One day, the matter was basically settled, and Tan Renhao was also allowed to return to the North American Theater of Operations and go back to command his fleet. That is, on the afternoon of the 11th, Gan Yongxing suddenly found Tan Renhao and called him to the port south of the headquarters.

"Chief of Staff, you're not going to let me go to Panama on a transport ship, are you?" Tan Renhao was a little puzzled, what was the chief of staff taking him to the port for?

"Of course not, even if you will, I won't." Gan Yongxing patted the shoulder of the driver in front of him, signaled the driver to drive faster, and then said to Tan Renhao, "Don't worry, you'll know when you get to the dock." ”

Tan Renhao didn't ask much, there must be something good, otherwise the chief of staff would not be so excited. In fact, before the car drove to the dock, Tan Renhao knew why Gan Yongxing wanted to take him to the port. As soon as the car turned the last corner, Tan Renhao saw those mighty warships parked in the harbor, the most dazzling of which were the three aircraft carriers with very unique shapes, a kind of aircraft carrier that Tan Renhao had only seen on the drawings before, and had never seen in reality.

"Well, I didn't tell you to run for nothing, did you?" Gan Yongxing opened the car door and got out of the car first.

After Tan Renhao got out of the car with him, he realized that the aircraft carrier leaning on the dock was much larger than the one he had seen in the distance, and much larger than any battleship he had seen before. These are the "Island" class aircraft carriers that the Imperial Navy took several years to design and build more than a year to complete, these three aircraft carriers are "Taiwan", "Hainan", and "Kuye", which are also the three largest islands in the Empire mainland. If calculated in terms of displacement, these three aircraft carriers were the largest warships of the Imperial Navy at that time, and their full load displacement already exceeded the battleships of the "New Provincial Capital" class, which had undergone two improvements.

The birth experience of the "Island" class aircraft carrier was full of twists and turns. It can be said that this is a true portrayal of the history of the development of aircraft carriers of the Imperial Navy, and at the same time, it also proves the pragmatic characteristics of the Imperial Navy in the development of warships. From the initial establishment of the project to the first batch of service, the period lasted six and a half years, almost throughout the entire war period.

Shortly after the outbreak of the war, the commander of the Imperial Navy at that time was still Marshal Satietin, and after realizing the great combat effectiveness of aircraft carriers, the Imperial Navy at the end of 21 years developed an aircraft carrier that surpassed all opponents. At that time, the development of the "Lake" class aircraft carrier had actually just begun. In order to speed up the development and construction of aircraft carriers, the Navy decided on the development project of the "Island" class aircraft carrier at this time. However, this is only a project, but the formal development work has not started immediately.

Subsequently, the Imperial Navy changed two commanders, and after Nie Renfeng came to power, the Navy had to first deal with the issue of structural reform and establishment reform, as well as many difficult problems left by Jiang Bangguo, and the development of the "Lake" class aircraft carrier was also progressing quite smoothly. Moreover, at that time, in the world, I am afraid that only the "Essex" class aircraft carrier being developed by the United States could match it, so Renfeng did not notice the development plan of the "Island" class aircraft carrier, which had been shelved for a long time. At the time, the project didn't even have an official name.

It was not until the beginning of the 25th century, with the large-scale service and construction of the "Lake" class aircraft carrier, that Gan Yongxing discovered this ~ project when he was dealing with the Navy's 25-year shipbuilding plan, and then let the Naval Equipment Technology Office officially launch the project. And at that time, the performance of the "Lake" class aircraft carriers was recognized. Many people believe that there is no need to create new aircraft carriers, it is only necessary to ensure the construction of more "Lake" class aircraft carriers. Therefore, after launching this project, the Naval Equipment Technical Office also commissioned only a few shipyards to conduct basic research, without giving data on the performance requirements of the new aircraft carrier. At that time, the four shipyards involved in this project were also busy building more "Lake" class aircraft carriers. They also did not attach much importance to this project, and many of the engineers involved in the development believed that the ground needed by the Navy was actually just an aircraft carrier that was larger than the "Lake" class, capable of carrying more fighters, and had stronger aviation combat capabilities. Obviously, this direction of development is absolutely wrong.

With the entry of the United States into the war, the bloody battle in the Pacific theater began, and the "Lake" class aircraft carriers quickly exposed many flaws and deficiencies in the battle. Especially between 25 and 26, when several aircraft carriers were lost in a row, and the Navy's offensive in the Pacific theater was at a stalemate, the development of newer and better aircraft carriers really received attention. That is, in 26 years, the Naval Equipment Technology Office put forward specific performance requirements, and the development of the "Island" class aircraft carrier was officially launched.

The four shipyards participating in the bidding all misunderstood the Navy's requirements, and still believed that they only needed to enlarge in the same proportion, so that the aircraft carrier could carry dozens of more aircraft. But at that time, what the Navy wanted was by no means an enlarged version of the "Lake" class aircraft carrier, but a completely new aircraft carrier. Outcome. On the contrary, the plan proposed by the Kaohsiung Shipyard, which was upgraded to a first-class shipyard during the war, best met the requirements of the Navy. This is the first design scheme of the "Island" class aircraft carrier, which still uses a straight deck, the full load displacement is increased to 48,000, and the number of carrier aircraft is still only 120, which comprehensively improves the underwater protection capability of the aircraft carrier, and adopts an armored flight deck and an armored main deck, adopts a closed bow, and sets up partitions around the hangar, but it is not a semi-closed hangar in the real sense. That is, this is a design scheme to increase survivability, which in fact does not actually increase substantially.

The best match does not mean that it will be adopted. In fact, the Navy is not satisfied with the Kaohsiung shipyard plan. As a result, three months later, the Navy sent a second tender document, which clearly mentioned that it was necessary to draw lessons from actual combat, and that while comprehensively improving the survivability of aircraft carriers, it was necessary to comprehensively improve the aviation combat capability of aircraft carriers, and that shipyards were allowed to adopt new technologies and designs, and cost control was also greatly relaxed.

This tender document finally determined the basic characteristics of the "Island" class aircraft carrier, and the Kaohsiung shipyard, which had performed well before, lacked sufficient engineers, and designing an aircraft carrier was by no means a simple matter of designing combat aircraft, and it was impossible to design a good aircraft carrier without a strong team of engineers. This time it was the Jiangnan Shipyard, the largest and most powerful in the empire, that won. At that time, the Jiangnan shipyard had already realized that the navy was very likely to stop production of the "Lake" class aircraft carriers and instead order new ones, and the new aircraft carriers were more expensive, the more profits they would make, if they could

orders, which is also extremely beneficial for shipyards. In this case, Jiangnan I can be said to be the most powerful ship design team in the world at that time, and came up with a set of design schemes that had never been seen before, that is, the original design scheme of the "Island" class aircraft carrier with a beveled deck, four catapults installed, and a semi-enclosed hangar.

At the time, many of the designs were unheard of, or were previously abandoned by the Navy. For example, the angled flight deck was the first to appear, and the Navy had previously abandoned semi-enclosed hangars, believing that it would limit the number of aircraft it could carry. And with the installation of four catapults, this feels a bit too much. However, it turned out that the design of the Jiangnan Shipyard was quite far-sighted, and it can be said that these became the standard design of aircraft carriers after the war, so the "Island" class aircraft carrier also became an important turning point in the history of the development of aircraft carriers in the Imperial Navy.

Of course, the initial design still needs to be improved, such as the angle between the beveled deck and the central axis of the aircraft carrier, which was initially only 5, and then expanded to 8 degrees, then 11 degrees, and finally determined to be suitable. There are also the installation of the four catapults, the location of the stern arresting cable, which has been improved a lot. Of all the improvements, the most obvious is the location and number of lifts. In the original design, two elevators were still used, and they were both on the central axis, and the design was a fully enclosed hangar (later changed to a semi-enclosed hangar), but in the model experiment, it was soon revealed that the elevators located on the central axis would seriously affect the aviation attendance efficiency of the aircraft carrier and affect the utilization efficiency of the flight deck. In the end, the engineers boldly borrowed from the experience of the American "Essex" and moved the elevator located in the rear to the rear of the aircraft carrier island, but at the same time the front elevator on the left side of the island was still retained. But there are still problems with this design. The location of this elevator will inevitably affect the take-off operation of the aircraft. In the end, this elevator was moved to the front of the aircraft carrier island. However, the engineers soon discovered that if both lifts were on starboard, the catapult on the left beveled deck would be much less efficient. The final design was to have a lift at the front and rear of the island, and a third at the back of the port side of the carrier. As a result, the aircraft carrier had three side lifts, and at the same time the hangar became semi-enclosed.

After the design was completed, Jiangnan Shipyard first built a one-tenth wooden model. During the model test, the utilization rate of the aircraft carrier's flight deck was also calculated, and the results obtained made the Naval Equipment Technology Office very satisfied, and even made the Naval Equipment Technology Office ignore the fact that the aircraft carrier still has only 120 carrier aircraft, because the utilization efficiency of the four catapults is very high, and the sortie rate of its carrier aircraft is between 1.5 and 1.8 times that of the "Lake" class. Even if it can only carry 120 combat aircraft, it can release all the bombers at once. In this way, the aircraft carrier's assault capability will be enhanced, which is equivalent to nearly doubling the aircraft carrier's single assault capability. In aircraft carrier operations, the first assault will determine the outcome of the attack, and few commanders will take into account the issue of the second assault.

Immediately after the completion of the design, the Navy placed an order, and at the end of 26, the first steel plate of the Jiangnan shipyard ship "Taiwan". But the problem is that at the time of construction, it coincided with the adjustment of the equipment system of the Imperial Navy at the beginning of 27, and the order price of the Navy at that time was high. As a result, the first batch of four "Island" class aircraft carriers, which were supposed to be commissioned at the end of 27, were delayed from service, and it was not until 284 that the construction of the first three ships was completed, and then they were handed over to the Navy for sea trials, and the fourth ship built by the Kaohsiung Shipyard had not completed its perching by July.

"Chief of Staff, which fleet will these three aircraft carriers be incorporated into?"

"It's up to you. It won't be Task Force 5 anyway. Gan Yongxing patted Tan Renhao's shoulder, "However, even if they are allowed to set sail now, they will not arrive in the Caribbean Sea until next month, so I will just take you to take a look, after you go back, you can first learn about the situation of each fleet, and then choose the most suitable fleet to change clothes, remember to give me the relevant change report before the end of the month." ”

"That's good. I'll arrange this when I get back. Tan Renhao immediately agreed, in fact, he had already figured out which task force should be redressed first. However, what about the obsolete aircraft carriers? ”

"Well, maybe the Xindi Task Force will be formed, or the Sixth Task Force will be changed to the Carrier Task Force. This matter has not yet been decided, and after the establishment of the combined fleet, the number of task forces is no longer limited, and when the time comes, we will decide according to the actual situation on the battlefield. ”

"It's fine. Then the work of changing clothes can be pressed first, so that the officers and men have more time to train. At the same time, after we have dealt with the last fleet of the US Navy, there will be time for the fleet to train for redressing. ”

"It's up to you to decide, you're the commander of the Combined Fleet now, don't ask me anything." Gan Yongxing patted Tan Renhao's shoulder. "Now let's go back first, when are you on the plane?"

"Before the evening, it's probably time to have dinner on the plane."

"Then you can go home early and pack your luggage, and just go straight to the airport later." Gan Yongxing let Tan Renhao get into the car first, and then he also got in the car. "When you arrive in Panama, remember to send me a telegram back, you can deal with other things slowly, first of all, you must solve the problem of cooperation with Luo Yunchong. Now, the Combined Fleet is not under Luo Yunchong's command, and you have a lot of independence, so your relationship is quite important. ”

Tan Renhao has been thinking about this matter for a long time, and after the establishment of the joint fleet, the independence of the fleet has increased greatly, and it does not belong to the establishment of the theater, but Lei Shaoqing and Huang Xiaotian are responsible for the coordination between the theater and the fleet. In other words, Tan Renhao is not directly commanded by Luo Yunchong, and the two are in a cooperative relationship. How to properly handle this relationship will directly determine the progress of the war against the United States.

In the evening of the same day, Tan Renhao left Zhoushan, before leaving, Gan Yongxing did not come to see him off because he still had a lot of things to do, but sent someone to send him a thick document, which was said to pass the time on the road, which made Tan Renhao a little headache, he is generally used to sleeping on the plane, do you need to read documents to pass the time? Even if he wanted to, he would have chosen a few popular books instead of those serious military documents.