Careful calculations show that the current Italian investment in the field of battleships has greatly exceeded the historical level. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoAs of June 1940, the main lineup of the Italian Navy was 2 Veneto-class ships and 4 modified Cavour-class; Among them, the former cost 800 million lira, and the latter has an average renovation cost of 400 million, totaling 3.2 billion.

At present, the Italian Navy has spent 2.4 billion lira on the construction of 4 Caracciolo-class, plus the refit of old ships and the construction of new ships, the total cost is definitely 4.5 billion. Fang Yan knows that there is currently another ship of the same class as the Veneto that is being outfitted intensively, and it is expected that by the end of this year, the ship will be completed and sea trials will begin.

"The Italians are much more ruthless than the Japanese in tightening their belts and building ships." Fang Yan was secretly shocked, and he couldn't tell whether he was happy, regretful, or sour. Although 4.5 billion lira is only equivalent to about 200 million US dollars, which is less than the price of two Iowa, for Italy, whose annual GDP is only less than 180 billion lira, this military expenditure is enough to overwhelm the normal finances. Fang Yan could fully imagine how much Italy had paid to build this main fleet, but to this day, these steel behemoths with heavy artillery and thick armor were no longer majestic, and they could not become the gods of war of the sea expected by the Italians.

"But no matter what, the Italians still built a medium-sized aircraft carrier...... "Fang Yan silently comforted himself, while fixing his eyes on the flat-topped ship behind the battleship group. At this time, in his field of vision, 1 aircraft carrier with a high deck and 7 heavy cruisers formed the second row of the parade array, although not as majestic and majestic as the giant ships in the front row, but their slender and slender bodies, the bridge is modern and fresh, and it is a different visual experience.

As the Veneto slowly turned into the central channel, Fang Yan, who was proficient in aircraft carriers, soon discovered that the style of the Italian aircraft carrier was clearly greatly influenced by the German Hipper-class: the 23,000-ton aircraft carrier named "Aquila" was completely similar to Fang Yan's design concept in terms of beveled deck, ship size, and weapon configuration. I just don't know what the size of her ship and hangar space are, and how strong her aviation combat power is?

As if to see Fang Yan's thoughts, Kavniari added in a whisper beside him: "The Aquila is 244 meters long and 26 meters wide, and even if you remove the three lifts, the total area of the two-story hangar still reaches 4,200 square meters. If you compare the carrier capacity of your country's Zeppelin-class, its hangar capacity can be more than 75 aircraft. With a maximum power of 110,000 horsepower, she can reach 32 knots when fully loaded with 4,000 tons of heavy oil, so most of the time, fighters taking off from her deck will get enough head-on deck wind. ”

Fang Yan nodded slightly, and finally there was a bit of heartfelt joy in his eyes. Even with the critical eye of his traverser, the hardware indicators of the Italian aircraft carrier in attack are full of sincerity. And for an aircraft carrier, the most important basic attributes are already satisfied. As for defense, although Fang Yan is still unclear about the specific internal design of this ship, judging from the main armor that does not have obvious protrusions on her side of the ship, it can also be inferred that her defense focuses on horizontal armor and TDS next door, and does not have a defense that can withstand medium-caliber shells like the American and British aircraft carriers.

"The Ansal Shipyard basically learned everything I had done." Fang Yan whispered, the smile on his face becoming more and more intense. The reason why Italy, which started from scratch, can also have such advanced design thinking in the field of aircraft carriers, the exchange between Ansaldo shipyard and Brom-Foss undoubtedly played a decisive role; With Italy's subsystem technology, coupled with Fang Yan's concept integration, the comprehensive strength of this medium-sized aircraft carrier is completely comparable to the Japanese Xiangzuru class, only slightly inferior to Dafeng. If there are suitable carrier-based aircraft and enough well-trained professional crews, the Aquila will have a slight advantage over the Essex class of the United States!

The giant ship sailed slowly, and the distance between it and the aircraft carrier under review became closer and closer, and soon, Fang Yan could clearly see the details of the fighters neatly arranged on its deck. However, after a moment, Fang Yan's eyes narrowed, because no matter from which angle he looked at it, this carrier-based aircraft revealed an incomprehensible weirdness.

At this time, the dozens of planes parked on the Italian aircraft carrier turned out to be all one type: the MC.200 Lightning fighter. Fang Yan knows that this type of fighter is currently the main force of the Italian Air Force, and it only entered active service in October 1939. Compared with the British hurricane, the lightning does not fall behind in speed and firepower, and the range is even surpassed.

Although the performance of this aircraft is not bad at the moment, it is still far from being able to fight the world alone like the American F4U pirates. Not to mention, the empty weight of the lightning's fuselage is less than 1800kg, which is only slightly higher than that of the Zero, which means that it can't carry much weight of bombs at all, and its attack power against ships is pitifully weak. Now the Italians only give aircraft carriers this kind of light fighters, do they just use aircraft carriers as a defensive air umbrella, and still pin the task of destroying the enemy fleet on the main fleet?

Taking a step back, even if the Italians really had only this intention, it should have improved the aircraft with wing folding. Although this will inevitably lose part of the aviation performance, it will obviously be of greater benefit to the improvement of the overall combat power of the aircraft carrier. The Lightning does not also have fuel in the wings like the Zero, and it is significantly easier to fold than the latter. But at this moment, in Fang Yan's eyes, the wings of these planes are completely a whole, according to this situation, the Aquila can be stuffed with 60 lightning bolts in the hangar, and it is already burning incense!

"Your Excellency, what's going on?" Confused, Fang Yan had no choice but to turn his inquiring gaze to the Chief of Staff of the Italian Navy next to him. Kavnia's expression was bitter, and he first glanced at Mussolini a few meters away, and saw that the other party didn't notice his side, so he lowered his voice and explained to Fang Yan: "General Brom, these planes you see now were all transported by the Air Force from land to the aircraft carrier three days ago. Not to mention the folding wings, even these aircraft themselves are not carrier-based, they are completely land-based conventional models. At present, none of these planes have taken off or landed on an aircraft carrier, and this parade is completely just a show of stopping on the deck. ”

Hearing these words, Fang Yan almost didn't catch his breath, his eyes were as big as almonds, and his jaw was about to hit the ground. Before coming to Italy, Fang Yan was fully prepared for all aspects of enhancing the strength of the friendly air fleet, but he never expected that the soft power of the Italian navy would be so soft. It's just that carrier-based aircraft don't belong to the command of the Navy, but even the types and training are completely on paper! Doesn't this mean that the Aquila, which has been in service for more than half a year, is still just an empty shell and has no combat power at all?

Seeing that Fang Yan's expression was extremely shocked, Kavniari hurriedly tugged at the corner of his clothes to signal that the parade ceremony was still going on. Fang Yan took a deep breath, and it took a long time to control his boiling and turbulent emotions. After a moment of silence, Fang Yan spoke out and asked, "Does Your Excellency the Leader know about this matter?" Kavniari nodded slowly, "The leader knows a little, but for various reasons it has been delayed like this. Now that your country has won another great victory in the Battle of the Norwegian Sea, the leader has finally recognized the role of aircraft carriers and personally urged Markey Aviation to develop carrier-based models. It's just that because there were too many debts in the past, it couldn't be settled overnight, so this time I could only use Air Force planes to temporarily make up the amount. ”

Only now is the development of a sea-based version of the fighter begins? Have you been cooking spaghetti for a few years? Fang Yan's anger surged, and he was about to roar at the chief of staff of the Italian Navy in front of him. You must know that in order to develop carrier-based fighters and bombers, the German Gotha Aeronautics began design and demonstration work at the beginning of Hitler's administration, and it was not until late 1938 that the GO-152 and GO-388 were finalized in successive test flight improvements.

At present, even if Italy develops a sea-based version on the basis of existing aircraft, it will not be able to do it at all without more than half a year. Coupled with the necessary man-machine running-in, as well as the daily training of numerous projects, the formation of combat effectiveness of the Italian aircraft carrier will be at least one year later. So, what's the point of coming to Rome now? There is nothing else to do except to help the Italian Navy fight for the ownership and command of carrier-based aircraft as an expert authority!

Fang Yan was angry and angry in his heart, but when he thought about it, how could the German Navy in history not be like this? The Count Zeppelin was supposed to shine during the Weser exercise in April 1940, but due to Göring's constraints, the aircraft carrier, which was launched in 1938, was not completed until the end of the war. And the development process of its carrier-based aircraft is also anticlimactic, and in the end, it is as empty as the aircraft carrier. This time, the Italians finally built the aircraft carrier under the influence of Fang Yan. For the Italian Navy, which was not optimistic about the role of aircraft carriers before, plus the obstruction of the Balbo Air Force, Fang Yan really couldn't ask too much of them.

"If it really can't be done, we can only let German fighters and air crews fight on the ship." Fang Yan thought to himself in his heart. Italy out of hardware, Germany out of software, it seems to be a good choice. Thinking of this, Fang Yan's mood stabilized again, he stopped looking at those bad land-based planes, and began to look at the light ship groups around the aircraft carrier.

As one of the world's five major naval powers after the war, along with France, Italy's navy was significantly thicker than Germany's. Eight heavy cruisers and 12 light cruisers shone brightly in the sun, and the majestic triple turrets were dizzying. These are excellent ships with both offense and defense, and they can definitely show off their strength among treaty ships of the same class. Seeing these ships, Fang Yan felt more and more that the current German Navy's all-aviation shipbuilding plan was extremely correct: because even if there was a real need for artillery warfare in the future, these Italian ships would be the best help.