The means of confrontation in war have always been developing and advancing, and no weapon can dominate the stage of war for a long time.

On the battlefield, the offensive and defensive sides have been alternating leads.

For decades, the Imperial Navy had faced such a situation.

Before the development of the "Golden Bell Jar" system, that is, the shipborne air defense system with passive phased array radar as the core, the biggest threat facing the Imperial Navy was the saturation attack posed by 30 heavy anti-ship missiles fired in about 10 minutes before and after.

In accordance with this criterion, the Imperial Navy determined the basic performance of the air defense cruiser, and from this the technical parameters of the "Golden Bell Jar" system were determined.

At that time, it was envisaged that only one air defense cruiser would be needed for the aircraft carrier battle group in low-threat areas, and two in high-risk areas.

Theoretically, 2 ships of the "Qingzhou" class will be able to cope with the saturation attack of the highest level.

It was for this reason that the Imperial Navy determined the purchase of 64 ships.

Two of the 15 carrier battle groups and two of the 15 amphibious assault groups, with the remaining four serving as the flagship of the detachment.

Because cruisers are more on the ground than aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, at any one time, there are about 8 cruisers in a state of combat readiness that can be mobilized. If necessary, these 8 cruisers can be reinforced to tactical formations without aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships.

In addition, it was precisely the need to act as the flagship of the detachment, or to command tactical formations to fight, that the "Qingzhou" class retained the flagship function.

Although the increase in the flagship command system, thanks to the popularization of electronic equipment, did not significantly increase the cost, the tactical command center, which was not commensurate with the tonnage, took up a lot of internal space, and also led to a higher center of gravity, squeezing out the redundant displacement that was not enough in the first place.

As a result, the "Qingzhou" class has little room for improvement.

In fact, this is also the key to the later dismantling of anti-ship missile launchers and the abandonment of naval combat capability.

In the situation at that time, 64 ships of the "Qingzhou" class were more than enough.

Obviously, this is just wishful thinking.

If anything, the most prominent effect of the "Qingzhou" class is that it has stimulated the enemy, allowing the Western Continent Group to set out to develop more advanced anti-ship missiles and more powerful missile launch platforms, and to increase the intensity of strikes by increasing the number of missiles delivered at one time.

According to reliable intelligence provided by the Military Intelligence Agency, the Western Continent Group has the ability to deliver 60 to 80 heavy anti-ship missiles with a range of more than 500 kilometers in a five-minute attack wave, and it is likely that it will strike simultaneously from multiple directions.

As a result, the Imperial Navy's elaborate "Golden Bell Jar" air defense system almost became an ornament.

Even two ships of the "Qingzhou" class will certainly be helpless in the face of 60 to 80 heavy anti-ship missiles fired from multiple directions at the same time.

In fact, even the upgraded "Qingzhou" class of 2 ships cannot shoot down 32 targets 100%.

According to the calculation of 80% probability, two "Qingzhou" class ships can intercept up to 26 targets, and the remaining dozens of anti-ship missiles are enough to take out the entire aircraft carrier battle group.

How many more air defense cruisers in an aircraft carrier battle group?

It's a great idea, but it's very difficult to implement.

Counting the amphibious assault fleet of comparable status means that from 30 to 60 additional air defense cruisers are needed. Even if the cruiser is more in service, it will be necessary to increase it by 20 to 40 units. Although the "Qingzhou" class is a "low-profile" spare tire, after the installation of the vertical launch system, the cost is not low.

Compared with destroyers and frigates, it is even less cheap.

Improving air defense capabilities by increasing the number of air defense warships is simply unacceptable.

To put it bluntly, the enemy only needed to increase the number of anti-ship missiles delivered once to be able to force the Imperial Navy to build more anti-aircraft cruisers. Just from the point of view of the cost-effectiveness ratio, the Imperial Navy had already lost, so increasing the number of air defense cruisers was only a temporary save.

Enhance the combat effectiveness of a single battleship?

This method looks good, but it is very difficult to implement.

From a technical point of view, the key is to improve the performance of the radar, for example by replacing passive phased array radar with an active phased array radar.

Even now, active phased array radars are not mature, and it is difficult to miniaturize electronic equipment, resulting in too much mass of the entire system.

According to the plan made by the Imperial Navy, it is already very good that the active phased array radar can make a breakthrough in 10 years.

If passive phased array radar is still used, it will be difficult for the combat capability of air defense cruisers to be substantially improved.

Of course, the Imperial Navy was also trying to figure out something else.

As a suboptimal option, improving the performance of anti-aircraft missiles can also increase the combat efficiency of air defense systems.

For example, the DK-12 was improved by using the KK-8A's active seeker, so that the shipborne long-range anti-aircraft missile has terminal self-guidance capabilities, and the warship no longer needs to be guided by an irradiated radar, thereby improving the interception efficiency of the terminal and no longer being limited by fire control channels.

In addition, the Imperial Navy worked in the information field.

To put it simply, it is to integrate the air defense cruiser with the carrier-based early warning aircraft, and let the early warning aircraft guide the air defense missile to intercept the incoming target through a high-speed data link. If the radar performance of the early warning aircraft can be improved, for example, if the radar of the early warning aircraft can illuminate the target, it can even bypass the air defense cruiser, and the early warning aircraft can control the anti-aircraft missiles launched by the warship for combat, especially against the anti-ship missiles flying at ultra-low altitudes.

Also, it is to find ways to increase the effective range of missiles.

The latest DK-8D has reached 200 kilometers, and the DK-8E in the design, because of the use of high-throw trajectory, can theoretically intercept targets at a distance of 400 kilometers, as for the DK-8F, which has just begun to develop, the Navy clearly requires the ability to intercept ballistic missiles.

The problem is that these efforts have not solved the problem at its root.

In an aircraft carrier battle group, there are only 2 air defense cruisers, it is difficult to take care of all directions, and there must be loopholes in the air defense network.

It is precisely for this reason that when operating in high-risk sea areas, the Imperial Navy usually has 2 or even 3 aircraft carriers to form an aircraft carrier battle group, so as to cover the entire aircraft carrier battle group with 3 to 6 air defense cruisers, and use more air defense warships to deal with greater threats.

However, there are problems with this tactic.

The most conspicuous thing is that the size of the aircraft carrier battle group cannot be expanded indefinitely.

A three-carrier battle group is already the limit.

The reason is also very simple, aircraft carriers must maintain a safe separation distance during combat missions, and the Imperial Navy stipulates that it is at least 20 kilometers, and escort warships and aircraft carriers must also maintain a distance of more than 10 kilometers, so as not to affect the carrier-based aircraft that are taking off and landing. Even if the three aircraft carriers are arranged in a zigzag pattern, and the air defense warships are distributed all around, the radius of the cover area is more than 40 kilometers.

Farther away, it's beyond sight.

That is, if one more aircraft carrier is added, even if the number of air defense cruisers is increased, the strength of covering the aircraft carrier will not be significantly enhanced.

Obviously, this also loses the point of expanding the size of the battle group.

Of course, there are also big problems in command.

All in all, after searching for a solution, the Imperial Navy finally returned to the right path, or rather faced the problem of insufficient air defense warships.

Let all the escort warships in the battle group have regional air defense combat capabilities!

The first to be chosen, that is, the destroyer, which was second only to the cruiser in tonnage.

Before the "Qingzhou" class, the Imperial Navy had the idea of destroyers, and also designed and built three classes of missile destroyers. It's just that these missile destroyers are not very successful, of which the 2nd class has an experimental nature, and it ended hastily after the construction of 2 each, and the other 1st class built 6 ships, but because of the full load displacement of up to 15000 tons, it was classified as cruisers after service.

To put it simply, the anti-aircraft missile system is too complex to fit on a destroyer of smaller tonnage.

In the Imperial Navy, the largest number remained the so-called "universal destroyers", anti-submarine destroyers with medium-range point air defense.

For decades, the first task of destroyers was anti-submarine.

Fortunately, after the birth of the "Golden Bell Jar" system, it was no longer difficult to equip destroyers with a regional air defense system of less than 10000 tons.

Do not forget that the "Qingzhou" class has a full load displacement of less than 12000 tons.

In other words, if the requirements are appropriately lowered, such as reducing the number of fire control channels, installing one-third fewer missiles, and appropriately omitting other combat indicators, it will be possible to control the warships equipped with the "Golden Bell Jar" system within 10,000 tons, and they can also be classified as destroyers.

Of course, the key is to drastically reduce the cost of construction.

The construction of the "Qingzhou" class entered the fast lane, that is, about 8 years ago, the Imperial Navy launched a tender for a new generation of universal destroyers.

The name "Universal Destroyer" is still used in order to make it easier to obtain funding in both chambers of the debate.

Due to this limitation, the full load displacement of the new universal destroyer was limited to 8000 tons.

This indicator directly limits the performance of the new universal destroyer.

The Imperial Navy clearly demanded that the new general-purpose destroyers must be equipped with the "Golden Bell Jar" system, and the regional air defense combat capability must reach 70 percent of that of the "Qingzhou" class. This means that at least three illumination radars must be equipped with a vertical launch system with a bomb load of at least 90 bombs.

It's scaled down, but building a battleship isn't like that at all!

Basic performance, such as a speed of at least 30 knots, a cruising power of no less than 7,500 nautical miles, maintaining sufficient damage management personnel, self-sustaining capacity for at least 45 days, and even survivability after injury, have not been reduced or reduced, so sufficient tonnage needs to be provided.

Strictly speaking, there is an improvement over the traditional universal destroyer.

Because the "Golden Bell Jar" system has higher requirements for the stability of the warship, it is used on destroyers with smaller tonnage, and the "wide-body" ship type needs to be used to enhance the stability of navigation in high sea conditions, which will inevitably increase the navigation resistance, and it is necessary to be equipped with a more powerful propulsion system.

It can be seen that it is still very difficult to integrate it into a warship with a full load displacement of 8,000 tons.

Even if the Imperial Navy relaxed the full load displacement to 8,500 tons at the time of design, and the endurance index was reduced from 7,500 nautical miles to 5,000 nautical miles, which means that it can load hundreds of tons of fuel less, and a few fewer tanks can also reduce the weight of the structure, but it is still difficult to achieve all the design indicators.

In the end, the Imperial Navy had to make another trade-off.

Directly abandon the ability to carry helicopters, only retain the helicopter flight deck, as well as a full set of basic support equipment, which can provide fuel and anti-submarine torpedoes for anti-submarine helicopters, and even carry out simple maintenance to support anti-submarine helicopter operations within the fleet.

As a result, approximately 800 tons of displacement were saved.

When fighting alone, the absence of anti-submarine helicopters means that there is a lack of long-range anti-submarine capabilities, and it is basically impossible to carry out anti-submarine missions alone. However, in the aircraft carrier battle group, there are not many warships that can carry anti-submarine helicopters, and only the aircraft carrier can carry more than a dozen anti-submarine helicopters, so even if the destroyer does not carry anti-submarine helicopters, it will not have much impact on the anti-submarine combat capability of the aircraft carrier battle group.

The key is that in the aircraft carrier battle group of the Imperial Navy, the main force of long-range anti-submarine is carrier-based anti-submarine patrol aircraft, and anti-submarine helicopters are actually only supplementary forces.

Interestingly, the Imperial Navy retained anti-ship missile launchers for destroyers and replaced them with heavy anti-ship missiles, only without reloading capabilities and without internal magazines.

Under the circumstances, this choice made by the Imperial Navy was obviously aimed at the Nuland Navy.

In any case, the Imperial Navy is a global navy that needs to face all challenges, and therefore must build warships against all imaginary enemies. Although it is not necessary to deal with the navy of the Western Continent Group, which is mainly anti-submarine, it is necessary to consider anti-ship combat capability when facing the Nuland Navy, and it cannot completely rely on carrier-based aviation, and the warships themselves must have anti-ship combat capabilities.

In addition, two sets of 4 anti-ship missile reflectors, plus 8 heavy anti-ship missiles, for a total of less than 100 tons.

It is precisely in this way that there are general-purpose destroyers of the "Yangcheng" class.

However, the first ship of this class was launched only at the end of last year, and the Imperial Navy was not very optimistic about this type of warship, and only 8 were ordered in the first batch.

Of course, it is more likely to wait for the situation to improve before purchasing its improved version.

Even if the war has broken out, the first batch of 4 "Yangcheng" class ships will not be delivered until the beginning of next year, and the only thing that the imperial navy can rely on now is still the "Qingzhou" class.

In the 51st task force, there are 3 "Qingzhou" class ships.

In fact, there were 4 ships in total, but 1 of them remained in Alexandria to cover the convoy of transport ships that were about to enter the Luxinhai from the narrow sea.

To say anything, covering the transport fleet is one of the main tasks of the "Qingzhou" class.

After all, not all missions require the use of aircraft carrier battle groups, and in many cases, escort missions do not require aircraft carriers to be dispatched at all.

With three "Qingzhou"-class air defense cruisers, five "Lucheng"-class general-purpose destroyers, and six "Nan'an"-class antisubmarine frigates, Li Shenzhi is also very worried, because in his judgment, this point of air defense will not be able to withstand the enemy's attack at all.

The point is that Lu Xinhai is too narrow.

In fact, Li Shenzhi has always wondered why it is necessary to deploy aircraft carriers in the heart of the East Continent.

Any admiral can see that Lu Xinhai is not suitable for aircraft carrier operations at all, even in the relatively open east.

Deploying an aircraft carrier to Lu Xinhai is almost equivalent to sending him to death.

It's just that Li Shenzhi also understands that if there is no aircraft carrier battle group, it will definitely not be able to hold the Xifan Canal, let alone march into the Mohai Sea.

Either way, now I can only go on my head.