Forty-eight torpedo planes of six squadrons flew first, and then twenty-four bombers of three squadrons. ◢ with ◢ dream ◢ small ◢ .lā

There is nothing to look forward to, but "Flying Fish" and "Wasp".

To say, that is, the latest batch, has been replaced with a more powerful engine, which improves the utilization of airframe space, and thus increases the fuel load, but it also offsets the increased power of the new engine, the basic flight performance has not changed much, and the range has been shortened a little.

In addition, the "Wasp" was replaced with a 13-mm axial machine gun.

The biggest change is that all of them are equipped with radio stations, and they are the latest models, so all bombers and torpedo planes are sufficient for reconnaissance missions.

This is due to the increased production capacity of production companies.

In the past, because the demand was not large, the purchase price of airborne radio stations was too high for the navy to bear, so it could only be distributed to a small number of leader long planes and special reconnaissance planes. At the outbreak of the Great War and the start of mobilization for the war, the first of the military-industrial enterprises to be taken over by the imperial authorities included all the electronic factories for the production of radio equipment, which were then produced in accordance with wartime standards and on a rationing basis.

When the output goes up, the price goes down.

After entering the rationing state, there is not much point in talking about the price, the factory produces according to the target, and only when it is completed can it be paid, and if it is not completed, it will be punished.

Of course, it is also related to the mission of Task Force 1 this time.

Because it is far from the mainland, it is impossible to rely on shore-based air forces and maritime patrol planes, so it is necessary to have enough reconnaissance planes to find a permanent fleet from the south in the vast Guia Ocean. If necessary, even all bombers and torpedo planes had to be sent on search and reconnaissance missions.

Li Yunxiang took this into account and stressed the need to equip all bombers and torpedo planes with radio stations when allocating combat planes to the First Carrier-based Aircraft Wing.

In addition, a small number of fighters were also equipped with radios.

The addition of a dozen torpedo planes, and therefore the reduction of several bombers, was also related to the mission of this time, that is, to strike at battleships.

Although there is no actual combat experience of carrier-based aviation units in bombing battleships for the time being, according to the pre-war explorations, torpedoes are more effective than bombs. Especially against the treaty era, those battleships with strengthened horizontal protection, the commonly used 250 kg aviation armor-piercing shells were obviously not powerful.

In fact, this is also the key reason for the "Wasp" to replace the engine.

The previous batch of "Wasp" was limited to the use of only 250 kg of bombs because the engine power was insufficient, and after hanging 500 kg of aerial bombs, the flight qualities would become extremely bad, so they did not meet the performance indicators proposed at the time of design.

It was only after the engine was replaced that this problem was solved, and the design indicators were reached.

Strictly speaking, the current "Wasp" is the real "Wasp".

The previous "Wasp" was nicknamed the "Big Bee" by the pilots because it could not hang 500 kg of aerial bombs and its attack power was obviously insufficient.

But even 500 kg of bombs are still very difficult to deal with new battleships.

The four "Golden Steel" were upgraded to fast battleships, and in the second modernization, horizontal protection was strengthened according to operational needs.

In fact, this is also the result of learning from the Imperial Navy.

After the end of the last war, the Imperial Navy was the first to upgrade battle cruisers to fast battleships, and they were used to escort aircraft carriers.

In the course of the renovation, the two "Beihe" and two "Luhe" class ships have focused on strengthening horizontal protection.

The reason is also very simple, when a fast battleship is covering an aircraft carrier, the probability of being bombed is greater than the probability of being artillery.

If anything, these modified fast battleships have evolved into air defense warships.

As for the decisive battle of the fleet, it was a matter of the dozen or so old battleships that were preserved, and it had nothing to do with fast battleships with full-time air defense cover.

The Narrow-Wing Navy painted a scoop according to the gourd, and remodeled the four "Golden Steel" class ships.

Theoretically, even 500 kg of aviation armor-piercing shells cannot guarantee 100% penetration of the horizontal armor of the "Nord Stream" class. According to the tests conducted by the Imperial Navy, in key protection areas, the "Nord River" class can fully withstand 500 kg of aviation armor-piercing shells dropped from an altitude of 1,500 meters.

Obviously, dive bombing does not drop bombs at an altitude of more than 1,500 meters, generally between 500 meters and 1,000 meters.

If the horizontal protection of the "Golden Steel" class is comparable to that of the "Beihe" class, it will definitely be able to carry 500 kg of bombs.

On the contrary, even a genuine battleship had a serious lack of underwater protection against torpedoes.

After the end of the last war, or after the Hwaseong Treaty came into force, several naval powers conducted live-fire tests on warships under construction that had to be dismantled or scrapped.

The most extravagant was the Imperial Navy.

At that time, the Imperial Navy used all four "Longxing" class battleships that had completed the construction of their hulls and had to be scrapped in accordance with the provisions of the treaty as target ships!

It's just a test, and it's been going back and forth for several years.

The test results?

It's still the number one secret.

For the White Stop, that's not a secret.

Bai Zhizhan personally participated in the tests of two "Longxing" class target ships, and the test was the lethality of different types of aerial bombs and aerial torpedoes against battleships.

The test results showed that the threat of torpedoes to battleships was almost fatal!

In addition, the anti-torpedo design before the last war was inherently problematic, and it can be said that even the basic methods were wrong, and the protection effect was very poor. Even the most powerful pre-treaty battleships of the "Longxing" class only need to be hit on one side by a torpedo with a charge of 150 kg of three battle mine heads, and it will completely lose its combat effectiveness, and may even be sunk. If the charge of the thunder head is increased to 300 kg, one can disable the battleship. Crucially, this is just a test of traditional lightning strike tactics.

The torpedo hit was on the side of the battleship, and the hull was protected by an anti-torpedo compartment.

This series of tests allowed the Imperial Navy to determine the standard of aviation torpedoes, that is, they would rather sacrifice the range to ensure that the charge of the battle mine head reached 150 kg.

In addition, the Imperial Naval Aviation paid more attention to torpedo machines, which was associated with an unexpected discovery during the tests.

During one test, a torpedo hit a platform under the target ship, a metal frame that served as a support, and detonated under the hull due to a mistake in determining the depth.

The torpedo detonated under the bottom of the battleship, that is, it avoided the anti-torpedo compartment, even if it did not hit the hull directly, but detonated outside the hull, causing much greater damage than directly hitting the side side, but it was very difficult to control, and it was necessary to develop a non-contact fuse.

Until now, the magnetic proximity fuze has not been successfully developed, and the reliability of several trial products is not very high.

Of course, these are all off-topic.

It took almost an hour for seventy-two carrier-based aircraft to land on the carrier, and many more could only be placed at the front of the flight deck.

At this time, the fighter arrived.

Four squadrons, a total of thirty-six aircraft, of which the extra four were spare.

"Zhou Yongtao, is that a 'typhoon'?"

"Not really."

"That's good, I suspect it's wrong."

As he spoke, Bai Zhizhan put down the binoculars.

He had been holding the binoculars for a long time, but he found that the appearance of those fighters was not quite right, otherwise he would not have asked Zhou Yongtao who was standing next to him.

Obviously, Zhao Yu didn't talk nonsense, and Li Yunxiang didn't lie to anyone.

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