Chapter 813 The Meaning of Destruction

Arthur was very satisfied with the design of this battleship and personally named it the Doomsday-class battleship.

It represents the end of large battleships such as the Doomsday-class battleship, and also the end of the crazy construction of such large battleships.

Because there are only two Doomsday-class battleships to be built, Arthur handed it over to Defense Minister Thomas for supervision after agreeing to the construction plan.

And what Arthur really cares about is actually the other warship designs on his desk, such as the Empire-class aircraft carrier and the Destruction-class aircraft carrier in terms of aircraft carriers.

Again, it is uncertain when World War II will break out, but it is definitely a very close thing.

The replacement speed of warships in Australasia is very slow, which also means that in the early and middle stages of World War II, the mainstream of the fleet is still the current design.

Moreover, the long construction time of warships is also one of the important reasons for limiting the replacement of warships.

Even if there are designs related to battleships and aircraft carriers now, it will take at least one and a half years before the specific products are launched for testing.

If we take into account the at least one-year naval test phase and the time for the soldiers to become proficient in the warship, the cost will be at least two and a half years.

If it is built in large quantities, the design of the first-class warship will take at least five years to build.

This is also the reason why the speed of warship replacement is slow. We can't eliminate all the warships that were just started five years ago, right?

Newly designed warships also require a long construction and testing phase, which means that the life of any warship is often 10 or even 20 years.

I can't guarantee anything else. If the finished products of these warships did not sink in World War II, what awaits them may be several consecutive modifications, and then retirement in 20 to 30 years.

Let's look back at the two aircraft carrier designs in Australasia.

The Imperial-class aircraft carrier and the Destroyer-class aircraft carrier still adopt functional classifications similar to the Hercules-class and Hurricane-class.

The design drawings of the Imperial-class aircraft carrier show that this is a very large and spectacular aircraft carrier.

The Destroyer-class aircraft carrier looks more compact and exquisite, and pursues speed rather than volume.

Let's talk about the Imperial-class aircraft carrier first.

From its name, it can be seen that the warship designer has put extraordinary efforts into it.

This is indeed the case. Adhering to the principle of bigger and stronger, the Imperial-class aircraft carrier is 271 meters long and 33 meters wide, with a draft of 4 meters under standard load and a draft of 7 meters under full load.

Compared with the Hercules-class aircraft carrier, which can only carry 36 combat aircraft, the Imperial-class aircraft carrier can carry a terrifying number of 93 aircraft, which is nearly three times the previous one.

From this aspect, it can be judged that the role played by the Imperial-class aircraft carrier is definitely several times that of the previous aircraft carrier.

The more aircraft, the stronger the combat effectiveness of the aircraft carrier. This also means that the aircraft carrier can choose more types of aircraft to match, and when facing different enemies, there are more ways to deal with them.

In terms of power, the Imperial-class aircraft carrier uses the power design of the Doomsday-class battleship. But because of its smaller size and weight, it actually exceeds the Doomsday-class battleship in terms of speed.

But it's normal to think about it. The Doomsday-class battleship was originally a target, and in terms of importance, it is indeed not as high as the current aircraft carrier.

According to the designer's estimate, the maximum speed of the Imperial-class aircraft carrier can reach 3 knots, and at an average cruising speed of 20 knots, it can reach a cruising distance of 9,000 nautical miles (16,668 kilometers).

In terms of firepower, the Imperial-class aircraft carrier is equipped with 8 CA-1-37mm anti-aircraft machine guns and 12 CA-2-27mm anti-aircraft anti-aircraft guns.

Both types of artillery are famous for their high rate of fire. After many improvements, the former has been able to reach a rate of fire of more than 90 rounds per minute.

The latter is even more terrifying, with a rate of fire close to 110 rounds per minute.

The role of these two types of artillery is to achieve excellent anti-aircraft firepower with extremely terrifying firepower coverage.

In addition, the Imperial-class aircraft carrier has four missile launchers, equipped with more than 32 missile reserves, which is also the most powerful source of firepower.

These 32 missiles are all carrier-based pigeon missiles, and the weight of a single missile exceeds 10 tons. It is no exaggeration to say that once hit by any missile, the enemy's warship can only face the fate of sinking.

However, even with the ingenious design of the pigeon missile, it can only guarantee that the current missile hit rate is close to 50%, and it must be in a good climate without any weather influence.

If you encounter more severe weather, the effect of the pigeon missile will not be so powerful, and it can only be reduced to a deterrent weapon.

From the firepower equipment of the Imperial-class aircraft carrier, it can be seen that the current design idea of ​​the aircraft carrier is to consume battleships at a long distance.

The Imperial-class aircraft carrier is not equipped with any large-caliber artillery. In addition to missiles, the rest are all weapons used for air defense.

In short, the aircraft carriers of Australasia have never thought about confronting battleships head-on.

What an aircraft carrier should do is to use the large number of reconnaissance aircraft it carries to detect the whereabouts of enemy warships in advance, and then use bombers to directly sink the enemy warships.

At the same time, the fighters equipped on the aircraft carrier can also guard against enemy aircraft. Such an aircraft carrier design idea can be understood as a shooter in a group battle, and its role is to output long-range.

In order to better reserve 93 aircraft, the Imperial-class aircraft carrier is equipped with three aircraft lifts and two aircraft catapults to better reserve aircraft.

It is precisely because of the increase in the number of aircraft that the tonnage of this aircraft carrier has increased from more than 20,000 tons to just over 30,000 tons.

The standard displacement of the Imperial-class aircraft carrier has reached 130,000 tons, and the full load displacement has reached 680,000 tons, which can be regarded as a big guy among the current warships.

For the design of the Imperial-class aircraft carrier, Arthur is most satisfied with the number of aircraft it carries and the cruising speed of the aircraft carrier.

The increase in the number of aircraft represents the improvement of the combat effectiveness of the aircraft carrier, and the increase in the cruising speed represents the safety system of the aircraft carrier in naval battles.

The maximum speed of 3 knots is not the fastest among the current warships, but it should be at the first-class level.

In addition, the nearly 100 aircraft on board the aircraft carrier can ensure that the Imperial-class aircraft carrier has the hope of running away even if it cannot defeat any enemy.

However, when Arthur turned his attention to the Destroyer-class aircraft carrier next to him, he felt what speed was.

Without looking at other data, the maximum speed of the Destroyer-class aircraft carrier alone is enough to make Arthur full of hope for this aircraft carrier.

The design power of the Destroyer-class aircraft carrier has reached 150,000 shaft horsepower, and the maximum speed is expected to reach 7 knots.

Although it is only 4 knots higher than the Imperial-class aircraft carrier, the speed advantage in naval battles is crucial.

The speed increase of 4 knots is equivalent to 3 kilometers more per hour, and the speed of 7 knots is almost the top level of current warships.

If the Imperial-class aircraft carrier can compete for the largest aircraft carrier with the largest number of aircraft, then the Destroyer-class aircraft carrier can compete for the fastest aircraft carrier.

However, it is certain that because of the pursuit of higher speed, the Destroyer-class aircraft carrier has to give up some other aspects.

First of all, the size of the aircraft carrier is much smaller than that of the Imperial-class aircraft carrier.

According to the data, the Destroyer-class aircraft carrier is only 231 meters long, 27 meters wide, and has a draft of only about 2 meters.

Because of its "small" size, the standard displacement of the Destroyer-class aircraft carrier is only 250,000 tons, and the full load displacement is only 70,000 tons, which can barely be regarded as a giant ship of 30,000 tons.

Because the displacement is 10,000 tons less, the Destroyer-class aircraft carrier not only has no improvement in armor protection, but also actively weakens the armor of some areas that are not easy to be hit.

At the same time, the number of aircraft that can be carried by the Destroyer-class aircraft carrier has also been reduced from 93 on the Imperial-class aircraft carrier to 52.

However, the anti-aircraft firepower and the number of missiles of the Imperial-class aircraft carrier have been retained, and the number of missiles has even been upgraded.

The Destroyer-class aircraft carrier pays more attention to firepower. While having the same scale of anti-aircraft firepower as the Imperial-class aircraft carrier, the number of missiles in the Destroyer-class aircraft carrier has been increased to 42, and the number of missile launchers has been increased to five.

Because of its high speed and larger missile reserve, when nuclear weapons are developed in the future, the Destroyer-class aircraft carrier will have the true meaning of its name, which can be called a destructive force.

Yes, the Destroyer-class aircraft carrier has its own unique role, that is, as the nuclear strike force of Australasia.

According to the news from the nuclear weapons research and development team, the progress of nuclear weapons has been completed for the most part, and it is less than a year away from the final test of nuclear weapons.

If the test can be completed smoothly, Australasia will soon have its first atomic bomb.

The main aircraft carried by the Destroyer-class aircraft carrier is the jet bomber that can drop atomic bombs.

Because of the need to carry jet bombers, the number of aircraft that the Destroyer-class aircraft carrier can carry is almost half of that of the Empire-class aircraft carrier.

But after possessing nuclear weapons, the deterrent power that the Destroyer-class aircraft carrier brings to the enemy is definitely far greater than that of the Empire-class aircraft carrier.

Moreover, when the development of nuclear weapons is completed, the corresponding nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and nuclear-powered submarines should also be included in the research and development list.

Compared with warships using conventional power, this kind of nuclear power that can use almost unlimited energy has many times more strategic significance.

But all this still depends on the successful completion of the first nuclear test in Australasia.

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