Chapter 899 Daheng-class battleship starts construction
The Daheng Empire's navy was already very large before the war broke out.
However, its total tonnage is actually still not as good as that of the Kingdom of Krul, but it has more new warships.
\bBut after entering the World War, after the accumulation in the past few years, various new warships of the Krul Kingdom also began to be launched intensively. In the twenty-second year of Qian Sheng, the Krul Kingdom only launched in this year During this period, eight battleships and two battlecruisers were in service.
Although the construction of these ten warships was all started before the Kingdom of Krul entered the war, their construction period was also greatly compressed.
Although the Daheng Empire has continued to expand its fleet on a large scale in the past few years, it still cannot be like the Kingdom of Krul, which has eight battleships and two battlecruisers in service in a year.
Even if the Daheng Empire can build so many ships in a short period of time, it will not be able to find enough officers and sailors for a while...
Therefore, after several years of catching up, although the Krul Kingdom Navy still lags behind the Daheng Empire Navy in the number of new warships, the gap is not too big.
And as the navies of both sides continue to expand, when the scale of new battleships with tens of thousands of tons, such as battleships, battlecruisers, and large cruisers, is calculated in dozens of ships, the difference between ten and eight ships is actually not that big.
This also gives the Krul Kingdom Navy a certain confidence!
What confidence?
The confidence to refuse the Daheng Empire’s intervention in the war on the Western Continent!
Regardless of this, the Kingdom of Krul does not want the Daheng people to set their sights on the Western Continent after taking control of the Southern Continent.
Regardless of how the Western Continent is now, the Western Continent is the back garden of their Kingdom of Krul, not the people of Daheng.
So no matter what the reason is, the Kruls don't want the Daheng people to get involved.
And if you want to refuse the intervention of Daheng people, you need strength!
The most important among them is naturally the navy!
There is no navy that is large enough, but it cannot stop the Daheng people!
Especially in the past two years, the strength of the Daheng Empire's navy has continued to grow. Before the outbreak of the Heng'ao War, the Daheng Empire had a total of thirty-two unified all-heavy artillery battleships in service or about to enter service.
There are four Ningyu-class ships, two Zhongluo-class ships, eight Dongtaishan-class ships, eight Zilanhu-class ships, and the above-mentioned 300 There are 22 warships with main guns of millimeter caliber and a maximum displacement between 21,000 tons and 23,000 tons.
Then there were four Shayangwan class ships, equipped with 350 mm 45 times caliber naval guns, and a full load displacement of about 30,000 tons, and six Fang Lingshan class ships, a total of ten ships.
Originally, there was an order for ten Fang Lingshan-class battleships, but later four of them were changed to the newer Endless Sea-class battleships.
The Endless Sea-class battleship can be said to be the first battleship with a clear distinguishing line in the construction of the Daheng Empire’s main battleship.
Although the ship still uses the mature 350 mm 45-caliber main gun, the warship uses triple turrets for the first time, and it still uses four triple turrets, with a total of twelve main guns, because the central axis The layout, the firepower layout of four triple-mounted guns, allows its side firepower to reach the terrifying twelve main guns.
Its firepower is extremely terrifying!
And it was equipped with a more powerful power configuration, making the ship extremely powerful. The theoretical design speed was initially 25 knots. Later, during the actual construction process, it was found that the power was not up to standard, so the actual speed could not reach the original design speed. , but its maximum speed can still be maintained at 24 knots.
Powerful firepower, solid defense, and great speed.
This all allowed this battleship with a full load displacement of more than 35,000 tons to gain strong combat effectiveness. Beginning in the 20th year of Qian Sheng, the Daheng Empire fully converted to the production of battleships of this class. production, and even cut off orders for four Fenglingshan-class battleships and two battlecruisers.
The order scale for this class of ships has reached as many as twelve, but the actual number of ships built is not that many.
The final order size of this class of ships is only nine, and six ships have been built so far.
The orders for the next three ships were cancelled.
Because twenty-two years after entering Qian Sheng, the Daheng Empire Navy has completed all the designs and necessary technical preparations for a new generation of battleships.
Including the crucial research and development of the 400 mm 45 times caliber naval gun!
As a result, in the second half of the 22nd year of Qian Sheng, the Daheng Empire began to build a new generation of super battleships: Daheng-class battleships.
It is naturally unusual for a battleship to be named by the people of Daheng using the traditional country name.
This class of ship is equipped with three triple-mounted 400 mm 45-caliber naval guns, with a standard displacement of 37,000 tons and a full-load displacement of 43,000 tons.
Equipped with the latest hardened armor, the thickest part of the turret frontal armor reaches 400 mm.
Using new steam turbines and oil-fired boiler systems, the maximum speed can reach 26 knots.
Such a warship can be said to be invincible in today's times and even for many years to come.
Although this kind of warship is extremely expensive, with the cost estimated to reach 27 million yuan, it still cannot stop the Daheng Empire Navy's huge enthusiasm for this class of ship.
In the 22nd year of Qian Sheng's reign, two ships were successively started to be built, and in the 23rd year of Qian Sheng's reign, four ships are planned to be built this year.
At the same time, a new generation of battlecruiser, Royal Princess, equipped with 400 mm naval guns, was built together with the ship. It uses four twin turrets and is equipped with eight 400 mm naval guns of 45 times the caliber. It has a maximum speed of It can reach thirty knots.
It is worth noting that although the ship's protection is very average and it lacks a main gun in terms of firepower, its displacement is also very large for its high speed, which is basically the same as that of the Daheng class.
These two new types of warships have become a new generation of warships to be built since the second half of the 22nd year of Qian Sheng, and are expected to become the main support of the Daheng Empire's navy in a few years.
Compared with the development of the navy of the Daheng Empire, the development of the navy of the Kingdom of Krul is also not bad. Although they were deceived by the Daheng Empire for several years, so that they started relatively late during the unified all-heavy artillery period, but after they recovered, they The catch up was very fast.
At the same time, they entered unified weight artillery a few years later, because their battleships actually have relatively few 300mm main guns, only twelve, which is nearly ten less than the Daheng Empire's twenty-two. .
Although they separated and chased the subsequent 350mm caliber battleships, there was still a certain gap. The only thing worthy of praise was that the main gun equipped with their later battleships was a 350mm 50x caliber main gun. This main gun is much more powerful than the main 350mm 45 times caliber main gun equipped by the Daheng Navy.
In addition, they are actually also developing 380mm naval guns, and secretly started building a new generation of battleships equipped with 380mm caliber main guns.