In the end, the two "Lake" class aircraft carriers did not arouse Tan Renhao's interest. At the beginning, the Imperial Navy had planned to build more than 40 "Lake" class aircraft carriers, and even when the "Xingkai Lake was served", it had already named the 44 aircraft carriers built later. But in fact, the Imperial Navy built a total of only 24 "Lake" class aircraft carriers, and the last batch was originally planned to build 6 ships, but only 2 were built. The reason for the Imperial Navy to change its construction plan was that a larger and better "Island" class aircraft carrier appeared, so that the "Lake" class aircraft carrier was no longer the most powerful aircraft carrier.

If the war had been at a stalemate, the Imperial Navy would have continued to build the Hu-class aircraft carriers. In all fairness, the performance of the "Lake" class aircraft carrier is fully capable of meeting the needs of the Navy. In terms of overall performance, the "Lake" class aircraft carrier is a little better than the American "Essex" class, and the cost is cheap, the technology is mature, the major shipyards have a group of skilled workers, and the construction speed is also very fast. In the stalemate phase of the war, the navy needs not the best aircraft carrier, but an aircraft carrier that can meet the basic performance requirements, is cheap, and can be built in large quantities and quickly. However, now that the war has entered the final stage, and the U.S. Navy is no longer able to challenge the Imperial Navy, then the Navy no longer needs to continue to pursue quantity, and reasonable improvement of quality is an effective way to reduce combat losses. That is, at the end of 26, when the Navy planned the 27-year ship building plan, the focus of aircraft carrier construction was changed from the "Lake" class to the "Island" class.

The "Island" class aircraft carrier is definitely a kind of aircraft carrier worth looking forward to. In the overall design, a large number of advanced technologies are adopted, and the problems exposed in fleet operations are addressed. A lot of the basic design has been extensively modified. For example, with the use of a beveled deck, the number of catapults was increased to 4. Moreover, there is room for modification, which lays the foundation for the future replacement of steam catapults. A semi-enclosed hangar, a side lift, a high-power ultra-high-pressure boiler, an optical landing assist system, a radio navigation system, and for the first time, a gun-sighting radar was installed. These. It's all land that is not found on the "lake" level. Moreover, these technologies were used in the development of aircraft carriers after the war, and it can be said that all the aircraft carriers built by the empire after the war, except for nuclear power, almost all the basic technologies were pioneered by the "Island" class. And first use the ground. That

A large number of new technologies have brought land to high construction costs, and if it were not for the fact that the Navy solved the problem of procurement costs at the end of the 26th. Perhaps the Navy will not be in a hurry to start building the "Island" class aircraft carrier in 27, but will concentrate its money on building cheaper escort aircraft carriers . and, more importantly, landing ships, then the "Island" class aircraft carriers will most likely not be able to serve during the war . Of course, now this problem no longer exists.

In 27 years, Jiangnan Shipyard started the construction project of the "Island" class aircraft carrier, the first steel plate was officially cut, and the first keel was laid in the same month. Four other shipyards also started construction within a month. It was at this time that the construction of the first batch of 4 "Island" class aircraft carriers began.

The biggest problem with the construction of the "Island" class aircraft carrier is not the technology, when the construction works begin. Many technical hurdles have been overcome. It's not funding, the Navy has enough money, and the contracts are signed. The real problem was that there weren't enough skilled workers in the shipyards at the time." The "island" class is much more difficult to build than the "lake" class, and if it is in peacetime, the shipyard can organize the training of workers. But in times of war, speed is victory, and it is simply impossible to spend time on the training of workers, only to build and summarize at the same time. Side training. It is also because of the lack of skilled skilled workers that the construction progress of the first 4th "Island" class aircraft carrier is much slower than planned.

According to the contracts signed between the Navy and major shipyards.4 "Island" class aircraft carriers must be commissioned before the end of 28 years, and the planned construction period is one year. This is two to four months longer than the eight to ten months of construction of the "Lake" class aircraft carrier. But in fact, no shipyard can complete the construction of the aircraft carrier before the end of 28 years, and it is even difficult to ensure that the aircraft carrier is launched for perching.

By the time of the 8th time, the Naval Equipment Technology Office found that the construction of the aircraft carrier site was much slower than planned, and immediately contacted the shipyard. The problem was also quickly clarified, the lack of workers, and the large adoption of new technologies led to complex construction processes and rising costs, which were the reasons for the slow progress of construction. The shipyard cannot be blamed for this, after all, any new warship will encounter a lot of problems when it starts to be built, such as the first "Lake" class aircraft carriers when they were built.

After urgent consultations, the Navy reached an agreement with four shipyards, agreeing to increase the procurement cost of each aircraft carrier by 250 yuan, and set up a joint research project led by the Naval Equipment Technology Office, and dozens of other enterprises, companies, and research institutes involved in the construction of aircraft carriers, and improve the construction process and shorten the construction period. The shipyard guarantees to train qualified skilled workers as soon as possible, and strives to deliver the aircraft carrier to the Navy at the end of February 28 in accordance with the provisions of the contract. finish

In fact, this supplementary agreement still has not been able to solve the problem at the root. At the beginning of October, the four shipyards jointly reported to the Navy that the delivery of the aircraft carrier must be delayed by three months, and at least by three months. The office conducted another investigation, and the shipyard reported that the actual difficulties existed and had to accept the shipyard's request and delay the delivery time to the end of 28.

Tan Renhao carefully read the relevant documents, he has worked in the Naval Equipment Technology Office, and has participated in similar work, and he also has a certain understanding of the situation of the shipyard. And his first judgment is that even by the end of May 28, the Navy may not be able to get the Xindi aircraft carrier, and perhaps the delivery time will be postponed again. If the Navy can get the Xindi aircraft carrier by the middle of 28, that is, by the end of June. That's a blessing. Of course, this is only a matter of the first batch of 4 aircraft carriers . After the completion of the construction of the first batch of 4 aircraft carriers, the shipyard will not have so much trouble building the second batch of aircraft carriers. The construction period will definitely be shortened a lot.

As the commander of the fleet, Tan Renhao naturally hopes to get better warships, especially better aircraft carriers. The Naval Reserve is modeled after the "Island" class aircraft carrier. A training base has been established on land, and from its reflection, the "Island" class aircraft carrier ground bomber dispatch efficiency is about 1.8 times that of the "Lake" class aircraft carrier, and it can make the bomber take off and land at the same time. Just one point made Tan Renhao full of hope for this new aircraft carrier.

Then. It has already been proposed to use the technology of the "Island" class aircraft carriers to improve the equipment of a large number of "Lake" class aircraft carriers. It's a cost-effective way to do it quickly. The Naval Equipment Technology Office has even done a lot of research work and set up a special team to study the possibility of improving the "Lake" class aircraft carrier. The research team submits a report to the Office of Naval Armament Technology every five days, and the report will eventually be seen by Gan. Tan Renhao found these reports in the archives, and apparently, the chief of staff was not very interested in these technical reports.

The possibility of improvement of the "Lake" class aircraft carrier is not small. Although the displacement of the aircraft carrier is on the low side, and the improvement work is quite cumbersome. But after improvement, its combat effectiveness will definitely be greatly improved. At that time, the research team of the Naval Equipment Technology Office was already working with Jiangnan Shipyard to study the improvement plan.

The main improvement was the installation of beveled decks for the "Lake" class aircraft carriers and the movement of the elevators to the side instead of being concentrated on the central axis of the aircraft carrier. In addition, the aircraft carrier's ground hangar must be changed, the anti-aircraft gun positions will also be high, and the ship island will be slightly improved. Most importantly, the main structure of the aircraft carrier does not need to be altered. Judging from the data submitted by Jiangnan Shipyard, the amount of work in the improved area is about 40% of the new construction site, and the improvement cost is 50% of the "Lake" class procurement cost, while the improved "Lake" class can probably reach about 80% of the "Island" class aircraft carrier. From the point of view of the cost-effectiveness ratio, this is still a relatively cost-effective, even if the cost of improvement is counted, the price of "lake" level land is only 70% of "island" level land.

The biggest problem is not the cost, but the improvement schedule. At that time, the main fleets of the Imperial Navy had combat missions, and if it took half a year to improve an aircraft carrier. Then it will make the fleet at least unable to perform combat missions for half a year, judging by the naval plan of the ground . No fleet has more than half a year to rest, and it is impossible to arrange improvements.

Of course, the Technical Office of Naval Armament did not give up its efforts . When Tan Renhao came back

Wait. The Technical Office of Naval Armament submitted a plan. That is, one of the "Lake" class aircraft carriers in the Navy's active service area is selected and handed over to the shipyard for improvement, so that the shipyard can accumulate improvement experience and train workers during this period, so that a lot of time can be saved when the ground is improved on a large scale in the future. Gan Yongxing has approved this plan. Now wait for the principal to make a decision.

Tan Renhao also believes that this plan is feasible, and it is obviously not the best way to immediately drag back the two aircraft carriers in the new service area for improvement, and it is best to select one aircraft carrier in the fleet that needs to be overhauled for improvement, so that the overhaul work can be carried out at the same time. After improvement, you can achieve the best state. If the improvement work goes well, then the Navy will be able to improve all the "Lake" class aircraft carriers in a rotational manner. At that time, even if the "Island" class aircraft carrier cannot be put into service on time, the combat effectiveness of the naval fleet can be greatly improved by improving the "Lake" class aircraft carrier.

Of course, improvements are by no means a long-term solution, and this has already been mentioned in the report of the Naval Armament Technical Office." The design displacement of the "Lake" class aircraft carrier is too small, and the space for improvement is quite limited, and the improvement itself will definitely increase the displacement of the aircraft carrier, increase the weight of the aircraft carrier above the water surface, seriously deteriorate the airworthiness of the aircraft carrier, and reduce the ground speed of the aircraft carrier. If the aircraft carrier is replaced with a new ground power system because of this, then the main structure of the aircraft carrier will have to be operated on, and the cost of improvement will rise sharply, so it is better to build a new ground aircraft carrier. Therefore. Improvement is only a measure of local rights and interests during the war, and sooner or later the "Lake" class aircraft carriers will be eliminated by better aircraft carriers. It is impossible to avoid it.

In fact, the large-scale improvement work of the "Lake" class aircraft carrier was carried out after the war. During the war, the Imperial Navy improved only one, the second task force "Weishan Lake". This aircraft carrier has left a lot of hidden dangers after being heavily damaged last time, so it was quickly replaced by the new service site "Sun Moon Lake." The improvement work of "Weishan Lake" was completed only after the end of the war, and the progress was quite slow, but this accumulated experience for the post-war improvement work and trained a large number of local workers. And after the war, with the advent of jet aircraft, the "lake" class improvement program changed several times. It is also the large-scale improvement that made this aircraft carrier continue to serve for more than 30 years during the Great War, and after the Great War, it also participated in several local wars and became the star of the Imperial Navy.

Of course, the Imperial Navy was well funded. Especially in the case of 28 years of continuous increase in military spending. The Navy will not only develop aircraft carriers and ignore other warships. At that time, the Navy also planned to develop Xindi battleships, cruisers, and destroyers, but most of the plans were just plans.

Plans for the construction of new battleships were not finalized at the end of the war. The main thing is that battleships have ceased to be the hegemon of the seas . And the cost of procurement is frighteningly high. At that time, the Imperial Navy proposed many specific design plans for the German Navy's H44 U.S. Navy's "Montana"-class battleship, but all of them were rejected one after another. The "New Provincial Capital" class battleships are not lagging behind, and there is room for improvement, and their number is enough to last several years. The Navy did not urgently pressure the need for more and more powerful battleships.

On the contrary, cruisers, destroyers . and the need for submarine-ground development is much greater." The construction of the "river" level land will be completed in 27 years, and its overall performance is no longer good. The importance of cruisers on the battlefield, especially in the later stages of the war, was much higher than that of battleships, so it was necessary to develop a better cruiser. The same is true for destroyers, although the performance of the "City" class is still relatively advanced, but with the large-scale warships, it is difficult to install more and more advanced weapons and equipment on the "City" class, and it is necessary for the Navy to develop a better destroyer. The requirements for the development of submarines are also relatively large. However, most submarine designs remain on paper, mainly because their performance has not been substantially improved.

It can be said that at that time, the Imperial Navy did not continue to develop and grow on the way to victory, and the huge shipbuilding plan played a role in connecting the past and the future. Most of the warships built and designed in the post-war period participated in many local wars after the war, and many technologies developed and under development at that time were the basis for the development of new warships after the war.