Jericho's biggest problem is that he can't maintain superior forces in all theaters. In the relatively closed North Sea and the Mediterranean, it is better to talk about it. It's relatively small so it's easier to control, but if you want to control the entire Indian Ocean, it's a bit more difficult! In the last book, it was said that even if the British fleet had allocated 10 dreadnoughts to support the war in the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans, it would not be possible. In that case, Jericho simply gave up his intention to gain static superiority and did not deploy permanent fleets in the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans!

Didn't Italy and Austria-Hungary have the upper hand in the Mediterranean? The French, with submarine mines and a former dreadnought that had a numerical advantage, at least maneuvered, and it was always okay to hold the base and squat, right? The route to the Mediterranean is definitely not working, so wait, wait for an opportunity. An opportunity for the Italian and Austro-Hungarian fleets to come out for a decisive battle, and then the British drew a crack fleet from the Grand Fleet to cooperate with the French fleet to deliver a heavy blow to the opponent!

The same is true for the German-Turkish fleet, which broke diplomatic relations in the Indian Ocean, and before this elite fleet arrives, the British fleet remaining in the Far East can take the light cruisers or dreadnoughts of the German-Turkish fleet. What do you want to do if you run into a dreadnought? So what else can be done? Pray that God will bless you, nothing else. Bear the loss is for sure. And this elite fleet will also be waiting for a time, they can take advantage of the German and Turkish fleets to go on safaris from Europe through the Mediterranean and the Red Sea and then to the Gulf of Oman at a high cruising speed, blocking the German fleet on its way home!

As for what you said would happen if you ran into an Italian or Austro-Hungarian fleet while crossing the Mediterranean, Jericho had already thought about it. This fleet must have the ability to defeat any enemy detachment. And when encountering the opponent's main fleet, he can run away at high speed. In short, this fleet was not something that could be stopped by the Italian or Austro-Hungarian fleets, and because of its swiftness, it was very precise to locate it. I don't know where the other party's destination is. After all, the Mediterranean Sea is small, but if you want to search it again, it will take time, and at this time, this elite fleet may have reached the Arabian Sea!

Compared with the Italian-Austro-Hungarian navy, which has a relatively rich family background and many ports and younger brothers, the biggest problem of the German-Turkish fleet in the Indian Ocean is that there is only one port, and this problem should not be changed in the foreseeable future. After all, it was difficult to build a dock where dreadnoughts could dock and have some defense. Turkey now does not control the entire Arabian Peninsula. Italy was not in a good position in East Africa, and it was possible that the British army in Egypt would push it out as soon as the war began. The Italian Navy is stronger, but is the Army? Neither France nor Britain took the Italian Army into account. Not to mention the colonial army.

Jericho already knew that the Royal Navy was planning to develop a 14-inch heavy gun. It will also be equipped on warships with a displacement of about 26,000 tons. This type of warship will become the backbone of the British Empire! Their quantity and quality will be the core of the fight against the German high seas fleet! However, Jericho was still not satisfied with these ships. They are qualified as the main force of the fleet. In battles on the battle lines, it was possible to win the war with its own numerical superiority, but in skirmishes such as the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans, these slower fundamentalist battleships were not suitable.

"Maybe in five years' time, when they first start service, they will be the world's first-class warships, but the war may not start in the next eight years or even longer. And by the beginning of the war. They already have no advantage in single-ship performance! Jericho said. In Jericho's vision, his ideal battleship would have a tonnage of about 30,000 tons, equipped with a larger gun than a 14-inch gun, and the 15-inch gun is the most realistic in terms of research and development progress. So Jericho planned to equip the new battleships with 8 or 9 15-inch guns. Of course, this artillery replacement plan is still in Jericho's mind.

In terms of power, these armored giants will reach speeds of more than 25 knots, and all of them will be powered by oil-fired boilers, increasing endurance and the ability to travel at high speeds for long periods of time. Although in theory, a kerosene boiler can maintain high speed as long as it is constantly filled with fuel, but this is really just a theory. Once the kerosene boiler is turned on, coal must be used. The premise of the so-called fuel injection combustion must be that there is a layer of coal underneath and the temperature reaches a certain level. And adding coal is too demanding on manpower. (The author doesn't know exactly how to add coal in World War 1, but it is said that Betty's Lion battlecruiser was cruising at high speed for a long time.) As a result, a vote of people was exhausted in the boiler room. I had to slow down when I got to the worst. Moreover, the combustion value of coal is too low, and it is difficult to maintain, so these most elite warships of the British Empire had to change their boilers and power in order to quickly maneuver across war zones.

As for protection? Jericho really didn't think about it, and the Americans came up with the idea of a focused protection, at the expense of the upper deck and part of the bow and tail protection, to obtain the main armor belt with sufficient height and thickness, as well as horizontal armor. Now that times have changed, everyone has begun to develop the next generation of large-caliber artillery, and the penetration depth of the cannon has risen in a straight line, and this is not the end, because the ballistics of the shells are more curved when the engagement distance increases, which leads to a large increase in the probability of attacking the horizontal deck, so the horizontal protection must also be increased. AND INCREASING HORIZONTAL PROTECTION WILL UNDOUBTEDLY GREATLY INCREASE THE WEIGHT OF THE ARMOR, THE SIDE ARMOR WILL INCREASE BY 40M, AND IF IT IS CHANGED TO HORIZONTAL, THE SAME WEIGHT WILL INCREASE BY UP TO 10MM! The Chinese Navy had already adopted a similar design, but Jericho was skeptical about the suitability of such a design in a super-large-scale engagement. After all, the scale of the two sides in the Sino-Russian war can only be regarded as large, and there is no comparison with the future war between Britain and Germany.

In addition to the main fleet, Jericho also conceived a new type of auxiliary warship specifically for this elite fleet. In the current situation, the old pre-dreadnought cruisers have taken a back seat due to the problems of speed and age. And the newly built battleships were almost always capital ships and light cruisers. The former is the main force, and the latter is naturally the follower, responsible for reconnaissance, cover and anti-lightning strikes. Since the appearance of the Longtai-class battleships, the capital ships have made a qualitative leap. But what about light cruisers? In fact, from the point of view of appearance, there is really no difference from the former dreadnought, but the main armor belt is added, the gun gallery gun as always, and the front dreadnought layout as always. Except for the speed, there is no difference, and even the 6-inch guns and 4.7-inch guns installed on them are not fundamentally better than ten years ago. Jericho was upset. This is not the battleship he wants!

Jericho is also a regular graduate, and has fought many naval battles, both theoretical and practical experience is very rich. He knew perfectly well what the role of a light cruiser was! The main role is actually very simple, that is, to provide a sufficient number of secondary guns, with enough speed, can easily destroy the opponent's lightning fleet and can suppress the opponent's light cruisers! Don't look at the appearance of dreadnoughts, the tonnage has almost doubled, but the number of secondary guns has gone down, and the number of 6-inch guns per unit tonnage is insufficient! The dreadnought had to give as much firepower as possible to the main guns, which led to a great drop in the number of secondary guns, for example, the historical king, a 25,000-ton battleship only had 12 secondary guns, while Mikasa, like the previous dreadnought, only had 14 secondary guns for just over 10,000 tons.

The main guns were obviously wasteful to fight torpedo boats and light cruisers, and because of the speed problem, it was inconvenient, so the light cruisers had to carry enough secondary guns to make up for the lack of firepower of the fleet's secondary guns. Jericho thought very simply, if the dreadnought could get enough secondary gun fire by arranging the turret on the central axis, why couldn't the light cruiser? Use turrets or semi-turrets instead of turrets. The bottom bracket is arranged in full swing with advanced fire control. At the same time, the protection is strengthened, and it can defend against at least medium-range hits of 6-inch armor-piercing shells. IN ADDITION TO THE 152MM MAIN GUN, A LARGE NUMBER OF 100MM SECONDARY GUNS WILL BE INSTALLED ON THE SIDE TO INCREASE THE DENSITY OF FIREPOWER. The main gun hits the opposing light cruiser, and the secondary gun hits the mine-striking ship! To put it bluntly, this is a dreadnought version of the light cruiser, which is very close to the design ideas of the light cruiser in the 2nd World War in the future.

These new light cruisers have a long range, high speed, high firepower and constant protection! Jericho himself roughly estimated that if these requirements were fulfilled, the tonnage would be about 7,000 tons! It can be difficult to equip a lot. However, it is still possible to create some for the elite fleet or to use in key places. And Jericho thought that such a battleship would be more suitable for searching the ocean for light cruisers and camouflaged assault ships, and that the 6-inch guns would be enough to fight these crispy or even skinless things. Moreover, the speed is fast and the range is long, you can run when you encounter the opponent's capital ship, and more importantly, it will not hurt if you sink one! Anyway, the cost is not as good as a previous dreadnought.

At the end of the day, Jericho was still struggling with whether to form one or two battle cruisers in the fleet, because although theoretically the speed of this elite fleet was faster than the opponent's non-battle cruiser capital ships, if it really ran thousands of nautical miles, no one knew how many knots the road would be able to run at a critical moment. So it's okay to have one or two battle cruisers in this fleet and go up and kill the dogs when the opponent's capital ship is heavily damaged. In short, it is definitely rare to seize the opportunity of the opponent, and if you seize it, you have to go all out.

In addition to a variety of combat ships, Jericho also intends to equip the task force with specialized high-speed supply ships to provide fuel and other supplies for the fleet. In order to maintain the combat effectiveness of the fleet as much as possible. These supply ships can even be removed from the navy's budget, and can be converted into high-speed civilian ships in wartime. The limit speed should not be too high, but the cruising speed must be around 20. In Jericho's strategy, the fleet will operate flexibly on the mainland, in the Mediterranean, and in the Indian Ocean, acting as a safari force with a clear purpose, attacking quickly and achieving results in the shortest possible time. And the commander of this elite fleet is naturally the Evan Thomas it values, as for Betty? Truth be told, Jericho thinks that Betty, who is too aggressive, is not suitable for this style of warfare that requires a long wait and caution to achieve results!

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the tip~~~. (To be continued......)