Before Zhou Yongtao moved into the residence of the first assistant, the third round of naval reform had begun.

The landmark event is: the "Xue Yuanzheng" class supercarrier was approved in the new calendar 127, officially started construction at the beginning of the new calendar year 128, launched three years later, and finally delivered at the end of the new calendar 134, thus entering the "supercarrier era" of the imperial navy.

Interestingly, the three ships of the first batch of this class, namely "Xue Yuanzheng", "Bai Zhizhan" and "Lian Xusheng", are still called attack carriers.

This is a reflection of the process of the Imperial Navy's organization and tactical changes.

As mentioned earlier, after the end of the war, the Imperial Navy divided the aircraft carriers into "attack" and "anti-submarine", and used the aircraft carrier battle group as the basic combat unit of the fleet. After the "Chen Bingxun" class was put into service, out of strategic considerations, the aircraft carrier battle group was changed to an aircraft carrier attack group, so the "attack aircraft carrier" was still retained, but no special "anti-submarine aircraft carrier" was built.

During this period, those old aircraft carriers that were about to be decommissioned were generally used as anti-submarine aircraft carriers, which was mainly reflected in the organization of carrier-based aviation. To put it simply, anti-submarine aircraft carriers will carry more anti-submarine patrol aircraft and anti-submarine helicopters, and reduce the number of attack aircraft.

The "Provincial" and "Provincial 2" classes built during the Great War were almost all retired as anti-submarine aircraft carriers.

It is clearly visible that when the first batch of "Xue Yuanzheng" class was put into service, the tactical thinking of the Imperial Navy did not change much.

The "Xue Yuanzheng" class seems to be just an enlarged version of the "Chen Bingxun" class.

This is not the case.

What hasn't changed is actually the top of the Empire, and the Imperial Navy continues to use the title of "attack aircraft carrier", which is nothing more than wanting to get funding more smoothly so that the construction work can start as soon as possible.

To put it more bluntly, the "Xue Yuanzheng" level itself is the result of being "forced".

Although around the 125th year of the new calendar, the Imperial Navy proposed that the tonnage of the "Chen Bingxun" class was still insufficient, and it was limited in the operation of carrier-based aircraft, and the ability to continue to make sorties could not meet the needs of high-intensity operations, but it was not only the great masters of the two houses of the two houses who discussed the construction of a supercarrier with a larger tonnage and more expensive cost, but also the Minister of Defense and Lian Xusheng, who served as the first assistant of the empire for the second time, did not have much interest.

It is precisely in this way that after the completion of the construction of the first batch of 3 ships, the "Chen Bingxun" class was once again allocated and there was a second batch of 3 ships.

With the situation at that time, the attention of the imperial authorities was focused on the Polish-Iraqi war, and even if Lian Xusheng was willing to support the navy, it would be helpless. Under the general trend of strategic contraction, no matter how important the navy is, it cannot run counter to the overall strategy of the empire.

If there are no accidents, there may be a third batch of "Chen Bingxun" class.

The reason is also very simple, the "Chen Bingxun" class was the most powerful aircraft carrier at that time, whether it was the "Newland" class of the Nuland Navy, the "Prussia" class that the Manman Navy was preparing to build, or the "Royal Ark" class of the Bran Royal Navy, they were all much worse than the "Chen Bingxun" class.

It's just that the powerful "Chen Bingxun" class also gave the number one competitor a huge stimulus, and became the object that the opponent vowed to surpass.

This "number one competitor" is the Nuland Navy.

Just two years later, at the beginning of the 137th year of the new calendar, the Military Intelligence Bureau intercepted a very critical piece of information, the Nuland Navy had begun to design a 100,000-ton supercarrier, and planned to start construction within this decade, striving to surpass the Imperial Navy's "Chen Bingxun" class in one fell swoop.

Although theoretically, it is absolutely impossible for the Nuland Navy to surpass the Imperial Navy in one fell swoop, after all, no country can build dozens of aircraft carriers in just a few years, but let the Nuland Navy take the lead in building a supercarrier, and the Imperial Navy will definitely lose face.

It is also a great shame for the empire that dominates the world.

To put it more seriously, the foundations of the Empire's global hegemony will be shaken.

Shortly thereafter, a defector, or more precisely, a defector, the Uland Navy confirmed the information that the Nuland Navy was indeed designing a supercarrier, and that it was more than half complete and that construction would certainly begin next year, in the middle of the 128th year.

Theoretically, the construction design only needs to be 75% complete before construction can begin.

Although the officer also mentioned that the full load displacement of such an aircraft carrier did not reach 100,000 tons, in the report submitted to the Armed Services Committees of the First and Second Houses and the Chamber, the officers of the Military Intelligence Bureau played a small trick and used a short ton with 2,000 pounds as the base unit, instead of the international standard ton, let alone a long ton with 2,400 pounds as the base unit. This can be regarded as a great help to the Navy.

1 short ton is only 0.907 standard tons.

In this way, a large aircraft carrier of more than 90,000 tons has become a supercarrier of more than 100,000 tons.

After some tossing, in the second quarter of the 137th year of the new calendar, the two houses of the debate passed the proposal submitted by the first assistant, and the design work of the supercarrier was officially launched.

The point is, construction must start before the Nuland Navy!

The time left for the ship's designers, not 1 year.

If it is redesigned, this is a task that no one can do. Just a few hundred thousand blueprints can keep the engineers of the Imperial Navy's ship design institute busy for years. What's more, the redesign will definitely have to listen to the opinions of the military, and determine specific performance indicators according to the new tactical standards.

Fortunately, there is no need for a redesign.

The key is that the chief engineer of the Imperial Navy Ship Design Institute is still Zhao Yu.

In fact, the "Xue Yuanzheng" level is Zhao Yu's last work.

In order to start construction in time, Zhao Yu proposed a tricky method to complete the design of the supercarrier in three stages on the basis of the "Chen Bingxun" class.

The first stage is to carry out a simple scale-up process, and first raise the tonnage.

Actually, this is also the easiest part.

The foundation of the "Chen Bingxun" class is already good, and the full load displacement exceeds 80,000 tons, and the size of the flight deck is enough to operate a 40-ton carrier-based aircraft.

In this way, the length of the hull was basically determined.

The specific layout also does not need to be overhauled, and the layout of the flight deck has been adjusted in the second batch of "Chen Bingxun" class, which is quite perfect.

As for increasing the tonnage, it is actually to increase the width and draft of the hull, expand the available space inside the hull, and improve the internal compartment structure. The key is to use the enlarged hull to install a more powerful power system, and to expand the ammunition depot and fuel tanks.

All in all, under the condition of keeping the number of carrier aircraft unchanged, the use of the extra 20,000 tons can solve the performance shortcomings of the "Chen Bingxun" class.

It was in this way that it took less than 9 months for the Imperial Navy Ship Design Institute to complete the design work.

Subsequently, the two chambers of parliament approved the construction contract for the first three ships.

In April 128 of the new calendar, the "Xue Yuanzheng" laid the first keel at the Puzhou shipyard.

The second stage is to improve the initial design and solve the existing problems.

Because the design of the "Chen Bingxun" class has been quite perfect, especially in the overall ship type, there is no major problem, so the second stage of the design work did not make major changes to the appearance of the "Xue Yuanzheng" class, mainly concentrated on the interior, and all of them were small changes.

If anything, it is mainly aimed at the individual subsystems, especially the power system.

The standard displacement of the first three "Xue Yuanzheng" class is close to 80,000 tons, the full load displacement is just over 100,000 tons, and the supporting four steam turbines have an output power of only 300,000 horsepower, which is only 20,000 horsepower higher than that of the "Chen Bingxun" class, which is far from being powerful.

The key is that the "Xue Yuanzheng" class has a wider hull and a deeper draft, and its sailing resistance is much greater than that of the "Chen Bingxun" class.

Although the steam catapult used in the "Xue Yuanzheng" class is more advanced, it consumes less steam and has a lower negative impact when sailing in combat.

For example, when the "Xue Yuanzheng" class catapults carrier-based aircraft at a rate of 1 aircraft every 2 minutes, it can sail at a speed of 30 knots for 4 hours, or catapult carrier-based aircraft at a speed of 2 aircraft per minute, ensuring that the speed will not fall below 30 knots for at least 1 hour. In these two cases, the "Chen Bingxun" class maintained a speed of more than 30 knots for two hours and half an hour, respectively.

But relatively speaking, this power system is still not good enough.

The design speed of the "Xue Yuanzheng" class is only 31 knots, which is only 0.5 knots higher than the 30.5 knots proposed by the Navy, far less than the "Chen Bingxun" class, which can run to 35 knots, and even slower than its opponents, that is, the maximum speed of the "Nuland" class of the Nuland Navy is 33 knots.

If anything, this speed is also enough.

Relying on more powerful catapults, as long as the wind speed on the deck reaches 27 knots, the "Xue Yuanzheng" class can catapult a 40-ton carrier-based attack aircraft.

In addition, the power system is very mature and highly reliable.

With 40 percent more heavy fuel than the Chen Bingxun class, the Xue Yuanzheng class can travel about 5,000 nautical miles at a speed of 30 knots, or 11,000 nautical miles at a speed of 22 knots, or a staggering 20,000 nautical miles if the speed is reduced to 16 knots.

It's just that the Imperial Navy is clearly not reconciled.

It is precisely in this way that the main improvement of the second batch of "Xue Yuanzheng" class is to improve the power system and increase the output to 350,000 horsepower.

It actually reached 360,000 horsepower!

As a result, the second batch of 3 ships is designed to have a maximum speed of more than 33 knots, and it can even reach 35 knots under light load!

In addition, there are some minor improvements, but mainly in the electronics.

That is, after completing the second phase of design, Zhao Yu officially retired.

Fortunately, the engineers of the ship design institute did not disappoint him.

Strictly speaking, the third batch of "Xue Yuanzheng" class built according to the third phase of the design plan is the real completion body, that is, the final state.

Compared with the previous two batches, the third batch of "Xue Yuanzheng" class can be said to be a new design.

The key is to have enough time.

On the hull, the third batch of "Xue Yuanzheng" class took the lead in using "low-alloy high-strength steel" that is cheaper, less difficult to process, and has more outstanding overall performance.

This alone reduces construction man-hours by one-tenth and increases overall protection by nearly three-thirds while maintaining the same tonnage. Because of its higher structural strength, the design service life of the third batch of "Xue Yuanzheng" class reached 50 years.

However, the main improvement is still in the electronics.

The first ship of the third batch, the No. 7 ship "Tang Shengxian", will become the world's first aircraft carrier equipped with AESA, that is, active phased array radar.

In fact, when the second batch of "Xue Yuanzheng" class was built, the Imperial Navy thought about equipping it with phased array radar.

However, at that time, passive phased array radar could be used, and the miniaturization technology of electronic equipment was not up to standard, and the whole set of radar was very cumbersome. If it is used on aircraft carriers, and it is guaranteed that it will not affect other departments, at least the projection area of the island will be increased by 50%, occupying about 6 deck parking spots. As for the help provided by phased array radars to aircraft carriers, it is clearly not as obvious as air defense cruisers.

It was in this way that the Imperial Navy finally abandoned this idea.

Equipping aircraft carriers with AESA radars is not intended to enhance the carrier's air defense capabilities, but to replace all other radars with one radar.

To put it simply, it is actually a simplified radar system.

The biggest advantage of this is that the ship island can be reduced, the mast used to place the warning radar can be eliminated, and the freed deck can be increased by two parking positions, or the area of these two parking positions can be used to improve and optimize the deck system and improve the operation efficiency of carrier-based aircraft on the flight deck.

The engineers of the Imperial Navy really made the most of this area.

By adjusting the parking stands, the deck operation efficiency of the third batch of "Xue Yuanzheng" class has increased by at least a quarter!

The benefits of this are that the maximum daily sortie momentum has been increased from the previous 210 sorties to 240 sorties, the number of sorties in a single wave has been increased from 42 to 46 sorties, and the recovery time of a complete attack wave has also been shortened from the previous 75 minutes to 60 minutes.

There's no doubt that this is a real improvement!

In addition, the third batch of "Xue Yuanzheng" class also has a higher degree of automation, and the resulting benefit is that the crew and aviation department personnel have been reduced by 15% and 12% respectively, with a total reduction of more than 800 people, from more than 5,600 people in the first two batches to less than 4,800 people.

The key is that the first two batches of "Xue Yuanzheng" class will be upgraded and improved according to the standards of the third batch during the mid-term overhaul.

If you want to say it, the "Xue Yuanzheng" class is definitely an epoch-making product.

Objectively speaking, the significance of the "Xue Yuanzheng" class is not below the "Chen Bingxun" level, it is an existence that can change the rules of the game of naval warfare.

Because there were almost no shortcomings, before the outbreak of the Third Global War, the number of planned construction of the "Xue Yuanzheng" class had reached 9.

Thanks to the significant improvement in the combat capability of aircraft carriers, the tactical system of the Imperial Navy has also changed, and the third round of changes has begun.

It's just that no one can deny that it was not an aircraft carrier that initiated the third round of change, but a person.

Strictly speaking, the third round of reform of the Imperial Navy was actually an integral part of the third round of military reform, which served the overall strategy of the Empire.

In fact, this is also a major feature of the third round of military reform.

In the previous two military reforms, the various branches of the armed forces, especially the three major branches of the armed forces, basically went their own way, and at most they exchanged with each other, and there was no possibility of unified command and unified deployment, so the impact of the first two rounds of military reform was not so great as to change the face of war.

Under the impetus of Zhou Yongtao, the third round of military reform was centered on the overall strategy of the empire from the very beginning.

It was no longer the tactical needs of the various branches of the military that drove this military reform, but the overall strategy of the empire.

The key point is that it is no longer the commanders of the various branches of the armed forces who command the reform, but the supreme military and political commanders of the empire.