The continued production of the Horton H1 flying wing bomber in China, as well as the continued bombing of major Japanese cities, brought the Japanese Empire into complete decline! Since factories and cities were severely damaged, and the number of dead and wounded reached hundreds of thousands, the Japanese government had too late to save itself, and how could it care about invading China, and besides, the army of the Japanese Empire was simply unable to invade China. Because most of its arsenals have been blown up, the army has no weapons to use, and even the jet fighters under development have run aground because of the bombing, and the aircraft factories have been destroyed, how can they be produced?

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Chinese army drove straight in, swept the Japanese army in the northeast, and recovered the entire northeast, and the Japanese Kwantung Army was forced to retreat to Korea.

At the 4th Stockholm International Defense Exhibition at the end of 1936, the Dragon Soul Ordnance Complex became the most powerful armament group in the world without dispute, and at the defense exhibition alone, it received 1.2 billion dollars in weapons orders! It has truly become a super armament group! No, it should be said that it is a super ordnance empire! Its position in the world arms market has been unshaken! It also has products not only in the aviation industry, but also in the army and navy, although the naval weapons are only just getting involved, fast gunboats are very popular, and submarines are also favored by many countries.

With these foundations and abundant capital, the Dragon Soul Ordnance Complex began to build larger warships again. This kind of warship is the 10,000-ton Horizon-class cruiser. Because Xiao Weiguo knows that the cruiser is the most important kind of ship in the history of the navy, its vitality is very strong, until the 21st century, the cruiser is still the main ship of the navy, it can accompany the aircraft carrier in the open sea operations, is the aircraft carrier's sword guard. As for the battleships. Xiao Weiguo will not build it, because battleships are originally a wrong route, and only aircraft carriers are the ultimate goal of future naval development. Not only was the battleship expensive to build, but with the development of naval aviation, especially jet fighters, it could only be withdrawn from the stage of history after all.

The design indicators of the cruiser of the Horizon were also high. It is positioned as a kind of ocean-going warship, which can accompany aircraft carriers in operations or operate independently, and plans to carry anti-ship missiles in the future, but it is still difficult to develop missiles at present. In the choice of ship type, it is also moving closer to the future. It has a long-bow silhouette with a straight and inclined bow and a bulbous nose sonar shroud under the bow. In order to prevent smoke damage from corroding weapons and electronic equipment, it is the first in the world to adopt an integrated structure of chimney and mast. As one of the components of the ship-to-air carrier formation, the Horizon class has the primary mission of air defense operations, followed by anti-submarine, and can be used to support amphibious operations.

So it is equipped with powerful firepower, especially anti-aircraft fire. A total of 12 Vulcan guns of 30 mm, 1 203 mm main gun, and 8 100 mm high-level dual-purpose guns were arranged on the ship. It has a length of 185 meters and a width of 19 meters. The draft is 6.5 meters, and the standard displacement is 9000 tons. Full load displacement 11500 tons. The power unit adopts two steam turbines and two gas turbines, with a total power of 50,000 kilowatts, and the steam turbine uses chromium-molybdenum and nickel alloy steel materials, which is suitable for working in the harsh environment of high temperature and high pressure, and is light in weight and good in reliability. Gas turbines start quickly and can be started in an emergency. It is also used as a power source for low-speed cruising.

In such a configuration, the Horizon-class cruiser has a maximum speed of 34 knots, a cruising range of 10,000 nautical miles / 16 knots, and a crew of 650 people. In addition to the powerful artillery configuration, it has four triple 533-mm torpedo launchers. and 2 Sea Tiger carrier-based helicopters under development. Of course, it is also the first warship to be equipped with a ship-based search radar.

In fact, at this time, the shipbuilding race had already begun.

After the end of World War I, the Royal Navy remained the most powerful maritime force in the world. For the Royal Navy, cruisers were the most useful type of ship. In the British Royal Navy, cruisers are usually tasked with accompanying fleet operations, providing reconnaissance for fleets, reinforcing and serving as destroyer squadron leaders and countering enemy cruisers.

In wartime cruisers were used to protect trade routes, and in peacetime they showed the British Empire throughout the world. These different missions required different types of cruisers, but because of the vast territory of the British Empire, these cruisers had to have a large endurance and good living conditions to accommodate the needs of ocean voyages. At that time there was a saying within the British Royal Navy: "Britain must not risk reducing the number of cruisers to less than 70 ships!" At the end of the First World War, there were 120 cruisers in service with the Royal Navy!

While the cruisers of the British Royal Navy were used to protect its vast interests across the globe, Japan, located in the East, expanded its own navy in order to seize those interests. If the Japanese Navy wants to win this scramble, their various warships will need to be more powerful than the comparable warships that their potential adversaries have. Japan's attempt has made the United States on the other side of the Pacific Ocean and Britain in Europe uneasy. In response to the Japanese challenge, they also threw themselves into this naval race.

Because the United States considered that its combat range would include the vast Pacific Ocean in future wars, and thus required cruisers to have extremely high endurance, the United States was more inclined to choose cruisers with a larger displacement. However, the increased tonnage of these cruisers was only used to increase their endurance, but not to increase their firepower, so as to achieve an advantage over the cruisers of the Japanese Navy. In the U.S. and Japanese navies, cruisers typically served reconnaissance, escorting other large warships and destroyers, and acting as small battleships. Interestingly, the construction of these new cruisers, which the United States and Japan began to build, was not entirely suitable for the above tasks. These new cruisers were designed simply to outperform their counterparts in terms of performance, not out of practical necessity.

The appearance of the Horizon-class cruiser broke the balance of the arms race at sea at once! In the mid-30s, thanks to the efforts of the British, the boom in the construction of heavy cruisers with 8-inch guns in various countries began to subside, and at the same time attention was turned back to light cruisers armed with 6-inch guns.

In the face of an increasing air threat, many countries began to build light cruisers with powerful air defense. The Royal Navy's Dedot-class anti-aircraft cruisers, built before the war and completed during the war, with new 130 mm high-level dual-purpose guns, were ideally suited for fighting in confined waters. These waters are often met with intensive attacks from the air and sea. The same type of warship built by the United States is a San Diego-class cruiser with a displacement of 6000 tons. The ships are armed with 16 127-mm high-level dual-purpose guns with a speed of 34 knots.

Of course, there is a big gap between these cruisers and the Horizon class. Whether it is in power or air defense, the Horizon class has a lot to win. In particular, the difference in anti-submarine capabilities is even greater, because the Horizon class will carry two Sea Tiger helicopters, which are powerful anti-submarine weapons! (To be continued.) )