People from the Navy placed an order directly after watching the test firing of the machine gun.
Not only are we preparing to equip the Marines, but more importantly, we are also preparing to equip the battleships!
Because people in the navy have carefully calculated that in close combat, it is much cheaper to use machine guns than small-caliber rapid-fire cannons, let alone medium- and large-caliber naval guns.
A round of medium and large caliber artillery shells costs dozens or even hundreds of Tang Yuan. Even a 75mm shell costs more than ten Tang Yuan. Moreover, the barrels of these artillery have a lifespan.
It is very expensive, but it is easy to use against short-range targets ranging from a thousand meters to a few hundred meters. Although bullets are also expensive, they are cheaper than artillery shells no matter what!
Another very important point is that although there are many warships in the Tang Dynasty Navy, they are actually not too many distributed around the world. For example, the one that has been stationed in the Thames River for a long time is actually just a small-tonnage offshore inland river gunboat.
Although this gunboat is equipped with a 75mm naval gun and a 30mm small-caliber rapid-fire cannon, its firepower is still relatively insufficient. If the natives rush over in a swarm, the firepower of just one gunboat will be enough.
If it can be equipped with a machine gun, the firepower at close range can be greatly enhanced, and when necessary, it can be moved directly off the ship for the Marines to use.
The Marine Corps of the Navy is also dispersedly stationed. In many places, there are only dozens or hundreds of people. When necessary, this kind of intensive firepower support is needed. Therefore, the Navy plans to equip warships with such machine guns and also equip the Marine Corps with such machine guns.
Some.
As for the problem of high ammunition consumption, the Navy thinks it can be tolerated. No matter how expensive bullets are, they are not as expensive as cannonballs!
Moreover, the navy actually has very few combat missions. Not to mention battleships, there is basically no one who is short-sighted and dares to take action against Datang's warships. Even if it is done, it can be done with a precise strike. It doesn't need to be more, just a few cannonballs.
The other party's ship sank.
As for the Marines, although the Marines are stationed around the world, they usually guard naval bases and embassy areas. They rarely engage in battles on weekdays. On the contrary, those guys in the Army are causing trouble all over the world.
After the navy ordered machine guns, it was officially announced that the Tang Army, Navy and Guards began to equip machine guns on a large scale.
But whether to use it after it is equipped depends on the specific situation. Anyway, the Army does not plan to use machine guns on a large scale.
The successful development of these two weapons, machine guns and mortars, and their subsequent equipment status can be regarded as an embarrassing situation faced by the Datang military.
Weapons are becoming more and more advanced, but they are also becoming more and more expensive and consume more and more money.
But the problem is that the military does not have much urgent need for these advanced weapons. Now Datang is still using its old-fashioned breech-loading rifled weapons to dominate the world.
Machine guns and mortars can be equipped on a large scale after all, and other advanced weapons, but now the military doesn’t even have the intention to purchase them...
The navy has been proposing a new generation of battleships for many years, but it has not yet started construction.
Almost three years have passed since the battleship Ceylon with a standard displacement of 14,000 tons was put into service in the 40th year of Xuanping, but Datang has not put into service a second new battleship.
Although there is still a battleship under construction, it is only a slightly modified and upgraded version of the battleship Ceylon, not a completely new design.
However, it's not that Datang couldn't build more advanced battleships, but that the navy didn't want them.
The second ship of the Ceylon-class battleship, the South Africa, is currently under construction. Its construction cost is expected to be less than that of the Ceylon, and it is estimated that it can be obtained at around 2.2 million.
But how much does the new battleship proposed by the Ministry of Ship Affairs last year cost?
Four million, Tang Yuan!
After seeing the design of this new type of warship, the top brass of the Navy immediately said, "I'm crazy. If I have the money, I might as well build a few more offshore gunboats."
What does the new warship that claims to cost 4 million Tang Yuan look like?
The tonnage is more than 17,000 tons, equipped with four 300mm 40x naval guns, four 230mm naval guns, twelve 150mm naval guns, and sixteen 75mm naval guns.
, sixteen fifty-millimeter rapid-fire cannons.
It also has extremely thick advanced carburized armor and powerful power, enough to run at a speed of 19 knots.
This data on paper is extremely powerful, but is it useful?
Useless!
For the Tang Navy, there is no essential difference between this thing and the Ceylon-class battleship. It is larger in tonnage, stronger in firepower, thicker in armor, and faster, but there is still no essential difference.
But it’s so much more expensive!
In this case, the Navy might as well continue to build the Ceylon-class battleship. Don't worry, the second ship is expected to be built for five or six years. After the second ship is put into service in five or six years, it will then consider the issue of new battleships.
Let alone battleships, even armored cruisers are not of much interest to the navy.
The earliest Australian-class armored cruiser, when it first appeared, the Navy thought it was very good, capable of resisting, fighting and cheap, but later found that it could only stay at the dock as a museum...
So after only two were built, starting with the third armored cruiser, the Navy asked to save money and enhance its ocean seaworthiness. Therefore, the third armored cruiser was the Egypt-class armored cruiser, although there were more than 7,000 empty ships.
tons of displacement, but the firepower is not as good as the Australian class, and the protection is also very poor. The only thing worth mentioning is that with the advancement of the power system, the speed is faster, reaching a speed of 18 knots under normal pressure.
In addition, the habitability is quite good, and the ocean endurance is also very good. It can run 10,000 kilometers at an economical cruising speed of 10 knots.
The most important thing is, is this thing cheap? It costs less than one million.
The cost of this battleship is generally concentrated on the three major aspects of power, firepower and armor. The two key systems of firepower and armor have been weakened. Isn't it cheap?
Now two Egypt-class armored cruisers have been built, and one is under construction. The Navy is quite satisfied with this thing and plans to tinker with it in the future to see if it can reduce the cost and build two more.
Now the Navy has little interest in capital ships, but it pays great attention to cruisers, frigates, offshore patrol ships, and river gunboats, and has built many of them over the years.
But there is basically one standard, that is, performance, especially the three major categories of speed, firepower, and armor, it is enough. Use the free tonnage to improve living life, improve seaworthiness, improve endurance, and improve sustainability.
combat capability.
The navy is like this, and the army is no exception. Haven't you seen that they are still using the first-generation breech-loading rifled cannon? As for the advanced second-generation breech-loading cannon with a longer range, the army will only take a look at it, and it will be casual at most.
It's fun to purchase a little bit, but don't count on it if you want to purchase large-scale replacement clothes.
Nowadays, the huge number of first-generation breech-loading artillery are seriously over-performed, so change it!
Judging from the current situation of the Tang Dynasty's military, there are only two possibilities for them to upgrade to the latest weapons on a large scale.
One is the outbreak of civil war, and the other is the invasion of aliens!
No matter how you look at it, the possibility of a civil war breaking out is relatively high, so the army and navy don't care about advanced equipment, but the Guards doesn't.
The idea of building an army of the Guards is to suppress the army and navy!
Therefore, many of the latest and expensive weapons and equipment are actually equipped in the Guards, not in the army or navy!