The end of the military era

"Old Song, you don't have to fool me, it's not as serious as you said.

Even if hundreds of capital ships in the major shipyards of the five orc countries are in service, the combined navies of the five orc countries will only have more than 200 more capital ships than the border defense fleet of the Han and Tang Empires.

Moreover, in terms of overall quality, the capital ships of the five orc nations were far inferior to the capital ships of the border defense fleet of the Han and Tang Empires. "

At this time, Zhou Xiaorong in the room was a little dissatisfied and said to Song Limin: "Brother Limin, the cost of a town-class battleship with full main guns is about 3960 million silver coins, and the cost of a Cang-class battlecruiser is about 3880 million silver coins." You need [-] million silver coins.

The six major shipyards successively built 180 Zhenzi-class ships and 180 Cangzi-class ships, with a total cost of more than 141 billion silver coins. Even if our border guards are not short of money, we cannot afford such huge expenditures in a row.

What's more, the border defense fleet belongs to the border defense army, and the border defense army also has the army and air force, so you can't spend all the money on the border defense fleet! "

Song Limin said with a smile: "How could the commander-in-chief spend all his money on the border defense fleet!

Brother Xiaorong, you are joking.

Marshal, I just hope that the frontier fleet of the Han and Tang Empires can keep suppressing the navies of the five orc nations. "

Zhou Rui said: "Old Song, our Zhou family is not short of money, but the full main gun battleships and battlecruisers of the border defense fleet of the Han and Tang Empires are indeed enough.

In the future, the six major shipyards will not continue to build new all-main gun battleships and battlecruisers for the time being, but I have ordered the design bureaus of the six major shipyards to start designing aircraft carriers.

After the six major shipyards build capital ships, they will build aircraft carriers. "

Song Limin frowned and said, "Commander, can aircraft carriers really play a role in naval battles?

I still think it is more reliable to build a battleship with full main guns and a battlecruiser. "

"When more advanced carrier-based bombers and carrier-based torpedo aircraft are developed, the aircraft carrier will become the nemesis of all main gun battleships and battlecruisers!"

Zhou Rui has always hoped to get the aircraft carrier reward from the lottery system, but until now, no lottery card has been able to draw an aircraft carrier.

In fact, it is not difficult for the six major shipyards of the Zhou family to build an aircraft carrier that can take off carrier-based aircraft.

The reason why Zhou Rui has not allowed the six major shipyards to build aircraft carriers is because Zhou Rui does not have suitable carrier-based aircraft, especially carrier-based bombers and carrier-based torpedo aircraft with excellent performance.

Without good-performance carrier-based bombers and carrier-based torpedo aircraft, even if an aircraft carrier is built, it may not pose too much threat to all main gun battleships and battlecruisers.

Warships in this world are equipped with a lot of anti-aircraft weapons because they have to guard against flying beasts. After the appearance of airplanes, the number of anti-aircraft weapons on each ship has increased.

Now Zhou Rui asked the design bureaus of the six major shipyards to start designing aircraft carriers because although the lottery system did not award an aircraft carrier, it did award three types of carrier-based aircraft used by the US Navy during World War II.

F4F Wildcat fighter, with a length of 883 meters, a height of 358 meters, a maximum level flight speed of 512 kilometers per hour, a ceiling of 34800 meters, and a flight distance of 1238 kilometers. It is equipped with six 6mm cannons and is used as a bomber. The wings carry two 50 kg aerial bombs and one crew member.

The tbf Avenger torpedo attack aircraft has foldable wings and has three seats, including a pilot, a rear gunner, and a bombardier and belly gunner. It is equipped with three machine guns and can carry a 907 kg torpedo. Or 4 bombs of 227 kg, or additional fuel tanks.

The sbd dreadnought dive bomber has a length of 1006 meters, a height of 394 meters, a maximum level flight speed of 410 kilometers per hour, a ceiling of 34800 meters, and a flight distance of 1244 kilometers. It is equipped with two 2mm cannons. One aerial bomb of no more than 50 kilograms can be carried under the line and one 726 kilogram aerial bomb or depth charge can be carried under each wing, with 45 crew members.

The performance of these three carrier-based aircraft, in this world, is definitely a cross-age fighter.

You must know that the performance of the Zhou family's air force's fighter planes is basically the same as that of the First World War in another time and space, and the performance of the aircraft of several orc nations is not even as good as that of Zhou's air force.

If these three carrier-based aircraft can appear on the battlefield of naval warfare, it will definitely be a nightmare for all enemies.

It's a pity that Zhou Rui only got 60 f4f wildcat fighters, 60 tbf avenger torpedo attack aircraft and 60 sbd dreadnought dive bombers from the lottery system, which can only be equipped with a few aircraft carriers at most.

Chapter 251 The Elf Queen's Plan

Zhou Rui, who has lived in another time and space for six years, knows that battleships and battlecruisers will eventually be replaced by aircraft carriers.

However, many people in the border defense fleet of the Han and Tang Empires didn't think so, including the commander-in-chief Song Limin, still felt that battleships should be the protagonists of naval battles, and it was difficult for aircraft carriers to sink tens of thousands of tons of battleships.

However, what Zhou Rui didn't know was that the Golden Lion Empire had secretly started building an aircraft carrier at this time.

In the imperial palace of the first capital of the Golden Lion Empire, Noela City, the Minister of the Navy, Raff, reported to Emperor Kosnohui: "Your Majesty, the 12 ships called aircraft carriers have all laid their keels in the two shipyards of the Empire.

According to His Majesty's request, the full-load displacement of this aircraft carrier will exceed 3 tons, the speed will exceed 30 knots, and it can carry more than 90 carrier-based aircraft. "

Emperor Kosno nodded and said: "I have asked the empire's aircraft manufacturing company to start designing carrier-based fighter jets, carrier-based bombers, and carrier-based torpedo aircraft that meet the requirements.

Battleships and battlecruisers can only go all out to increase the caliber of their guns in order to go farther and have greater power. Today, several shipyards of our Golden Lion Empire are building Jushi-class battleships with full main guns and Flying-class battlecruisers. , The caliber of the main gun has even reached 400mm.

However, the caliber of naval guns cannot continue to increase after all, and the range of battleships has a limit. The distance is so far that neither the naked eye nor the radar can aim at targets beyond the horizon.

Aircraft carriers do not have these problems. The range and power of an aircraft carrier depend on the carrier-based aircraft. As long as our Golden Lion Empire can develop a carrier-based aircraft with excellent performance, we can launch air strikes on battleships outside the range of battleships. "

The Golden Lion Empire was able to start building aircraft carriers before the Zhou family was inseparable from Emperor Kosno's attention to aircraft carriers. Emperor Kosno believed that aircraft carriers would be a new type of warship that would change the way of future naval warfare.

When Ralph was Kosno's governor, he was even Kosno's confidant. Not long after the Golden Lion Empire signed an armistice agreement with the Zhou family, Raff was promoted by Kosno to be the Minister of the Navy of the Golden Lion Empire.

"Your Majesty, many of the second batch of Jushi-class full-main gun battleships and Feiyue-class battlecruisers built by the major shipyards of the Golden Lion Empire have already started sea trials.

They will enter service with the Royal Navy one after another before the end of this year.

Now many large docks in major shipyards are vacant, and it is completely possible to start building new capital ships. "

The Jushi-class battleship with full main guns has five double-mounted 5mm main guns with 45 times the caliber, a full-load displacement of 400 tons, and a maximum speed of 43600 knots.

The Flying-class battlecruiser has four double-mounted 4-caliber 45mm main guns, a full-load displacement of 400 tons, and a maximum speed of 44200 knots.

金狮帝国的各大造船厂建造完成了60艘拥有380毫米主炮的龙狮级全主炮战列舰和60艘拥有380毫米主炮的轻骑兵级战列巡洋舰之后，金狮帝国依靠从人类、狐族、猫族、兔族的移民身上，搜刮的大量财富，一口气便建造了60艘巨狮级全主炮战列舰和60艘飞越级战列巡洋舰。

When the first batch of 60 Giant Lion-class battleships with full main guns and 60 Flying-class battlecruisers were completed, Emperor Kosno waved his hand and directly asked the major shipyards of the Golden Lion Empire to build another ship of the same size as the first batch. Number of Lions and Leaps.

If the second batch of 60 Jushi-class ships and 60 Feiyue-class ships are counted, the number of active capital ships of the Royal Navy of the Golden Lion Empire has reached 596 ships.

其中全主炮主力舰包括120艘巨狮级、78艘龙狮级、34艘赤炎狮级、30艘独角虎级、40艘骁勇级、22艘黑王子级和18艘六头蛇级。

The battlecruisers included 120 Flyers, 82 Hussars, 47 Conquerors, and 45 Vanguards.

Originally, according to the naval restriction treaty signed by the six orc nations, the number of capital ships of the Golden Lion Empire should not exceed 500.

It's just because the frontier fleet of the Han and Tang Empires was still unwilling to join the Naval Restriction Treaty, so various orc nations had to withdraw from the Naval Restriction Treaty one after another.

After all, the six orc countries signed the naval restriction treaty in order to safeguard the interests of their own country, not to put a shackle on their own country.

Emperor Kosno hesitated for a while and said to the Minister of the Navy: "I think the focus of the development of the Royal Navy of the Golden Lion Empire should be on the aircraft carrier.

Perhaps only this new type of warship can allow our Royal Navy of the Golden Lion Empire to form a corner and surpass the frontier fleet of the Han and Tang Empire.

If we continue to develop full main gun battleships and battlecruisers, it may be difficult for our Royal Navy of the Golden Lion Empire to catch up with the frontier fleet of the Han and Tang Empires.

According to the latest information obtained by the intelligence department, the number of battleships in the border defense fleet of the Han and Tang Empires must be at least 1400, and may even be more, which is more than twice the number of battleships in the Royal Navy of the Golden Lion Empire. "

In fact, Ralph, the Minister of the Navy of the Golden Lion Empire, just like Song Limin, the commander-in-chief of the frontier fleet of the Han and Tang Empires, was not optimistic about the aircraft carrier in his heart.

"Your Majesty, in terms of all-main-gun capital ships and battlecruisers, our Royal Navy's Jushi-class and Feiyue-class are only equipped with 400mm main guns, and the latest full-main-gun main guns of the Han and Tang Empire Frontier Fleet Ships and battlecruisers, but equipped with 410mm main guns.

Today, the Ship Design Bureau under the Ministry of the Navy has designed battleships and battlecruisers with full main guns equipped with 420mm main guns, and the Heavy Artillery Factory has also successfully developed a dual-mounted 45mm naval gun with 420 times the caliber.