Chapter 2438 Cruiser Planning Three
"15,000 tons?" The crown prince fell into deep thought. The development of the 8-inch 10,000-ton heavy cruiser was actually a product of the treaty, not a product of normal naval development. The 6-inch artillery light cruiser is the need of the world's first-class naval power, because it can be well compatible with anti-destroyer, reconnaissance and cruise colony missions. Great value for money. And how did the heavy cruiser come about? This is a targeted product. Some naval powers do not need to consider cruising colonies and fighting across oceans, so they must use their tonnage for offense and defense. Ever since, this made the powerful countries that were targeted express their dissatisfaction.
As a result, powerful countries with spare capacity began to consider building super cruisers. The American Alaska super cruiser and the Japanese super armored cruiser are the products of this targeted competition. They can fight, resist, and run faster than cruisers! Then paid a super high cost. In fact, the German pocket battleships are also targeted. And the same is true for the battlecruisers planned by the Dutch!
The end result is that the Americans built two Alaska-class super cruisers, and the Japanese finally gave up the flashy super-armor cruisers. The German pocket battleships proved to be mediocre. And the Dutch battle cruiser also gave up. In fact, it is better to build a fast battleship when it reaches the super-armor cruiser level. Of course, except for the special situation of the Netherlands, because their funds are enough to build two battle cruisers. , but certainly cannot afford to build 2 fast battleships....
Therefore, if nothing else, all countries will find that if the tonnage of cruisers is set too wide, then this kind of vicious competition will not benefit everyone. Therefore, the best result is to make a fairly balanced limit. Let both parties feel that this warship can be accepted by each other, and it will not depreciate their own fleets due to the improvements of other countries.
After slightly relaxing the restrictions on the historical 8-inch 10,000-ton heavy cruiser, Hipper satisfied these two points. First, the 8-inch artillery is indeed enough to suppress the light cruiser, which can satisfy Japan, the United Kingdom, and France. and the pursuit of combat power by the Italians. The second point is to limit the tonnage to less than 15,000 tons, which is also beneficial to Germany and the United States, because they don’t have to worry about their cruisers, which are too pursuit of range and seaworthiness, being suppressed by the opponent’s warships of the same level, because, for defense against 8-inch guns Generally speaking, the displacement of 15,000 tons is still relatively rich, so it can achieve a balance of other performances while taking into account the soft performance! This is the so-called hedging!
As for changing guns, this kind of thing definitely exists. For example, if you are patient, you can choose to equip six 12-inch guns. However, the number of 6 doors is still relatively small. In fact, most of the main gunships choose at least 8 main guns as the bottom line, which can already show that the efficiency of 6 main guns is actually relatively low. However, for long-distance design, 6 cannons are almost the lower limit of corrective shooting. Even if one of the cannons fails, long-distance shooting will be greatly affected. Therefore, navies of all countries will consider whether such a change of guns is worth it!
As for the 15,000-ton battleship equipped with more than eight 10-inch guns? Well, it can only be said that you are thinking too much.... This will definitely sacrifice some performance. After all, the most radical Japanese and Americans are equipped with 10 8-inch guns. And the defense of treaty cruisers is generally somewhat problematic. Later generations of Baltimore and his like also had this tonnage, so they still carried nine 8-inch guns and continued to use them?
Therefore, for some mature naval powers, they will recognize the significance of this clause, which can not only satisfy the demands of different parties to the greatest extent, but also stop vicious competition. Prevent the arms race between the two sides from developing in an unpredictable direction. If Ruprecht himself attends the Washington meeting,
Then he is sure to persuade all parties to keep the performance within a reasonable range.
For the German shipbuilding industry, the 15,000-ton heavy cruiser hull is also more suitable for production. The 15,000-ton heavy cruiser must be a high-speed hull with a relatively large aspect ratio, with a length of about 200 meters and a width of just over 20 meters. This length is more suitable for most of the current naval shipping standards of the German Empire. After all, in this plane, the German fleet as a whole has achieved high speed, so the hull length is inevitable. The length of the shipping is also more suitable for a warship of this size. The productivity will be better, at least there are enough slipways.
Some people may ask, once the treaty is signed, even the number of heavy cruisers will be relatively limited? I am very sure of that. But as a traverser, Ruprecht naturally knows some uses of the cruiser hull in the historical 2nd battle, for example, it is used to change into a light aircraft carrier! In history, the most famous first-class light aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy, the Independence-class aircraft carrier, was modified from the hull of a cruiser!
In actual combat, when the large U.S. aircraft carriers were in short supply, the nine independent-class light aircraft carriers that had been in service one after another undoubtedly played an important role in naval battles. However, it is undeniable that the Independence-class aircraft carrier still has many problems. Generally speaking, it is small in size and low in number of aircraft, and the released aircraft are mainly fighter jets. It is enough to be a handyman, but it is still difficult to output.
The Independence-class aircraft carrier was modified from the hull of the Cleveland-class light cruiser, so why use Cleveland? The reason is simple. There are too many cruisers of this class. In history, the Americans built a total of 27 Cleveland-class light cruisers, and 9 hulls were converted into light aircraft carriers...
The performance of the independent class is enough to deal with the weak Japanese army in history, but in this plane, if there is a large-scale naval battle between Germany and the United States, the ability of the independent class is obviously not enough. The reason is very simple. Everyone is a super heavyweight player. It is estimated that in this plane, existences at the level of Midway Island and Montana will also show their strengths in the second battle, right?
In the crown prince's plan, the hull size of the German heavy cruiser should be 210 meters in length and 25 meters in width, reducing the draft. This hull length-to-width ratio is obviously shorter and thicker than that of historical Japanese ships such as Kaohsiung. For example, the historical Kaohsiung-class heavy cruiser has a length of 203 meters and a width of 19 meters. After modification, it is 20.7 meters. Compared with Kaohsiung, the length of the German heavy cruiser is slightly longer, and the width is much larger. In this way, it is almost impossible to achieve a high speed of more than 35 knots, but it is not a big problem to reach 33 knots.
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