My Italy

"Your Majesty, please take a look. This is the new battleship plan selected by our Navy Department."

In Carlo's office, Admiral Yagier, the Minister of the Navy, was taking designer Cuniberti to introduce the new warships selected by the navy to the king.

As the two attendants hung up the design drawings, Cuniberti, who had already met the king several times, gave him a slight gesture and then spoke.

"Your Majesty, what I want to talk about now is the navy's new warship with a 380mm main gun. This ship was designed by me, so I know the design performance of the ship best, and I will be responsible for describing it next."

Carlo knew a little bit about the navy's bidding for new battleships. In this bidding for new battleships, ship designers from all parties came up with their own design drawings. And what is very surprising is that most designers come up with new warships equipped with 380mm main guns, and very few designers use 350mm main guns, because although they did not say it explicitly, the hints were obvious enough. If you don’t understand, you deserve to be eliminated in the first round.

However, it is not only the design drawings that choose the 380mm main gun that pass the test. Some people are very avant-garde and choose the warship design drawings with the 410mm main gun. Although this unconventional design passed the first round, it was directly rejected in the second round.

The reason is simple. This warship equipped with a 410mm main gun has a standard displacement of more than 33,000 tons, and a full load of 37,000 tons. The cost of its construction was too high and did not meet the needs of the Italian Navy. Besides, the 410mm main gun has just begun pre-research work. It will be impossible to wait for it to be designed for five or six years. Is it possible for the navy to urgently develop a 410mm main gun specifically for this warship? The cost is too high.

After several intense discussions, the new warship still designed by Cuniberti finally won. Because compared with others, the warships designed by Cuniberti can always surprise the navy with their performance, and at a cost that is not too outrageous.

"Your Majesty, the battleship you are seeing now is the Rome-class battleship I designed."

Cuniberti's words brought Carol back to reality. He looked at the drawings in front of him and listened to his design concept.

"For the design concept of this ship, I adopted the idea of ​​a fast battleship, trying to achieve or catch up with the speed of a battle cruiser when it has sufficient firepower and protection. At present, this concept has been initially adopted on the Rome class. reflect."

After explaining his ideas, Cuniberti immediately talked about the data of the battleship. "Based on the concept of high-speed battleships, the Rome-class battleship is longer than previous battleships, with a total length of 198 meters, a width of 29.4 meters, a standard draft of 8.37 meters, and a maximum draft of 10.1 meters.

Equipped with eight 380mm main guns, the twin-mounted gun adopts a high-low backpack design with two in the front and two in the back. The secondary battery consists of 16 single-mounted 150mmL 50 times naval guns and 14 single-mounted 105mm naval guns. In terms of firepower, it is powerful enough.

In addition, this class of battleships is also equipped with 24 Navy Type III oil-fired boilers, 4 Navy Type IV steam turbines, and 4 shafts, providing strong power of up to 80,000 horsepower. It is enough to propel the ship to a high speed of 25.5 knots. In addition, the ship can carry 800 tons of fuel and 200 tons of coal. The estimated endurance is 8,000 nautical miles and 13 knots, and 3,900 nautical miles and 21 knots. "

Carlo was surprised when he heard this. He was not someone who didn't understand naval ships, and he also knew that this speed was enough to be called a battle cruiser. And if a battleship can reach such a speed, people will be surprised when it appears in front of the enemy.

Regarding Carlo's surprised expression, Admiral Yagir seemed to see himself before, and he had the same expression at that time.

Although Cuniberti saw the king's surprised expression, this did not prevent him from continuing to speak.

"For the Rome-class battleship, protection is also its top priority. For a battleship as large as the Rome-class, if a fully protective design is adopted, there will be two situations. One is that although the armor is installed, who will It can’t be defended. The other is that the armor protection is sufficient, but the speed and adaptability are beyond the design, and the cost is also beyond the standard.”

The situation Cuniberti mentioned is also the situation currently faced by designers around the world. As warships get bigger and bigger, comprehensive protection becomes somewhat inadequate, and far-sighted designers have already considered the concept of key protection. As a top ship designer, Cuniberti considered it earlier than others and had tried it on a battle cruiser before.

"So this time I also adopted the principle of focused protection, mainly equipping the core parts that are vulnerable to enemy attacks with thicker armor. First of all, on the most important main armor belt, the thickest part of the ship's middle part can reach 350 mm, and then It gradually decreases to 152 mm on both sides. The turret frontal armor also reaches 350 mm, the sides are 300 mm, and the top is 120 mm. The upper part of the gun mount armor is 200-320 mm, and the lower part is 120-150 mm. The deck armor is 65-120 mm, the waterproof compartment armor is 102-152 mm, and the maximum armor thickness of the command tower is 320 mm. The total armor weight is estimated to be about 12,000 tons. "

After saying this, Cuniberti paused, because he would soon report the cost, so he needed to give everyone a little buffer time.

"The Rome-class design standard displacement is 30,450 tons, the full load displacement is 35,000 tons, and its shipbuilding cost is estimated to be 61 million lire."

Hearing this, Admiral Yagil carefully observed the king's expression with some nervousness.

Although Carlo saw the admiral's little behavior, he didn't pay too much attention to it. Because he was also shocked by its high cost. To build four Rome-class battleships, it would cost 244 million lire. This price is really high.

However, he also gained the same mentality as Admiral Yagir. The performance is so good, and the price feels like he can slowly accept it.

As a designer, Cuniberti didn't know about Carlo's thoughts, so he just opened his mouth to defend. "Your Majesty, there are reasons for such a high displacement. First of all, the hull structure is estimated to weigh more than 8,900 tons. In addition, the weight required for armor is about 12,000 tons. In addition, the weapons and equipment are about 3,800 tons, and the power equipment is about 3,100 tons. And then 1,000 tons are reserved for on-board facilities, 650 tons of supplies are carried, and 1,000 tons of boiler water are reserved. This is the standard displacement."

Well, Viscount Cuniberti's professional explanation made Carlo suddenly smile. He felt that since he had decided to build it, he should have some courage. The performance of this class of warships is absolutely outstanding in this era. Then there is nothing to hesitate. The worst that can happen is that no more funds will be allocated to the Navy to build new ships.

"A very good warship, I hope to see it in the navy in the future."

Carlo's words made Admiral Yagir and Designer Cuniberti smile. This was what they were waiting for.

"But I have a request here, that is, the four Rome-class battleships need to be commissioned in three years."

Regarding Carlo's request, Admiral Yagir said with some embarrassment. "Your Majesty, this requirement will make people in the shipyard work overtime, and the labor costs will also increase."

"Then the cost of each ship will be increased by one million lire, but it must take three years to complete all the work and enter the navy."

Faced with the king's insistence, Admiral Yagir, who had coveted the new warship for a long time, could only nod in acquiescence.

Now that the drawings have been approved and the money has been received, what are you waiting for? The Rome-class first ship Roma started construction at Ansa Shipyard in October. Then within three months, the construction of the second ship Empire, the third ship Caesar, and the fourth ship Octavian started at the Venice Shipyard, Fincantieri Shipyard, and Orlando Shipyard respectively.

In order to ensure that the four warships can be in service within three years, the Navy Department also adopted the decision to build one per shipyard for the first time. This will also allow subsequent shipyards to concentrate their best shipwrights to work hard on the construction of this class of warships.

The Roma-class battleship can be regarded as the masterpiece of designer Cuniberti.

Next, it depends on the construction speed of the shipyard.

Three updates today