Next to the wharf, the two majestic ships that are being outfitted are the No. 1 and No. 3 ships of the "Xing Province" class, which have been named "Pu" and "Lu" when they were launched. The No. 2 and No. 4 ships built by the Piercing Shipyard were named "Fujian" and "Yue".

The outfitting work was nearing completion, and it looked as if it could go to sea at any time.

This kind of revolutionary large aircraft carrier, which broke through the limitations of the treaty at the design stage and was fully measured by the "comprehensive construction cost", is all too familiar to Bai Zhizhan, because he joined the design team as a military consultant before the outbreak of the war.

Compared with the "Imperial Capital" class, the "Provincial" class emphasized only one performance indicator in its design: aviation combat effectiveness.

The fleet exercises, which lasted for more than ten years, gave the Imperial Navy a very comprehensive understanding of aircraft carriers, and the only criterion for measuring the performance of aircraft carriers was aviation combat effectiveness.

In layman's terms, it can also be said to be the sortie rate of carrier-based aircraft.

In order to achieve this goal, the Imperial Navy used the simplest and most crude method: increasing tonnage and size.

To say, this is actually a big advantage of the Imperial Navy.

Although the Imperial Navy also fought in two oceans, meeting the challenges of the Samui Navy and the Nuland Navy in the Guia Ocean, and dealing with the Royal Navy of Bran in the Sunset Ocean, it would not be limited by the size of the Wangxi Canal locks, and there was no need to worry about the draft of the warships being too deep to pass through the channel of the Sunset Canal.

When designing capital ships such as aircraft carriers, the Imperial Navy was almost not limited by size and tonnage.

The Royal Bran Navy was slightly better, while the Nuland Navy was less free, and its capital ships were smaller in length and width than the inner dimensions of the Lookout Canal locks.

It was for this reason that the Nuland Federation paid out of its own pocket to build a new large-scale lock on the Wangxi Canal.

The Nuland Navy will not be able to build larger warships until the new locks are built.

Otherwise, Hale would not have made a special trip to the canal to inspect the construction of the locks before the war.

When the "provincial" class was designed, the Imperial Navy decided that a major war would break out before it was completed and put into service.

As long as it enters a state of war, tonnage and cost are no longer a problem.

All in all, the "provincial" level is large enough.

In terms of appearance, the "provincial" level is larger than the "imperial capital" level, and at first glance it looks like the "imperial capital" level has been enlarged by 20%.

Size aside, there are actually a lot of similarities between the two in terms of details.

Of course, there are also many differences.

Although in terms of overall design, the "Provincial" class inherited and continued the bloodline of the "Imperial Capital" class, in fact, it was to solve the problems existing in the "Imperial Capital" class by increasing tonnage, but the qualitative change caused by quantitative changes made the "Provincial" class a brand-new post-treaty aircraft carrier.

The biggest change is the sortie rate of carrier-based aircraft.

At the time of design, the "Imperial Capital" class adopted the standard of the "Longjiang" class, and 4 to 5 squadrons, that is, 32 to 40 carrier-based aircraft, were dispatched at a time in the full-deck state, the interval between two full-deck attacks was two hours, and at least one squadron of air defense fighters was retained after two waves of sorties.

This indicator determines the maximum attack capability of the Imperial aircraft carriers.

In all the battles before that, the "Longjiang" class and the "Imperial Capital" class launched an all-out attack, and the number of carrier-based aircraft dispatched at one time did not exceed 40, and generally around 35.

It was because of this restriction that the Imperial Navy always maintained a two-carrier task force.

Theoretically, the aviation combat capability of the "provincial" class is about 30 percent higher than that of the "Imperial Capital" class, and in the full-deck state, 40 to 50 carrier-based aircraft can be dispatched at a time, and after an hour and a half of preparation, they can again launch an attack in the full-deck state.

The dispatch of 40 to 50 carrier-based aircraft at a time means that the "provincial" class has the ability to fight alone.

Theoretically, a group of attack aircraft with 6 squadrons and a total of 48 carrier-based aircraft, after eliminating 2 squadrons of escort fighters, the remaining 32 bombers and torpedo planes are enough to deal a fatal blow to the two aircraft carriers in a medium-sized fleet.

If anything, the "provincial" level design is based on this indicator.

Because carrier-based aircraft can only refuel and reload on the flight deck, the area of the flight deck directly determines the number of carrier-based aircraft that can be dispatched at one time.

In practical use, the Imperial Navy also discovered long ago that it made more sense to expand the width of the flight deck than to increase the length of the flight deck.

As a result, the width of the flight deck was expanded by a third on the basis of the "Imperial Capital" class, reaching 44.5 meters.

When the whole deck is dispatched, it is possible to place an additional column of carrier-based aircraft in the rear parking area, and if it is still staggered, it will change from 2 3 to 3 4.

For this alone, up to 13 aircraft can be added.

Because the flight deck has been extended, two more rows of positions have been added to the take-off standby area, so theoretically, up to 50 carrier-based aircraft can be dispatched at a time.

Normally, there is one slot in the first row and one in the last row, for a total of 48 aircraft.

Theoretically, the "Xing Province" class can moored up to 80 carrier-based aircraft on the flight deck, and even if the bow take-off area is vacated, 56 can be moored. This number is not set randomly, after the sortie is in full deck, it will be able to keep 8 air defense fighters.

The point is that there is still an hour and a half of preparation time.

It takes at least 2 hours for the "Imperial Capital" class to complete preparations for a full-deck attack, while the "Longjiang" class often has to wait 150 minutes.

The "provincial" level can be shortened to one and a half hours, and a lot of effort has been put into the design.

First of all, the use of large-sized side lifts can transport two carrier-based aircraft at the same time, which nearly doubles the efficiency of lifting carrier-based aircraft.

Another benefit of using large lifts is the increased efficiency of recovery carrier-based aircraft.

The second is to add four integrated supply stations, which can carry out replenishment operations for more carrier-based aircraft at the same time, shortening the time for carrier-based aircraft to refuel and reload.

In order to improve the efficiency of the replenishment operation, the designers adopted the Navy's suggestion to change the location of the resupply station from near the elevator to the edge of the deck. However, this is mainly for safety reasons, to ensure that in an emergency, carrier-based aircraft with potential safety hazards can be pushed away from the aircraft carrier.

In addition, a catapult with better performance was adopted.

In fact, there are many similar improvements.

For example, there are six maintenance stations in front of and behind the island, as well as in front of the port lift, so that ordinary maintenance work can be carried out on the flight deck. The point is that carrier-based aircraft do not need to be fully maintained after every sortie, and it is even more impossible in battle.

Through this series of improvements, the combat capability of aviation at the "provincial" level has been greatly enhanced.

In the entire war, the sortie rate of carrier-based aircraft of the "Xing Province" class was second to none, and it was the benchmark of the post-treaty era.

Of course, the "provincial" class was originally the "ideal" aircraft carrier of the Imperial Navy.

Three years ago, on the last day of the 97th year of the new calendar, on the day when the "Pu" was started at the Puzhou Shipyard, the imperial naval generals such as Bai Zhizhan had high hopes for it.

At that time, everyone believed that the war would not break out until the 100th year of the new calendar at the earliest.

According to the assumption at that time, the "provincial" class would be the number one main force of the Imperial Navy in the early stage of the war to crush the opponent and defeat the enemy.

Although the war broke out ahead of schedule, and the "provincial" level did not catch up with the fierce battle in the early stage, it was the right time to come.

In the next decisive battle with the powerful Newland Navy and the not weak Royal Navy of Bran, the "Provincial" class will definitely be the mainstay of the Imperial Navy! 8)