"The results of the exercise have come out, so let's all share our opinions!"

As vice chairman of the Military Commission and People's Commissar of National Defense, although Frunze has been very low-key and even lacks a sense of self-esteem in recent years, he will still participate in large-scale exercises such as the fleet 1934. And after the results of the egg-wrenching exercise came out, only he, who had always adhered to neutrality, was suitable to break the silence.

As a result of the exercise, the top brass of the navy was shattered, especially those traditional big ships and huge artillery factions, who were almost speechless. The main guns of the six powerful battleships were sent to the bottom of the sea without firing a single shot, and the entire fleet looked vulnerable in the face of continuous air strikes. If it weren't for the director's decision to stop the exercise, the red fleet would have been completely annihilated, because when the blue battlecruisers arrived on the battlefield, the red side was left with only three light cruisers and a few destroyers.

"I think the director's setting is quite problematic, the hit rate of the torpedo machine cannot be so high, and the 25.6% torpedo hit rate is simply impossible in actual combat!"

The deputy commander of the Baltic Fleet, Vice Admiral Dushinov, strongly questioned this result, believing that the entire exercise was ridiculous.

But Arksnis, who was watching the battle, blocked Dushenov back with only one sentence: "But before Sukhoi's lads reached this hit rate in live fire, we can only speak based on objective facts." ”

Dushenov was still unconvinced: "It's really not a drill, and it is impossible for such a hit rate to occur in real combat!" ”

"This has nothing to do with whether it is real or not," Arksnes is quite defending the interests of Sukhoi, because this is actually safeguarding the interests of the Air Force. "The Red Fleet was a mess during the exercise. Do you expect them to be able to perform at a super level in actual combat? Red is played by his opponent from start to finish! ”

"It was just an accident!" Dushenov was still not convinced. "If it weren't for that cold snap, it would be absolutely impossible for the blue side to dodge!"

Alxnis still just smiled: "Is there no effect of the weather in actual combat?" Could it be that the Red Navy could only fight in good weather? ”

Dushenov's lips trembled twice, it was obvious that he was choked with anger, but who made Arxnis tell the truth! Is there no accident in the war, there is no influence of the climate, just as he said, if the current Red Navy is afraid that the combat capability in good weather is enough.

"I ask for another exercise, I believe that the next time the blue side will not be so lucky......"

Li Xiaofeng really couldn't help it, these stubborn old navy factions really didn't exist anymore. Thinking that with Stalin in their hands, they could be unscrupulous.

"You've already tried twice," Li Xiaofeng said coldly, "the first time you said you weren't prepared and that the enemy was too vile, and the second time, you blamed the weather and luck for your failure. I'm fed up with your attitude of shirking responsibility, and I don't think you realize that the root cause of your failure lies with yourselves, and that your conservatism and incompetence have been unable to keep up! ”

These words are quite heavy, especially since it is Li Xiaofeng who said this. Throughout the twenties and thirties, in the most difficult times for the Navy. It has always been Li Xiaofeng who has been campaigning for the Navy to solicit sponsorship and say good things for the Navy, and it can be said that the current situation of the entire Red Navy is absolutely inseparable from someone's support.

In fact, the Red Navy was also grateful to Li Xiaofeng, and even wanted to name the battleship Bavaria the Red Novgorod at one point, why Novgorod? Because this is the homeland of a certain immortal in Russia. Obviously, the Red Navy just wanted to curry favor with a certain immortal. However, at that time, Li Xiaofeng categorically refused, you must know that even Sverdlovsk and Stalingrad did not have the naming rights of the main ships of the Navy, how could he be in front, isn't this without political brains? What's more, Novgorod has a dime relationship with him, and after the crossing, he has not been there, what is the meaning of a so-called homeland on paper?

Of course, this shows how close a certain immortal is to the Red Navy, and now he almost unceremoniously denounces the incompetence of the Red Navy, how can the top brass of the Red Navy not be shocked? Even a little dazed.

However, Li Xiaofeng didn't care whether the high-level leaders of the Red Navy were dizzy or not, he continued to his own heart: "From this exercise, we can see the importance of naval aviation, no matter whether the torpedo planes have such a high hit rate in actual combat, we must clearly see one point, carrier-based aircraft are more flexible in use, and they also have the ability to determine the victory or defeat of the sea!" ”

Li Xiaofeng deliberately looked around, deliberately stared at Dushenov and Stalin and said: "The plane is no longer just a reconnaissance force on the battlefield...... Whoever can master the sky in the future will be able to win the war! ”

Dushenov wanted to refute, but he was a little lacking in confidence when he faced Li Xiaofeng, and Stalin beside him didn't say anything, just smoked and didn't even speak to his backers, so Dushenov naturally didn't dare to go up to find abuse.

So why didn't Stalin speak? Stalin was thinking about it, and to speak from his heart, the result of the exercise was so unexpected that the red side was almost completely annihilated, which was too far from the scene he expected. As a clever man, Stalin saw at a glance the reasons for the defeat of the Red Side, of course, there were elements of pride and weather and luck, but more importantly, the use of aviation weapons.

When the Red Fleet, which had escaped the cover circle of the fighters, was exposed to the threat of torpedo planes, their means of counterattack were very limited, and they could only maneuver at high speed and high angles in vain except for calling for support from land-based aircraft over and over again. It is true that the hit rate of torpedo planes could not be so high, but the exercises also proved that it is impossible to get out of the siege of enemy planes by maneuvering alone.

In other words, Stalin felt that what Li Xiaofeng said was right, that is, aircraft can indeed threaten the survival of capital ships, and after being separated from effective air protection, capital ships appear to be very passive in the face of air strikes. This also indirectly illustrates the truth that only by mastering the sky can we win the war.

In other words, Stalin believed that there was some truth in Li Xiaofeng's words, and as Li Xiaofeng said, the problem of the navy was more serious. In the face of the threat of enemy aircraft. When maneuvering at high speeds and angles. The Red fleet is in disarray. Waikman's orders could not be carried out at all, and the entire fleet turned into a plate of scattered sand!

What is even more infuriating is that there were two collision accidents during this maneuver, the Comintern and the Paris Commune collided together, and the latter was cut a dozen meters in the stern. This fully illustrates the problem that the officers and men of the Red Navy are quite capable of handling ships. This is just a drill, and it really has to be a real battle, in the face of torpedoes and bombs dropped by enemy planes. In the case of strafing by enemy planes, I am afraid that it will be even more unbearable.

Of course, there is another important reason why Stalin did not speak for Dushenov, that is, Li Xiaofeng did not go particularly excessive, someone did not say that the future boss of the Navy will be an aircraft carrier or an air force, let the battleships and cruisers all stand aside, and someone did not say such a thing. Someone came to the conclusion that aviation has the ability to decide victory or defeat in naval battles.

There are many weapons that have the ability to determine the defeat of the sea, and aviation is only one of them, and in Stalin's opinion, someone just wants to improve the status of naval aviation, but does not pronounce the death penalty of large ships and huge guns. Look at it from this point of view. He shouldn't be too impulsive.

Stalin's silence relieved Li Xiaofeng, who was really worried about Stalin's fierce opposition just now. Then things are complicated, but fortunately, steel still has a little reason and gives him face, which makes what he has to do next a lot easier.

"Of course, it is not difficult for us to see from the exercises that although the sea-based aviation forces have achieved good results, there are also many problems. For example, the performance of fighters is backward, for example, the types of fighters are uneven, and there are hidden worries about the low efficiency and frequent accidents in the use of aircraft carriers......"

This is also the truth, not to mention the poor performance of the fighter, whether it is the performance of the I-5K or T2B, it is really not good. Especially the latter, the speed is too slow, the maneuverability is not good, and the combat radius is too short, after completing the attack, on the way back, the T2B was hit head-on by the red land-based fighters, and 70 of the 80 torpedo planes were judged to be shot down, and the battle loss rate was close to 90%. As for the I-5K watch xiàn is not good, in the face of the new I-15 and I-16, the fighting can't escape and can't escape. Let's put it this way, the lads in Sukhoi were hunted with turkeys.

Not only is there a problem with the performance of the existing fighters, but even more seriously the problem is the lack of dive bombers on the carriers, and with the Lenin II nearing scrapping, Sukhoi has almost no dive bombers on hand. Previously, he had repeatedly called for the development of a new dive bomber for naval aviation. However, after these reports were handed over, they were either lost in the sea, or they were blocked by the Navy's top brass on the grounds of limited military spending. And this time, with Li Xiaofeng to help him speak, it is impossible for the navy antiques to gag him.

"Carrier-based fighters, torpedo planes, dive bombers, and carrier-based water reconnaissance planes must be updated, and the existing technical equipment is no longer sufficient to cope with future naval warfare. The Navy should update its aviation equipment in the next five years, the sooner the better! ”

With Li Xiaofeng's final decision, the renewal of naval aviation equipment is the trend of the times, but it still needs to go through some rhetoric on specific details. There is also a debate within the naval aviation faction about what kind of new fighter to develop.

Some people thought that the existing performance of the I-15 and I-16 was very good (at that time, the performance on paper was really good), and that the fighters on the aircraft carrier could completely use the naval versions of the I-15 and I-16.

However, Li Xiaofeng didn't like this method, even if this method could quickly get a new fighter, it would be more economical, but he just didn't like it.

Isn't it sick to equip two fighters on one aircraft carrier? Li Xiaofeng has always been very optimistic about the Air Force's thinking, according to the Air Force's thinking, the Yi-15 focuses on circling and fighting, and the Yi-16 is faster for volleying, and these two fighters will perfectly cope with any challenge when they are paired with combat.

But to tell the truth, such a sincere thing just looks beautiful, not to mention that in the early stage of the production of the Yi-15 and Yi-16, because the production of the M-25 engine was not up to par, the output was extremely limited, so we could only make do with the M-22 with less power.

Moreover, the aircraft designed by the designers of the I-15 and I-16 Polikarpov are particularly good at picking out the numbers, and Polikarpov is relatively backward in the Soviet aviation industry to catch up with the world-class level, and it is inevitable to sacrifice some performance, which is commonly known as going off the rails. Take the I-16, for example. At one time, it was the fastest flying fighter in the world at that time. But the price to pay for this is that the operability is not ideal. It is easy to get into the spiral when jumping, and it is often difficult for newcomers to handle the I-16 well.

Not only the I-16, but also the MiG-1 and MiG-3, which were later designed based on the Polykarpov I-200, are the kind of aircraft that have some desirable performance (such as speed), but rather poor handling performance.

Anyway, Li Xiaofeng didn't like the I-16 on the ship, originally the carrier-based aircraft had high requirements for flight quality, and they faced extremely high risks when taking off and landing on the aircraft carrier.

Li Xiaofeng prefers to redesign a real carrier-based fighter. Instead of picking up the rags of the Air Force, and the Air Force has no rags to pick up, because the localization of the Yi-15 and Yi-16 engines has not yet been completely completed, and the production is limited, it is not the turn of the Navy to worry about it at all.

Li Xiaofeng wants an all-metal monoplane fighter designed based on the French 12Ycrs engine, "the maximum flight speed of the new carrier-based fighter must not be less than 450 kilometers per hour, the wings must be foldable, and have good flight qualities......"

To be honest, when Li Xiaofeng said that his request was, the face of the naval aviation faction, including Sukhoi, was not too good. Because someone's requirements are too high, like the maximum speed of the first 450 km/h. This was not easy to achieve in 1934, because the maximum speed of the I-16-5, which was put into production in 1935, was only 454 km/h. Moreover, someone has very high requirements for flight qualities, especially the take-off and landing of fighters, which further increases the difficulty.

Even Polikarpov poured bitter water on these demands, thinking that someone was trying to make it difficult for him, but in the end the old designer still took on the challenge, and what Li Xiaofeng did not expect was that the final completion of the new carrier-based fighter gave him a surprise.

However, this is a later story for the time being, because the controversy about carrier-based fighters was only a topic at that time. The new carrier-based aircraft that needed to be designed also included torpedo bombers and dive bombers, both of which are still much debated and involve departments other than the military, such as the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs.

After hearing the news of the tender for the Navy's new torpedo planes and dive bombers, Acting People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Livinov immediately gave Lenin a proposal: "Torpedo planes and dive bombers can be purchased from the United States, and as far as I know, the US government also needs them!" ”

Is Litvinov telling the truth? Indeed, in June 1934, the U.S. government began bidding for the successor of the T4M torpedo machine, and finally selected Douglas's XTBD-1 to win in 1936, and placed an order for 114 in February of that year, which was later known as the saboteur torpedo machine (TBD-1).

Not only torpedo planes, but also the U.S. government selected Northrop's dive bomber program in November 1934, and in 1935 the XBT-1 prototype was delivered to the Navy for test flights, and in September 1936, the BT-1 entered service with the Navy, and then continued to develop into the BT-2. When Northrop merged into Douglas, it was renamed SBD-1, which became known as "Dreadnought".

In short, in 1934, the United States and the Soviet Union had the need for new carrier-based aircraft at the same time, and with the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the impact of the economic crisis, military cooperation between the two countries was possible. After all, the United States has more developed aviation technology, and the backward Soviet Union can completely catch up with the world's advanced level through cooperation.

However, Li Xiaofeng did not like Litvinov's construction, and according to Litvinov, it would be good to directly purchase torpedo planes and dive bombers from the United States, which won the competition, which would bring the two countries closer together and solve the problem of naval needs, and the investment would be small.

It is true that the demand for carrier-based aircraft in the Navy is relatively small (for the time being, the Red Navy only has two aircraft carriers, and the other two are being renovated), which is a gap of 400 aircraft at full capacity. For the sake of these 400 aircraft, it seems very uneconomical to develop four new models and open up four new production lines, since there are better and more economical options abroad, just buy them directly.

But in Li Xiaofeng's view, this is a big problem, the Soviet Union cannot never develop carrier-based aircraft, and it is impossible to rely on imports forever to solve the problem, right? It's always good to gain experience early, right? Moreover, it must be noted that not only the navy's carrier-based aircraft lacks new fighters, torpedo planes, and dive bombers, but also land-based naval aviation. A little calculation shows that the gap of aircraft is definitely more than 400 aircraft, and to put it mildly, tripling it is the same as playing. Do these thousands of planes have to be imported? Is there so much forex?

It's not just a matter of economy, in fact, Li Xiaofeng also knows that both TBD-1 and BT-1 have zài problems. Among them, the TBD-1 is too slow, and the climb is even worse, and it looks too stupid. And the BT-1 dive bomber was even more problematic, its maneuverability was outrageous, and even the Americans ordered the development of the BT-54 after purchasing only 2 aircraft. In that case, why jump into this pit?

In Li Xiaofeng's view, the Soviet Union was fully capable of developing its own carrier-based aircraft, and there was no need to spend this unjust money.

"Comrade Andrey, you look at the problem too one-sidedly, this is no longer just a military issue, but an issue of international relations......"

Looking at Litvinov, who kept talking and didn't give people a chance to interject, Li Xiaofeng was very dissatisfied with this diplomat who liked to work in a strong style, and he did not hesitate to interrupt Litvinov's strength:

"State-to-state relations are not traitorous relations, China's foreign exchange resources are precious, and can only be used for projects that are extremely lacking in those countries and cannot develop on their own, while the naval carrier-based aircraft project can be completely based on the country, this is a simple military issue that can no longer be simple, please do not interfere with the correct decision-making of the Military Commission!" (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you to Chuan Liu Hua Gui, Spike Potato, hzwangdd and Comrade Juventus!