Chapter 1434: Self-deceptive decision

For any country, a warship in distress at sea is an absolute major event.

Therefore, even if Baram had determined that there was no better solution than asking for help from the Xingzhou, the necessary situation report still had to be made.

However, due to the limitations of long-distance communication methods and the British traditional skills in work efficiency, when the relevant information reported by the Courageous was passed through layers of relays and finally sent back to the British mainland, someone had already surpassed them...

Later in the day.

Portsmouth Naval Base, England.

First Sea Lord, Admiral Mark Stanhope, was staring at the screen in front of him with a complicated expression.

It was a helicopter, flying slowly around a destroyer with the hull number "D32".

In a smaller window in the corner, the overhead view taken by the helicopter was also played.

"Guys, I need an explanation."

Stanhope's face was terribly grim:

"First, why did our newest destroyer lose power so completely that even the auxiliary diesel engine and emergency power system could not work, leaving only a part of the equipment that relied on independent battery power supply available?"

The admiral looked around; no one in the entire command center dared to look him in the eye.

After a pause of a few seconds, his tone softened a little:

"Of course, this may also be explained as a problem with the supplier. We will discuss the specific situation later."

However, the easing only lasted for a moment, and soon became fierce again:

"But there is another more important point... Why do we know nothing about this matter, and instead have to wait for the notification from China to obtain relevant information?"

"Where's the report from the Courageous? Where's the naval logistics base at Duqm? Where's the communications liaison station at Diego Garcia?"

In fact, it’s not surprising that Admiral Stanhope was so furious.

In other words, compared to anger, his feeling at this moment was closer to panic.

His ancestors handed the navy over to him, but he ended up completely ruining it.

He couldn't even imagine the consequences if this matter were to be spread internationally.

The Royal Navy's lack of armaments has been a well-known fact to everyone since World War II.

But there must be a limit to slackness.

In the 80s, the Royal Navy was still able to gather its forces in the South Atlantic to teach the ungrateful Argentines a lesson.

In the 90s, the Royal Navy was still able to gather a fleet to go to the Western Pacific to confront China.

How is it that in the 21st century, when a battleship has an accident, not only does it need help from other countries, but even the news of the accident is given by others, otherwise the entire naval staff is kept in the dark?

If a war breaks out...

wrong.

Do we still need to fight in this state?

From now on, even long ocean voyages will be done with fear.

However, now that things have come to this, the top priority is definitely not to share the blame, but to salvage the situation as much as possible and control the subsequent impact.

After barely calming down his blood pressure, Stanhope let out a long sigh and sat back in his seat somewhat dejectedly.

"Did the Chinese put forward any conditions?"

The liaison officer placed the note in his hand on the table:

"The Chinese side said that providing assistance to ships in distress to the best of their ability on the high seas is part of the responsibility of a major country, and they will not make any additional demands on us."

This sentence made the atmosphere in the entire command hall somewhat relaxed.

But Stanhope, who was more experienced, heard something else:

"'Additional' requirements?"

Obviously, although the other party sounded very high-sounding, they were not really prepared to do voluntary labor.

“That’s the written response.”

The liaison officer shook his head and explained:

"As for the more specific situation..."

He had only said half of his words when Vice Admiral Michael Kaysen, Director of the Navy Committee's Ordnance Department, suddenly pushed open the door at the end of the hall and entered:

"Sir Stanhope, we just received a report from the Courageous, which was transferred via the Duqm Naval Base. The content was quite long, so it took some time..."

Kaisen obviously knew what was most annoying about his leader right now, so even though he missed the moment when Stanhope got angry, he still accurately hit the part that the other party was most concerned about.

The admiral finally calmed down a bit after realizing that there was a reason for this, but he still waved his hand impatiently, interrupting the other party's explanation:

“Put out the content.”

Soon, a report that had obviously not been formatted yet appeared on the big screen.

"The Courageous reported that they first received an alarm about abnormal operation of the gas turbine, which was manifested by overheating of the compressor and an unwarranted increase in speed. Then, within a few seconds, the alarm spread to the entire power system and power control system, and then the entire ship was completely powered off."

Kaisen glanced at Stanhope's face and continued to report carefully:

"Since it has not been restored yet, they cannot view the most important integrated power system operation log. At present, they can only speculate that when the gas turbine failed, the power was still at maximum power. Due to a design flaw, the power control system did not choose to weaken the power output, but forcibly increased the power of the diesel engine, thereby triggering the overload protection. However, there is no clue as to the cause of the initial gas turbine failure..."

"..."

The moment he heard the speculated cause of the failure, Stanhope felt as if the sky was falling.

以WR-21为代表的中冷回热燃气轮机和综合电力管理系统几乎属于21世纪英国海军的仅存的骄傲，不仅应用在了45型驱逐舰上，而且还是未来20-30年所有主战舰艇的动力来源。

It has even been selected by the US Navy to be installed on the DDG1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer, and will be further promoted to all next-generation combat ships of the NATO system navy.

Now, there may be problems with both of these key components...

Britain's shipbuilding industry is already in short supply. If it suffers another round of blows, it may only be able to sit at the same table with Türkiye or Greece in the future.

So, Stanhope had only one thought in his mind at this moment -

No matter what the actual situation is, this pair of "only children in the village" must be protected.

If we have to admit that there is a problem with one of them, it must be the integrated power management system.

After all, problems at the software level always sound less troublesome.

As for the issue of the Type 45 destroyer, it can be resolved behind closed doors.

The construction of the first DDG1000 ship has only started for a year. If the work is done quickly enough, the MT30 gas turbine, which uses similar technology, should still have a chance to be saved.

But just as he was calculating on his abacus, he heard Kaisen say:

"In addition, the Courageous also reported that they had developed a restart plan with the Chinese Navy's destroyer, the Xingzhou, but the Chinese requested to board the ship and personally check the working conditions of our engine and electronic control system to avoid affecting the safety of the other ship itself during the power transmission process."

Stanhope's hands clenched into fists, almost as if he was about to smash the table.

Fortunately, it finally stopped in mid-air.

This request was a huge humiliation for him and the navy!

Warships are mobile territory, and the enemy can get on board whenever they want, and even go deep into the ship's hull.

What’s the difference between this and letting the neighbor next door into your house?

"We should still have two warships in the North Indian Ocean. Can we solve the problem on our own without relying on China's help?"

Kaisen shook his head:

"The Kent frigate and the Wave Knight supply ship are both operating near the Persian Gulf and cannot rendezvous with the Courageous in a short period of time. In addition, the power supply capacity of these two ships is too poor to meet the requirements for restarting the integrated power system... The Indefatigable nuclear submarine is operating in the South Atlantic Ocean and can provide enough power, but it will probably take more than two weeks to go around the Cape of Good Hope and reach the Gulf of Aden, so it's unfortunate..."

Stanhope rubbed his temple in pain:

"That means we have no conditions to refuse?"

The admiral felt his mind was in a mess at this moment.

The face of the navy, the signed orders, the cutting-edge destroyers that could drift away with the ocean currents at any time, and the various technical secrets that must be involved in the engine room...

For a moment, he couldn't even come up with a definite order of priorities.

But what is certain is that considering the catastrophic performance of the WR-21 gas turbine and integrated power system, it is probably worth questioning how valuable the so-called "technical secrets" are.

Therefore, Stanhope made a quick decision:

"We agree to the Chinese side's conditions... but require them to send no more than three personnel on board, and when on the Courageous, they must change into Royal Navy uniforms and communicate in English..."