Even if the Western powers did not yet know about the changes in armor materials and did not know the ultimate speed when the strong pressure ventilation was turned on, the basic parameters of the Sage-class battlecruisers were enough to shock them deeply. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The British Royal Navy's high hopes for the new armored cruiser Crécy-class were outdated before they were completely completed, and the tonnage, range, speed, and firepower that were disclosed to the public could not be compared with the Saint-class battlecruisers, and the performance of armor protection without disclosure was also inferior. Not only was this the case for the cruisers, but even the new battleship "Old Man Star", which was designed and built at the same time, had little chance of winning head-to-head, because its main gun firepower was less than half that of the Saint-class battlecruisers......

Unlike Li Hui, who focused on salvo ability, British warship designers preferred to increase firepower as much as possible, so even if they followed the trend and adopted a diamond-shaped main gun layout, the four turrets were not exactly the same as the Chinese capital ships, but the front and rear main guns were selected with larger caliber 305mm main guns, and the main guns used on both sides were 10-inch rapid-fire guns (one twin main turret on the left and right), called the second stage main gun, and the diamond-shaped layout used by the French was basically like this.

It seems that a smaller second-class main gun is a good idea, because this can partially eliminate the limitation of the diamond-shaped layout on the power of the main gun, but even with the use of a fully armored turret, the rate of fire of the 305mm naval gun is less than 1 round/min, which is not comparable to the 275mm main gun with a maximum rate of fire of up to 3 rounds per minute.

The first-level main gun is still like this, not to mention the second-level main gun, although it is known as a rapid-fire gun, but the maximum rate of fire is only 1.5 rounds / min, which is really only worthy of being used as a second-level main gun, compared with the 275mm main gun of the saint-level battle patrol, the gap is even greater......

Attentive readers may have noticed that the second-class main gun of the "Old Man" class battleship is the main gun used by the British Centurion-class second-class battleship that was completely destroyed before, and the 305mm main gun is also the same type as the main gun of the Majere-class battleship. It's been all these years, haven't the British developed a rapid-fire gun with a larger caliber?

Well, this is really not, after the caliber is large to a certain extent, it is not so easy to greatly increase the rate of fire, except for the French, who have a deep background in artillery design, other countries can only improve step by step, and the United Kingdom did not finally launch a more advanced 305mm naval gun and 254mm naval gun until a few months ago, but the maximum rate of fire is only 1 round / min and 2 rounds / min, which is not a real rapid-fire gun. And even such a transitional product is unlikely to be used on the two new capital ships that are about to be completed. Because in reality, the hull can only be designed according to the existing subsystem, it is impossible to design the hull first, and then adjust it in the construction process to replace it with a new subsystem, which is the unique advantage of Li Hui's system, for the capital ship with a long construction cycle, this alone can get a few more years of technological leadership, which is also an important reason why Li Hui insists on directly using the system to build the capital ship, the speed of construction in the dock is too slow, if it is during the war, even if it is a world war, it is generally too late to make up 1~2 batchesHow does this work?

It is precisely for this reason that it is difficult for warship design to be too forward-looking, and it is often a cycle of "discovering problems ~ new ship types making improvements ~ new problems appearing in the changes of the times".

The design of the two-stage main gun is a typical example, as far as the immediate needs are concerned, it is a little useful, but as the warship engages farther and farther, modern gunnongry that focuses on salvo rather than separate battles will eventually appear, and this two-stage main gun combination that cannot be salvo will immediately become obsolete, and Li Hui would rather waste a little space and load to ensure that all the main guns are the same model, and it is precisely as a traverser who has long understood this.

As early as the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, due to the teaching of those biochemical soldiers, the Chinese Navy has mastered the ultimate in modern artillery skills, and not long after the British Royal Navy's fiasco in the naval battle in the Indian Ocean, it was also triggered by Colonel Scott of the Mediterranean Fleet A revolution in naval artillery, through continuous aiming greatly improved the accuracy of rapid-fire artillery close-range shelling, simulation training methods greatly saved the cost of naval gunnery training, optical sights and optical rangefinders improved the accuracy of artillery at longer distances, The level of gunnery of the British Royal Navy has been reborn, although there is still a certain gap with the Chinese Navy, but it is already very limited, and this gap continues to narrow......

It is also worth mentioning that Colonel Scott also told the Americans about these inventions without reservation, as he did in history. This has also brought about a qualitative change in the US Navy's artillery skills, because the original level is too poor, the improvement in artillery skills is even greater than that of the British Royal Navy in relative terms, and the artillery hit rate in training has generally increased more than ten times compared with before, and the most can even reach dozens of times!

However, whether it is the British Navy or the American Navy, the improvement in gunnery brought about by this artillery revolution is limited to a relatively close distance, and the situation is different when the warships are engaged at a distance of five or six thousand meters, or even more.

Because of the distance, the calibration became indispensable, and if each gun was to be fired one by one, in order to prevent the water column from being confused, it was necessary to fire one by one in a strict order, which would waste a lot of time, and it was impossible to do so in actual combat, so salvo fire became the only solution. And in salvo mode, the more single caliber the guns on the ship, the better, because there can only be one type of gun for salvo fire, so that the secondary main gun is almost the same as none in long-range artillery battles, and the losses are too great......

Even the new capital ships of Britain are far from being able to compete with the Saint-class battle cruisers, not to mention those of other countries, the performance of German warships is still a lot worse, the French have no money to build them, Tsarist Russia has a weak industrial base, as for Italy, the capital ships of the previous generation have just built the lead ship, well, it is the capital ship of the previous generation before the Sino-Japanese War......

If there is only excellent performance, the navies of Western countries can still accept it, but Li Hui has always been mass-produced, and he built 8 ships at once, which suddenly made the shipbuilding competition that had already quietly started more and more intense...... (To be continued.) )