Empire Conquest

Chapter 610 - 606: Indecision Repeatedly

After arriving at the shipyard, Zhao Yu first called Yang Hanlin and learned that Wang Kaiyuan had gone away and would not be back for a couple of days.

Bai Zhizhan was not idle either, accompanied by the reception staff arranged by the shipyard, he visited those several main battleships that had entered the fitting-out stage.

As for Zhao Yu, he was a busy man; several kinds of battleships directly under his responsibility were in the design stage and needed to be completed quickly so that construction could start as soon as the shipyard’s slipways were available. Otherwise, the work would be delayed for months, so he could not serve as a full-time guide for Bai Zhizhan.

What interested Bai Zhizhan was not the second batch of "Province" class large carriers, but the accompanying large cruisers.

In terms of their attitude toward large cruisers, the Imperial Navy had always been conflicted, or rather, had changed its stance several times.

Initially, including Bai Zhizhan, many Navy generals felt it necessary to build large cruisers because fast battleships were simply too expensive. If they were built in a one-to-one ratio with fleet carriers, it would inevitably squeeze a lot of the budget, thereby reducing the number of carriers.

Replacing them with much cheaper large cruisers seemed reasonable.

During the design phase, specifically during the project verification stage, the Imperial Navy realized that large cruisers were not as beneficial as they seemed.

The key issue was that the cost was not low enough to replace fast battleships.

The reason was quite simple—the propulsion system of the large cruisers had not been downscaled, and their procurement costs could not be reduced. The main guns, being a new design and not procured in large quantities, along with the separately purchased ammunition, also led to a non-negligible construction cost.

On a battleship, the propulsion system and the weapon system are the two highest-cost components.

To give an example with fast battleships, the propulsion system roughly accounted for a quarter of the construction cost, and the weapon system for a fifth, nearly adding up to half.

Conversely, items like armor were not so expensive, after all, the Empire’s steel production capacity had always been in surplus.

With the propulsion system not downscaled, the key was the tactical indices required by the Navy, that is, the cruisers needed to have a speed surpassing, or at least equal to, that of the heavy cruisers.

The large cruisers’ demand for a propulsion system had exceeded that of fast battleships.

This was a very serious issue.

The fast battleships designed and built by the Imperial Navy before the outbreak of the great war were intended as escorts for the carriers.

Take the "Xu Sea" class, for instance, the minimum requirement was 30 knots, and the maximum only 32 knots.

After moving into the construction phase, due to budget issues, the Navy had made compromises.

They only required the ability to maintain top speed for four hours, thus enhancing the safety margin of the propulsion system by operating it under overload conditions to reach maximum cruising speed.

This allowed for a reduction in the maximum output rating of the propulsion system, thereby significantly lowering the construction cost.

There was nothing strange about this; it was before the outbreak of the great war.

Not to mention fast battleships, even more crucial fleet carriers had to balance the budget. Without sufficient funds, even the best battleships could only stay on the design plans, not to mention that prior to the "Xu Sea" class, there were four upgraded fast battleships.

Clearly, this method was utterly unfeasible for large cruisers.

An air raid might only last a few hours, but a pursuit battle in the open sea could often last for days.

Large Cruisers were initially designed to suppress Heavy Cruisers and eliminate them in the open sea, not specifically to provide cover for carriers.

Before the outbreak of the great war, including the Imperial Navy, the navies of the Great Powers had already initiated the design and construction of post-Treaty Type Heavy Cruisers. The most representative were the Saiyi Navy’s construction of only 2 "Ligen" class and the mass production of the "Baltimore" class by the Newland Navy.

Although the Imperial Navy also had post-Treaty Type Heavy Cruiser design and construction projects, the Navy knew all along that what could suppress the Heavy Cruisers were not Heavy Cruisers themselves but the Large Cruisers equipped with larger caliber Main Guns, even higher speed, and thicker armor.

In fact, these were essentially the new era Battlecruisers.

The difference was that Large Cruisers targeted Heavy Cruisers and were not required to have the capability to combat alongside Fast Battleships, meaning they were not expected to handle the firepower of Fast Battleships; instead, the weight typically used for firepower was utilized to enhance speed and cruising power.

Clearly, among the main performance indicators for Large Cruisers, speed was the most crucial.

From the beginning, the Imperial Navy demanded that the Large Cruisers have a speed not less than the existing Heavy Cruisers, preferably exceeding by 1 to 2 knots.

Obviously, this requirement was not low at all.

Among the known active Heavy Cruisers, the highest speed was 34 knots, and the lowest was 32 knots.

To push a Large Cruiser, with a displacement of 25000 tons, over 32 knots required propulsion power no less than that of a 35000-ton, 30-knot Fast Battleship. To reach 35 knots, the propulsion power needed to be increased by about 40%.

After some difficulty, the Imperial Navy lowered the requirements, setting the top speed at 33 knots, but the calculations provided by the design units were still astonishing; the output power of the propulsion system needed to be 150,000 horsepower, 20,000 more than the then-design-phase "Xu Sea" class.

This alone would increase the cost by 10%.

In the end, the Imperial Navy once again bowed to reality, deciding to use the "Xu Sea" class propulsion system and accepting the fastest speed under these conditions of 32 knots.

However, by the time the "Xu Sea" class was being built, thanks to technological advances, such as ultra-high-pressure boilers, the output power of its propulsion system had increased to 150,000 horsepower.

Even so, the purchase price of the propulsion system remained high, and the production of Large ship boilers had never seen a substantial increase. After meeting the needs of carriers and Battleships, considerations had to be given to Fleet oilers and combat support ships, with Large Cruisers being last.

In summary, the propulsion system became the top factor affecting the cost of Large Cruisers.

Of course, the weapon system was just the same.

In the initial conception, there were two calibers to choose from for the Main Guns, 250 mm and 300 mm, and design units also provided different configuration options. The cheapest option was four twin-mounted 240 mm Main Guns; the most expensive was three triple-mounted 300 mm Main Guns.

Choosing these two calibers was also a matter of habit or convenience to reduce development and manufacturing difficulties.

However, no matter which configuration was chosen, a critical problem could not be avoided.

After all pre-Dreadnoughts were decommissioned, the Imperial Navy no longer had Battleships using 240 mm and 300 mm shells, and even the associated ammunition had been destroyed.

Fortunately, this issue was perfectly resolved later by adopting the 280 mm Naval guns produced under license from the Tiaoman Empire and directly purchasing the production line for the shells from the Tiaoman Empire.

Because the 280 mm shells did not have the capability to counter Battleships but were more than sufficient against cruisers, and the Tiaoman Navy was willing to provide the technology for armor-piercing shells in exchange for advanced technology from the Imperial Navy, the Imperial Navy didn’t spend effort on designing new armor-piercing shells.

It is evident that before the outbreak of the great war, the Imperial Navy had repeatedly reconsidered its choices regarding Large Cruisers.

When the great war broke out, their indecision only increased further.