Empire Conquest

Chapter 537 - 533: Flexibility Method

"The super air fortress you mentioned?"

"If possible, I’d like it to begin production ahead of schedule and satisfy the needs of the Southwest East Ocean first, and also require the purchase of airdropped naval mines."

After Nizi finished speaking, Rofuss briefly pondered before calling his secretary in to notify Marshall and Arnold.

Although he didn’t provide a clear response, it was obvious that Rofuss had an idea in mind.

Summoning Army Chief of Staff Marshall and Land Air Force Commander Arnold was nominally to seek their opinions, but actually to inform them.

Once Rofuss made a decision, no one could change it.

Nizi knew that his proposal was the only way to buy enough time for the Newland Army to regain its strength and help the Newland Federation get through the difficulties.

To put it more bluntly, it was the only way to avoid defeat.

Without this strategy, the Newland Federation would face defeat in as little as two years and at most in three years.

Soon, the two Army Admirals hurried over.

As Nizi predicted, Rofuss, in a calm and narrative tone, explained the proposal to start ahead-of-schedule mass production of the XB-29, nicknamed "Super Air Fortress," and to deploy it first to Aus, sending it to the Flame Sea and the Throat Strait for minesweeping operations.

Until he finished, he hadn’t sought their opinions.

Then, Rofuss shifted the discussion to the details.

First was whether the XB-29 could be mass-produced ahead of schedule.

This was a difficult question to answer or, rather, one that couldn’t be succinctly clarified in a few sentences.

Right in front of Rofuss, Arnold made several phone calls before giving a vague response.

Even if mass production could start early, it definitely wouldn’t meet the preset performance criteria, and the reliability would be extremely poor, resulting in subpar combat effectiveness.

Of course, Arnold didn’t speak carelessly.

Although the XB-29 project had commenced before the outbreak of the great war, it was hindered by various factors and only truly got on track after the Newland Federation entered the war, still encountering many issues at the outset.

The most serious issue was actually the engine.

To put it simply, the power system, which is the first component to be confirmed during the design phase of all combat aircraft, is also the biggest challenge.

The progress of the new engine couldn’t keep up with the fighter’s design schedule, dragging down the entire project—this was not something to be surprised about.

Because the supporting engines couldn’t keep up, many combat aircraft had to use less powerful, older engines when first deployed.

Of course, the Liangxia Empire faced the same issues.

For the XB-29, the engines turned out to be a manageable issue, or one that could temporarily be set aside.

Even using a lower-powered engine, the XB-29 could still fly, simply carrying a smaller payload and having a shorter range.

During the design phase, the real challenge was actually the fuselage.

The XB-29 was the first heavy bomber designed by the Newland Federation, featuring a pressurized cabin and an operational ceiling exceeding 10,000 meters, built with an all-metal structure and load-bearing frames made from aluminum alloy.

The issues involved far exceeded the initial estimates.

Naturally, this brought about many other problems.

To put it straightforwardly, it was the production cost.

Although the Newland Federation’s power generation and aluminum production ranked just behind the Liangxia Empire and the gap wasn’t wide, the price of aluminum remained high, and the difficulty in manufacturing and processing was significant, indirectly causing the cost of combat aircraft made from aluminum alloy to skyrocket.

Because it was so prohibitively expensive, the Bulan Kingdom began manufacturing combat aircraft from wood.

These problems had caused the development progress of the XB-29 to lag far behind schedule.

According to Arnold, the mass production of the XB-29 was originally scheduled for New Calendar 104, even with utmost efforts, the earliest it could be moved up to was New Calendar 103.

Obviously, that was too late!

Even if the technical specifications were lowered, the mass production time couldn’t be advanced much.

Luckily, Arnold had proposed an alternative plan.

Modify a batch of B-17 bombers, including fitting them with high-power new engines, increasing the capacity of internal fuel tanks, shortening the length of the bomb bays to carry more fuel, and even removing defensive machine guns to as much as possible extend the operational radius for mine-laying missions.

According to Arnold, by suspending two 1000-pound aerial naval mines, the operational radius of the B-17 could reach 2500 kilometers.

Clearly, the key was the 2500 kilometers operational radius.

Though the 1-ton payload significantly reduced the B-17’s efficiency in mine-laying missions, it was still better than nothing, and being able to deploy two naval mines at a time was already beneficial.

More importantly, there were many B-17s available, and their production was enormously high, making them readily usable.

To date, more than 5000 B-17s had been produced, and with the expansion of production capacity, the monthly production had already exceeded 200 units. If things went smoothly, by the beginning of next year, with new production lines coming online, output was expected to increase by 100%, and the monthly delivery could exceed 400 units.

Of course, the production cost of the B-17 was sufficiently low.

All in all, sending 1000, or even 2000 B-17s to Aus for mine-laying missions, was not an issue at all for the Land Air Force!

Arnold also mentioned that the personnel issue was easier to solve.

To strike at the Tiaoman Empire, before officially entering the war, the Newland Federation had sent pilots to join the Bulan Royal Air Force on a volunteer basis. Once they entered the war, the Newland Land Air Force deployed expeditionary forces to participate in bombing operations against the Tiaoman Empire, and the main force comprised B-17s.

Because of their large scale, the difficulty in training B-17 crews was relatively low.

According to Arnold, the Land Air Force now had about 6000 crews, but only 5000 B-17s were available.

Obviously, it was a matter of compensating for performance deficiencies with quantity.

Of course, logistical support also needed to be considered.

However, this was unrelated to the Army Air Force, and was to be resolved by the Navy independently, namely by urgently opening a sea route from the southeast to the northwest of Aus.

As for aerial-delivered naval mines, the Navy was responsible for them as well.

Compared to bombers, naval mines were not an issue.

Not to forget, during the last great war, in order to blockade the Watcher Strait, the Alliance Group produced hundreds of thousands of naval mines, 80% of which were left unused.

Now, these naval mines that had been stored in warehouses for over 20 years finally had a place to be utilized.

Finally, the bombing tactics had been determined.

Arnold suggested that mine-laying operations should mainly take place at night, and reconnaissance aircraft should be dispatched in advance to identify the approximate mine-laying area.

The key was, after removing the defensive weaponry, the B-17 was easily shot down by fighters.

Flying to Lion Spring Strait in daylight to lay mines was likely a one-way mission.

Additionally, Arnold agreed to send experienced commanders to Aus to help the Navy plan and direct mine-laying operations.

Although Arnold did this because he didn’t want the operations near East Ocean in the southwest to negatively affect the most valued strategic bomber research and production by the Land Air Force, after getting what he wanted, Nizi did not play games with Arnold.

What he wanted was not the bombers, but to use naval mines to blockade the Lion Spring Strait.

Of course, the bombers performing the mine-laying missions would have to be deployed at airports in the northwest of Aus and would become a thorn in the side of the Liangxia Navy.

After obtaining this result, Nizi did not leave immediately.

Simply put, he still needed to discuss some matters with Rofuss, or rather, to take care of other troubles.