"Your Majesty, please see, this is the new battleship scheme selected by our Admiralty."

In Carlo's office, Admiral Yagill, the Lord of the Navy, was taking the designer Kuniberti to introduce the new warships selected by the Navy to the King.

As the two attendants hung up the blueprints, Kuniberti, who had already seen the king several times, bowed to him and spoke.

"Your Majesty, at the moment I want to talk about the new warships of the Navy with 380 mm guns. I designed the ship, so I know best what it is designed to do, and I'll be responsible for that. ”

Carlo knew a little bit about the Navy's bidding for new battleships, and in this bidding for new battleships, ship designers from all sides came up with their own design drawings. And what is very surprising is that most of the designers come up with new warships equipped with 380 mm guns, and there are very few designers who use 350 mm as the main guns, because although they don't say it explicitly, but the hint is obvious enough, if they don't understand it, they deserve to be eliminated in the first round.

However, it is not only the design drawings of the 380 mm gun that are selected, but also the design drawings of the battleship with the 410 mm gun that are very avant-garde. Although this unconventional design passed the first round, it was directly brushed down in the second round.

The reason is simple, this battleship equipped with 410 mm guns has a standard displacement of more than 33,000 tons, and the full load reaches 37,000 tons. The cost of its construction was too high to meet the needs of the Italian Navy at all. Besides, at present, the pre-research work of the 410-mm main gun has only begun, and it is impossible to wait for its design to come out without five or six years. Is it possible to ask the Navy to urgently develop a 410 mm main gun specifically for this warship, which is too expensive?

After several fierce discussions, the new warship, still designed by Cuniberti, won in the end. Because compared to others, the ships designed by Kuniberti always showed performance that surprised the navy, and also gave them a less outrageous cost.

"Your Majesty, the battleship you see so far is the Roman-class battleship I designed."

Cuniberti's words brought Carola back to reality, looking at the drawings in front of her and listening to his design philosophy.

"The design concept of the ship, I use the idea of a fast battleship, trying to make its speed reach or catch up with the pace of the battle patrol when it has sufficient firepower and protection, and this concept has been initially reflected in the Roman class."

After talking about his own philosophy, Kuniberti immediately talked about the data of the battleship. "According to the concept of high-speed battleships, the Roman-class battleships were a little longer than the previous battleships, reaching a total length of 198 meters. It is 29.4 meters wide, with a standard draft of 8.37 meters and a maximum draft of 10.1 meters.

Equipped with 8 380 mm guns, the twin assembly adopts a high and low backpack design with two front and two rear. The secondary guns use 16 single-mounted 150mml 50 times naval guns, and 14 105-mm single-mounted naval guns. In terms of firepower, it is already powerful enough.

In addition, the battleships of this class are equipped with 24 Navy Type III oil-fired boilers, 4 Navy Type IV steam turbines, and 4 shafts, providing a strong power of up to 80,000 horsepower. It is enough to propel the ship to a high speed of 25.5 knots. In addition, the ship can carry 800 tons of fuel oil and 200 tons of coal. The estimated range is 8,000 nautical miles at 13 knots and 3,900 nautical miles at 21 knots. ”

Hearing this, Carlo was surprised by this, he was not a person who did not understand naval ships, and he also knew that this speed was enough to be called a battle cruiser. And a battleship can reach such a speed that it must be a surprise when it appears in front of the enemy.

For Carlo's surprised expression, Admiral Yagill seemed to see his previous self, and he was also the same expression at that time.

Although Kuniberti saw the king's surprised expression, this did not prevent him from continuing.

"For Roman-class battleships, protection was also a top priority. For a battleship as large as the Roman class, if a full protection design is adopted, there will be two situations, one is that although they are all equipped with armor, no one can defend against them. The other is that the armor protection is sufficient, but the speed and adaptability are reduced to the outside of the design, and the cost is also exceeded. ”

The situation that Cuniberti is talking about is also the situation that designers from all over the world are currently facing. As warships have become larger and larger, comprehensive protection has become somewhat inadequate, and far-sighted designers have considered the concept of focused protection. As a top ship designer, Kuniberti thought about it earlier than others, and tried it out on the previous battle cruise.

"That's why I'm also using the principle of focused protection this time, mainly equipping thicker armor on core areas that are vulnerable to enemy attacks. First on the most important main armor belt, the thickest amidships can reach 350 mm, and then gradually reduce to 152 mm on both sides. The frontal armor of the turret also reached 350 mm, 300 mm on the sides and 120 mm on the top. The armor of the battery mount was 200-320 mm in the upper part and 120-150 mm in the lower part. Deck armor is 65-120 mm, waterproof compartment armor is 102-152 mm, and conning tower armor is up to 320 mm. The total weight of the armor is expected to be around 12,000 tons. ”

At this point, Kuniberti paused, because he was going to report the cost soon, so he needed to give everyone a little buffer time.

"The Roma-class is designed with a standard displacement of 30,450 tons and a full load displacement of 35,000 tons, and its construction cost is estimated to be 61 million lire."

Hearing this, Admiral Yagill carefully observed the king's expression with some nervousness.

As for the admiral's small move, Carlo didn't care too much about it, although he saw it. Because he was also amazed by the high cost of construction. To build four Roman-class battleships, it would cost 244 million lira, which is really a bit top-notch. However, he also gained the same mentality as Admiral Yagill, which is so good that the price feeling can be slowly accepted.

Cuniberti, who is a designer, didn't know about Carlo's idea, but he opened his mouth to defend himself. "Your Majesty, there is also a reason why the displacement is so high. First of all, the estimated weight of the hull structure is more than 8,900 tons, the weight of the armor is about 12,000 tons, the weapons and equipment are about 3,800 tons, and the power equipment is about 3,100 tons, and then the ship's facilities are reserved for 1,000 tons, the supply carries 650 tons, and the boiler feed water is 1,000 tons. ”

Well, being professionally explained by Viscount Kuniberti made Carlo suddenly laugh, he felt that since he had decided to build, he should take some courage, the performance of this class of battleship is absolutely excellent in this era. Then there is nothing to hesitate about, the big deal is not to allocate funds to the Navy to build new ships in the future.

"Very good warship, I hope to see it in the Navy in the future."

Carlo's words made Admiral Yagill and the designer Kuniberti smile, and this was what they were waiting for.

"But I have one requirement here, and that is that the four Roman-class battleships need to be commissioned after three years."

Regarding Carlo's request, Admiral Yagill said with some embarrassment. "Your Majesty, this requirement will make the shipyard people work overtime, and its labor costs will also increase."

"Then add a million lire to each ship, but it must take three years to complete all the work and enter service in the Navy."

In the face of the king's insistence, Admiral Yagir, who had been coveted for a long time for the new warship, could only nod his head in acquiescence.

Now that the drawings have been approved and the money has been paid, what are the waiting for, the Roma-class lead ship, which began construction at the Ansa shipyard in October. Over the course of three months, construction began on the second ship, the Reich, the third Caesar, and the fourth Orlando, respectively, at the Venetian shipyard, the Fincantieri shipyard, and the Orlando shipyard.

In order to ensure that the four warships could be put into service within three years, the Admiralty also adopted the decision to build one per shipyard for the first time. This will also allow the shipyards to concentrate the best shipwrights for the construction of ships of this class.

The Roman-class battleship can be regarded as a masterpiece of the designer Cuniberti.

The next step is to see how fast the shipyard is built.

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