Since the start of the navy holiday, the Chinese Navy has not launched a large ship for several years, and it has been repairing and modifying the original ships. Several warships, such as the battleship Woman, were used as technical verification ships. As soon as you have a new subsystem, put it on it and try it out.

Ellie has been disemboweled several times in the past few years, and the power system alone has been replaced twice, anyway, it's just two words - toss. Anyway, once the navy and shipyards have a brain hole product, they will test it on it.

Because of the mature design and ready-made information of later generations, there is no theoretical and design bottleneck in China's gas turbine technology tree, only limited by materials and control systems. In recent years, China's basic research has laid a solid foundation, and the level of computers and materials has advanced by leaps and bounds, so gas turbine technology has also developed by leaps and bounds.

It is with these considerations that although the previous gas turbine can already be put into practical use, Wen Desi did not let the following large-scale application, but let them continue to research. It is only now that the fourth large-scale technical upgrade, the RC-04 series of gas turbines, has been carried out, and the performance, price and service life of the gas turbines have been accepted by Wendesi.

If compared with similar products in the original space-time, the performance of this series of gas turbines is already equivalent to the level of the late 80s, and some projects have even reached the level of the 90s.

After many transformations, the appearance of the "Woman's Good Number" is completely different from the original at this time, and it can be said that even the Italians themselves cannot recognize it. When it was called Andrea Doria, it had five main turrets, with turrets 1, 3 and 5 triple, and turrets 2 and 4 twin. And now its main gun has been completely changed, first the turret in the middle of the hull has been removed, the turret has been reduced to four, and all of them have been changed to twin installations, and then the main gun has also been replaced with a 390 mm 50 times diameter naval gun, which is the same as the main gun of the Sun Wu class.

Naturally, all other weapons have also been modified, all torpedo tubes have been canceled, and all the original gun-type secondary guns have been changed to turret type. The current secondary guns of the "Women's Hao" are 16 130-mm 45-fold high-level guns (eight twin turrets), the latest model of 12 90-mm 50-fold high-level dual-purpose guns (six twin turrets), 42 40-mm anti-aircraft guns and 26 20-mm anti-aircraft guns.

The biggest shape changes are the lengthening of the hull by more than ten meters, the addition of anti-torpedo protrusions, the reshaping of the ship, and the change of the four main turrets from the knapsack to the same height. Moreover, the original bridge has also been completely removed and rearranged, and the new bridge is completely different from the original.

The armor was also completely changed, the main armor belt was replaced with the latest composite armor plates (similar to the Veneto-class armor), and the total thickness of the armor was increased from 248 mm to 340 mm. In addition, the underwater lightning protection structure and cabin have also been greatly modified and optimized, and the entire hull structure has also been strengthened.

It can be said that Ellie has now been completely reborn and completely transformed into a new battleship. After this change, its displacement has also risen from the original 34,000 tons to nearly 40,000.

In fact, China also spent a lot of money for this new Ellie, and its modification costs were staggeringly high, and the cost of these major overhauls combined exceeded the construction cost of a Yue Fei battleship.

No way, technical verification is so expensive. China is playing like this now, on the one hand, it is not bad for money. On the other hand, of course, it is because of the restrictions on naval holidays. If new ships are really built, they will occupy the little tonnage left, and now the tonnage share of China's capital ships is only 80,000 tons, and Wen Deji is obviously unwilling to be in such a hurry to build new ships.

Anyway, if you don't fight now, you don't need to worry at all. It is better to take this opportunity to carry out technical verification in all aspects of those newly invented subsystems and new design ideas, and once necessary, these new formal buildings can be built.

In fact, it is not only China that is playing this way, but also several other powers such as the United States and Germany, and even the most anxious Britain has now slowed down the pace of large-scale construction and began to use some old warships to carry out magic modifications and verify their various new technologies.

"Report to the chief, the ships are ready! The ......experiment can be started at any time," the commander of the experiment reported to Leon.

Li Ang nodded: "Okay, got it." So, Colonel Zhang, you can get started......"

"Yes!" Colonel Zhang immediately issued a series of orders to the ships.

"Whoosh ......" accompanied by the friction sound on the flywheel catapult, two Shui Detective-3 "Puffin" seaplanes were ejected from the Yongguo seaplane carrier, which will undertake the observation mission of this experiment.

This kind of "Ruiyun" water reconnaissance plane, which is close to the original time and space, was finalized in 1917 and came out almost at the same time as the "Water Reconnaissance-2", and it is the latest type of water reconnaissance aircraft in China at present. There is a strong competition between the Shuishen-2 and Shuishen-3, the former is the masterpiece of Xiangyin Aircraft Company (Xiangfei), and the latter is the masterpiece of Bohai Aviation Equipment Company (Bohang, factory site Longkou).

As the saying goes, peers are enemies, and Xiangfei and Bohang are naturally no exception, and these two are also the two largest and most powerful seaplane factories in the world. The Shui Detective-2 and the Shui Detective-3 are the products of their competition, but these two aircraft have their own strengths, the Shui Detective-2 is more flexible, has a very strong fighting ability, and its fighters are even inferior to some foreign professional fighters, and the advantages of the Shui Detective-3 are speed and ceiling, as well as range.

The military, which had been dazzled, felt that it was difficult to choose, so they simply asked for it. The Navy-2, which is more suitable as an observation aircraft, was equipped on large ships such as battleships and cruisers as a calibration aircraft. The Shui Reconnaissance-3, which has a longer range and speed, is equipped with island and seaplane carriers, as well as various auxiliary vessels, as reconnaissance aircraft.

The "Women's Beauty" and several light ships tested together sailed out of the queue and began to accelerate.

"Now it's four units in operation, and then two units are started every three minutes. Xu Wei introduced on the side.

The tester next to him stared at the radar screen and kept reporting Ellie's speed: "16 knots...... 18 knots...... 22 knots...... 24 knots...... Verse 26...... 28 knots...... 30 knots...... It's over 32 knots!"

"The acceleration is really far more than the steam turbine......" Li Ang nodded repeatedly, he was very familiar with the ships of the steam turbine, and the acceleration of the steam turbine would definitely not be so fast. It took less than seven minutes to accelerate from 15 knots to 30 knots, which would be unimaginable if it were to be converted to steam turbine power.

"Now it's just six units. Xu Wei said with a smile.

"It's incredible that 6 units can reach 32 knots...... "Li Ang said with a twinkle in his eyes: "The combined volume of the six gas turbine systems is not as large as the two steam turbines, and it seems that this gas turbine is the best ship power." ”

Steam turbines are bulky and take up a lot of space because they are equipped with a large number of boilers and piping. Even if the steam turbine used in China is already the most advanced all-oiled small water tube boiler, this volume is completely incomparable to that of a gas turbine.

Xu Wei said with a smile: "You are right, the gas turbine is indeed a very good power, not only small in size, but also very fast in starting speed and acceleration. But it also has disadvantages, first of all, the fuel consumption at low speeds is too high, which is not as good as a steam turbine. If it is under the premise of the same power, its fuel consumption is at least more than double that of a steam turbine. There are also shortcomings such as short service life and high maintenance requirements. ”

"Hehe, we don't lack fuel in China, which is nothing. As for the other defects, they are perfectly acceptable compared to its advantages......" Leon said disapprovingly.

Many places in China are now planted with diesel trees, where it is not suitable for traditional agriculture and needs to protect the ecology, such as the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, the Loess Plateau and the Nanyang tropical rainforest, etc., are dominated by diesel trees and other economic trees, which can provide hundreds of millions of tons of fuel every year. And this production is still increasing, since there is enough fuel, it is natural to have a lot of money.

The "Women's Beauty" continued to accelerate, and after ten minutes it reached a speed of 37 knots, and by this time its bow position had been shrouded in the stirred up mist, but fortunately its bow was a wave-splitting outward shape, otherwise the sea would have washed the deck at this time. And it's accelerating......

“38...... 39...... 40, my God, it's 40 knots! It's 40 knots!" The officers and men guarding the radar exclaimed in disbelief.

The 12 RC-04-28 gas turbines were at full power at this time, providing it with 336 megawatts (about 450,000 horsepower). The bow of the split-wave driftship splits the surface of the sea, and the powerful force turns the nearby sea water into a splash.

“40。 4 verses!40. 4 knots!" The radar officer's face flushed with excitement.

At this time, the "Women's Beauty" had entered a state of full speed, and the waves in the bow had far exceeded the height of the deck, and when the speed reached this level, even the effect of the wave-splitting outward bow began to weaken, and many waves had already surged onto the deck.

Leon was also excited at first, and then he frowned again and said, "It's too fast!" Xu Gong, look at the bumps and ups and downs of the ship's hull, the amplitude is too large, which will seriously affect the hit rate...... "Although the weather is good now and the sea conditions are low, Ellie's speed is too fast, and the amplitude of the bumps is like driving in a strong wind and waves.

"That's true, so we have to test the ship's hit rate and other performance at various speeds...... Xu Wei also said directly: "We need to use practical experiments to verify the optimal speed......

The speed of a warship is not as fast as possible, and once the speed of a conventional ship reaches 32 knots, each increase will cost a lot of money. Although more gas turbines can be crammed into the hull of the same size, such as the current Ellie, after 12 units are crammed, the original power compartment is more than enough, but the price paid is too great.

You must know that more than half of the cost of the battleship is spent on the power system, just like the Hood class and the Nelson class on the plane, the two started construction almost at the same time, and the tonnage is about the same, but the cost of the former is twice that of the latter, but the combat effectiveness is pulled down eight streets so far, according to the most conservative estimate, one Nelson can hang two Hoods, it is really hung up and beaten. So why is the Hood class so expensive? The answer is speed, and the Hood's powertrain is twice as large as Nelson's......

The Chinese Navy, although not so bad for money now, is also unwilling to spend money on unnecessary things. Even if the speed of the warship soars to 50 knots, or even 100 knots? No matter how fast the battleship is, it can still be faster than an airplane?

This time, it was not only Ellie's battleship that was tested, but also several other light ships equipped with gas turbines. After more than a month of experiments, the verification team experimented with the performance of these ships in all aspects, such as their maximum speed, endurance, and endurance at maximum speed, the state of the ships at various speeds, and the use of weapons...... A total of hundreds of experiments have been completed, and a large number of first-hand information has been accumulated.

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At the summary meeting after the experiment, Xu Wei said. "Taken together, I think it is appropriate for battleships, aircraft carriers, and heavy cruisers to have a maximum speed of no more than 34 knots. It is advisable for light cruisers and destroyers to have a speed of no more than 37 knots. The speed of torpedo boats can be faster, preferably within 50 knots......" This conclusion was reached by their designers and users.

"If only the gas turbine could fit a submarine...... one officer said.

Xu Wei spread his hands and said: "Unfortunately, it can't be done yet. The gas turbine has a great demand for air, and at the same time its exhaust gas temperature is very high, and surface ships can say that large ventilation devices can be installed, but the submarine is difficult to use unless it rises to the surface, and the diameter of the snorkel is too small to meet the working requirements of the gas turbine. If the diameter of the snorkel is increased, it will reduce the concealment of the submarine, which will outweigh the losses. ”

In the design institute, the idea of a gas turbine submarine was proposed for a long time, but unfortunately, after further calculations, they abandoned this brainstorming scheme.

After the experiment was completed, Li Ang also went back happily. After he was ready to go back, he applied to the above to renovate the power system of the current capital ship. Anyway, there is no need to build it all these years, and the dock is completely sufficient.

According to his idea, after this overhaul, all Chinese ships will be high-speed, and things like battle cruisers will be completely swept into the dustbin of history. At that time, a large number of China's capital ships will have a high speed of more than 33 knots, and the picture is too beautiful to look at.

And the steam turbines that have been replaced will not be wasted, and even if they are no longer suitable for warships, they will have no problem being used on civilian ships. At present, China's shipyards are bursting merchant ships, and the power system is in short supply.