Military Science: Intelligent Manufacturing of Warships - Introduction to the Mass Production Model of Warships in Wartime

A warship, also known as a naval ship, is a ship that performs combat missions at sea. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Cruisers are large surface ships second only to battleships in terms of displacement, firepower, and armor protection.

Various types of ships, tanks, artillery, and aircraft are the large-scale main battle weapons and equipment of the navy, army, and air force, and because of their different prices, characteristics, and war uses, the latter three are often mass-produced, exported, and equipped with troops; These goods were produced in batches in the hundreds or thousands (Soviet-made T-10 heavy tanks, Cheetah tank destroyers), in large quantities or more than 10,000 (ME-109 fighters, Stuka dive bombers), or even tens of thousands (such as Sherman tanks and T-34 tanks). Compared with these small toys that roll off the assembly line in a month as soon as the production line is opened, the number of naval ships, especially large and medium-sized ships, has reached dozens, which is already a large batch of manufacturing, especially for ships with large tonnage.

In this book, in the history of the alternate sky, the Selena-class cruiser, such a warship, built 366 ships, and the improved version built 144 ships. Such a medium ship with a displacement of 2000 tons (it was large at the time) was built 510 in just a few years, and a large number of other ships were produced during this time, can you believe it? Also, "in the final stage of the war, a cruiser will be built in a month", this is not clear??!!

As for whether you believe it or not, I believe it anyway. It's not foolish at all, it's completely in line with the reality of the time. Because the industrial countries at that time did have the strength to build these warships in a short time.

This chapter will tell you how in that era it was possible to quickly and competently manufacture all kinds of large weapons and equipment in large quantities at extremely low single unit prices.

Let's first look at the shipbuilding capacity of major countries after the end of the industrial revolution, it doesn't have to be too developed and too strong countries, the data of the small and strong United States at that time can be, and I can't find anything else.

"In the first half of the 19th century, American shipbuilding began to transition from sailing ships to steam ships, from wood-hulled ships to iron-hulled ships, and from paddle steamers to propeller ships. The river vessel "Clémont", built in 1807, was the first steam-engine ship of commercial value; The "Demaraugus", built in 1814, was one of the world's first steam-engine warships; In 1834~1838, the first batch of iron-hulled ships with steam engines were built; The USS Michigan, built in 1842, was the first iron-hulled warship in the United States; The USS Water Witch, built in 1843, was the first ship in the United States to use a propeller. Technically, before 1880, shipbuilding in the United States relied mainly on the experience of craftsmen, and scientific shipbuilding technology appeared in the late 19th century at the same time as steel-hulled ships.

During the Civil War, the shipyards of the American North played an important role in the construction of the Northern Navy. In early 1862, the first American armored ship, the USS Surveillance, was launched at Cape Brooklyn. This world's first well-designed cruiser showed its might in the naval battle against the Yugoslav Army. During the 10-year Civil War, the shipbuilding output of American shipyards reached its peak, and in 1855 the output had reached 2,024 ships, about 590,000 tons, four times that before the Civil War, and the average tonnage of ships had reached 290 tons. Since then, the United States has become one of the world's major shipbuilding countries. ”

"In 1855 production had reached 2,024 ships and about 590,000 tons, four times that before the Civil War, and the average tonnage of ships had reached 290 tons"

Obviously, it was not the strongest at that time, and the United States built these warships at that time. What about building a central continental power that started with a navy? This yield is no problem.

The next step is cheap and fast manufacturing. I would like to talk about one technology, which is related to aircraft. (The technology of building airplanes instead of shipbuilding seems a bit outrageous.) ）

"There is one such aircraft in the history of warfare, the DH-98 fighter-bomber, which is the famous Mosquito fighter, which is a wooden light bomber designed and built by de Havilland. The main structure of the mosquito bomber is wooden, so it is as light as a swallow, not only has excellent performance and speed, but also has low price and saves raw materials, and has quickly become an outstanding model with quite characteristics. In World War II, the Mosquito bomber was mass-produced, modified, and became a multi-functional aircraft due to its high survival rate and excellent performance. Throughout the war, the Mosquito bomber set the best record for the combat survival rate of a RAF bomber. The "Mosquito" aircraft is the pride of the British, and it is also a generation of famous aircraft full of legends.

Jeffrey de Havilland was another designer who felt that the traditional approach to designing the P.13/36 would only make for a mediocre bomber, which also needed a sleek aerodynamic shape and minimal skin area to achieve high speeds. So de Havilland also began research on fast bombers, starting with the design of the "Albatross" to save time. In April 1938, de Havilland made a performance estimate of the configuration of two Rolls-Royce "Greyback Falcon" V-shaped 12-cylinder liquid-cooled engines, and then included the Bristol "Hercules" and Napier "Sabre" engines as alternatives. On 7 July, Jeffrey de Havilland sent a letter to Lieutenant General Wilfred Freeman, who was in charge of research and development in the Air Force Council, discussing the technical specifications of the aircraft and proposing that in the event of war, there would be a shortage of aluminum and steel, and that the only thing that would not be restricted was wood, which, although its torsional resistance was not good, had the same strength-to-weight ratio as that of Dura aluminum and steel, and he believed that it was entirely feasible to design a bomber made of non-strategic materials. Sir Wilfried Freeman, who was arguably an ally of de Havilland's Air Force Department, formed a friendship with Jeffrey de Havilland during the First World War, and was a member of the Air Force Council at the time, advising the government on aviation matters. Vice Admiral Freeman was a visionary who understood and appreciated the concept of a fast bomber and, more importantly, was willing and able to challenge stubborn conventional thinking.

The elliptical-section fuselage of the "Mosquito" is the same monocoque structure as the "Albatross", and there is no other reinforcing structure inside except for the partition frame, such as the longitudinal beams and trusses of the all-metal semi-monocoque fuselage. The body of the "Mosquito" is made of high-strength laminated plywood, which is about 11 mm thick, with an inner and outer layer of Canadian birch about 2 mm thick, and an Ecuadorian balsa sandwich (also known as bashar wood) in the middle. The fuselage is divided into two halves and manufactured separately, first embedding the reinforcing wood boards and strips in the correct position on the mahogany or concrete male mold, then coating casein glue and pasting the cut laminated plywood, and finally fixing it with a belt and waiting for the glue to solidify the fuselage hard shell can be taken out of the mold as a whole, and then glued to the fuselage partition frame. The "mosquito" fuselage is tapered from head to tail, and the interior is divided into 7 compartments by spruce wood sandwich plywood partitions, with the No. 7 bulkhead carrying the flat tail and the vertical tail. The skin of the fuselage and the bulkhead is reinforced with spruce wood sandwich plywood, and spruce wood sandwich plywood is also used around the hatch and wing roots around the corner.

The body of the "Mosquito" is formed by this thin laminated plywood, with an inner and outer layer of Canadian birch and an Ecuadorian balsa wood core in the middle.

Splitting the fuselage into left and right halves like a model also facilitates the installation of the equipment, and many key systems can be installed before the fuselage is glued, eliminating the need for workers to climb in and drill in and out of the final assembly like traditional aircraft, speeding up the assembly process. After installing the equipment, the two halves of the fuselage can be butted and closed, and the butt of the fuselage is made of spruce laminate, and the butt surface is a V-shaped occlusion. First, the fuselage is bolted together and glued, and finally plywood is glued to the inner and outer surfaces of the butt to strengthen the skin. In the early days of trial production, it was a chore to close the fuselage due to manufacturing tolerances, but later as the process was perfected, this problem disappeared. The glued fuselage is coated with a layer of Mada Pram cloth (a fine muslin cloth), and then large openings are sawed out at the center of gravity to mount the wings, and metal wing mounting points are attached to the four corners of the openings, at which point the openings and hatches in the fuselage are sawed out. It's also easy to modify the body, and the only tool you'll need is a saw. ”

We use the hull technology of aircraft on warships. Well, the expensive and time-consuming wooden shell of a warship can be solved quickly. The steel materials inside the ship are all factory standardized products, and the more industrial products there are, the cheaper they are.

With abundant production capacity, cheap materials, and lack of construction technology, the so-called method of increasing speed and reducing costs in the production process - industrial production process.

We start according to the model of modern factory mass production.

The modern shipbuilding industry calculates the construction of ships from the completion of the design, and the construction of ships is generally divided into the following processes:

1. Production design, procurement of related materials and equipment

This process is generally done by shipyards, but now some design units also have the ability to produce designs. The quality of production design is directly related to the progress and quality of ship production. In addition, the shipyard's purchasing department must order the main engine and other accessories from other equipment manufacturers. When bidding, you can set the threshold.

2. Processing of plates and profiles

Specifically, it is divided into: lofting, pretreatment of plates and profiles, blanking and forming processing. The drawings are ready-made, according to the model of the Mosquito bomber, very simple.

3. Segmented assembly

This process is a lot of work, mainly in the workshop to connect the profiles and plates into sections, and then transport these sections to the site on a flatbed truck. It's easy to divide it into multiple small workshops.

4. The hull is closed

It is to combine the sections on the slipway and in the dock to form a ship. This process is relatively difficult, and the relocation of labor to the capital is also very high. This process involves a large number of lifting and connecting operations, because of the high equipment requirements, the process is a bottleneck in the production of ships. Fortunately, the tonnage of these ships is not large.

5. Launching (such a small warship, the technology is very mature, there will be no problems)

This process is the most dangerous in ship building, and in the event of an accident, the entire ship is scrapped. There's not much to say about the specific process.

6. Wharf outfitting

Loading pipes, valves and other large equipment and finishing materials on board. This process involves the most specializations, and it is the most chaotic and accident-prone process in ship building. (This is a cannon fodder warship, everything is simple)

7. Test delivery (this is simpler, directly received the ship)

It includes mooring tests and navigation tests, which mainly test the performance data of all aspects of the ship after the actual construction is completed.

2, 3, 4 parts of the same boat can be carried out at the same time, which again saves time.

The construction process adopts a standardized manufacturing system and a specialized modular division of labor system. "The company provides the drawings of the ship, the company supplies the materials for the ship, the company supplies the ship's engine equipment, the company provides everything needed to build the ship. The shipyard's business is just to assemble according to the drawings, report the progress of the construction period, and collect money. "According to this model, it can be said that at the final stage of the war, a cruiser was built in a month. It's not blown. This is called factory production, making missiles like sausages and warships like dumplings. The output is there, and our fleet on the front line has maintained absolute numerical superiority over the enemy from beginning to end. This huge output is due to the standardized manufacturing system and specialized modular division of labor. In addition, the initial drawings of the ship are indeed good enough, and the ship designers have played an irreplaceable role in resolutely implementing the core design idea of simplification and practicality. "Simplicity is beauty, simplicity brings victory", Bellenko conveys this truth to us from beginning to end in his book "Inside the Soviet Army". The truth of victory!!

Addendum: Data on the participating ships of the United Imperial Navy of San Roman, Santa Sunia

Odessa-class large battleship: displacement 10,600 tons, length 132 meters, width 17.8 meters, average draft 6.2 meters, maximum draft 6.8 meters, design horsepower 12,200 horsepower, speed 16.5 knots, endurance 6,000 nautical miles / 10 knots, coal carrying capacity 1,800 tons. Caliber of the main gun: 320mm/L40 two, one front and one main gun. Secondary guns, 10 150mm, 6 57mm rapid-fire machine guns, arranged on both sides. The original plan was to build 16 ships of this class, but due to problems such as unreasonable design and weak allocation of main gun firepower, only 5 ships were started in total, only two were built, and the other three hulls were converted into heavy cruisers.

Penguin-class pocket battleship: displacement of 4,800 tons, length of 102 meters, width of 15.6 meters, average draft of 6 meters, maximum draft of 6.8 meters, design horsepower of 6,200 horsepower, speed of 16.5 knots, endurance of 6,000 nautical miles/10 knots, coal carrying capacity of 800 tons. The caliber of the main gun: 320mm/L38, the simplified position of the main gun is in the middle, causing the bridge to be seriously backward. Secondary guns, 8 120mm, 4 57mm rapid-fire machine guns, arranged on both sides of the hull, and two 120mm secondary guns on the rear deck are arranged on both sides as tail guns. A total of 36 ships of this class are planned to be built, and all of them are planned to be completed.

Storm-class escort battleship: displacement of 3,300 tons, length of 98.6 meters, width of 12 meters, draft of 6 meters, horsepower of 3,600 horsepower, speed of 15 knots, crew of 220 people, 13 guns, 3 203mm main guns, front and rear layout, 6 120mm secondary guns, 4 57mm rapid-fire machine guns. A total of 45 ships of this class were built.

Zorro-class fast gunboat: iron-ribbed wooden hull, displacement of 450 tons, hull length of 47 meters, width of 7.5 meters, depth of 4.4 meters, draft of 3.5 meters, 800 horsepower, speed of about 22.5 knots. Equipped with 2 150mm guns (twin front main guns) and 4 57mm rapid-fire machine guns; Crew 70 people. A total of 280 ships of this class were built. (Towed to the war zone by ocean-going transport ships, 21 ships were lost due to cable disconnection and drifting away with the current.) ）

Selena-class cruiser: Iron-ribbed wooden hull, displacement of 1,300 tons, length of 86 meters, width of 11 meters, depth of 7.6 meters, draft of 4.3 meters, 1,500 horsepower, speed of 16 knots. Armament of 2 150-mm guns (twin front main guns), 4 120-mm guns (layout on both sides), two torpedo tubes; The crew is 160 people. A total of 366 ships of this class were built.

Selena II: 1,300 tons of displacement, 86 meters long, 11 meters wide, 7.6 meters deep, 4.3 meters draft, 1,500 horsepower, 16 knots. Armed with 2 150-mm guns (twin forward guns), 8 torpedo tubes; The crew is 130 people. A total of 144 ships of this class were built.

Crab-class armed personnel carrier: all-iron-hulled structure multi-purpose transport ship, double-deck, Chase cabin layout, length of 110 meters, width of 18 meters, depth of 7.7 meters, draft of 5.6 meters, full load displacement of 3,800 tons, can accommodate 1,800 infantry, 3,600 horsepower, speed of 15 knots, equipped with two 57 mm guns. A total of 320 ships of this class were built.

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