The Italian Navy has also worked hard to protect the Italian economy over the years.

For the Italian Navy, these hardships are nothing, after all, the kingdom invests a lot of money every year, and the navy still has to show enough role. However, as time goes by, the whole navy can feel that there is less and less warships in the navy. More precisely, there is an increasing shortage of cutting-edge warships.

Although the Venice Improvement Class and the Turin Class are both masterpieces of the era, the warships launched in various countries are not weaker than the Turin class, and the trend of catching up and surpassing makes the Navy worried.

Therefore, from Admiral Yagil, the Minister of the Admiralty, to the sailors, they were eager to strengthen the navy so that the Italian navy could continue to gallop on the sea.

As the head of the Italian Navy, Admiral Yagill certainly had a responsibility. But fortunately, His Majesty the wise King still cares about the navy, so he has not forgotten the need for the navy.

"Your Majesty, this is the shipbuilding plan that our Navy has prepared for five years, and I would like to ask Your Majesty to take a look."

With Admiral Yagill's words, a thick ship-building plan was handed to Carlo.

Carlo didn't immediately flip through the plan, but asked Admiral Yagill. "Your Excellency, before reading the plan, I must first state that in the next five years, the government will only allocate 280 million lire for the construction of ships, and will not allocate an extra lire, so if the navy exceeds the shipbuilding plan, it must find its own way to raise funds."

Why did Carlo say such heavy words first, the Navy had a precedent before this, and not once or twice, it was all warships that were launched and outfitted, and the money was spent. Then, in order to avoid the warship not being able to serve, the government can only allocate funds, because this money is not much, about 10-15% of the final payment. The navy has done too much of this kind of thing, and the government has also complained, and this financial expenditure is originally a turnip and a pit, and the navy needs to deduct it from other aspects if it gives too much.

And the new Prime Minister Antonio is a newcomer and a new person, and he is unwilling to take over this kind of rotten thing again.

Therefore, Carlo's intention to give priority to greeting is also to care about the navy and avoid any major conflicts between it and the government.

Facing Carlo's words, Admiral Yagill smiled a little unnaturally. "What the hell, our Admiralty will never do such a thing this time."

However, his words did not convince Carlo that his unnatural expression had betrayed him.

The Navy intends to build 3 new battleships, 3 new armored cruisers, 8 cruisers, 18 torpedo boat destroyers (that is, destroyers), as well as gunboats, torpedo boats, special support ships, and other warships in the five-year shipbuilding plan.

And in this list of ships, the core is 3 battleships and 3 armored cruisers.

Because they are all big guys with more than 10,000 tons, they can attract Carlo's attention even more.

In order to facilitate Carlo's viewing, the Navy also carefully marked the performance requirements of each ship in this plan.

Three 10,000-ton armored cruisers, among the requirements of the Navy, had to reach a high speed of 22 knots. The Admiralty believes that at present, as the speed of the installation and patrols of various countries is getting faster and faster, Italy cannot be left behind. Therefore, the new armor must be designed to be faster than that of other countries, so 22 knots is essential.

In addition, it must not lag behind in terms of firepower, and the twin 254 mm rapid-fire guns must also be installed in three to target the increasing number of patrols in the navies of various countries. As for the secondary gun, it will be considered after the main gun is equipped.

And in addition to speed and firepower, the armor of the warship must not lag behind. In terms of armor, there is good news for the Navy, and the armor steel jointly researched with Krupp is even better. After water steel and oil steel, Krupp developed carburized case-hardened nickel-chromium alloy steel, which is also known as Krupp armor steel. Compared with the Harvey armor steel currently used in various countries, the armor steel has improved the protective performance by 25%.

This also means that with the same amount of defense, only 80% of the weight of Krupp armor steel can be achieved. This will not only save tonnage, but will also greatly benefit the design of the warship.

The Admiralty's requirements for the armor of the new patrol were somewhat higher than those of the Venetian Improved Class. Compared with the Venetian improved hull armor of 90 mm to 152 mm, the hull armor of the new patrol is required to be 115 mm to 190 mm, and the armor height has also been increased from 3.2 meters to 3.7 meters. The increased armor was mainly placed below the waterline. This is the experience summed up by the Navy after the fight with the Japanese. Because if there is an attack under the waterline, the warship that lacks armor will suffer serious damage.

As for the tonnage, the Admiralty is also strictly limited, the standard displacement shall not be higher than 11,000 tons, and the full load displacement shall not be higher than 12,800 tons. As for the cruising range, it must not be less than 8000 nautical miles / 10 knots.

It can be said that if the Italian designer can design this patrol according to the requirements of the navy, as long as it is launched within three years, it will immediately regain the throne of the king of the patrol for Italy.

Carlo was very satisfied with the new installation and patrol scheme given by the navy, and he deserved to be known for its high requirements of the Italian Navy, which was embarrassing the country's warship designers.

However, when he saw the battleship plan, Carlo couldn't help but frown.

Admiral Yagill, who had been staring at Carlo, tightened his heart and hurriedly asked. "Your Majesty, what's wrong?"

Don't blame Admiral Yagill for being so nervous, this may be the biggest ship-building project in his tenure, and the navy is eager to see through it, if something goes wrong, how to explain it to the officers and men of the navy, he, the minister of the navy, is afraid that he can only take the blame and resign.

"There are indeed some problems, and it feels like the battleships in the scheme are not much different from the Turin class?"

Carlo voiced his doubts, much to Admiral Yagill's embarrassment. Because the king was right, the new battleships were indeed not much different from the current Turin class.

In the new plan of the Admiralty, the new battleships are required to be equipped with 4 356 mm guns, and the maximum speed of only 19 knots is required, and the maximum armor thickness is 380 mm, but considering the improvement of the new armor steel, it is also better than the Turin class in terms of protection. Of course, the only advantage of the new battleship is that the displacement is less than that of the Turin class, compared to the standard displacement of more than 14,900 tons of Turin class, the standard displacement of the new battleship is required to be reduced to 13,500 tons.

This reduces the displacement while ensuring the firepower and speed and enhancing the defensive power, which is also not easy to make a dojo in a snail shell.

And there is also an advantage to reducing the displacement, that is, the cost of building new warships will definitely be cheaper than the Turin class.

The Admiralty does not start with performance, but from price, this is more and more alive, right?

In fact, the Admiralty can't be blamed for this, because the Turin-class design is very classic, and it is difficult for the Admiralty to raise a high index for the new warship.

If you want to talk about the large-caliber rapid-fire gun on the main gun, this is not something that has not yet been developed, and you can't greatly reduce the caliber in order to accommodate the rapid-fire gun, isn't this putting the cart before the horse? In terms of power, even the latest three-expansion steam engine can't increase much horsepower, and as for the armor, you can think of a way, but just relying on the armor to find a way, you can't greatly improve the performance of the battleship. So the Admiralty had no choice but to make a decent new plan.

Don't think that the Admiralty will only be demanding of the warship designers, in fact, this is also the Admiralty's maximum requirement to make a rationality after collecting the latest technologies, and on the battleships, because the Turin class is already dazzling enough, so if you want to far surpass the new warships of the Turin class, the Admiralty can't think of a way.

Faced with Admiral Yagill explaining the difficulties of the Admiralty, Carlo nodded silently, it seems that it is indeed difficult for them to want the Admiralty to come up with an epoch-making masterpiece again.

Since Admiral Yagill had explained it this way, Carlo accepted it. After all, I definitely don't know more about warships than the navy.

However, considering the development of future warships, he still had to ask. "How's the steam turbine research going?"

"At present, the Naval Power Research Institute has built a 1000-horsepower steam turbine and is testing."

Admiral Yagil also reported good news and did not say a word about the results of this test, because the test results were very bad, and in less than half an hour, the steam turbine exploded, and almost injured people, and the later inspection found that it was the cause of the tightness.

But Carlo continued to talk after hearing the good news. "The research of steam turbines must continue, and it is best to develop high-power ones, and we must not fall behind in the research and development of large-caliber rapid-fire naval guns and new ammunition."

"Your Majesty, please rest assured that we, the Admiralty, will not be left behind in this research."

Admiral Yagill assures Carlo still believes it, after all, the navy is more active than anyone else in the research of large-caliber naval guns and new ammunition.

"Now I'm relieved!"

As he spoke, Carlo turned to the page of the plan about the price, and the total cost of building the ship was 287-325 million lira, which appeared in front of him eye-catchingly.

According to his knowledge of the Admiralty, a habitual offender, he should generally look at the latter number at this time.