The biggest advantage of replacing fast battleships with large cruisers to provide air defense cover for aircraft carriers is actually the ability to add one main air defense ship without increasing expenses.

It has long been proven in actual combat that with only 1 fast battleship, it is impossible to provide full defense air defense cover for the aircraft carrier.

The point is that in a high-intensity naval and air battle, no one can accurately predict the direction of the arrival of enemy aircraft, and therefore cannot guarantee that the air defense warship will always stay in the most suitable position.

Almost all of the naval battles fought by the Nuland Federation after its entry into the war were similar, and when enemy aircraft attacked, the air defense battleships were not in the most suitable position, so they could not provide the most comprehensive cover for the aircraft carriers. At some point, it was not even possible to provide cover for the aircraft carrier.

For this reason, the Imperial Navy incorporated heavy cruisers with enhanced anti-aircraft firepower into the aircraft carrier battle group, and also specially built ocean-going cruisers with air defense as the mainstay.

In actual combat, fast battleships are still the backbone, and heavy cruisers and ocean-going cruisers are only responsible for filling vacancies and undertaking air defense tasks in secondary directions.

As for the effect, it is better than nothing.

Actual combat has long proved that in the air defense operations of the fleet, such as heavy cruisers and ocean-going cruisers, they are more suitable for carrying out air defense alert tasks on the periphery.

Because it was really impossible to accurately determine the direction of the enemy's attack, most of the time, the fast battleship, which was the backbone of the air defense, could not get a chance to perform.

Of course, this is also related to the increasingly sophisticated attack tactics.

Take the carrier-based aviation of the Imperial Navy as an example, when launching an attack, it will certainly arrange for several carrier-based aircraft to carry out search missions in front of the formation, and when the attack is launched, these carrier-based aircraft will be responsible for tactical command, and their main task is to find loopholes in the enemy's air defense.

With effective command, attack aircraft groups are able to attack from the weakest direction of the enemy fleet's air defense network.

Because the speed of the battleship could not exceed that of the aircraft in any case, it was difficult to keep up with the rhythm of the enemy aircraft when conducting air defense operations.

Obviously, it is not the same with 2 main air defense ships.

The Imperial Navy has long done a similar test, that is, covering 1 aircraft carrier with 2 fast battleships.

The exercise proved that under the cover of 2 air defense warships, the survival rate of the aircraft carrier can be increased by an order of magnitude, and it is also more convenient when it comes to coordinated operations.

It's a pity that such a "luxury package" can't be enjoyed by the Imperial Navy at all.

Isn't it a joke that the cost of a fast battleship itself surpasses that of a fleet aircraft carrier, and 2 fast battleships are used to cover 1 aircraft carrier?

Obviously, large cruisers solved this problem just right.

Because the number of large cruisers is not enough, in the new establishment system, fast battleships are still used as air defense pillars, heavy cruisers or ocean-going cruisers are replaced by large cruisers, and three air defense warships are still providing cover for aircraft carriers.

Of course, this arrangement is also to facilitate the temporary deployment of fast battleships to form assault formations.

When the number of large cruisers is large enough, the large cruisers can serve as the air defense pillars, thus freeing the fast battleships from escort tasks.

However, this still does not solve another problem.

The establishment of the aircraft carrier task force is becoming more and more bloated, and the number of escort warships continues to grow, but on the contrary, the combat effectiveness of the aircraft carrier itself has not been significantly improved.

To put it another way, this is actually the key to the Imperial Navy's insistence on building large aircraft carriers.

In an aircraft carrier battle group, there are usually 3 air defense warships, 4 general-purpose warships and 4 anti-submarine warships, in addition, according to the actual situation, they will also be assigned to the fleet oil tankers or fast combat support ships, and there are more than 10 combat ships of various types, sometimes even 15.

With so many warships, it is only for one aircraft carrier, to be precise, for dozens of carrier-based aircraft in one carrier-based aviation wing.

Obviously, too extravagant!

If there are not enough carrier-based aircraft, or the combat effectiveness is not strong enough, it will be too cost-effective to let so many warships follow the aircraft carrier to play soy sauce.

It was precisely for this that whenever the opportunity arose, the fleet commander would send the escort warships on other missions.

Of course, this also means that the bigger the aircraft carrier, the better, because only when the aircraft carrier is large enough and carries enough carrier-based aircraft can the value of escort be reflected.

In any case, there is not much difference in tactics between covering a large aircraft carrier and covering a small aircraft carrier.

But the problem is that aircraft carriers cannot be enlarged indefinitely.

With the current technology of the Empire, at most, it is to go one step further on the basis of the "provincial" level, and increase the standard displacement of large aircraft carriers to 50,000 tons.

To increase the number of slipways, a larger slipway is required, and more advanced construction technology and construction equipment must be adopted.

The Imperial Navy did have a similar plan, but so far it has only existed on design drawings.

More importantly, to a large extent, the large-scale aircraft carrier is actually affected by the large-scale carrier-based aircraft, that is, the effect of the large-scale aircraft carrier will not be reflected in the number of carrier-based aircraft. Similarly, the large-scale carrier-based aircraft will take up more space and offset the incremental benefits brought by the large-scale aircraft carrier.

As for the contribution of the larger carrier-based aircraft to the combat capability, it is also offset by the increasingly powerful anti-aircraft firepower.

Fundamentally, it is still necessary to focus on improving the efficiency of air defense.

That is, on large cruisers, the Imperial Navy first made a bold attempt, that is, to be the first to equip large cruisers with new anti-aircraft guns.

To be precise, it was only improved for the purpose of firing new shells.

The caliber has not changed, it is still 130 mm and 80 mm, only the necessary adjustments to the internal structure have been made in order to use new shells.

This new type of ammunition is the legendary "near bomb".

In fact, that is, artillery shells equipped with radio proximity fuses.

If anything, this shell, which can be detonated near the target, is the culmination of the efforts of the Imperial Navy over the past decade or so to improve the effectiveness of air defense operations.

In the words of Zhao Yu, the value of this new type of artillery shell is definitely not under the radar.

According to tests conducted by the Imperial Navy, radio proximity fuses can increase the combat efficiency of anti-aircraft guns by an order of magnitude.

If anything, it is limited by the size of the fuze components, which can only be equipped with 130 mm and 80 mm shells.

Another effect of large cruisers cannot be ignored.

Indirectly liberated fast battleships.

Although the Imperial Navy has not yet adjusted the size of the task force, with large cruisers, fleet commanders can use fast battleships for other more important tasks, such as going out at night or acting as the main force when aircraft carrier operations are not suitable.

In addition, if there are enough large cruisers, then a special assault task force can be formed with fast battleships as the core.

Actual combat has long proved that under many special circumstances, the assault formation still has strong combat effectiveness.

Crucially, there are special circumstances on the battlefield almost at any time.

Of course, in Zhao Yu's words, the changes brought about by large cruisers are actually an acknowledgment of the dominance of aircraft carriers in the maritime battlefield.

The large cruiser was the first large warship designed entirely around an aircraft carrier, and it existed for the sake of an aircraft carrier.

Starting with large cruisers, the future large warships are all aimed at serving aircraft carriers.