Chapter 701 The Jingzhou-class battleship is in service
By the time the naval gun factory of the Jingzhou Machinery Company delivered the 300 mm 35-caliber naval gun, the Jingzhou had already been waiting for the gun for two months.
But then it was discovered that there was a problem with the hydraulic transmission device of the main gun turret. When pushing the turret to rotate at maximum speed, the hydraulic device could not withstand the huge pressure.
What was done was to urgently organize technical personnel to conduct public relations, and it was not until April that the hydraulic device was solved.
The battleship Jingzhou encountered no problems in the early hull construction, but problems occurred frequently during the outfitting process, causing the outfitting progress to be delayed repeatedly, even by more than half a year.
This has also made many senior navy officials very dissatisfied, and many relevant responsible persons have continued to receive criticism.
But there is nothing that can be done about it. The basic industrial level of the Daheng Empire is already relatively weak. Even though it has used grain and oil exports in exchange for a large amount of foreign exchange in recent years to import a large amount of advanced equipment and introduce technology, the foundation is too weak, so even if
It is very difficult to digest these imported technologies.
The Jingzhou-class battleship is a top-level weapon that integrates all the top technologies of contemporary Blue Star, and has extremely high requirements for various technologies.
Therefore, it often happens that after the designers have designed the design, the industrial department swears that there is no problem and can be done. However, in the actual operation process, problems of one kind or another always occur, which affects the progress of R&D and production.
There were delays again and again.
This is the result of not having enough basic industry and not having a solid foundation yet yet forcing the establishment of the Majingshu-class battleships.
However, the Daheng Empire’s decision to build Jingzhou-class battleships is firm. Whenever a problem arises, it will be solved. For this reason, the Ministry of National Defense Industry of the Daheng Empire’s Supreme Command has already organized two organizations for the production of Jingzhou-class battleships.
More than ten large-scale technical research projects.
Every time we tackle a technical problem, we mobilize technical experts from across the country to focus on the problem.
It is not an exaggeration to say that it mobilizes troops and mobilizes people!
With such nationwide efforts, the empire finally solved many technical problems that arose during the construction of the Jingzhou-class battleships.
In June of the ninth year of Qian Sheng's reign, the battleship Jingzhou began its sea trials after being officially outfitted!
Due to a number of technical problems, the outfitting progress has been repeatedly delayed. In fact, not long after the battleship Jingzhou had just conducted sea trials, the second ship of the Jingzhou-class battleship Nanhaizhou had also completed outfitting and started.
Therefore, the difference in sea trial time between the two ships is only half a month!
Half a month after the sea trials of the battleship Jingzhou ended, the battleship Nanhaizhou also completed sea trials.
The two ships will be officially delivered to the Navy after completion!
Because the sea trials of the two ships were completed at roughly the same time, in August of the ninth year of Qian Sheng, the Navy decided to recommend service ceremonies for both ships at the same time.
Based on the importance of the Jingzhou-class battleship and the fact that the two ships were commissioned almost at the same time, Emperor Lin Ziran also decided to go to Quping Naval Base in person to preside over the commissioning ceremony of the two ships.
On August 26, the ninth year of Qian Sheng's reign, Emperor Lin Ziran and some of his important officials took a special train to Quping Naval Base in Jingzhou and presided over the commissioning ceremony of the two ships Jingzhou and Nanhaizhou.
After arriving at Quping Naval Base, Lin Ziran saw two huge warships moored on the port pier at a glance!
When Lin Ziran came to Quping Naval Base last year, he also visited Quping Naval Shipyard. At that time, the hull construction of Jingzhou and Nanhaizhou had not been completed.
But now, these two battleships have appeared on the dock.
The huge hull is moored on the pier, giving people a great visual impact!
Moreover, the high freeboard hull also makes the lines of the battleship look more graceful, which is much better than the ugly low freeboard battleships in the past.
Coupled with the two huge twin-mounted main gun turrets above, one can tell at a glance that this big guy is powerful in combat!
When Lin Ziran saw the two battleships on the bow, he couldn't help but nodded, and then said: "Only such battleships can be regarded as powerful weapons for the country!"
Hearing what Lin Ziran said, the group of senior navy generals behind them all smiled!
For the navy, there is nothing more important at this stage than to satisfy the emperor Lin Ziran. If the emperor approves and is satisfied, then the navy can get more funding for the follow-up. With more funding, it can build more
Bigger battleships.
Although the third phase of the Navy's development plan has long been determined, only the construction plan for six Jingzhou-class battleships and four Fengyang-class armored cruisers has been finalized.
However, it is worth noting that the construction of the sixth Jingzhou-class battleship started in December of the eighth year of Qian Sheng. From December last year to now, the Daheng Empire has not started construction of even one new battleship.
On the one hand, this is due to the insufficient number of large shipyards. On the other hand, it is also because the Navy hopes to improve the design on the basis of the Jingzhou battleship. The Navy is still somewhat uncertain about subsequent improvements, and has not yet been able to determine the final design.
The future improvement direction of warships was also impacted by the Orr War, as well as rapid-fire cannons. Especially now, the concept that rapid fire is more important than caliber is very popular within the navy.
Therefore, from December last year to now, the Daheng Empire's capital ship construction has suspended battleships, and has instead placed them on smaller tonnage armored cruisers. Based on the Fengyang-class armored cruiser, the Imperial Navy designed it last year.
And this year, two large-tonnage armored cruisers have been started one after another. Because the design changes have not been too much, they are still classified as Fengyang-class armored cruisers, but the displacement has reached 13,000 tons, and they are equipped with a huge number of
One hundred and fifty millimeter rapid-fire naval gun.
At the same time, after design improvements based on the foreign trade battleship Bugir armored cruiser, a self-used armored cruiser was finalized, the 8,000-ton Kelan-class armored cruiser. Its battleship design is very similar to the Bugir armored cruiser, except that
Replaced steel armor with hardened armor, and replaced semi-rapid cannons with rapid-fire cannons.
The construction of three consecutive armored cruisers has started one after another, which to a certain extent reflects the fact that the rapid-fire faction within the Navy has overwhelmed the main gun faction. Otherwise, it would be impossible to start construction of the 8,000-ton Klan armored cruiser.
In addition to factors such as insufficient large shipyards and rapid-fire gun theory, another key factor is insufficient naval funding!
Battleships are extremely expensive weapons to control the country. Six Jingzhou-class battleships, plus four Fengyang-class armored cruisers, plus two Kelan-class armored cruisers, the Daheng Empire fought in August of the seventh year of Qian Sheng.
From the beginning to August of the ninth year of Qian Sheng, within two years of full planning, twelve capital ships have been built one after another!
Just to build these twelve capital ships, the Navy had to invest more than 70 million yuan in shipbuilding funds!
In addition, other ancillary projects are not included. For example, with so many battleships built, you must have enough deep-water berths to berth, the naval base must have matching maintenance facilities, and there must be coal bunkers and other supply facilities. We need to stock up on some more gun barrels, ammunition, etc.
Then, in order for these capital ships to exert their power, they must be equipped with a large number of cruisers and destroyers. In the past two years, the Daheng Empire has started construction of more than 20 cruisers and more than 30 destroyers of various kinds.
These cruisers and destroyers are also very expensive!
After all this, the empire has spent more than 100 million on the third phase of the naval development plan.
This does not include the follow-up costs. The navy's funds are not just for building ships, but just building the ships. The subsequent maintenance and use costs of these warships are also very high.
These have seriously squeezed the military expenditures of the Daheng Empire Navy!
So much so that after entering the ninth year of Qian Sheng, the ambitious Daheng Empire Navy had to suspend the construction of new battleships, and instead chose to use cheaper armored cruisers, especially the Kelan-class armored cruisers.
The reason why the Navy built this ship was not so much influenced by the rapid-fire theory as it was lack of money.
This Kelan-class armored cruiser is much cheaper. With a displacement of more than 8,000 tons, it can achieve the performance of a battleship of more than 10,000 tons. The cost is only more than 3 million yuan, only half of the Jingzhou-class battleship!
The Imperial Navy, which was confused by the high cost of the Jingzhou-class and Fengyang-class battleships, saw that this ship cost more than three million yuan, and they all sighed at the low price!
This boat is really cheap!
These days, more than three million yuan is nothing. Many weak and small countries come to the Daheng Empire to buy warships, and they only cost three to four million yuan each.
The Hetai, a "large cruiser with unified caliber and full-speed guns" built by the Daheng Empire for testing purposes. This 8,000-ton junk is still on the slipway because the triple-mounted backpack turret has not been successfully developed. , so the outfitting of the ship is still far away, but the Navy has already paid more than two million yuan for this, and it is estimated that it will have to fill in another two to three million yuan later, and it is estimated that there will be no more than four or five million yuan that cannot be taken away.
The continuous delays and high costs of the Hetai have made the Navy somewhat worried about the prospects of a new type of cruiser such as the Hetai. If His Majesty the Emperor had not personally requested the continued construction and continued improvement of research and development, the Navy would probably have abandoned this broken ship midway. It has been converted into an ordinary first-class dome-armored cruiser.
But in the end, it’s all about money in the end!
Now the Navy is counting on the commissioning of the two Jingzhou-class battleships to stimulate His Majesty the Emperor so that His Majesty the Emperor will allocate more funding for naval expansion. At any rate, the sixteen battleships in the third phase of the plan will be completed. The plan is completed.
However, their worries were obviously unnecessary. Although the empire's finances were indeed relatively tight, they would not be unable to spend tens of millions to build some battleships. The reason why Lin Ziran was holding off was because he wanted the navy to slow down. The tone is all about building Jingzhou-class battleships.
This thing was a technology two years ago. Now technology development is changing every day. You must keep up with the times and continue to improve!
Especially rapid-fire cannons. The 150mm rapid-fire cannon was developed two years ago, but a larger-caliber rapid-fire cannon is still not available.
In the past two years, some people in the Navy have become arrogant and complacent. They believe that the existing Jingzhou-class battleships are already very powerful and that the current 150mm rapid-fire guns are already very good.
Lin Ziran was very dissatisfied with this!
Since some people in the Navy did not take the initiative to do it, Lin Ziran would directly use funds to force them to do it!
If it still doesn't work, he will replace it with someone else!