In the central part of the Guia, south of the Khowaii Islands, the flagship of the 41st Task Force "Liu Changxun".

Although the Imperial Navy still has two full-time flagships, the one assigned to the Guia Fleet has remained in Naqiu Harbor and only leaves the dock during the annual fleet confrontation exercise, carrying the fleet commander and more than 100 staff officers and men to sea for dozens of days.

Because the ship was more than 30 years old, the Imperial Navy did not modernize it.

The flagship of the task force is still the aircraft carrier under the command of the commander.

In the decades after the war, the fleet structure and tactical system of the Imperial Navy underwent drastic changes, and there were three major changes.

The first change took place after the end of the Great War.

At the end of the war, the first generation of jet fighters was born, and they were also sent to the battlefield by the Manman Air Force. Because the war situation was in the hands of the Entente, the strategic advantage was also extremely obvious, and the range of jet fighters was short, so it was not taken seriously by the Empire.

It was not until the end of the Great War, after the formation of the Air Force, that the first jet fighters were equipped.

Within a few years, around the year 110 of the new calendar, jet fighters eliminated all piston propeller fighters equipped by the Air Force and dominated the skies.

It's just that the Navy was not so lucky.

Although the jet fighter developed after the war solved many performance defects, such as the "Battle-1A", that is, the first jet fighter equipped by the Imperial Air Force, the combat radius reached 700 kilometers, and the later improved version exceeded 1,000 kilometers after carrying two auxiliary fuel tanks, but compared with the piston propeller aircraft, the jet fighter still has a very prominent problem, which cannot be ignored by naval aviation.

The landing speed was too large, and the minimum allowed speed far exceeded that of a piston propeller aircraft.

Fighters of the Air Force, which can land on runways with a length of more than 2000 meters, are not a big deal if they land a little faster.

The carrier-based fighters of the Navy were not so lucky.

Because the flight deck length is limited, the landing speed of the carrier-based aircraft must be low enough.

This problem is particularly prominent for aircraft carriers built during the war, especially for dozens of large aircraft carriers of the "provincial" class. Because the flight deck was limited by the length of the hull and could not be extended, even if these aircraft carriers were modernized and improved after the war, the length of the landing zone was not enough, and the landing speed of carrier-based aircraft had to be strictly limited.

As a result, jet fighters with poor low-speed performance will not be able to get on board at all.

As a result, the Imperial Naval Air Force continued to use piston propeller aircraft at a time when the Imperial Air Force, and indeed the global Air Force, was entering, or was about to enter the jet age.

The influence of the Imperial Navy has fallen to the bottom in recent years.

Because the performance of the piston propeller fighter was too poor to ensure the air supremacy of the fleet, there was also an argument that "aircraft carriers are useless" for a time.

During this period, the only thing the Imperial Navy could rely on was the foundation accumulated during the Great War.

Carrier-based fighters are not good enough, it's just that there are dozens of aircraft carriers!

Crucially, the Navy can also benefit from technological advances.

With the completion and commissioning of the "Imperial Capital" class, which was also the first aircraft carrier designed and built by the Imperial Navy after the war, in order to carry jet carrier-based aircraft, the "Imperial Capital" class with a strong experimental nature, at the end of the 112th year of the new calendar, the carrier-based aviation of the Imperial Navy also entered the jet age.

This was followed by a blowout after a long period of repression.

In the year 112 of the new calendar, the first "Xing Province 2" class completed the modernization and improvement of the code "Contract", replacing the straight through deck with an inclined deck that sloped 11 degrees to the left. In the following years, except for the three ships that were decommissioned early due to damage, the remaining 23 "Xing" class and "Xing 2" class have undergone similar modernization and improvement, and have been replaced with beveled decks, so that they have the conditions for carrying and using jet carrier-based aircraft.

At the same time, aerodynamics is also developing rapidly, coupled with more advanced and reliable aero engines, a large number of advanced jet fighters have been introduced, and many technical problems that could not be overcome before have been solved one by one in the hands of engineers.

By 119 AH, the last "Province 2" class had been modernized, and with the addition of new large aircraft carriers, the Imperial Navy had a total of 36 attack carriers.

In addition, there are 27 anti-submarine aircraft carriers, 17 amphibious assault ships capable of carrying fixed-wing carrier-based aircraft.

At this time, the Imperial Navy was simply in full swing!

The main thing, of course, is the quantity.

For example, among the 36 attack aircraft carriers, none of them has a full load displacement of more than 70,000 tons, which is of epoch-making significance, and the "Chen Bingxun" class, which was pinned on by the imperial navy, is still being built on the slipway, and as for the more powerful "Xue Yuanzheng" class, even the design has not been completed.

At that time, the Imperial Navy was actually too big to be right.

In response to this problem, the Imperial Navy initiated the first post-war organizational and tactical changes.

The main thing is against aircraft carriers.

The main problem is that the combat effectiveness of aircraft carriers is not strong enough.

Taking the "Imperial Capital" class as an example, this kind of large aircraft carrier with a full load displacement of more than 60,000 tons can only carry 80 aircraft, and the number of aircraft carried is not as good as that of large aircraft carriers during the war. If carrier-based aircraft are needed to carry out strike missions, they cannot carry too many anti-submarine patrol aircraft. Because the carrier-based aircraft carrying out the attack mission occupy the flight deck, even if a few anti-submarine patrol planes are installed, they may not be able to be sent out to carry out the mission.

The solution is simple.

One aircraft carrier is not enough, so several aircraft carriers should be grouped together, and several aircraft carriers of different types should be incorporated into one battle group according to different operational requirements.

Obviously, this is a very prominent change.

Prior to this, in order to maintain the consistency of the battle group, two or three aircraft carriers of the same class were often grouped into a battle group.

According to the new establishment system, under normal circumstances, an aircraft carrier battle group will be organized into one to three attack aircraft carriers, as well as one or two anti-submarine aircraft carriers, depending on the combat intensity, such as the threat that may be encountered. If you need to provide support to ground forces for a ground strike mission or to support a Marine Corps in launching an amphibious landing operation, you can also incorporate one to three amphibious assault ships.

As a result, a battle group can have up to eight "flat-topped ships" that can carry about 400 fixed-wing carrier-based aircraft.

An aircraft carrier battle group like this was capable of defeating almost any opponent at that time!

Even in the face of the Xilu Group and the Beigu Group, only three aircraft carrier battle groups need to be mobilized to gain absolute sea supremacy.

Of course, the problem is also very prominent.

An aircraft carrier battle group under the "full staff" state needs about 30 escort warships and support ships, and nearly 30,000 naval officers and men have to control these ships. If the personnel of the rear bases are also included, it will take almost 100,000 officers and men to maintain a fully equipped aircraft carrier battle group.

In peacetime after the Great War, this is an unbearable burden.

According to this system, if the Imperial Navy were to reduce its strength to 1.2 million in accordance with the arrangement of the first round of military reform, it would only be able to maintain a maximum of seven aircraft carrier battle groups after deducting non-combatants. At that time, the Imperial Navy needed 18 aircraft carrier battle groups to maintain a global deployment.

In fact, this is also the key to the Imperial Navy's pursuit of "bigness" when building aircraft carriers.

Although the larger the aircraft carrier is built, the more officers and men will be deployed, but on the whole, one large and complete aircraft carrier will certainly need fewer officers and men than two smaller aircraft carriers, and there will also be fewer escort warships needed to cover one large aircraft carrier, that is, the large aircraft carrier will have a much smaller demand for personnel.

The key is that building aircraft carriers bigger is also the demand of the times.

This is the second reorganization and tactical change carried out by the Imperial Navy after the war.

This change also began with carrier-based aircraft, that is, the improvement of carrier-based aircraft performance, requiring the Navy to build a better performance carrying platform.

Before the 120th year of the new calendar, the era of supersound has arrived.

It is a pity that the Navy is once again lagging behind.

It was not until the 121st year of the new calendar, that is, the completion and delivery of the "Chen Bingxun", that is, the imperial naval aviation entered the supersonic era, when only the "Chen Bingxun" class could carry the supersonic carrier-based fighters equipped by the imperial navy, and the other aircraft carriers could not carry and operate this new carrier-based fighter because the flight deck size was too small, or the power of the catapult was not enough, or the hangar height was too low.

Since then, with the advancement of technology, small carrier-based aircraft have the ability to fly at supersonic speeds, and other aircraft carriers of the Navy have the ability to carry supersonic carrier-based fighters.

It's just that the "Chen Bingxun" class has created a new era.

At this time, the Imperial Navy changed the "aircraft carrier battle group" to the "aircraft carrier strike group", emphasizing the offensive nature of carrier-based aviation.

The powerful "Chen Bingxun"-class large aircraft carrier is the material basis for this reform.

Because of its larger size and the full use of the lessons learned from the previous classes of large aircraft carriers, especially the "Imperial Capital" class, the "Chen Bingxun" class relied on a full load displacement of 80,000 tons to obtain performance that seemed unparalleled at the time, such as a powerful comprehensive combat capability.

To put it simply, the "Chen Bingxun" class is actually simplifying the complex and bringing the Imperial Navy back to the old path.

One "Chen Bingxun" class carries more than 90 carrier-based aircraft, which can cope with a low-intensity war, and there is no need to incorporate other "flat-topped ships".

If it is a high-intensity combat mission, let two or three "Chen Bingxun" class ships form a task force.

Of course, this is also related to the advanced performance of carrier-based fighters.

This is the famous "Zhan-6".

"Zhan-6" is the first twin-engine heavy carrier-based fighter of the Imperial Navy, the first multi-purpose carrier-based aircraft, the first two-speed sonic carrier-based aircraft and the first two-seat carrier-based fighter, or the first multi-role fighter, the first carrier-based aircraft that comprehensively surpasses the fighters of the Air Force of the same era in terms of performance!

The "Zhan-6" greatly simplified the establishment system of carrier-based aviation.

Prior to this, one carrier-based aviation wing needed at least five types of combat aircraft, but after the "Battle-6", it was reduced to three at once.

If it weren't for the Navy's emphasis on long-range strike capabilities, and the combat radius of the "Zhan-6" when performing attack missions, it would be much shorter than that of heavy carrier-based attack aircraft, and it could even replace the "Attack-5", so that the Imperial Navy would have reduced the number of carrier-based combat aircraft to two 30 years ago.

If anything, the Imperial Navy has been working to reduce the variety of carrier-based aircraft, because it is the only way to improve the combat efficiency of carrier-based aviation and reduce the logistical burden.

It is a pity that even after 30 years, the aircraft carrier still has to carry 3 types of combat aircraft.

Because of its excellent performance, the "Battle-6" not only dominated the aircraft carrier deck of the Imperial Navy, but also took away the export market that had always belonged to the Air Force.

In total, more than 5,000 Battle-6s were produced before production was discontinued, of which about 3,000 were exported.

In addition, many of the "Battle-6s" that were retired from the Imperial Navy were also treated as surplus materials, and after necessary improvements, they were aided to friendly countries.

The Air Force's contemporaneous "Zhan-8" has a total production of less than 3,000 aircraft, and almost all of them are for their own use.

However, the change of the aircraft carrier battle group into an aircraft carrier strike group and the emphasis on the offensive nature of carrier-based aviation also had a great deal to do with the general environment at that time.

Shortly after the service of the "Chen Bingxun" class, the empire suffered its first post-war crushing defeat, losing the Polish-Iraqi War.

Although the war almost depleted the empire's national strength, and the dividends of the war were squandered, and the empire was forced to begin a strategic contraction thereafter, the imperial navy, which was responsible for safeguarding global interests, still needed to maintain the momentum of expansion until 130 BC.

It's not about being reckless, it's about standing up and holding up the scene.

To put it bluntly, if the Liangxia Empire had undergone a comprehensive contraction immediately after the Polish-Iraqi War, the international order established after the war would inevitably fall apart, the prestige of the empire would inevitably suffer a heavy blow, and it was even possible that a third global war would break out at this time.

If the confrontation of the superpower on a global scale is likened to a battle, then when the large forces retreat, there must be troops left behind to break the rear.

Obviously, it was the Imperial Navy that was responsible for the "broken rear".

Crucially, the expansion of the Imperial Navy had to be severely restricted. On the whole, more like a bluff used to deceive the enemy.

Adjustments to the Navy's fist, the aircraft carrier battle group, are undoubtedly the most ideal choice.

At that time, the Imperial Navy vigorously advocated aggressiveness, exaggerated the combat capability of the "Chen Bingxun" class, and said that it was guiding the development trend of the navy, but in fact it was engaging in strategic deception.

The reason is simple, the expansion of the Imperial Navy has only been maintained for a few years.

In 137 A.D., the Imperial authorities officially recognized the Nuland Republic and established diplomatic relations with it at the ambassadorial level, officially ending the "expansion" of the Imperial Navy.

Strictly speaking, as early as 10 years ago, in the year 127 of the New Calendar, the strength of the Imperial Navy fell to the bottom.

In fact, this was also the second low period encountered by the Imperial Navy after the war.

No matter how miraculous the Imperial Navy boasted about the "aircraft carrier strike group", it is enough to keep only 15 aircraft carriers.

Fortunately, the efforts of the Imperial Navy were not in vain.

In a sense, the second round of changes in the Imperial Navy after the war was actually preparing for the third round of changes, and it was more like a foreshadowing before the climax.

To put it more bluntly, the main purpose of the second round of reform was not to increase combat effectiveness, but to emerge from the loss of global domination after the war, in order to cope with the new international situation, that is, after the revitalization of the Nuland Republic, the era of imperial naval domination of the world was over.

No matter what the top brass of the Imperial Navy thinks, it is necessary to take this opponent of equal strength seriously.

It was in this context that after Zhou Yongtao took office, that is, in the 144th year of the new calendar, the Imperial Navy began the third round of changes to recast its glory.