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Chapter 424 China Aegis Air Defense Heavy Cruiser

cruiser

Compared with the Chinese Empire's army armor three swords, the equipment renewal of the Chinese Imperial Navy has been stagnant for three consecutive years. Pen, Fun, Pavilion www.biquge.info╔╗ (Genius can remember in just 3 seconds)

Since Guanghua's thirteen-year Ming-class super battleship plan, the construction plan of the imperial navy's main battleship has been suspended, and the design drawings of the Qing-class battleship equipped with a 19-inch main gun have been shelved, although the 19-inch 45 times diameter super shipboard main gun has been successfully developed, but the construction budget has not been approved for a long time.

In the face of protests from Imperial Navy officials, Congress reluctantly approved a budget for the construction of the Emeishan-class aircraft carrier and supporting frigates, submarines, and supply ships. However, on the issue of Qing-class super battleships, Congress has never let go.

There is only one reason, that is, the construction budget of the Qing-class battleship is huge, and a Qing-class battleship is planned to cost 65 million dragon coins, which is enough to build an aircraft carrier battle group. The Sino-Japanese Battle of the East Ocean and the Battle of Anglo-German Jutland showed that naval aviation is a growing threat to the main fleet, and the role of an aircraft carrier battle group is far greater than that of a super battleship.

The Imperial Navy argued with reason, but it did not seem to have a strong convincing power, and it was slow to change the attitude of the members of Congress.

The navy was unable to obtain orders for battleships, which led to the inability of many imperial shipbuilding industries to obtain orders, which affected the dissatisfaction of a considerable part of the shipbuilding industry giants. To this end, more than 20 of the world's top shipbuilding giants, such as Shanghai Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd. and Royal Shipbuilding Heavy Industry, gathered at the Admiralty Department to discuss countermeasures with the Imperial Navy.

Although these shipbuilding giants could exert influence over a subset of the Reichstag, they were only a minority and could not get the shipbuilding budget passed.

The main problem was entangled in the lack of air defense strength of the main battleship formation, which led to the fact that the fleet was unable to complete the decisive battle mission of the main force of the fleet under the attack and harassment of the carrier-based aircraft of the aircraft carrier battle group, and was even severely damaged by the enemy's capital ships fishing in troubled waters.

As a result, Deng Shichang, Minister of the Admiralty, led the Naval Equipment Committee with financial support from the major shipbuilding giants, made every effort to develop a weapon platform with strong air defense capabilities to offset the threat of the aircraft carrier battle group to the main battleship formation. ╔╗

Admiralty officials went to the Forbidden City again and again to annoy Wang Chenhao, asking Wang Chenhao to exert influence on Congress and continue to maintain the dominance of battleships in the navy. Although Wang Chenhao is well aware that the aircraft carrier battle group will become the leading force of the navy for a period of time in the future, the doctrine of giant ships and artillery is deeply rooted in the traditional thinking of the navy, and the power of the BB party is huge, so it is unrealistic to ask these naval commanders to change their concepts in a short period of time.

Therefore, Wang Chenhao chose to give them a chance to prove that the giant ship cannon is still the dominant force in the navy. If they can't prove it, then they will have to obediently give way to the CV party, which represents the aircraft carrier forces.

But what Wang Chenhao never expected was that the emaciated camel was bigger than the horse, and he underestimated the firm belief of this group of BB parties too much, so that in the 16 years of Guanghua's naval exercises, the Navy BB Party launched a powerful fleet air defense fire tactic, so that the Navy CV Party was caught off guard, and the exercise finally won with the giant ship cannon doctrine led by the Navy BB Party, and continued to dominate the Chinese Imperial Navy.

During the Rim of the Pacific exercise held in April of the 16th year of Guanghua, the Navy BB Party launched a powerful fleet air defense cruiser, and its anti-aircraft firepower was so powerful that the aircraft carrier battle group led by the Navy CV Party could not break through its air defense fire network and could not effectively attack and harass the battleship formation.

This large-scale naval exercise once again demonstrated the power of the giant ship artillery doctrine, and proved that it is still not outdated and is still the leading force in the navy.

Even after Wang Chenhao learned of the results of the exercise, he could not help but admire the unwavering conviction of the Navy BB Party, and the powerful air defense cruiser they launched amazed Wang Chenhao and the congressmen.

In RIMPAC exercises, the Navy's BB Party defeated the Navy's CV Party with the Vulcan Phalanx system, which was developed by the Naval Armament Committee for three years, and the Phalanx system has a powerful firepower output, and the dense shells fired in a short period of time can turn any aircraft that wants to break through it into a turkey. ╔╗

Codenamed MK-16, the Vulcan Phalanx consists of a 25-ton U-shaped rotating turret and four Gatling cannons.

Four Gatling guns are located side by side on both sides, each Gatling cannon is a six-barreled, single-barreled 20 mm caliber 65 times the diameter, firing 20 mm armor-piercing and blasting shells. The maximum firing range is 8000 meters, the effective firing range is 4000 meters, the effective firing height is 1800 meters, and the maximum firing height is 3000 meters.

The entire MK16 Vulcan Phalanx is equipped with 4,000 rounds of ammunition, and each Gatling cannon is equipped with 1,000 rounds of ammunition, which are divided into four side-by-side drawer ammunition boxes, and the ammunition supply is managed by two secondary shooters.

Behind the cantilever on both sides of the U-shaped turret are four drawer-type ammunition boxes, and the operator sits in the concave surface of the U-shaped turret, and controls a shooting button for each hand on the left and right, and in front of it is a shield, above which is mounted a fence-type firing trap net and a telescope. The invention of the dense position net comes from the dense position point on the sniper mirror reticle used by the sniper, which can provide the shooter with the shooting parameters and advance amount of the enemy aircraft within 10 kilometers, and the skilled shooter can lock the position of the enemy aircraft by virtue of the dense position net as long as the enemy plane attacks the distance and speed, and fire quickly, which greatly improves the shooting accuracy. The telescope can provide the shooter with the opportunity to observe the ballistic trajectory of the phalanx and confirm whether it has hit an enemy aircraft, so that the direction of fire can be quickly corrected.

At the same time, there is a simplified version of the anti-air search fire control radar above the center of the U-shaped body, which has a search distance of 20 kilometers for targets with a radar cross-section of more than 5 square meters and an altitude of 1,000 meters, with a maximum error of 2 meters within 500 meters and a maximum error of 300 meters outside 20 kilometers.

Because the radar technology of the Chinese Empire was just in its infancy, the equipment was rudimentary, and the accuracy was poor, the anti-aircraft fire control radar could only provide early warning for the shooters and determine the approximate number, direction, and direction of the enemy planes.

Because the enemy aircraft is a fast-moving target in the air, it is difficult for a Gatling cannon to lock the position of the enemy aircraft, so the MK16 Vulcan Phalanx designed four Gatling guns with parallel upper and lower levels, and firing at the same time will instantly arrange an insurmountable fire network in front of the enemy aircraft. ╔╗

The appearance of the entire Vulcan Phalanx looks like a weapon from a science fiction movie, and in order to pursue a powerful anti-aircraft firepower output, the Imperial Naval Armament Committee has painstakingly created the MK16 Vulcan Phalanx air defense weapon system.

The reason why the Gatling machine gun was used instead of the traditional side-by-side M2 heavy machine gun was mainly because anti-aircraft fire required a large number of shells to be poured out in a short period of time, forming an impenetrable fire network for enemy aircraft. However, the rate of fire of the traditional single-barreled heavy machine gun is at the bottom, relying on short point fire to control the shooting accuracy, which does not meet the basic requirements for anti-aircraft shooting.

The maximum rate of fire of the traditional Gatling cannon is only 1200 rounds per minute, mainly because once the rate of fire of the air-guided bolt system exceeds 800 rounds per minute, the system failure rate rises sharply, which is also the biggest bottleneck problem of all single-barreled machine guns.

In order to solve this problem, the Imperial Chinese Naval Armament Committee invited many weapons experts to discuss, but none of them achieved significant results, and the rate of fire of the Gatling cannon reached 1400 rounds per minute, and it encountered a bottleneck.

In the end, when the emperor Wang Chenhao inspected the equipment department, in response to this bottleneck problem, Wang Chenhao immediately thought of the solution of later generations, that is, instead of relying on the recoil of the bolt itself to provide energy, instead use an external power supply to drive the bolt to rotate, so as to solve the shortcomings of the unstable airtightness of the airtight conductive bolt, and the electric drive can make the Gatling gun get stable energy.

Wang Chenhao's words immediately made all the gunsmiths involved in the design of the Gatling cannon pause, and immediately according to the spirit of Wang Chenhao's instructions, they gave up relying on the recoil of the Gatling cannon itself to provide rotational energy, and used an external high-power power supply to provide rotational energy. Under the guidance of this advanced concept, the designers of the Naval Armament Committee finally broke through the bottleneck of the rate of fire of the traditional Gatling gun, and developed the Gatling gun of the Vulcan Phalanx with a rate of fire of 3,600 rounds per minute, becoming a veritable god of firepower.

The appearance of the MK16 Vulcan Phalanx has excited the Navy BB party, as they have finally found a fleet air defense weapon system that can be used to stop J-6 fighters and H2 bombers from breaking their defenses.

However, the Vulcan Phalanx alone is not enough to deal with the saturation attack of hundreds of combat aircraft in the aircraft carrier battle group. Therefore, the air defense battleship based on the MK16 Vulcan phalanx suddenly surfaced.

Taking into account the fact that small-tonnage air defense destroyers could not be massively equipped with the Mk16 Vulcan Phalanx system, the Naval Armament Committee for the first time designed a new air defense cruiser. At this time, the tonnage of the light cruisers of the Imperial Chinese Navy was almost the same as that of the destroyers, so the heavy responsibility of the air defense cruisers of the fleet fell on the heavy cruisers.

At this time, the air defense cruisers of the Chinese Imperial Navy were all large armored cruisers converted from the captured Russia and the British first-class cruisers, and large-scale anti-aircraft artillery modifications had been carried out before, and the structural layout of the traditional large armored cruisers and first-class cruisers was not ideal, and the space for remodification and upgrading was limited, which was not suitable for the installation of the Vulcan phalanx system.

Due to the ultra-high rate of fire of the Vulcan Phalanx system, the requirements for the amount and speed of bomb supply are extremely high, so the current bomb supply system of the heavy cruisers of the Chinese Empire cannot support the ammunition consumption of the Vulcan Phalanx, and the bomb supply system is also the layout of the last century, which is already too far behind.

Eventually, the Naval Armament Committee squeezed some of the project funds from the Navy's funds to build a completely new concept of anti-aircraft heavy cruisers.

The design code of the new air defense heavy cruiser is TD2098, and the Navy intends to classify it as a Typhoon-class air defense heavy cruiser.

The Typhoon-class air defense heavy cruiser has a design standard displacement of 15,200 tons, using a single-chimney and flat-deck appearance. For the first time, the multi-chimney layout was abandoned on a heavy cruiser-class battleship, which helped to save deck space for more weapons, while also reducing the length of the armor belt and saving weight.

In the same way, the Imperial Chinese Naval Armament Committee did not abandon the traditional artillery system, despite the Phalanx weapon system, but the traditional main gun and the high-level rapid-fire rapid-fire gun, which led to the fact that the length of the hull of the Typhoon-class air defense cruiser exceeded 200 meters. With a length of 205.3 meters, a width of 21.6 meters, and a draft of 7.3 meters, it exceeds the size of all heavy cruisers in the Chinese Empire, and is also the longest in the field of heavy cruisers in the world.

Although it is the standard of a heavy cruiser, as an air defense cruiser, the armor requirements are not high, the total armor weight is only 2119 tons, and the maximum armor is only 150 mm thick. ╔╗The design principles of the mature Windcatcher-class heavy cruiser are used for the design of the internal compartment of the hull. Each boiler has separate compartments. The transverse armor waterproof bulkhead divides the entire interior of the armor box into 6 main compartments. Based on the actual experience of wartime air defense ships, the original design of 100,000 horsepower output was modified to 120,000 horsepower to achieve a maximum speed of 33 knots, as a necessity for cooperating with Ming-class battleships and Emeishan-class aircraft carriers.

The main gun system uses four triple 203 mm 55 times radial rapid-fire main guns, piggyback design, and rotating turret. Because the triple turret is more compact and the design does not require it to be capable of firing into the air, there is less of a complex pitching system and much less weight. Each gun has its own ammunition lifter, which uses a hydraulically actuated pitching system to achieve an elevation angle of up to 78 degrees. The main purpose was to achieve a high rate of fire at high elevation angles and a high maneuver capability, but this required the installation of a complex pitch gyroscope and a bomb feeding mechanism, which made the turret weigh more than 200 tons.

Commanding the 12 powerful 203 mm 55 x diameter high-level rapid-fire guns were four MP 15-year-old design commanders, one mounted on the roof of the fore and one on the front and one on the bridge and one symmetrically between the chimneys on either side of the hull. The MP15 commander has both anti-aircraft and anti-aircraft firing functions, and is equipped with an air-to-sea search radar.

The effective search and tracking distance of the air is 41,000 meters, the sea is 37,000 meters, and the azimuth error is about 20 meters and about 4 denses. Of course, the 4.6-meter optical rangefinder, which is the main detection equipment and ranging device, is still in a dominant position despite the competition of radar.

Traditional close-quarters air-to-sea firepower consists of 12 3-pack 37-mm rapid-fire guns and 20 20-mm twin-mounted guns.

The newly designed Typhoon-class air defense heavy cruisers have all of these eliminated and replaced them with 36-seat MK16 Vulcan Phalanx. It is installed in three parts, the first part is located on the main deck, and 20 MK16 Vulcan phalanx are arranged, located on both sides of the ship's amidships, evenly and symmetrically arranged. The second part is located on the secondary deck platform, with 4 on the left and right, and 1 in the front and rear. The third part is located on the island of the ship, one in the front and one in the front, and two on the left and right.

The installation of the 36-seat MK16 Vulcan Phalanx weapon system has quite amazing firepower, and its firepower is so dense that it is difficult for any aircraft in the world to safely cross the mineline line, and the name Typhoon air defense cruiser is worthy of its name.

The Imperial Chinese Admiralty embezzled other shipbuilding funds and built six Typhoon-class air defense heavy cruisers in Guanghua between the 14th and 15th years. During the 16 years of Guanghua's Rim of the Pacific exercise, six Typhoon-class air defense heavy cruisers successfully intercepted the carrier-based aircraft attack of the 6th Aircraft Carrier Battle Group on the 1st Battleship Squadron and successfully protected the 1st Battleship Squadron. Subsequently, the 1st Battleship Squadron locked on to the position of the 6th Carrier Battle Group through the radar system of the Ming-class battleships, and quickly destroyed it, giving the Navy's BB side a victory.

After the exercise, the Chinese Emperor Wang Chenhao personally conferred the honorary title of the Typhoon-class air defense heavy cruiser "China Aegis." The Admiralty immediately took the matter of giving the China Aegis air defense cruiser to the Congress as an excuse to ask for funds for building the ship, and it quickly received the budget support from the Congress.

At the imperial meeting in April of the 16th year of Guanghua, Wang Chenhao presided over a meeting on the topic of the future development direction of the navy. At the meeting, the majority of naval officials who supported the doctrine of giant ships and artillery accounted for the majority, and in the end, the leaders of the BB Party, Deng Shichang, Lin Jianzhang, and others continued to serve as the chief officers of the navy, and the officials of the CV Party headed by Ye Zugui and Liu Guanxiong were still pressed, and the main force of the naval fleet was still centered on battleships, and aircraft carriers could only be in the status of auxiliary capital ships for the time being.

Although the BB Party used all their strength to drum up the Chinese Aegis Air Defense Cruiser, so that the Giant Ship Cannon Doctrine could continue to dominate the Imperial Chinese Navy, in the debate between the BB Party and the CV Party, the BB Party clearly felt the tremendous pressure and challenge from the CV Party.

Among them, Liu Guanxiong's words have made the BB party uneasy. Liu Guanxiong said in the imperial debate: "Although the carrier-based aircraft of our aircraft carrier battle group failed to break through the firepower network of the Aegis air defense cruisers during this exercise, this does not mean that the Chinese Aegis ships can forever block the attack of the carrier-based aircraft of our aircraft carrier battle group." Although we failed in this exercise, I found that there were still loopholes in the fire network of the Aegis air defense cruisers. ”

In his subsequent explanation, Liu Guanxiong believed that the current Mk16 Vulcan Phalanx of the Chinese Aegis air defense cruiser can indeed block the carrier-based fighters of the aircraft carrier battle group. However, he believes that with the rapid development of the air force of the Chinese Empire, the speed of the future carrier-based fighters will be increased by several times, and the maximum ceiling will be increased by several times, and once the speed of the carrier-based aircraft exceeds the protective limit of the Vulcan Phalanx, it will be possible to break through the Vulcan Phalanx, and at the same time, once the carrier-based aircraft climbs above 5,000 meters, it will enter the blind spot of the Chinese Aegis air defense cruiser, and the anti-aircraft fire will be invalid.

However, the BB party also quickly refuted, saying that the speed and altitude of the carrier-based aircraft have increased, and the Vulcan Dense Array of the Aegis air defense cruiser has also increased significantly, and the so-called magic height is one foot and one foot high.

This explanation temporarily suppressed the rebuttal of the CV party and won the debate war, but after the meeting, when Deng Shichang, Lin Jianzhang and others talked to Wang Chenhao, they clearly felt that Wang Chenhao's words were suspended, that is, in the next ten to twenty years, the aircraft carrier battle group will inevitably replace the battleship strike group, and the giant ship artillery doctrine will become obsolete.

Because Deng Shichang, Lin Jianzhang and others firmly believed in the words of His Majesty the Emperor, they understood that in the coming period, the situation that battleships would be replaced by aircraft carriers would become true, because they believed in Wang Chenhao's words and never thought it was wrong.

However, they were not discouraged, at least Wang Chenhao admitted that aircraft carriers could not replace the position of battleships in a short period of time.

After the imperial meeting, Wang Chenhao still rejected the plan to build a 19-inch Qing-class battleship, saying that it was not necessary for the time being. Although the United States, Britain and Germany are all building super-battleships with 17-inch guns, there is no sign that they have begun construction of super-battleships with 18-inch guns. Therefore, the Ming-class battleships in service in the Chinese Empire had an absolute advantage, and there was no need to waste money on building Qing-class battleships. At the same time, because the Chinese Empire has successfully developed a 19-inch cannon system, once it is discovered that foreign countries have begun to build super battleships with 18-inch guns, it is not too late for the Chinese Imperial Navy to immediately start construction of super battleships with 19-inch guns, and even when foreign countries start to build super battleships with 19-inch guns, it is not too late for the Chinese Imperial Navy to start building giant ships with 19-inch guns.

In the end, the Admiralty received a supplementary budget of 300 million dragon dollars for shipbuilding funds, approved the construction of 40 and 6 Chinese Aegis air defense heavy cruisers, and began to upgrade and refit the existing battleships, aircraft carriers, heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers, and installed the MK16 Vulcan phalanx system to the maximum extent without affecting the comprehensive combat effectiveness, so as to enhance the air defense capability of each ship itself. Because once the fire network arranged by the air defense cruiser is broken, at least the ships still have the ability to defend themselves against the air.

After discussion, the Admiralty decided to allocate 40 Aegis air defense heavy cruisers to the main fleets of the Imperial Chinese Navy, of which 24 were allocated to the Pacific Fleet and 16 to the Atlantic Fleet, and the Indian Ocean Fleet, the Mediterranean Fleet, and the Caribbean Fleet had no allocation plan for the time being, because these fleets did not have super battleships and aircraft carriers, and they were all old battleships and converted heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and hunting ships, which in themselves had little value. The purpose of deploying there was to swear to European and American countries that the existence of the naval power of the Chinese Empire was not a strategic threat, and it did not want to provoke other powers and keep a low profile.

The Pacific Fleet and the Atlantic Fleet were the main offensive forces of the Imperial Chinese Navy, and the importance of each capital ship was self-evident, so it was necessary to be protected by a large number of Aegis air defense cruisers.

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