward but the sips were not considered a stable enough gun platform for successful conversion. I don't think the total weight would be that much more than the four twin 152mm and 3 twin 100mm mounts they would be replacing. A similar design was attempted with the two ships being built for Siam at the time, the Naresuan/Vesuvio Taksin/Etna were to have 6 1235/45 and 10 of the new 65/64 medium AA guns in place of the original 6 152mm (according to some sources an advanced automatic Bofors gun) and 6 76mm of the original design.
Did you notice the automatic weapons gun tubs just forward of the after stack? They appear to be combination of five twin 20mm firing as a single unit. I know the Italians had a six-barrel 20mm on late-war ships like the uncompleted carrier Aquila.
Not sure, but I would guess not. I have not been able to find any reference to the 6x20 being employed on any other Italian ships, although they did add numerous single and twin 20mm as the war went on. Photos of Aquila, essentially complete, show gun tubs which appear to be empty. Another AA weapon planned for Aquila, a 65mm, also appears never to have become operational.