Before Zhou Yongtao moved into the official residence of the Chief Auxiliary, the third round of reform of the Navy had already begun.

The marking event is: the "Xue Yuanzheng" class super aircraft carrier was approved in the 127th year of the New Calendar, and officially started construction at the beginning of the 128th year of the New Calendar, and was launched three years later, and finally delivered to it at the end of the 134th year of the New Calendar, and the Imperial Navy entered the "super aircraft carrier era".

Interestingly, the first three ships of this class, namely the "Xue Yuanzheng", the "Baizhi Zhan" and the "Liang Xusheng", are still called attack aircraft carriers.

This just reflects the process of the Imperial Navy's organization and tactical changes.

It has been mentioned before that after the war, the Imperial Navy divided aircraft carriers into two types: "attack" and "anti-submarine", and used aircraft carrier combat groups as the basic combat units of the fleet. After serving at the "Chen Bingxun" class, the aircraft carrier combat group was changed to an aircraft carrier attack group for strategic considerations. Therefore, the "attack aircraft carrier" was still retained, but the special "anti-submarine aircraft carrier" was no longer built.

During this period, those old aircraft carriers that are about to be retired are generally used as anti-submarine aircraft carriers, which is mainly reflected in the composition of carrier-based aviation forces. To put it simply, anti-submarine aircraft carriers will carry more anti-submarine patrol aircraft and anti-submarine helicopters, and reduce the number of attack aircraft.

The "Provincial" and "Provincial 2" levels built during the war were almost retired as anti-submarine aircraft carriers.

It can be clearly seen that when the first batch of "Xue Yuanzheng"-level service were served, the tactical ideas of the Imperial Navy did not change much.

The "Xue Yuanzheng" level seems to be just an enlarged version of the "Chen Bingxun".

This is not the case.

What has not been changed is actually the top leaders of the Empire. The Imperial Navy continues to use the title of "attack aircraft carrier", just to obtain funds more smoothly and start construction work as soon as possible.

To put it more directly, the "Xue Yuanzheng" level itself is the result of being "forced".

Although around the 125th year of the New Calendar, the Imperial Navy proposed that the tonnage of the "Chen Bingxun" class was still insufficient, and was limited when operating carrier-based aircraft, and the continuous dispatch ability could not meet the needs of high-intensity combat, the construction of super aircraft carriers with larger tonnage and more expensive costs was not only the masters of the two houses of discussion, but even the Minister of National Defense and Lian Xusheng, who served as the Imperial Prime Minister for the second time, were not very interested.

It is precisely because after completing the construction of the first batch of three ships, the "Chen Bingxun" class received funding again and had the second batch of three ships.

Given the situation at that time, the imperial authorities focused on the Bo-Iran War. Even if Lian Xusheng was willing to support the navy, he would be helpless. Under the general trend of strategic contraction, no matter how important the navy is, it cannot go against the overall strategy of the empire.

If there is no accident, there may be a third batch of "Chen Bingxun" ranks.

The reason is also very simple. The "Chen Bingxun" class was the most powerful aircraft carrier at that time. Whether it was the "Newland" class of the Newland Navy, the "Prussian" class prepared to build by the Tyman Navy, or the "Royal Ark" class of the Bran Royal Navy, they were all much worse than the "Chen Bingxun" class.

However, the powerful "Chen Bingxun" level also gave great stimulation to the number one competitor and became the target that the opponent vowed to surpass.

This "number one competitor" is Newland Navy.

Just two years later, at the beginning of the 137th year of the New Calendar, the Military Intelligence Bureau intercepted an extremely critical piece of information. The Newland Navy had begun to design a 100,000-ton super aircraft carrier, and planned to start construction within this ten years, striving to surpass the "Chen Bingxun" class of the Imperial Navy in one fell swoop.

Although in theory, the Newland Navy will never surpass the Imperial Navy in one fell swoop. After all, no country can build dozens of aircraft carriers in just a few years, if the Newland Navy takes the lead in building a super aircraft carrier, the Imperial Navy will definitely be faceless.

For the empire that dominates the world, it is also a great shame.

To put it more seriously, the foundation of the empire's dominance of the world will be shaken.

Shortly after that, a defector, or to be precise, the Newland Navy officer who instigated the Military Intelligence Bureau, confirmed the information that the Newland Navy was indeed designing a super aircraft carrier, and the construction design had been completed by more than half, and construction would definitely start next year, the mid-year 128th year of the New Calendar.

In theory, construction design only needs to be completed 75% before it can be started.

Although the officer also mentioned that the full load displacement of this aircraft carrier did not reach 100,000 tons, in the report submitted to the Military Committees of the Chief Minister and the Discussion House, the officials of the Military Intelligence Bureau used a small trick, using short tons with a base unit of 2,000 pounds, instead of international standard tons, and not long tons with a base unit of 2,400 pounds. This was also a great help to the Navy.

1 short ton is only 0.907 standard ton.

By this conversion, the large aircraft carrier with a width of more than 90,000 tons has become a super aircraft carrier of more than 100,000 tons.

After some trouble, in the second quarter of 137 of the New Calendar, the two houses of discussion passed the proposal submitted by the Prime Minister, and the design of the super aircraft carrier was officially launched.

The key is that construction must be started before the Newland Navy!

There is no time left for the ship designer for a year.

If redesigned, this is a task that no one can complete. Just a few hundred thousand design drawings can keep the engineers of the Imperial Navy Ship Design Institute busy for several years. What's more, redesign must be listened to the military's opinions and determine specific performance indicators according to new tactical standards.

Fortunately, no redesign is required.

The key is that Zhao Yu is still the chief engineer of the Imperial Navy Ship Design Institute.

In fact, the "Xue Yuanzheng" level is Zhao Yu's last work.

In order to start construction in time, Zhao Yu proposed a trick to complete the design of the super aircraft carrier in three stages based on the "Chen Bingxun" level.

The first stage is to perform a simple amplification process and first increase the tonnage.

Actually, this is the simplest part.

The foundation of the "Chen Bingxun" class is already good, and the full load displacement exceeds 80,000 tons. The size of the flight deck is enough to operate a 40-ton carrier-based aircraft. The Imperial Navy Air Force will not seek larger carrier-based aircraft in the short term, so it will not have to undergo major operations on the flight deck.

In this way, the length of the hull has been basically determined.

The specific layout does not need to be majorly changed. The second batch of "Chen Bingxun" class has adjusted the layout of the flight deck, which is already quite perfect.

As for increasing the tonnage, it is actually to increase the width and draft of the hull, expand the available space inside the hull, and improve the internal cabin structure. The key is to use the expanded hull to install a power system with greater power, and expand the ammunition depot and fuel compartment.

In short, while keeping the number of carriers unchanged, the additional 20,000 tons can solve the performance shortcomings of the "Chen Bingxun" level.

That's why the Imperial Navy Ship Design Institute completed the design work in less than 9 months.

Subsequently, the two houses of discussion approved the construction contract for the first batch of three ships.

In April 128, the "Xue Yuanzheng" laid the first keel in the Puzhou Shipyard.

The second stage is to improve the initial design and solve existing problems.

Because the design of the "Chen Bingxun" class has been quite complete, especially in the overall ship type, the design work in the second phase did not make major changes to the appearance of the "Xue Yuanzheng" class, which was mainly concentrated in the interior, and were all small-scale changes.

What I want to say is mainly aimed at various subsystems, especially the power system.

The first batch of three "Xue Yuanzheng" class had a standard displacement of nearly 80,000 tons, and the full load displacement of just over 100,000 tons. The four steam turbines equipped with output power was only 300,000 horsepower, which was only 20,000 horsepower higher than the "Chen Bingxun" class, which was far from being powerful.

The key is that the hull of the "Xue Yuanzheng" class is wider, the draft is deeper, and the navigation resistance is much greater than that of the "Chen Bingxun".

Although the steam catapults used by the "Xue Yuanzheng" class are more advanced, consume less steam, and have a lower negative impact during combat navigation.

For example, when the "Xue Yuanzheng" class ejects a carrier-based aircraft at a speed of 1 every 2 minutes, it can sail for 4 hours at a speed of 30 knots, or two knots per minute to ensure that the speed will not be lower than 30 knots within at least one hour. In these two situations, the "Chen Bingxun" class keeps the speed above 30 knots for 2 hours and half an hour respectively.

But relatively speaking, this power system is still not good enough.

The design speed of the "Xue Yuanzheng" class is only 31 knots, which is only 0.5 knots higher than the 30.5 knots proposed by the Navy. It is far inferior to the "Chen Bingxun" class who can run to 35 knots, and is even slower than the opponent, that is, the maximum speed of the "Newland" class of the Newland Navy is 33 knots.

If you want to say it, this speed is enough.

Relying on a stronger catapult, as long as the deck wind speed reaches 27 knots, the "Xue Yuanzheng" class can eject a 40-ton carrier-based attack aircraft.

In addition, this power system is very mature and has extremely high reliability.

With a heavy fuel capacity of 40% more than the Chen Bingxun class, the Xue Yuanzheng class can sail about 5,000 nautical miles at a speed of 30 knots, or 11,000 nautical miles at a speed of 22 knots. If the speed is reduced to 16 knots, it can reach an astonishing 20,000 nautical miles.

However, the Imperial Navy was obviously unwilling to give up.

That's why the most important improvement of the second batch of "Xue Yuanzheng" class is to improve the power system and increase the output power to 350,000 horsepower.

In fact, it reached 360,000 horsepower!

In this way, the second batch of 3 ships have a maximum designed speed of more than 33 knots, and can even reach 35 knots under light load conditions!

In addition, there are some improvements in details, but mainly electronic devices.

It was only after completing the second phase of the design that Zhao Yu officially retired.

Fortunately, the engineers at the Ship Design Institute did not disappoint him.

Strictly speaking, the third batch of "Xue Yuanzheng"-level built according to the third phase design plan is the real completion body, that is, the final state.

Compared with the first two batches, the third batch of "Xue Yuanzheng"-level can be said to be a brand new design.

The key is actually enough time.

On the hull, the third batch of "Xue Yuanzheng" class took the lead in adopting "low alloy high-strength steel" that is cheaper, less difficult to process, and more outstanding overall performance.

This item alone reduces one-tenth of construction work hours, and while keeping the tonnage unchanged, the overall protection performance has been increased by nearly 30%. Because of its higher structural strength, the design service life of the third batch of "Xue Yuanzheng" class reaches 50 years.

However, the most important improvement is still electronic devices.

The third batch of first ships, the No. 7 ship "Tang Shengxian", will become the world's first aircraft carrier equipped with AESA, that is, active phased array radar.

In fact, when building the second batch of "Xue Yuanzheng" class, the Imperial Navy thought about equipping it with phased array radar.

However, at that time, the passive phased array radar could be used, and the miniaturization technology of electronic equipment was not up to standard, and the entire set of radar was very bulky. If it was used on an aircraft carrier and it would not affect other departments, at least the projection area of ​​the ship island should be increased by 50%, occupying about 6 deck stops. As for the help provided by the phased array radar to the aircraft carrier, it was obviously not as obvious as the air defense cruiser.

That's why the Imperial Navy finally gave up on this idea.

Equipping aircraft carriers with AESA radar is not to enhance the aircraft carrier's air defense combat capabilities, but to replace all other radars with one radar.

Simply put, it is actually simplifying the radar system.

The biggest advantage of doing this is to reduce the island and cancel the masts used to place the alert radar. The freed deck can add 2 stops, or use the area of ​​these 2 stops to improve and optimize the deck system and improve the operating efficiency of carrier-based aircraft on the flight deck.

The engineers of the Imperial Navy did make full use of this area.

By adjusting the shutdown position, the deck operation efficiency of the third batch of "Xue Yuanzheng" grades has been increased by at least one quarter!

The benefit obtained is that its maximum daily launch momentum has been increased from the previous 210 aircraft to 240 aircraft, and the single-wave dispatch momentum has increased from 42 aircraft to 46 aircraft. The recovery time of a complete attack wave has also been shortened from the previous 75 minutes to 60 minutes.

There is no doubt that this is a real improvement!

In addition, the third batch of "Xue Yuanzheng" class has a higher degree of automation. The benefit brought by this is that the crew and aviation department staff have decreased by 15% and 12%, respectively, with a total of more than 800 staff members, reducing the number from more than 5,600 in the first two batches to less than 4,800.

The key is that during the mid-term overhaul of the "Xue Yuanzheng" class, the electronic equipment will be upgraded and improved according to the standards of the third batch.

If you want to say, the "Xue Yuanzheng" level is definitely an epoch-making product.

Objectively speaking, the meaning of "Xue Yuanzheng" level is not below the "Chen Bingxun" level, but is an existence that can change the rules of the naval warfare game.

Because there are almost no shortcomings, before the outbreak of the Third Global War, the number of planned and constructed "Xue Yuanzheng" class had reached 9 ships.

Thanks to the significant improvement of aircraft carrier combat capabilities, the tactical system of the Imperial Navy also changed, and the third round of changes began.

However, no one can deny that it was not an aircraft carrier that launched the third round of change, but a person.

Strictly speaking, the third round of reforms of the Imperial Navy is actually an integral part of the third round of military reforms, serving the overall strategy of the Imperial.

In fact, this is also a major feature of the third round of military reforms.

In the previous two military reforms, each military branch, especially the three major military branches, basically did their own things, at most they were mutual exchanges. There was no possibility of unified command or unified allocation. Therefore, the impact of the first two rounds of military reforms was not as great as changing the appearance of the war.

Driven by Zhou Yongtao, the third round of military reforms has taken the overall strategy of the empire as the core from the very beginning.

What is promoting this military reform is no longer the tactical needs of various military branches, but the overall strategy of the empire.

The key is that the commanders of each branch of the army are no longer commanders of the empire, but the supreme military and political commander of the empire.
Chapter completed!