Chapter 207 Fast Cruiser

The Monarch-class battleship has a length of 146.1 meters, a width of 26.8 meters, and a draft of 8.67 meters.

The battleship has a crew of 988 people, a conventional displacement of 18,490 tons, and a full load displacement of 20,910 tons.

Because it is expected to adopt the same design as the Dreadnought, with four steam turbine propulsion units plus 18 drum-wheel coal-fired steam boilers, the speed of the Monarch-class battleship is not much different from that of the Dreadnought, and the maximum speed is expected to reach 21 knots.

In terms of armor protection, the Monarch-class battleship uses the armor protection system of the Nassau-class battleship. The strongest protection is the armor belt in the middle of the chord, which is about 300 mm thick and provides protection for the engine room and boiler room.

The thickness of the protective armor on the side of the main turret and the command tower is 280 mm, which is the same as the maximum protection level of the Dreadnought.

In order to reduce the weight of the Nassau-class battleship, the side armor is gradually reduced from the middle to the two ends.

The Monarch-class battleships did not weaken the side armor, which also led to the estimated full load of the Monarch-class battleships being nearly 400 tons more than the full load of the Nassau-class battleships.

In summary, in addition to the current firepower system still using the mainstream German 280mm guns, the power system and armor protection system can be balanced with the dreadnought, and the armor protection is even superior.

As long as all the guns are converted to 305mm main guns with 45 or even 50 calibers in the future, the Monarch-class battleship will become a true dreadnought, achieving all-round improvements.

After the design of the Monarch-class battleship was completed, Arthur was very happy and even gave all the experts who participated in the design of the drawings a check of 10,000 Australian dollars.

Although it will take some time to put it into production, and the production will also face a period of exploration, the warship may not be launched until two or three years later.

But Australasia will soon have its own dreadnought, which is enough for Arthur.

Moreover, most of the powerful countries have only achieved this level at present. It is good enough to have a design drawing for the dreadnought.

Australasia may be ahead of some powerful countries in terms of dreadnought.

Although Australasia's Monarch-class battleships were kept secret, William II still learned about Australasia's dreadnought design.

Although William II was surprised that Arthur did not rush to produce the Nassau-class battleships, but instead produced a better dreadnought belonging to Australasia based on the technical data of the Nassau-class battleships and the existing dreadnought battleships.

But facing the fact that Britain and Australasia also chose the new technology steam turbine instead of the old three-cylinder reciprocating steam engine, William II still fell into contemplation.

The old three-cylinder reciprocating steam engine and the coal-fired boiler used in the Nassau-class battleships have gone through many tests, so there is no need to worry about practical performance.

But can he really match the steam turbine technology used by the United Kingdom? I am afraid that not only William II, but even German experts are not sure.

The reason why they temporarily set the power system used by the Nassau-class battleship as old technology is that they want to see the real data after the sea trial of the Dreadnought battleship to see if there will be any problems before making other plans.

However, from the design of the three dreadnought battleships that Germany knows about, the Nassau-class battleships that Germany has transformed with all its strength are actually lagging behind in the power system.

For this reason, William II made two decisions. The first is to find a way to improve the power system of the Nassau-class battleship again, and keep the expected maximum speed at 21 knots, which is consistent with the Dreadnought battleship and the Monarch-class battleship.

The second is to order major German military factories to conduct large-scale research on 305mm artillery. Under the premise that the new battleships uniformly adopt 305mm artillery, Germany must not lag behind in this industry.

Arthur also had a brief call with William II, and the two sides reached an important trade. Australasia shared the design of the Monarch-class battleship with Germany in exchange for Germany's sharing of artillery technology and submarine technology in the next three years.

This is still very important for Australasia. Although Germany has not mastered the 305mm 45-caliber artillery technology, more than two years later, Germany has caught up and successfully developed a 50-caliber 305mm artillery.

This will greatly enhance the firepower of warships and is definitely a technology that cannot be missed in the development of warships.

The second is Germany's submarine technology. So far, Germany's submarine technology is actually lagging behind the great powers.

This is largely because Germany did not pay too much attention to the development of this technology when the submarine was just born.

Germany's first submarine was even built in 1902 according to the design of a Spanish engineer.

It was not until 1904 that the German Navy established a submarine construction office to be responsible for the construction of German naval submarines.

So far, Germany's submarine technology is not advanced, but Germany has enough potential in the development of submarines.

And now the most likely source of submarine technology in Australasia is Germany, and Arthur will naturally not give up this opportunity.

William II was very satisfied with the complete design data of the Monarch-class battleship in exchange for the artillery technology and submarine technology within three years.

After all, this is the most advanced warship designed by Australasia alone, and its level of advancement is definitely the best in the world.

Even if it was in Germany, William II thought that it would be impossible to share such technology with other countries without bloodshed, not to mention Australasia, where the technology was already relatively backward.

Because of the complete design data of the Monarch-class battleships, Germany's construction plan in 1907 was also different from history.

Originally, Germany built four Nassau-class battleships in 1904, namely Nassau, Westfalen, Rheinland and Posen.

After having the more advanced Monarch-class battleships, the German Navy decided temporarily to change the Rheinland and Posen to Monarch-class battleships, and like the other two Nassau-class battleships, the construction started in mid-1907.

Just after finishing the business with Germany, Arthur gave the naval experts another difficult task, which was to develop a fast battleship, or battlecruiser, with very strong firepower, better power, and appropriate reduction in armor protection.

In order to allow these experts to have a full understanding of the so-called fast battleship, Arthur also explained it to them very carefully.

The so-called fast battleship is actually a real battlecruiser.

Each country has different views on battlecruisers. The first country to build battlecruisers was Britain. Their concept of battlecruisers is to attach importance to firepower and speed and relatively despise armor protection.

Germany also built its own battlecruisers in the future. Their view on battlecruisers is to attach importance to armor and speed, and relatively despise firepower.

But no matter what the view is, the battlecruiser is a warship with extremely high tactical value that slightly weakens armor and firepower in one aspect in exchange for a higher speed.

Because of its extremely fast speed and firepower that matches that of battleships, battlecruisers can fight battleships when advancing, and can suppress other small and medium-sized warships when retreating with speed and firepower, causing absolute crushing for other small and medium-sized warships that are not battleships.

It is also because of the high speed of battlecruisers that they can also go around in naval battles and surround and intercept the enemy fleet.

And compared to battleships, as long as the high speed advantage of battlecruisers remains, they will not fall behind the times as quickly as battleships.

Compared with the newly born dreadnoughts, battlecruisers are more suitable as main battleships to expand the scale of Australasia's warships.

Of course, this does not mean that dreadnoughts are not important to Australasia. It's just that the replacement speed of dreadnoughts is too fast, and it is not suitable for large-scale construction in a short period of time.

After receiving Arthur's order, the design team of the naval shipyard became busy again.

Arthur has the most basic requirements for this kind of warship, which is called a fast battleship. The speed must reach at least 25 knots, and it must be equipped with at least ten 280mm main guns, leaving room for improvement for the later replacement of 305mm main guns.

What does this mean? This means that this kind of warship is already comparable to battleships in terms of firepower, and even comparable to the newly born dreadnought.

Let's look at the speed. The maximum speed of the dreadnought battleship, which currently breaks the record for the highest speed of battleships, is only 21 knots, while Arthur's maximum speed requirement for fast battleships has reached 25 knots, which is not a small change.

Although in order to ensure the power of firepower and speed, Arthur agreed to cut the armor of some unimportant areas to balance.

But which piece of armor to cut and to what extent is a matter worth discussing.

Arthur's requirements gave the experts in Australasia a headache, and even some problems could only be consulted with the German experts in a roundabout way.

But this is actually not their fault. The earliest battlecruisers in the world were the British Indomitable, Invincible and Steadfast battlecruisers, also known as the Invincible-class battlecruisers.

Although the construction of these three battlecruisers had already begun, they were not actually launched until a year later in 1907.

Before they were launched, these three battlecruisers were kept secret, and like the previous HMS Dreadnought, they were one of the top secrets of the British Navy.

This also led to the fact that apart from the current British experts, there were not many shipbuilding experts who were exposed to the theory of battlecruisers.

This also had to praise the advancement and strength of Britain in shipbuilding. The dreadnoughts, battlecruisers and other warships that changed the naval system and pattern were all born in the shipyards of the British Empire.

The first update of 3,000 words, please support!