Great Power Heavy Industry: Rise

Chapter 210 Seminar on Aircraft Carrier Construction Plan
President Chen talked about the cooperation between Southeast Shipyard and Red Star Heavy Industry to Zhong Cheng.

In the past few years, the Southeast Shipyard has been using a large number of Red Star Company's Nuwa Shenshi series machine tools, various vehicles and some heavy machinery.

However, with the advancement of technology, the ocean transportation industry will definitely shrink, and ships swimming in the water will eventually be replaced by aircraft.

Even marine fisheries may use large ground-effect aircraft flying low above the water.

Southeast Shipyard hopes to have in-depth cooperation with Hongxing Heavy Industry Group in the manufacture of large surface aircraft.

Zhong Cheng pondered for a moment, saying that this matter is too big and he can't make the decision now, but it can be considered.

After all, it's not imminent.

At 9:[-], Dean Chen led Zhong Cheng into the conference room of the Research and Development Institute, and the seminar on the construction plan of the domestic aircraft carrier began.

Many people participated in the seminar, including experts from the military scientific research system, commanders from the navy, technical workers from large ship companies, scholars from more than a dozen famous universities, and so on.

There are as many as five or six hundred people!

Zhou Hu whispered in Zhong Cheng's ear, "There are so many people in such a mess, you're not afraid of leaking secrets!"

Zhong Cheng said with a smile: "This kind of meeting will not have substantive content. It is to let everyone come up with ideas and collect valuable suggestions. There is no confidential content."

Zhou Hu blinked, "So can I go up and say a few things?"

Zhong Cheng sneered and said: "Everyone came prepared, if you say something casually, if you are not afraid of being scolded to step down, you will go up!"

Zhou Hu chuckled, "Then you must be prepared?"

"Of course!"

Southeast Research Institute as the sponsor, President Chen first came to the stage to explain the topics discussed at the meeting.

It is to make suggestions on the construction plan of the first domestically-made aircraft carrier, specifically what power system to use, how much displacement and hull layout, etc.

After Dean Chen finished speaking, the participants began to speak enthusiastically.

Everyone's interest is very high, if their suggestions are adopted, it will be a matter of glory.

There is a holographic projector connected to Fuxi Optical Computer in the meeting room, and speakers can use Fuxi Optical Computer to broadcast their design ideas.

Now Fuxi optical brain and Shihuang Chinese character operating system have been popularized in China, and the software programs developed based on Shihuang Chinese character operating system are already as numerous as stars.

Although the participants come from different scientific research units and use different R&D software, there is no problem of software incompatibility.

The first person to speak on stage was the ship designer of the Northern Shipyard. His suggestion was to continue to build conventionally powered aircraft carriers.

He listed a lot of reasons, mainly from cost considerations. The first domestically-made aircraft carrier has already been built halfway, and it would not be a waste to continue to build it.

Moreover, he also said that conventionally powered aircraft carriers are not useless compared with nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

In addition to the advantage of cheap construction, in terms of combat effectiveness, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers do not have much advantage.

Compared with the other five conventionally powered aircraft carriers, the only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier "Roosevelt" participating in the Gulf War has similar numbers of aircraft sorties and replenishment intervals.

On the contrary, the oldest aircraft carrier "Midway" won the "Distinguished Service Award" for the most sorties.

Although the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has unlimited power, the conventional-powered aircraft carrier itself is not bad. It is no problem to sail more than 1 kilometers at a time with full fuel.

This range can be sailed directly from Sea City to London, which is twice the maximum range of most other surface ships.

Then the participants put forward their own doubts, and the designer answered dryly, but he was suspected of being unreasonable.

Zhong Cheng understood the feelings of the employees of the Northern Shipyard. No one would be reconciled to seeing the hard-working aircraft carrier be difficult to deliver!

However, the gap between a conventionally powered aircraft carrier and a nuclear powered aircraft carrier is too great, and the advantages can be explained in a few sentences, but others can easily find a lot of disadvantages.

Next came the designer of the Southeast Research Institute, who suggested building a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier directly.

He only talked about the three main advantages of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers: continuous endurance, the ability to greatly reduce the size of the island, and no harmful exhaust emissions.

Nuclear-powered aircraft carriers do not have the huge chimneys necessary for conventional-powered aircraft carriers. The islands on the deck are much smaller, and the interior space is also small.

Every inch of land on an aircraft carrier is expensive, and every bit of space saved can leave more space for carrier-based aircraft to play.

After all, an aircraft carrier is the mothership of carrier-based aircraft, and being able to accommodate more carrier-based aircraft has always been the pursuit of an aircraft carrier.

Conventional powered aircraft carriers emit a large amount of harmful gases during the burning of fuel.

On the one hand, these gases threaten the health of the staff on the aircraft carrier, and on the other hand, they also accelerate the aging of the aircraft carrier and reduce the service life of the aircraft carrier.

Don't underestimate the "exhaust gas" of an aircraft carrier during its march. An aircraft carrier of nearly [-] tons is also very scary in burning fuel.

Moreover, the emission of these gases has a serious potential threat, which will interfere with the take-off and landing of carrier-based aircraft.

This may not be obvious in peacetime, but in the hasty environment of wartime, a slight change will affect the take-off and landing of the aircraft, not to mention the large amount of unknown gas emitted by the aircraft carrier.

However, Zhong Cheng regretted that the designer of the Southeast Research Institute still suggested using a nuclear fission reactor as the source of power for the aircraft carrier.

His explanation is that the nuclear fission reactor technology is mature, relatively safe and reliable, and compared with the current nuclear fusion reactor, the volume is much smaller and the cost is much cheaper.

After the well-regulated design ideas of the two designers of professional shipyards were finished, the ideas expressed by the next speakers were all kinds of strange.

Someone proposed a combined aircraft carrier plan. In wartime, more than a dozen ships combined their decks to form a take-off and runway for the fighters they carried, and they were separated in peacetime.

This not only reduces the manufacturing cost, but also guarantees safety, and can be combined into a super-large aircraft carrier according to needs.

Some people also proposed to build a 1000 million-ton floating island-style super-giant aircraft carrier, which can carry thousands of fighters of various types at a time, and build a powerful weapon system to become a war fortress.

Only the comments made by the people in the navy were more constructive.

They think that the Suzaku fighters, Bifang fighters, and Jingwei unmanned fighters that are currently being installed do not need a runway. Is it possible to disperse these fighters on some other large surface ships.

Their opinion is that there is no need for an aircraft carrier.

This is the main reason why the current country is hesitant about the construction of aircraft carriers.

However, the rebuttals raised by some participants also made it impossible for the military to refute.

Large surface ships such as destroyers, missile ships, frigates, and comprehensive supply ships have their own functions, and every inch of space on the ship is useful.

Now it is necessary to put a large number of fighters on it, which will inevitably lead to a new design and transformation. The amount of work is not as good as directly building an aircraft carrier.

In addition, the current naval warfare method is centered on the aircraft carrier, and the functions of other ships are designed around the protection of the aircraft carrier.

Now that every ship has been turned into an aircraft carrier, who will protect them?

If it is sunk in actual combat, the loss of any ship and the fighters on it will be unbearable.

There are also many problems with this decentralized design scheme!
(End of this chapter)