(My attempt on the topic "How to make a Type 21 frigate bada*s again"......)
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Patrons of the League of Kings organization, supplied with technology of their benefactor, are in many cases engaging in commerce wars on their homeworlds. On high seas they use submarines and bomber aircraft to attack any convoy not flying their banners whenever they feel they can get away with it. When indigenous militaries began to deploy STOVL fighters on escort carriers and properly-equipped container ships to intercept hostile bombers and maritime reconnaissance aircraft, League of Kings patrons resort to arming bombers with anti-ship missiles and launching "disposable" jet fighters off ship-based rocket catapults (fighter catapult ships and catapult-armed merchantmen being much quicker to put into service than the through-deck aircraft-carrying cruisers built and sold by their benefactors, whereas disposable fighters can be drawn from the existing, plentiful stock of MiG-21s and created by removing their landing gears in favour of catapult attachment point) to cover those bombers.
These led to a desire to increase sensor range of these civilian and military convoys and by extension to improve the response time of their STOVL fighters, whether against anti-ship missiles or against MiG-21s looking to pounce on convoy defenders preoccupied with the first wave of assailants. Other than the usual airborne early warning aircraft and helicopters, the idea of using radar-equipped blimps to support the afore-mentioned, spreaded-thin regular military assets soon received attention. Initially, the idea was tried by embarking mobile mooring platforms onto selected surface combatants in place of shipborne helicopters......
(Running in parallel is the topic of "How to make a militarized Hamilton class cutter bada*s"......)
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Comments and Suggestions welcomed.