Chapter seven hundred and eighty national strength
According to the expansion plan of the Imperial Navy, starting from the 13th year of Qian Sheng, the main ocean-going battleships of the Daheng Empire Navy should all be a series of warships designed and built after the 7th year of Qian Sheng, that is, the third naval development plan.
As for the series of warships before this, those that should be decommissioned were decommissioned and those that should be sealed. As for the large-tonnage battleships, they would undergo limited modifications and upgrades and be used as second-line forces.
They are mainly Yonglin-class battleships, Endless Sea-class battleships, and Chongke-class battleships that were the main battleships of the Daheng Empire in the early and mid-term.
These three models totaled twelve typical main battleships of the low-freeboard era. They were of little use even in the Battle of Bova. The First Mobile Fleet at that time did not even bring the Endless Sea Battleship sent by the Kingdom of Orr. Instead of going to sea, let it stay at Lane Military Base.
However, these twelve warships are also 10,000-ton warships, and they are actually very new in age. The last ship of the Chongke class is the No. 4 ship Chonglin. It was only put into service seven years ago in Qian Sheng, and it has only been in service for a total of Just six years.
The last of the Endless Sea-class battleships was actually commissioned in the eighth year of Qian Sheng's reign, and the ship was only five years old.
Even the Yonglin has only been in service for nine years.
Currently, these battleships, whether in the Daheng Empire or other countries, are actually still in the category of first-line battleships. The Daheng Empire's new battleships are now exhausted and only eight are in service. These old-style battleships are still needed for the time being. The battleship stared.
However, in order to improve their combat performance, the Imperial Navy also took turns to upgrade and modify them. It is definitely impossible to perform major surgery. The main thing is to replace the old secondary guns with rapid-fire cannons, upgrade some ammunition and so on, and improve the following fire control Equipment, don’t expect anything else.
For example, if you replace a new main gun, how expensive is it? Moreover, a new naval gun is a complete system, including the main gun, the turret, and the loading mechanism. If you replace it, the project will be too large and the cost will be too expensive. For money, the Navy might as well just build a new cutting-edge battleship.
However, even if you upgrade the rapid-fire secondary guns and improve the fire control and ammunition of the old main guns, you can still greatly improve the combat effectiveness of these old warships. Don't expect to go out to the ocean to engage in fleet battles with others, but perform defense in offshore waters Missions, protecting the port, etc. are still no problem.
As for the decisive battle on the ocean, the Daheng Empire Navy currently has six cutting-edge Jingzhou-class battleships with high freeboard and comprehensive protection ideas in active service, as well as a mixed main gun Gaoqing and full-speed main gun Jinghe battleship; four large-tonnage battleships Fengyang-class armored cruisers, eight medium-tonnage Kelan-class armored cruisers.
With these twenty new capital ships, it is enough for the Daheng Empire to gain control of the sea in a certain area when needed.
To put it more radically, before the new battleships of other countries are completed and put into service, the twenty new battleships of the Daheng Empire are enough to defeat the old battleship fleets of other countries.
But it does not include the Kingdom of Krul.
The Bechi-class battleship of the Krul Kingdom was started in the eleventh year of Qian Sheng because it was very urgent for new battleships. In addition, the Krul Kingdom has the most powerful scientific research and shipbuilding industry on the Blue Star. The battleship Qi completed the hull construction in just over a year. After the emergency outfitting was completed, it officially entered service in January of the 13th year of Qian Sheng.
From laying the keel to entering service, the Bache only took one year and eight months.
This also proves the strong national power of the Kingdom of Krul.
And if nothing else happens, at least one ship of this class will be put into service within the next two to three months. Within this year, the first three ships of the Becky class will all be put into service, and the last three ships will also be put into service in the first half of next year.
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The combat effectiveness of these hybrid main gun battleships is actually more powerful than the Daheng Empire's Jingzhou class. Strictly speaking, among the Daheng Empire's active battleships, only the Gaoqing can compete with them.
As for the six-main-gun battleships of the Daheng Empire, the earliest Luohe will not be commissioned until the end of this year. However, without the installation of unified fire control, the actual combat effectiveness of these six-main-gun battleships may not be as good as that of the Gaoqing.
What about the mixed main gun battleship.
The Daheng Empire Navy itself also knows that it is unrealistic to expect the Jingzhou class and even the subsequent Luo Hai class to pull down the Krul Kingdom Navy.
The Daheng Empire Navy is counting on a new generation of unified all-heavy artillery battleships, the Ning Yu class, and subsequent ships that were secretly started last year.
When the era of long-range artillery battles comes, the Daheng Empire Navy will be able to use these new generation warships to completely establish maritime superiority.
Just as the Daheng Empire Navy launched a new round of shipbuilding plan in the thirteenth year of Qian Sheng, domestic development has continued to maintain a momentum of rapid development.
After all, expanding the navy's large-scale shipbuilding requires not only technical support, but also huge financial support.
A capital ship costs tens of millions. If you add in the supporting port facilities, logistics system, personnel, etc., the cost will be huge.
Without sufficient military support, how could the Daheng Empire prepare to start construction of four battleships and one battlecruiser this year, along with a bunch of auxiliary battleships.
Such a large-scale naval expansion, although it is still worse than the most powerful Kingdom of Krul, has already surpassed the two traditional powers of Kekel and Valia. As for Orissa, Garfia, and Orissa
Lan and Iboan, the four powerful countries in the echelon, can't even keep up with them even if they try to flatter them.
Nowadays, the only one left that can stabilize the Daheng Empire in terms of naval military investment is the Kingdom of Krul.
But how many years can the Kingdom of Krul continue to suppress the Daheng Empire?
Especially in the past ten years or so, the navy of the Kingdom of Krul has built a large number of outdated and backward warships. In just the period of high-freeboard turret warships from the eighth to the twelfth year of Qian Sheng, they invested huge amounts of money.
With capital, dozens of first-class battleships, second-class battleships, armored cruisers, and first-class protected cruisers were built.
They have built more than 20 first-class protected cruisers ranging from seven to eight thousand tons to about ten thousand tons in the past four years.
Coupled with other auxiliary ships, the Krul Kingdom Navy spent huge sums of money during those four years to build a fleet of high-freedom turret warships that was far more powerful than other countries.
However, after twelve years of Qian Sheng, these warships were quickly outdated. Facing the new generation of Daheng Empire warships that adopted the ideas of hardened armor, comprehensive protection, and rapid-fire cannons, the combat effectiveness of these warships was greatly reduced.
This means that countless naval military investments have not played their intended role, and the Kingdom of Krul must once again spend huge sums of money to build a new fleet.