Daming 1805

After the crosswind takeoff and landing training is completed, the aircraft carrier formation maintains its heading and continues to sail outward.

After the fleet bypassed the virtual thunderstorm area, the reconnaissance fleet also confirmed the identity of the simulated suspicious target.

After the news was reported to the headquarters, the aviation formations of the two aircraft carriers became busy again and began to prepare for a formal air strike.

The specific details and procedures of simulated operations are determined by the commanders themselves.

However, the logic and thinking of aircraft carrier operations were provided by Zhu Jingyuan during the process of designing the aircraft carrier.

From the perspective of ordinary craftsmen in this world, since Zhu Jingyuan designed the aircraft carrier, he can naturally think of how to play the role of this new warship.

But in fact, if it wasn't for Zhu Jingyuan's previous life experience, it would take a long time to explore from simply thinking of putting the plane on the battleship to actually building a relatively reasonably designed aircraft carrier.

And how to play the role of an aircraft carrier in a war may take longer than designing the aircraft carrier itself.

In the original history, Americans, British, and Japanese, from the early 20s to the end of the 30s, for nearly 20 years, did not fully understand how to use the aircraft carrier.

When the Second World War just started, countries used the experience gained in the past 20 years to make some tactics that made people feel bright, but they also came up with some operations that made people feel dark.

For example, the British aircraft carrier HMS Glory went alone to transport aircraft to the Air Force, and brought two old-fashioned destroyers to escort it.

As a result, I met Germany's Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. These two guys who hung the tail of the high-speed battleship seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and won the unique honor of a battleship sinking a fleet aircraft carrier.

It was the actual combat experience in World War II that allowed them to basically understand the real and reasonable usage of this new warship.

Now, Zhu Jingyuan took out all these experiences and lessons, and told the Ming Navy in the name of his own vision.

They train directly according to this idea, and they should be able to avoid more than ten years of detours.

At present, it is based on the American full-deck attack mode, adding some ideas of aircraft carrier operations and scheduling in later generations.

When officially launching an attack, it is necessary to gather a large enough fleet to form a cluster attack.

Zhu Jingyuan leaned on the window, looked at the fleet leaving in formation, and muttered with a rather heavy expression:
"If it is in actual combat, facing an evenly matched enemy, these pilots don't know how much they can come back..."

Zhu Zhongliang, Zhu Jianxun, and the other warlords all had some thoughts after hearing this sentence, but they didn't speak out.

The hit rate of bombs and torpedoes dropped by aircraft carrier aircraft is of course higher than that of battleship shells.

But before the guided weapons are mature, the aircraft must also pile up the attack density.

There are enough attacking planes at the same time, so that the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower can take care of one thing and lose another, and the engines can be exhausted.

Then one's own side can get enough effective hits.

From this perspective, a large part of pilots and aircraft in this era are consumables.

Both Zhu Zhongliang and senior military officers understood this.

But the officers didn't think there was anything unreasonable about this line of thinking.

War has always been like this.

Ancient soldiers had to walk forward with their spears straight, and the opposite side might have to rush into the spear array at the horses.

In ancient times, the generals who charged into the battle had a group of personal guards around them, helping the generals to resist random knives and guns on the battlefield.

After the musket matured, the war was a direct fight for human life. Both sides stood still and shot each other to see who could not hold it first.

At this time, the soldiers are not required to have high skills, as long as they can stand still and shoot at the opposite side.

In the era of trench warfare, it is even more necessary to have enough human lives to block the enemy's muzzle.

Therefore, "Compassion does not control soldiers, righteousness does not control wealth."

Fortunately, now that Daming's technology is progressing rapidly, there will be no evenly matched opponents in a short time.

The double aircraft carrier formation carried out two consecutive strikes, the target was a circled sea area, and it was assumed that there would always be enemy battleship formations everywhere.

The fighter jets that took off from the two aircraft carriers of the Ming Dynasty poured the ammunition they carried into this sea area.

According to the judgment of the reconnaissance plane, the theoretical strike result is very good.

At present, the warships of various countries in Thailand and Western countries not only have very limited horizontal armor, but also have very rudimentary mine protection facilities.

The simulated target is based on the warships of various countries in Thailand and the West, which is basically a crushing situation.

In the evening of the same day, all the planes returned to the aircraft carrier, and the day's simulation exercise officially ended.

That night, Zhu Zhongliang and Zhu Jingyuan's grandfather and grandson stayed on the aircraft carrier directly.

Accompanied by the main generals and warlords, they had dinner, and then went straight back to the room prepared for the two on the ship.

Zhu Zhongliang dismissed the idlers and others, and began to ask himself the question that he had held back for a long time:
"Jingyuan, judging from your experience, what state must an aircraft carrier formation reach before it can be considered fully mature?
"Can it cope with the night and relatively harsh sea conditions, and can it fight completely independently without battleships?

"You said during the day that the most critical technology is radio detection.

"Besides that, what other relatively important technologies can help the aircraft carrier formation mature quickly.

"In the end, the battleship is completely suppressed and the ocean is controlled independently?"

Radio detection equipment is actually radar, but radar is a transliteration, and radio detection is the original meaning.

Actively transmit radio waves in a specific direction, and then receive and analyze the returned radio waves.

According to the characteristics of radio waves, it is judged whether there is a target in this direction, as well as the azimuth, distance, and type of the target.

The Japanese translated this device as "electric probe", which is actually quite accurate.

The principle of radio detection was proposed very early, perhaps even earlier than radio communication.

There have been related studies in this world long ago, but before Zhu Jingyuan intervened, they did not receive too much attention.

After Zhu Jingyuan specifically reminded, the Ming Ministry of Industry and the Royal Consortium quickly set up special teams to work hard in the direction of radio detection.

Zhu Zhongliang also knew the general progress of these projects, and it was not up to Zhu Jingyuan to decide whether they could be put into practical use.

Now what Zhu Zhongliang wants to know and what he wants to discuss with Zhu Jingyuan is not the technology itself.

The key question is actually - how can the aircraft carrier fleet become the dominant force at sea.

If you look at it from the perspective of battleships, it is to discuss how battleships are eliminated.

This topic is actually a bit big, Zhu Jingyuan sorted out his thoughts:

"According to my understanding, the aircraft carrier controls the ocean and the battleship withdraws from the battlefield. These two things are not causal.

"It's just a comparison between the attack capability and defense capability of naval ships, and several important nodes have been formed in the process from relative balance to gradual imbalance.

"The battleship should be eliminated, and the internal reason for the elimination should be the imbalance of offense and defense caused by the development of science and technology.

"In addition to radio detection, aircraft carriers and aircraft, these technologies should also include torpedoes, rockets, guided weapons, etc.

"These technologies make attacks more and more effective and defenses more and more difficult.

"When it comes time to defend against the enemy's attack no matter how much armor is piled up, both sides can only give up defense completely and pursue the ultimate offensive capability.

"Strive to completely destroy the enemy before oneself is destroyed."

Zhu Zhongliang nodded silently, then looked at Zhu Jingyuan and waited for the next sentence, because there was obviously something he hadn't finished.

Zhu Jingyuan continued to explain while sorting out his thoughts:
"This process will definitely not be completed overnight. It will not be said that at a certain point, the armor of the battleship is suddenly useless, the battleship can be retired directly, and the aircraft carrier does not need the company of the battleship in an instant.

"This is a process in which quantitative changes continue to accumulate and eventually lead to qualitative changes, a relatively long process.

"I think it can be roughly divided into three important stages.

"The first stage is the completion of the combination of aircraft carrier and carrier-based aircraft, which is our current state.

"Now the strike capability of the aircraft carrier is very strong. Ten twin-engine attack aircraft can carry twenty torpedoes. The key is that the strike distance is unmatched by any traditional warship.

"The second stage is the realization of all-weather aircraft carriers and all-weather combat aircraft.

"In the absence of direct external interference, the aircraft must be able to take off, land and attack at night, and be able to take off and land in small to medium-scale rainfall, wind and waves.

"It can detect high-intensity rainstorms and lightning in advance, and guide the formation to evade in advance.

"Radio detection and communication are the key technologies at this stage.

"The pilot communicates with the mothership and companions through the radio, and needs to communicate with the air crew through the radio, and complete the take-off and landing operations with the guidance of light signals.

"Make the radio detection accurate enough.

"Sufficiently accurate radios allow aircraft to detect and determine the relatively accurate location of a target by radio in the absence of light, and then launch an attack.

"Among them, radio communication has basically matured, and the difficulty lies in the accurate realization of radio detection.

"After solving the difficulties of radio technology, how the mothership docks and communicates with the pilots, what signal to use to command the pilots to take off and land at night, and how to coordinate attacks can all be realized through exploration and training."

Zhu Zhongliang nodded again when he heard this:
"So, after the radio is mature, can we just give up the battleship fleet?"

Zhu Jingyuan also thought about it for a while

"I don't think so. With all-weather aircraft carriers and aircraft, battleships have lost their value as the main force of attack.

"Battleships are no longer needed in harsh sea conditions, and battleships are only used to escort aircraft carriers.

"But this kind of use still has a certain irreplaceability, although it is very small, it still exists.

"We still cannot guarantee [-]% avoidance of accidental encounters, the military must have the necessary guarantees.

"Of all warships of any kind, there is none that is as durable as a battleship.

"On the basis of such subtle irreplaceability, plus the battleship itself is a good command platform, the most stable air defense platform, fire support platform, and the most deterrent warship, it still needs to continue to exist.

"I estimate that this process will last at least ten years, or even longer."

Zhu Zhongliang was a little regretful after hearing this. Could it be that he will never see a pure aircraft carrier formation in his lifetime?
Zhu Zhongliang also has a basic understanding of the composition and posture of the pure aircraft carrier formation in the future.

So I'm not particularly disappointed now, so I nodded slowly:

"In the past few years, let's train the basic application of the aircraft carrier first. Since the battleship will exist for a relatively long time, when will it really withdraw from the battlefield and active service?"

Zhu Jingyuan now has a clear idea:

"The third stage is a comprehensive upgrade of the strike capability of the aircraft carrier formation.

"An aircraft carrier or an essential frigate for an aircraft carrier must have the ability to threaten battleships at close range.

"When encountering a battleship by accident, there must be at least one weapon that can be released immediately, hit the battleship quickly, and destroy it.

"Even if such an aircraft carrier formation does not have battleship escorts, it can still confront battleships at close quarters.

"At the very least, they can destroy each other, or in other words, both sides will suffer.

"In this way, the battleship will completely lose its irreplaceability. Whether to continue to build battleships depends entirely on the cost and whether there is any real deterrence left.

"And the cost of a battleship is extremely high...

"So, if our competitors find that battleships are worthless and don't continue to build battleships, then there is no need for us to continue to build."

At the moment when Zhu Jingyuan paused, Zhu Zhongliang next to him subconsciously asked:
"Isn't this weapon a torpedo... Uh, no, the torpedo is not fast enough... it's... a missile!"

Zhu Zhongliang thought of what that weapon is, a missile!

Although the brochure left by Emperor Shizu didn't directly mention the relationship between that kind of weapon and the elimination of battleships, Zhu Jingyuan made it clear all of a sudden.

Aircraft carriers cannot eliminate battleships independently, and missiles cannot eliminate battleships independently.

However, the combination of the two forms a modern aircraft carrier plus guided missile cruiser (destroyer) combat system, which completely covers the role of the traditional gunboat fleet represented by battleships. The key is that the efficiency is much better.

Battleships have not been directly replaced by a new weapon or a new ship type.

He has lost his irreplaceability in the new system, and naturally no one will continue to build.

When Zhu Jingyuan said this, he thought of a logic that sounded nonsense, but actually made sense.

After the end of World War II, Britain and France did not retain their battleships in the end. Avant-Garde and Jean Bart were demolished as soon as they were built, and the United States eventually retired all battleships.

The immediate reason for this choice is that their opponent Red Lucia has no battleships.

At that time, aircraft carriers were able to fight at night, missiles were basically mature, and the combat value of battleships was gone.

The final meaning is the influence of the era of big ships and cannons that lasted for hundreds of years.

The battleship is still a symbol of power in the minds of ordinary people, that is, deterrence still exists.

If Maozi really built his own battleship at that time, the British and French, the Thais and Westerners, would probably have swollen faces and pretended to be fat.

Britain and France should continue to retain cutting-edge battleships such as Avant-garde, George V, Richelieu, and Jean Bart.

The United States will continue to maintain a longer active battleship formation.

The reverse is also true. When Father Iron and the design team determined the design indicators of the Type 24 battleship, they initially followed the counterpoint Montana standard.

The father of steel and intelligence personnel judged that the suspension of construction in Montana was only caused by the World War. After the war, the Americans may continue to build Montana.

At the same time, after the end of the World War, Britain and France continued to build battleships.

The Iron Father thought they were building newer battleships, such as Alsace and Lions.

But later, more accurate information showed that the British made an avant-garde with grandma's dentures, and the French just finished the rest of Jean Bart before the war.

So Father Iron and Steel lowered the standard of Type 24 battleships, changing from opposing Montana to suppressing Iowa, and the tonnage was limited to [-] tons.

They believed that the Iowa class had nine 35-inch main guns, a [-]-inch main armor belt and a speed of [-] knots.

Since the goal was still too high, the construction of the Type 53 battleship did not officially start until the death of the father of steel in 24 years.

Corn Emperor, the new leader of Red Lucia, has a significantly different thinking on the navy than Father Iron.

The Corn Emperor decided that the battleship itself was meaningless, even if it was a face project of a loving father, it was built to look like it.

Of course, Corn Emperor, who is against his loving father, will not continue to build traditional artillery battleships including battleships.

Therefore, the design of the Type 24 battleship was directly canceled, the semi-finished Type 82 cruiser was directly demolished in 55, and the four unfinished 68 modified artillery cruisers were also directly cancelled.

On the other hand, the British avant-garde retired in 54 and was dismantled in 60. The four George V-class battleships, George V, Duke of York, Anson, and Howe, were all sold and dismantled in 57-58.

France's Jean Bart was finally completed in 55, and was directly transferred to the reserve service in 57. Richelieu was also used as a training ship as a dormitory in 56, and transferred to the reserve service in 58.

The last two of the US Iowa-class battleships, the fifth ship USS Illinois and the sixth ship USS Kentucky, were not built during the war, but they were not dismantled, and it was not until 58 that they finally decided to dismantle.

The four completed Iowa-class battleships were also put into reserve service in 58 and sealed up in the port.

The Alaska-class large cruiser, the unfinished third ship Hawaii, was not dismantled until 58 years, and the completed Alaska and Guam were also delayed until 60 years before the final disintegration.

The decommissioning, sale, and dismantling of these large artillery warships are of course influenced by many generations.

However, the fundamental reason is obviously that the era of aircraft carriers and missiles has made them useless.

At the same time, Red Lucia is not planning to continue building battleships, which may be an important opportunity for relevant decisions to be made.

Of these two reasons, one is inevitable and the other is accidental.

If Emperor Corn continues to insist on building battleships, even if the project of warships with semi-finished products is not stopped, the battleships of European and American countries will probably continue to be kept for a longer period of time.

The death of the steel father represents the end of an era.