If he could, Stark would be willing to install all the "Trident" C4s equipped with anti-ship warheads on one "Ohio"-class submarine, and integrate this submarine into a task force to take on the heavy responsibility of anti-ship operations, and let the other "Ohio" class do their own work.

Unfortunately, the reality is not so ideal.

These missiles are mounted on five Ohio-class submarines, and each of them is 14 pieces, that is, it is just enough to fill two vertical launch systems.

As long as 5 "Ohio" class ships shoot at the same time, the missiles launched can form a saturation attack!

The problem is that these submarines are also loaded with more land-attack cruise missiles.

As a matter of fact, Stark has long raised this issue with the Navy Command, hoping that a small number of "Ohio"-class ships will be specially equipped with anti-ship "Trident" C4s and integrated into aircraft carrier battle groups, so as to reduce the task of sea domination and anti-ship of carrier-based aviation and surface warships.

Theoretically, the anti-ship firepower of 1 Ohio-class ship exceeds the entire aircraft carrier battle group.

If anything, there are not yet any warships, not even fleets, capable of delivering 200 heavy anti-ship missiles at the same time in one attack.

Even the bomber fleet of the Air Force does not have this ability!

In fact, the Nuland Navy has always had a similar plan, that is, an equipment project.

However, it is not submarines that are used to carry heavy anti-ship missiles, but cruiser-class and even larger surface warships.

That's right, it's the "arsenal ship".

According to the plan made by the Nuland Navy, the arsenal ships are actually battleships in the missile era.

This type of warship, with a displacement of tens of thousands of tons, is second only to aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, surpassing all warships, including cruisers. Unlike other warships, arsenal ships are not equipped with expensive electronic equipment, and their main mission is to carry and launch various types of missiles, especially anti-ship missiles, as well as cruise missiles to strike ground targets. With its strong carrying capacity, the arsenal ships will be the main striking force in the fleet, allowing other warships, including aircraft carriers, to concentrate on their jobs.

There are good reasons why the Nuland Navy did not choose the Ohio-class submarines with the characteristics of arsenal ships.

In fleet operations, it is too difficult to cooperate with submarines.

Because it is not equipped with electronic equipment, it needs to cooperate with other warships, such as relying on battlefield information provided by other warships, so in battle, the arsenal ship must frequently communicate with other warships, and submarines are inherently defective in this regard.

In addition, in the eyes of the Nuland Navy, the "Ohio" class does not carry enough missiles.

According to the tactical performance indicators proposed by the Navy, the arsenal ship should be able to carry at least 288 vertically launched missiles, and preferably 432.

The bomb load of the "Ohio" class is less than 40% of the maximum standard.

The most critical thing is that the "Ohio" class cannot carry ballistic missiles.

So far, the Nuland Navy is still focusing on building anti-ship ballistic missiles, and the development of arsenal ships is related to the anti-ship ballistic missiles being developed.

In a sense, the arsenal ship was developed as a platform for carrying anti-ship to missiles.

Without anti-ship ballistic missiles, there will certainly be no arsenal ships.

Here, it is very closely related to the front end of the strike chain, that is, to search for targets, obtain target information and launch attacks.

As mentioned earlier, ballistic missiles can fly thousands of kilometers or even thousands of kilometers in a matter of minutes, while cruise missiles need to fly for hours.

For a fleet that is always on the voyage, a few minutes is not the same concept as a few hours.

The point is, an attack that can be completed in a matter of minutes requires intelligence orders of magnitude less than an attack that would take several hours to complete!

This feature is of unparalleled value for arsenal ships.

In fact, it is necessary to use anti-ship ballistic missiles to launch an attack, and there is less information exchanged in the fire control link, so there is no need to equip arsenal ships with expensive fire control systems.

According to the Newland Navy's operational plan, it only needs to obtain the location information of the target warship or fleet, and the arsenal ships can launch an attack with anti-ship missiles.

If it is replaced with cruise missiles, it will definitely be much more troublesome.

It is precisely for this reason that the Nuland Navy has made it clear that the arsenal ships should be loaded with at least 64 anti-ship ballistic missiles with a range of more than 1,500 nautical miles, preferably up to 2,000 nautical miles.

As for other missiles, they are mainly used against ground targets.

Relatively speaking, the development of arsenal ships is not very difficult.

The five shipyards that participated in the bidding all proposed designs that could meet the requirements of the navy, and without exception adopted the construction standards of merchant ships, and two of them also proposed to use existing merchant ships for modification, or directly use the design drawings of merchant ships.

The biggest benefit of this is that it can significantly reduce the cost of design and construction.

It's not that the shipyard is saving money for the Navy, but the Navy has put in a tender that caps the price at $500 million and requires contractors to sign contracts for a fixed amount.

As for the suitability of civilian vessels, the Navy does not see much of a problem.

The reason is also very simple, the arsenal ship is the platform for carrying missiles, and it must be organized in the aircraft carrier battle group, protected by escort warships.

Well, arsenal ships do not need much more powerful survivability.

In addition, if it had to be built to the standards of a battleship, it would not be a big problem, and the shipyard would certainly be able to do it, but it would not be possible to control the cost to less than 500 million New Zealand dollars.

Compared with arsenal ships, anti-ship ballistic missiles, which are the core weapons, are the real trouble.

As far as Stark knows, even if an anti-ship ballistic missile can be developed, it will be extremely expensive, and it will certainly not be possible to purchase it in large quantities like cruise missiles.

In fact, cruise missiles are also expensive.

Not to mention the "Trident" C4 strategic cruise missile, even if it is a tactical cruise missile such as the "Tomahawk", the purchase price of the Nuland military is more than 1 million New Zealand dollars.

Obviously, such an expensive cruise missile puts a big question mark over the value of the existence of arsenal ships.

According to the standard calculation of 432 pieces, even if all of them are tactical cruise missiles, their total value is more than 400 million New Zealand dollars, which is basically the same as the cost of arsenal ships.

Is it appropriate to let an arsenal ship with extremely poor damage resistance carry so many and so expensive missiles?

It is precisely for this reason that Congress has already vetoed the construction plan submitted by the Navy three times, and also asked the Navy to find ways to improve the survivability of arsenal ships.

Actually, there are also tactical problems.

The arsenal ships themselves have little combat effectiveness, and are more like the "strategic bombers" of the Navy, which are more similar to the strategic bombers of the Air Force. For arsenal ships to work, they must be inseparable from the cover provided by other warships, especially aircraft carriers, that is, carrier-based aviation.

Having lost air supremacy, the arsenal ship may not survive even 1 minute.

That is, even with arsenal ships, aircraft carriers are still the absolute core of the fleet.

Since the task force is being built around aircraft carriers, what reason is there not to develop carrier-based aviation, but to engage in something that is not even a warship?

Upgrade an arsenal ship to a battleship?

Obviously, this is impossible.

If arsenal ships are built in strict accordance with the standards of warships and do not reduce the tactical performance indicators, the cost of arsenal ships will definitely be on par with aircraft carriers. Counting the expensive missiles, the actual maintenance price of an arsenal ship will also not be lower than that of an aircraft carrier carrying dozens of carrier-based aircraft.

As for the cost-effectiveness ratio of operations, the two are even more incomparable.

To put it bluntly, since it's not bad for money, why not build a few more aircraft carriers?

In fact, Stark is a staunch supporter of aircraft carriers, and has always opposed the development of arsenal ships, at least not the kind of arsenal ships that are being engaged in now.

In his opinion, arsenal ships should be an effective addition to the existing assault forces, mainly carrier-based aviation.

In other words, the mission of the arsenal ships is to carry out the first round of assault missions with the missiles they carry, increase the penetration rate, and reduce the combat losses of the carrier-based aviation.

The same is true for naval supremacy operations.

After the detection of the enemy fleet, the first round of assault was carried out by anti-ship missiles launched by the arsenal ships, which depleted the combat power of the enemy fleet, especially anti-aircraft fire. It would be better if it could destroy, even the main battleships of the enemy fleet, paralyzing them. Next, it was the carrier-based aviation that launched a surprise attack, using anti-ship missiles, precision-guided bombs, and other weapons to destroy and annihilate all enemy ships and win the decisive battle of the fleet.

Just the first assault is enough.

In the face of hundreds, if not hundreds, of heavy anti-ship missiles, no fleet can send fighter jets to intercept them.

In fact, as long as you can knock out the main air defense warships in the enemy fleet, you will be considered a great success.

Without the cover of air defense warships, and it is difficult to send air defense fighters, even the Liangxia fleet will definitely not be able to withstand the ensuing air strikes.

From another angle, arranging for carrier-based aviation to carry out the first round of assault missions would be another result.

Don't forget that the Nuland Navy lacks not only aircraft carriers, but also advanced combat aircraft and, more importantly, high-quality pilots.

If it is really hard-hitting, the Nuland Navy has no chance of winning.

According to this line of thinking, Stark proposed a few years ago that there is no need to build arsenal ships, and the "Ohio" class will be able to carry out anti-ship missions.

The method is also very simple, that is, to replace the "Trident" C4 with an anti-ship warhead, and then integrate it into an aircraft carrier battle group like other warships.

Command problems?

Let the Ohio-class partner with the aircraft carrier, follow the aircraft carrier, and ensure that it can surface at any time in order to communicate with other warships.

No matter how nervous you are, it's not bad for these few minutes!

Launching 168 Trident C4s at a time is more than enough for a task force with 3 supercarriers!

It's a pity that a few years ago, Stark was soft-spoken and no one took his advice seriously.

However, a few months ago, Stark's proposal finally gained the attention of the naval command, and it immediately entered the operational phase.

At this moment, the six "Ohio" class ships belonging to the Sunset Ocean Fleet are being overhauled in the shipyard, and the main project is to replace the "Trident" C4 missiles with anti-ship warheads. Upon completion, the six submarines will sail to the Guia via the Wangyu Canal.

This arrangement is made only because the plant for the production of anti-ship warheads, that is, the arsenal of the Raytheon company, is located in the East Coast region.

Of course, it is also related to the fact that the "Ohio"-class submarines of the Guia Fleet have to carry out combat missions.

According to Stark's deployment, the 10 "Ohio" class ships are divided into two detachments, of which the first detachment is in the rear, carrying out strategic deterrence tasks, and launching strikes against the Liangxia Empire mainland or forward military bases with great strategic value when necessary. The other detachment was in Task Force 51, behind the fleet to be exact, and was directly under Stark's command.

All 5 Ohio-class ships are equipped with the Trident C4 with anti-ship capabilities.

Here's the problem!

As early as a few days ago, the five "Ohio" class ships of the 1st Detachment sailed westward as planned, heading to the western waters of the Guina Ocean, which could attack the Liangxia mainland, and these five submarines were in the highest state of combat readiness and only obeyed the orders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, that is, the president or the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who exercised military command in place of the president. Not to mention Stark, even the commander of the Guia Fleet has no right to adjust the operational deployment.

Stark was only able to command the 5 submarines of the 2nd detachment.

This is already a lot of face!

In this way, if Stark plans to wipe the ass for the Air Force, that is, to let cruise missile submarines participate in the battle during the day on the 5th, and use the "Trident" C4 to strike military targets on the Aliu Islands and Khowaii Islands, not only will the combat intent be exposed, but also the whereabouts may be exposed.

Even if all goes well, there can be unpredictable effects.

For example, after learning that the Ohio-class cruise missiles of the Nuland Navy had been launched over the Guia Ocean, Bai Huawei was very likely to give up the idea of going to the waters near Joton Island and lead the 41st Task Force to withdraw and stand by in the waters near Wai Island or the North Malaysia Islands.

This arrangement is actually to protect the mainland and prevent the cruise missile submarines of the Nuland Navy from continuing to sail westward.

That's all, that's nothing.

What's worse is that if the true intentions of the Nuland Navy are guessed from this, the Liang Xia Navy will definitely make adjustments and defend the transit island with all its might.

In this way, the raid will turn into a fierce battle.

If the Transit Island is not captured within a few days, and it turns into a protracted war, even if the Transit Island is finally taken, it will not be possible to retake the Khowaii Islands.

To put it bluntly, the five Ohio-class cruise missile submarines of the 2nd Detachment are the last and most important bargaining chips in Stark's hands, and they must not be used unless absolutely necessary.

Is it a last resort now?

This is only the second day of the war!

It was with this question in mind that Stark did not sleep all night.

The fierce battle was raging, and even if he wasn't bothered, Stark wouldn't leave the aircraft carrier's command bridge.

Even after dawn, Stark didn't make a decision, he didn't do anything.

Stark kept a hand for himself, and the Air Force likewise had a backup plan.

If you can't rely on the front-line base, you can also use the airfield in the hinterland of the mainland, so it's a big deal to arrange more tankers and carry out one more in-flight refueling.

Actually, Stark had a hunch, a judgment based on the situation of the engagement, to be precise.

The Liang Xia Navy will act soon!

The key point is that after the start of the war, the Liangxia Navy has been sending patrol planes to the Guia Ocean, and the Liangxia Air Force has also dispatched large electronic reconnaissance planes and early warning planes.

In less than 24 hours, dozens of large planes of the Liang Xia army were shot down over the Guia.

Such huge losses did not make Liang Xia's army retreat, so the only reason was that Liang Xia's army really did not know the whereabouts of the 51st Task Force.

In this case, can Bai Huawei still be as stable as Mount Tai?

()