Chapter 2441 Cruiser Planning 6

Are anti-aircraft cruisers necessary? Naturally, there is a need. After all, the real naval powers in history, whether it is the United Kingdom or the United States, have built a number of full-time air defense cruisers, such as the American Atlanta-class air defense cruisers. As well as the British Dido-class air defense cruiser and the subsequent War Goddess-class air defense cruiser, they were responses to the huge air defense pressure the navy faced under the conditions of World War II. Generally speaking, the defense of the air defense cruiser is still useful, and it is trustworthy as the core air defense pillar of the fleet.

As for using destroyers instead of anti-aircraft cruisers, is it possible? How to put it, if calculated in terms of tonnage, the most common American destroyer in World War II was the Fletcher-class destroyer. The standard displacement was about 2,300 tons. Its main anti-aircraft firepower was five 5-inch guns. How about comparing it with the American Atlanta-class air defense cruiser? The standard displacement of this level of anti-aircraft cruiser is 6,700 tons. Its main long-range anti-aircraft firepower is 16 5-inch guns, of which 14 5-inch anti-aircraft guns can be concentrated on one side.

This is similar in terms of tonnage, but in fact, in terms of cost and actual combat performance, the anti-aircraft light cruiser will be better. Apart from anything else, at least the turret on the anti-aircraft cruiser will not be penetrated by the 20MM machine gun, while the 5-inch anti-aircraft gun on the destroyer really has no defense at all! Facing the suppression of fighter jets, they will be easily penetrated. From the perspective of hull defense, light cruisers are very defensive when faced with small bombs of less than 100KG, but it is hard to say about destroyers.

For critical hits that exceed the general specifications, the light cruiser may also survive. For example, in history, the British light cruiser Dido was hit by a 500KG armor-piercing projectile on the B turret base on May 29, 1941. By the way, the Q turret next to it was also severely damaged. Then the guy ran back. For another example, on August 27 of the same year, the ship of the same class, the Goddess of Light, was hit by an air-launched torpedo, blowing out a large hole of 8.5 meters * 5.5 meters, and then the ship successfully ran back. There have been several similar encounters in the history of the Dido class. Historically, British anti-aircraft cruisers have been attacked by German and Italian naval and air forces in previous operations in the Mediterranean. Although some were sunk in the battle, their survivability has been tested by many wars.

From the perspective of future naval battles, as the world's first-class navy, it is necessary to build anti-aircraft cruisers. If you wait until they are bombed by planes before adding anti-aircraft cruisers, it will be too late. In fact, the British air defense Cruisers appeared very early, and were already set as early as the 1930s when the British Royal Navy was rearming its armaments. The Dido-class anti-aircraft cruiser was the product of this situation.

Of course, this class of air defense cruisers is not successful purely from a design perspective. First of all, the Dido class air defense cruiser uses twin 133MM artillery. Although this gun has a higher muzzle velocity. But as an anti-aircraft gun, it is very lacking in some of the most basic elements.

Take the American twin 5-inch guns as an example. The theoretical rate of fire of the British 133MM artillery is 10 rounds per minute, but in fact it is about 7.5 rounds. The rate of fire of the American twin 5-inch guns is 20 rounds per minute! And if it is a single 5-inch gun on a destroyer, the rate of fire can reach 2.7 seconds!

Because anti-aircraft guns need to track and tell moving targets, the rotation speed of the turret is a very important performance. The horizontal rotation speed of the American twin 5-inch guns is 25 degrees per second, while the British are 15 degrees per second. There is also a gap in speed in the UK. Therefore, the 133MM artillery is not very good as an anti-aircraft gun. So much so that the third batch of Dido-class air defense cruisers switched to 4-inch guns...

What's even more tragic is that the number of guns on the Dido-class anti-aircraft cruiser is sparse. The Dido-class anti-aircraft cruiser has up to 10 main guns.

The American Atlanta-class air defense cruiser has as many as 16 5-inch guns. This, even if the fire control between the two sides is close, the air defense firepower of the Dido-class air defense cruiser is far inferior to that of American products! At this moment, the Dido class once again inherited the British tradition of integration and cheating...

"We need to build anti-aircraft cruisers. Even if they are simply used as experimental ships, we need to build two to try." The crown prince thought for a while and said. "I believe that the standard displacement of the new anti-aircraft cruiser should be controlled at around 6,000 tons, and the single-side air firepower should not be less than 12 medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns. The speed can accompany the aircraft carrier."

"Then how many ships do you plan to build?" Marshal Scheer saw that the Crown Prince had spoken, so naturally he couldn't hold back at all. General Rodhack's request was reasonable, and coupled with various factors, it was naturally difficult for Marshal Scheer to veto it directly.

"At least two ships. After all, there are two main types of anti-aircraft guns in the Navy in the future. One is the 105MM anti-aircraft gun, and the other is the 128MM anti-aircraft gun. We need to build at least two platforms to compare the performance of these two anti-aircraft guns. ." The crown prince thought for a while and said.

"Two ships are not enough." Admiral Rodhack said.

"Your Excellency, Admiral, it is not difficult to build a 6,000-ton warship. It can even be started temporarily before the war. We only need to build a small number of warships for practicing tactics. There is no need to build these specialized functions in peacetime. , a battleship with narrow applicability." Marshal Hipper said.

"Your Highness, actually we can think about the problem from another angle." At this moment, Count Spey suddenly said: "Since we are signing a treaty, in order to avoid our advantage in cruiser tonnage being reduced, we can completely target this kind of Class battleships should be designed with a tonnage limit to exclude them from the cruiser tonnage. What do you think?"

"What do you mean?" Marshal Scheer asked.

"It's like this. We have communicated with the French Navy before. The French are very satisfied with our 2,000-ton destroyers, especially the 6-inch guns on them. They believe that the French Navy is unlikely to build too many in the future. Cruisers, after all, the French have limited money pockets and limited demand. Most of their colonies are already in northern Africa, and they do not need a long voyage. Therefore, the French plan to use a cruiser that is weaker than ordinary light cruisers, but far superior to ordinary destroyers. Intermediate battleships replace some of the tasks and functions of light cruisers. The French call them super destroyers, also called anti-destroyer large lightning strike ships," Scheer said.

Are you shocked? Is it surprising? A few months ago, there was a bloody fight between Germany and France. Count Spee repeatedly severely damaged the French fleet. Now the navies of the two sides have begun exchanges at the technical level. This is the terrible thing about politics! As an appeasement to the French, the Germans even leased two 2,000-ton destroyers to the French. After studying it, the French felt that this ship was really good!

Here comes the second update~~~! Please subscribe and reward~~~!