Alien Arms Empire

 Chapter 1123 1124 Target New Island

 In fact, the Datang Empire also discovered many problems of its own during this naval operation: although there was no threat from submarines and although the air threat was very small, the effect of the Datang Empire's navy in supporting the landing was still not very good.

The Tang Navy's carrier-based aircraft were relatively late in supporting land operations, and were indeed very weak in terms of support.

　　First of all, the Tang Imperial Navy was not equipped with a sufficient number of battleships and artillery cruisers. It had relatively few large-caliber naval guns, and its fire support for landing operations was weak.

The entire Tang Empire fleet could only scrape together two battleships and a dozen cruisers, and these battleships could not all be devoted to supporting the landing operations at one go.

Battleships have to serve as the aircraft carrier's human shields in front of the fleet, so they are often mobilized away, so that support for landing cannot be done.

The same is true for cruisers: because they are one of the few "heavy battleships" in the Tang Army, they must also operate together with the battleships to maintain the size of the fleet.

 So the only ones that can really support landings are destroyers most of the time. The main guns of the Tang Army's artillery destroyers mostly have a caliber of 127 mm. This caliber is not efficient in striking strong fortifications.

 In fact, the two battleships of the Tang Army only had 1,900 rounds of ammunition in total. On average, one main gun only had more than 100 rounds. In one landing operation, 60 volleys were fired, and the shells were exhausted.

In addition, the lifespan of the main guns of the Tang Army's battleships is more than 200 rounds. In other words, after two rounds of ammunition preparation, the two Bismarck-class battleships will return to port to replace the main gun barrels and lose their combat capability.

This is true for battleships, and cruisers are not much better. Although the life of the artillery barrels is longer, cruisers still need to rest and replenish. This is especially true for destroyers: a large number of destroyers that had used up their missiles were forced to return, and the remaining destroyers could only ensure the safety of the route between South Island and Beiyuan Port.

This is also the reason why after capturing the South Island, almost all the Tang Empire’s fleet returned, leaving only a few destroyers on standby near the South Island.

 Fortunately, the Tang Empire has completely wiped out the Mirage fleet. If the opponent's fleet still appears near the South Island at this time, the troops of the Datang Empire occupying the South Island will be quite passive.

 The aircraft of the entire fleet need repair, the pilots need rest, the aircraft carrier fleet has run out of ammunition and fuel, and has almost lost its combat capability.

 The battle fleet also needs to replenish artillery shells, overhaul the life of the barrels, and re-equip: the navy's sustained combat capability is actually not as high as imagined.

●Carrier-based aircraft on aircraft carriers have the same problem: first they must ensure the safety of their own fleet, and secondly they must support ground attacks.

  The normal mission priorities of aircraft carrier-based aircraft are actually: destroy the enemy fleet > destroy the enemy airport > attack other shore targets.

 On the premise of ensuring the absolute safety of one's own side, the aircraft carrier can provide air support for the landing, which seriously restricts the speed and quantity of the carrier-based aircraft to support the landing force.

 Another problem is that the carrier-based aircraft of the Tang Empire are indeed a bit behind: using Stuka dive bombers is itself a compromise, and the current performance of this aircraft can no longer meet combat needs.

 In terms of speed, the Stuka is too slow. It cannot protect itself from intensive anti-aircraft firepower or attacks from advanced enemy fighter jets, and its attack efficiency is too low.

 It can only carry a 500kg bomb, while many excellent carrier-based attack aircraft can carry more than 800kg aerial bombs.

Although the naval Stuka can carry torpedoes, the Stuka's speed is too slow. It is risky to use as a torpedo attack aircraft and is easily interfered by anti-aircraft fire, and its overall performance is poor.

Although the main fleet of the Mirage was hit by multiple torpedoes dropped by Stukas, pilots generally reported in actual combat that torpedo attacks by such aircraft were indeed not as comfortable as dive bombing.

 So, in the future naval sequence of the Tang Empire, the Stuka dive bomber is the first aircraft to be completely eliminated.

The Navy plans to completely replace the Stuka with a jet attack aircraft, and the drawings Tang Mo gave are of the A6 "Intruder" attack aircraft.

This concept of attack aircraft has completely subverted the attack mode of dive bombers such as Stuka, and has evolved ground support into the era of electronic signals.

 It can use early guided bombs to attack targets to improve attack accuracy. Because of the blessing of "missiles", the dangerous option of dive attack has been completely abandoned.

But this kind of aircraft is really unable to dive and attack: first of all, it is too big, and secondly, it does not even have a cannon installed. Therefore, the Intruder attack aircraft is only suitable for high-altitude support. It cannot fly across the battlefield like the A-10 attack aircraft and fire violently at the target.

This makes its ground support look less fierce in terms of visual effects, but it can indeed do all the Stuka's tasks.

In addition, with its huge body and load capacity, it can use Harpoon anti-ship missiles to attack enemy surface ships, which also allows it to attack enemy fleets without penetrating defenses.

With the support of anti-ship missiles, the problem that the intruder attack aircraft cannot carry torpedoes becomes less important: the attack range of torpedoes is too short, and the penetration effect is not as good as that of anti-ship missiles.

  In other words, in the future, the Tang Navy will most likely be equipped with only one type of attack aircraft: the Intruder 6 attack aircraft. As for the A7 Corsair II, which is also classic, equipped with a large-caliber cannon and more like an attack aircraft, it may not appear again.

 In the future, the ground attack and sea attack missions of the Datang Empire’s naval carrier-based aircraft will be completed by “guided bombs” and “missiles”.

The kind of ground support in which a plane roars and swoops down is destined to withdraw from the stage of history. The tragic and heroic dive bombing will inevitably start from the navy and go to a strange place.

 The only question is actually when the Intruder 6 attack aircraft can enter service: in order to meet the needs of the latest carrier-based aircraft, the Navy has actually started building the latest steam catapult aircraft carrier.

 The new aircraft carrier uses a brand-new angled deck and four steam catapults, which can take off and land heavy carrier-based aircraft including the F-14 Tomcat! It has four lifts suspended outside the deck. This design ensures the strength of the deck and increases dispatch efficiency!

 It is the famous Kitty Hawk-class conventionally powered aircraft carrier. It can rely on its own reserves at sea for 45 days, which is quite good. In addition, it can soar to a speed of nearly 60 kilometers per hour, which relies on an awesome 280,000-horsepower power system and nearly 8,000 tons of fuel!

 This aircraft carrier has a flight deck of more than 320 meters long and a flight deck width of more than 76 meters! The entire battleship has a full load displacement of more than 80,000 tons! Can load more than 80 aircraft! Although Tang Mo is still unable to arm it with Sea Sparrow anti-aircraft missiles and Phalanx, it is still the most powerful warship in the world!

 Nearly 5,500 people will serve on this battleship. The entire aircraft carrier has more than 2,000 cabins. It is a floating city on the sea! If you serve at the front of the ship, you may not even know a comrade who served at the stern after you retire!

Although this aircraft carrier looks quite modern, God knows that this thing was actually built in the late 1950s and entered service in 1961.

If the naval-type F4 Phantom and A6 Intruder begin to serve on the brand-new Nanshan-class (Kitty Hawk-class) aircraft carrier, then the navies around the world will probably be separated into two eras.

On the one hand, there are the jet aircraft of the Tang Dynasty plus modern aircraft carriers, and on the other hand, there are a lot of "Xianghe, Ruihe", or "Lexington, Enterprise" from the World War II era.

That picture is really quite interesting: I don’t know how frustrated the aircraft carrier fleets of countries around the world with a combat radius of less than 300 kilometers will be in front of the Tang Empire’s naval fleet, which easily exceeds 700 kilometers in combat radius.

 Regarding the tragic battle losses of more than 2,000 Marines and more than 1,000 Air Force paratroopers, Bernard formally submitted a review to the General Staff after returning to Beiyuan Port.

 Honestly, Bernard cannot be entirely blamed for this. After all, this is the first time for him, or for the first time in the world, that someone has commanded an aircraft carrier fleet to conduct an amphibious landing operation, and it is also a long-range landing operation, so some problems are inevitable.

You must know that the battlefield environment at that time was quite complex: there were attacks from enemy shore-based aircraft and threats from enemy naval fleets. Bernard had to ensure the absolute safety of his fleet. This is what he had to do.

 Because of the existence of his fleet, the landing can continue. If his fleet fails miserably, the landing operation will be a complete failure.

Therefore, the General Staff just accepted Bernard's review and did not initiate an investigation into Bernard's decision-making as a commander.

 In addition to summarizing the various problems existing in this landing operation, the Navy is also actively preparing for the next landing operation! They could not wait until Mirage had repaired their positions and made all preparations before taking action.

This time the naval landing operation will be completed alone. Airborne troops are all about winning by surprise. When the mirage has taken precautions, it is really too risky to rush into the airborne troops.

The navy decided to seize the new island while exhausting the life of the battleship's main guns, and have the battleships return to Long Island to install new gun barrels.

At the same time, a large number of orc soldiers were sent to the new island to prepare for the attack on the main island. Now that it has been decided to leave this island to the orcs, it is only logical to let the orcs fight for their "homeland", right?

 After more than two months of "truce period", the Tang Empire's navy began to mobilize again. This time, their target is New Island!

 (End of this chapter)