Chapter 813 The meaning of destruction

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

What it represents is not only the end of large battleships like the Doomsday-class battleship, but also the end of the crazy construction of such large battleships.

Because only two Doomsday-class battleships were built, after Arthur agreed to the construction plan, he handed it over to Defense Secretary Thomas for supervision.

What Arthur really cares about are actually the other warship designs on his desk, such as aircraft carriers, the Empire-class aircraft carrier and the Destruction-class aircraft carrier.

Again, it is not certain when World War II broke out, but it was definitely very close.

The replacement speed of Australasian warships is very slow, which also means that in the early and mid-term of World War II, the mainstream of the fleet was still the current design.

Moreover, the long construction time of warships is also one of the important reasons that restricts the replacement of warships.

Even if there are already designs related to battleships and aircraft carriers, it will be a year and a half later at the earliest before specific products are launched for testing.

If you include at least a year of sea navigation testing and the time it takes for soldiers to become proficient with the warship, the cost required will be at least two and a half years.

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

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

Newly designed warships also require a long construction and testing phase, which determines that the lifespan of any warship often starts at 10 or even 20 years.

Can't guarantee anything else. With the current design of these warships, if their finished products had not sunk in World War II, what awaited them might have been several successive modifications and then decommissioning after twenty or thirty years.

Attention returns to the two aircraft carrier designs in Australasia.

The Empire-class aircraft carrier and the Destruction-class aircraft carrier still adopt functional classifications similar to the Hercules-class and Hurricane-class aircraft carriers.

It can be seen from the design drawings of the Empire-class aircraft carrier that this is a quite large and spectacular aircraft carrier.

The destruction-class aircraft carrier looks smaller and more exquisite, pursuing speed rather than size.

Let’s talk about the Empire-class aircraft carrier first.

It can be seen from its naming that warship designers have put extraordinary efforts into it.

This is indeed the case. Adhering to the principle of being bigger and stronger, the Empire-class aircraft carrier has a total length of 271 meters, a width of 33 meters, 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 Empire-class aircraft carrier can carry a terrifying 93 aircraft, which is nearly three times the previous number.

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

The more aircraft there are, the stronger the aircraft carrier's combat effectiveness. This also means that the aircraft carrier can choose a wider variety of aircraft combinations, and has more ways to deal with different enemies.

In terms of power, the Empire-class aircraft carrier follows the power design of the Doomsday-class battleship. However, because of its smaller size and weight, it surpasses the Doomsday-class battleship in terms of speed.

But it’s normal to think about it. Doomsday-class battleships were originally launched as targets. In terms of importance, they are indeed not as high as the current aircraft carriers.

According to the designer's estimation, the Empire-class aircraft carrier can reach a maximum speed of 3 knots, cruise at an average speed of 20 knots, and 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 cannons and 12 CA-2-27mm anti-aircraft cannons.

Both guns are known for their high rates of fire. After many improvements, the former has been able to achieve a firing rate 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 function of these two types of artillery is to achieve excellent anti-aircraft firepower with extremely terrifying firepower coverage.

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

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

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

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

From the firepower equipment of the Empire-class aircraft carrier, we can see the current design idea of ​​the aircraft carrier, which is to fight battleships at long distances.

The Empire-class aircraft carrier is not equipped with any large-caliber artillery. Except for missiles, all the remaining weapons are used for air defense.

To put it simply, the aircraft carriers of Australasia never thought of confronting the battleships head-on.

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

At the same time, the fighter jets equipped on the aircraft carrier can also defend against enemy aircraft. This kind of aircraft carrier design can be understood as a shooter in a team battle, and its function is remote output.

In order to better reserve 93 aircraft, the Empire-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 Empire-class aircraft carrier reaches 130,000 tons, and the full-load displacement reaches 680,000 tons. It is considered a big one among current warships.

Regarding the design of the Empire-class aircraft carrier, Arthur was most satisfied with the number of aircraft it carried and the cruising speed of the aircraft carrier.

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

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

Coupled with the nearly 100 aircraft carried on the aircraft carrier, it can ensure that the Empire-class aircraft carrier retains the hope of running away when encountering any enemy.

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

Regardless of other data, the maximum speed of the Destruction-class aircraft carrier alone is enough to make Arthur full of hope for this aircraft carrier.

The destruction-class aircraft carrier has a design power of 150,000 shaft horsepower and an estimated maximum speed of 7 knots.

Although it is only a 4-knot improvement compared to the Empire-class aircraft carrier, its speed advantage in naval battles is crucial.

An increase in speed of 4 knots is equivalent to being able to run 3 kilometers more per hour, and a 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 Destruction-class aircraft carrier can compete for the fastest aircraft carrier.

But what is certain is that because of the pursuit of higher speed, the destruction-class aircraft carrier must give up certain aspects in other aspects.

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

According to the data, the total length of the destruction-class aircraft carrier is only 231 meters, the width is 27 meters, and the draft is only about 2 meters.

Because of such a "petite" size, the standard displacement of the Destruction-class aircraft carrier is only 250,000 tons, and the full-load displacement is only 70,000 tons, which is barely considered a 30,000-ton giant ship.

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

At the same time, the number of aircraft that the Destruction-class aircraft carrier can carry has been reduced from 93 to 52 from the Empire-class aircraft carrier.

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

Destruction-class aircraft carriers place more emphasis on firepower. While having the same scale of anti-aircraft firepower as the Empire-class aircraft carrier, the Destruction-class aircraft carrier's missile reserve has been increased to 42, and the missile launcher has been increased to five.

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

Yes, the Destruction-class aircraft carrier has its own unique role, which is to serve as the nuclear strike force in Australasia.

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

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

As for the destruction-class aircraft carrier, its main aircraft are jet bombers that can drop atomic bombs.

Precisely because of the need to carry jet bombers, the number of aircraft that the Destruction-class aircraft carrier can carry is only about half of that of the Empire-class aircraft carrier.

But after possessing nuclear weapons, the deterrent power brought to the enemy by the Destruction-class aircraft carrier will definitely far exceed 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, the strategic significance of this kind of nuclear power, which can use almost unlimited energy, is many times greater.

But all this depends on the successful completion of Australasia's first nuclear test.

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