Great warships

Chapter 267 The wonder of the aircraft carrier world: Charles de Gaulle

Brest Shipyard.

The sparks of the electric arc splashed, and huge steel products were being constructed in an orderly manner in the dock and on the berth.

When passing by the warship built in the largest dock, Qin Tao couldn't help but smile on his face.

how many years?
In April 89, the first keel was laid. Now it is June 4. More than three years have passed. The hull has not been welded, and there is no trace of the deck. , It can be seen that this is an aircraft carrier.

No matter what the French do, they are mavericks, and the construction of aircraft carriers is of course no exception.

In order to replace the two traditionally powered Clemenceau-class aircraft carriers (Clemenceau and Foch) built in the 1960s, the French had begun planning the construction of the next generation of aircraft carriers as early as the mid-1970s. However, One after another, until the 80s, the specific design began, and the construction officially started at the end of the 80s.

At the beginning, the warship was named Richelieu, after the battleship Richelieu in World War II.But after construction, it was named Charles de Gaulle by Chirac.

At that time, it was also an open and secret battle. Both the Atlantic Shipyard and the Brest Shipyard competed for this big cake. In the end, the Brest Shipyard won. It is even said that the tonnage of the new aircraft carrier was limited to [-] tons, just to take care of Bray. Dimensions of the Dockyard at the Sturt Shipyard.

Facts have proved that the romantic French have always been unenthused in their work, which is in stark contrast to the hardworking Orientals. They prefer to enjoy life, and from time to time, because of poor treatment, they go on strike or the like for fun. This aircraft carrier was not launched until 94, and it was in service until 99, setting a new historical record.

At the same time, due to the delay in progress, the construction cost of this aircraft carrier has also increased. Among other things, the dock needs money!
How much did it cost in the end?It is said that the price is the same as that of an American aircraft carrier, and the cost of a [-]-ton French aircraft carrier is the same as that of a [-]-ton American aircraft carrier.

In addition to the price, the design is also very interesting. For example, it uses the reactor of a nuclear submarine, so that its maximum speed is only 25 knots. Even if the French insist on reaching 27 knots, it is slow enough, and other aircraft carriers Compared with the speed of thirty knots, it is simply weak.

There is also a unique layout of the island at the front, like taking the lead in a charge, which makes people feel that it is the only one in the world.

At this time, Qin Tao smiled at the undecked aircraft carrier, which aroused the curiosity of the people around him.
Old Henry, the receptionist of the Brest Shipyard, looked at Qin Tao and couldn't help but said: "Mr. Qin, are you looking at the warship built in our dock? That is our Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier. After it is completed , will become the most powerful warship in our navy."

For the French, General de Gaulle is their leader, just like Napoleon back then, the aircraft carrier named after General de Gaulle will naturally become their pride.

Anyway, the construction of the aircraft carrier is in the open dock, and the satellites that fly over every day can detect it, and it is not a secret thing.

"Yes, it is the only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the world other than the United States." Qin Tao said: "It will become the pride of the French Navy. I wonder what kind of reactor it uses? If it is the reactor of your nuclear submarine If so, I’m afraid you don’t have enough motivation, right?”

"How is it possible?" At this moment, several experts happened to pass by and planned to go to the dock for inspection. After hearing Qin Tao's words, they immediately stopped and took over the conversation.

"Our warship uses the same GEC Alsthom PWR Type K-15 nuclear reactor as our new generation of Triumph-class ballistic missile nuclear submarines, and the power is very sufficient."

"Oh, if four nuclear submarine reactors are used, the power is almost enough." Qin Tao echoed.

The faces of several experts were ugly.

If the analogy is based on the displacement, it is true that four should be used. However, where does their aircraft carrier have so much space? With only two nuclear reactors, it already occupies five cabins. If it is four nuclear reactors, how much space should it occupy?

"For an aircraft carrier, if the power is not enough, it is very embarrassing, especially when taking off a carrier-based aircraft. If the speed is not enough to provide enough deck wind for the aircraft carrier, then maybe the aircraft cannot take off with a full load. , the deck must be lengthened.”

Qin Tao is not talking nonsense. After the construction of the Charles de Gaulle, he began to test the voyage, and found embarrassingly that the length of the angled deck was not enough!It was difficult for their carrier-based aircraft to go around after a failed landing, so they had to adopt a temporary remedy: a steel plate was welded to the front of the deck, which was lengthened by four meters.Amidst the global ridicule, it is finally possible to guarantee flight safety.

At this time, Qin Tao was kind enough to persuade him, but all of these experts blushed, obviously very dissatisfied, and one of them couldn't help but said: "Are you familiar with aircraft carriers? Your subordinates have designed and built aircraft carriers. What aircraft carrier?"

Looking at the oriental faces of these people, one should know that it is too much to come here to speak nonsense and point out the country without any experience in aircraft carrier construction.

The French like to listen to praise, and this kind of outburst will definitely turn into anger from embarrassment.

"Mr. Dikaina, this is the person in charge of Dongfang Mingzhou Shipbuilding Industry Group, Mr. Qin." Old Henry frowned a little. He originally took these guests to the shipyard for a walk, and then connected with the welding team. It is enough to train the welders they bring and get a G-level certificate.

Unexpectedly, such an accident happened.He can only introduce honestly.

"Mingzhou?" Dikaina thought of something, and suddenly said: "You are the Mingzhou Shipbuilding Industry Group that went to Lao Maozi to participate in the Minsk auction and deliberately raised the price?"

Come on, good things don't go out, bad things spread thousands of miles!Qin Tao didn't expect that the French people in front of him also knew about it.

"That's right, it was him. I was there at the time, saw him, and called out a price of 4000 million, which shocked me!" said a companion next to him.

"Yeah, we wanted to get that warship very much, but in the end, people from Dazhou Company won the bidding. It feels so good to be rich." Qin Tao said with emotion.

"Qin, since you are participating in the bidding, you should be familiar with the Minsk. Which one is better between it and our Charles de Gaulle?" Putting his unhappiness to the back of his mind, he began to ask about Qin Tao's attitude.

Qin Tao shook his head helplessly: "I don't know much about your Charles de Gaulle, so I can't compare it."

"Then can you tell us what you know about the Minsk?"

"Well, should we find a place to talk?"

"of course can."

So, in a conference room at the Brest Shipyard, Qin Tao introduced to a group of French aircraft carrier experts.

"Minsk is a heavy-duty aircraft-carrying cruiser with a large number of weapons on it. Of course, this also leads to a small number of aircraft on it. It is not a suitable aircraft carrier. However, if it is modified, its potential No worse than the Charles de Gaulle, it can be transformed into a medium-sized aircraft carrier with about [-] carrier-based aircraft."

"It has great potential for transformation?"

"Yes, if it weren't for the great potential for transformation, how could Dazhou Company be willing to spend 8000 million yuan to photograph the Minsk? Now, Dazhou Company has probably started to study how to improve it?"

"How is this possible? Our Charles de Gaulle can only carry about [-] carrier-based aircraft. That warship has about the same displacement as ours. How can it carry [-] aircraft?"

"I have observed that the part below the waterline of your Charles de Gaulle is not floating enough, so even with the same displacement, your internal space is not optimistic."

Laymen watch the fun, and experts watch the way. What Qin Tao says is the key.

It's because of the damn dock, the dock is not big enough, of course their aircraft carrier can't float too much, otherwise, it can't be built, and the dock will block the side of the floating ship!
If only it had been built at Atlantic Shipyards!

They knew in their hearts that this was still a matter of interest. So far, the Brest Shipyard is state-owned, while the Atlantic Shipyard is privately owned. There are many problems in this.

The same is true for the nuclear power system. With the easing of the Cold War and the end of the later period, the number of their nuclear submarines will gradually decrease. If the nuclear reactors are not installed on the surface ships, their nuclear power research and development units may run out of food. Yes, once the industry is hit, it will be difficult to recover in the future.

Therefore, they have a lot of restrictions, and they can only come up with tasteless things like the Charles de Gaulle.

"By the way, we just received a piece of news. I don't know if Mr. Qin knows about it." Dikaina said to Qin Tao: "The Kyiv ship in the Damao North Shipyard suddenly caught fire for unknown reasons last night. The reconnaissance satellite took a lot of pictures."

Billowing thick smoke enveloped the entire Kyiv. This serious situation, of course, attracted the attention of the West. When Qin Tao took the photo, he showed a surprised expression on his face: "How is this possible?"

In his heart, he had already blossomed with joy.

It's not rude to come and go, the boiler of the Minsk exploded, how can the Kyiv end well?Nicholas is not easy to bully.

This fire was definitely set by Nicholas, but without evidence, the Northern Fleet couldn't do anything to Nicholas.

For the Northern Fleet, the only thing left to do is to sell the Kyiv for scrap iron. They probably still look forward to selling it at a high price like the Minsk. Anyway, the warship belongs to the country, and the situation of the Northern Fleet is better than that of the Pacific Fleet. .

Among them, Ah San was definitely the hardest one. After tossing and tossing for a long time, he got nothing in the end. This ending should be the best, and Qin Tao is very satisfied.

Huyou Ah San spent a sum of money, this is still secondary, Ah San's hope is shattered, and the blow to his heart must be even worse. I don't know when it will be slowed down.

"Yeah, this warship hasn't been touched for a few years since it entered the repair shop. Recently, I heard that Ah San has taken a fancy to this warship. Could it be that Da Mao accidentally took this warship away while dismantling its internal weapons and equipment?" Is it lit?"

"Well, it's possible. It's not easy to dismantle such a large warship," Qin Tao said.

Hearing Qin Tao talk about the dismantling of large warships, Dikena suddenly thought of something, rolled his eyes, and then said to Qin Tao: "President Qin, you have a close relationship with your domestic navy, right? "

Qin Tao immediately shook his head: "We are a private shipyard. Even if we have undertaken the task of building warships, after all, we have limited qualifications. How can we have a close relationship with the Navy? Don't get me wrong. We didn't bid for the Minsk at the beginning. To transform it into an aircraft carrier, we just want to transform it into a military theme park."

If it was just for dismantling the ship, he would never bid 4000 million yuan to bid for the Minsk. Qin Tao made it clear at this time that we are here to transform the park, not to build an aircraft carrier.

Duquesne was embarrassed for a moment, and then continued: "We are building the Charles de Gaulle now, so our active Clemenceau-class aircraft carrier will be decommissioned soon. If your navy needs it, we can use this ship The aircraft carrier is presented to you for free. Mr. Qin, I hope you can convey our thoughts to your navy through your relationship."

Just now the other party brought himself and the navy together, so they wanted to make such a moth!
The old powers are slowly declining. The sun never sets, and so does France. France's economic form simply cannot support their navy to maintain a huge size. When their new aircraft carrier enters service, the old aircraft carrier is Must be retired.

Built in 1955 and commissioned in 1961, the Clemenceau aircraft carrier has experienced 30 years at sea. The Lemonceau could be decommissioned at any moment.

But what about after retirement?

Just like Lao Maozi's warship, after decommissioning, can't you dismantle the scrap iron?

The Clemenceau can't, because this warship used a lot of harmful substances, such as asbestos, during the construction process. Therefore, if scrap iron is to be dismantled, the cost will be quite high. The cost of dismantling, those harmful substances Processing costs are quite high.

Therefore, even if it is to be dismantled, it can only be sold to third world countries for dismantling. For example, Ah San once bought it, but, under the appeal of environmental protection personnel, Ah San withdrew again and did not dare to dismantle it. up.

Rather than spending a high price for pollution-free disposal, it is better to give this warship away.

Although it is said that warships are given away for free, if warships that are close to decommissioning want to be used again, they must be refurbished and equipped with a large number of carrier-based aircraft, all of which cost money.

What good intentions can the French have?
Qin Tao secretly laughed in his heart, this trick was obviously what he had played just now, and he used this method to fool Ah San, but Ah San was fooled in the end!The French learned the experience from it, so they planned to follow suit and use it on their own side.

Although he already had the answer in his heart, Qin Tao showed surprise on his face: "Give the Clemenceau to our navy? This is really good news. I can help send this news back, but, Can you call the shots?"

Now in the conference room, the people Qin Tao was talking to were not officers of the French Navy, but experts from the French Shipbuilding Bureau.

This is clearly from two departments, do they have the qualifications?
Hearing Qin Tao's words, Duquesne was a little embarrassed. He smiled and said, "Of course, we designed the Clemenceau. Now that it is going to be decommissioned, we will also make the follow-up arrangements."

If it can't be sold, it must be their job if they disassemble it by themselves in the end, so this excuse is also tenable.

Since these people all nodded, Qin Tao was unambiguous, and contacted the country on the same day, and on the third day, the navy delegation arrived.

Looking at the mighty group of people, Duquesne was very excited. The navy was still worried about what to do with the aircraft carrier after it was decommissioned. The advice he gave was exactly what the navy wanted. Captain Philip, with his officers, greeted him warmly.

Zhang Zhen, Wang Qing, Sun Yu... Most of the delegation is known to Qin Tao. The captains of the navy's capital ships are led by Zheng Ming, the leader of the navy's equipment department. The size of the delegation is, That will explain the problem.

The big guys are here to visit!Visiting the French aircraft carrier, this opportunity is so rare!

"Everyone is already standing on our flight deck, and from here you can see the power of the aircraft carrier as a war machine." Philip introduced enthusiastically to everyone: "It is equipped with a super flag fighter, which was launched ten years ago. In this war, this kind of fighter plane played a huge role."

The Clemenceau aircraft carrier is docked at the Brest Naval Port, with its flags unfurling, and on the deck, a group of guests from the east are watching carefully.

"Is this the steam catapult?" Zhang Zhen stood at the front of the angled deck, pointing to something like a zipper under his feet.

"That's right, this is the most advanced steam catapult. Only this kind of device can make the carrier-based aircraft have a high enough dispatch efficiency!" This time it was Duquena's turn to speak.

Lao Maozi's aircraft carrier all jumped over the deck, and the plane relied on its own power to slide directly up the slope and take off forcibly. Although the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier used catapults, it is now a scrap metal.

The ejection takes off by external force.

In the era of propeller planes, carrier-based planes had low take-off and landing speeds, and they could take off and land easily by themselves, but jet planes were no good. They had to be propelled by external forces. I had tried rocket propulsion, hydraulic propulsion before, and finally steam propulsion. , to be considered mature.

To put it simply, it is to put a cylinder under the deck of the aircraft carrier, and then let high-pressure air enter to push the piston of the cylinder, and the piston drives the aircraft above to take off.

The principle is very simple, but it is difficult to implement. The cylinder must be installed accurately, the high-pressure steam must be stored in a spherical container in advance, and even the sealing of the opening on the cylinder is a technical challenge.

In later generations, only the United States can manufacture such high-performance steam catapults. Even the French Charles de Gaulle uses C-13 catapults purchased directly from the United States.

The performance of the catapult used on the Clemenceau aircraft carrier in front of me is too poor.

Take the sealing as an example, the "filling strip" sealing method is used in the later stage. The piston advances in the cylinder, and at the same time drives a flexible metal strip to fill the gap to complete the sealing.The early cylinders only used rubber zippers, and after a period of use, they had to be replaced due to wear and tear.

Only the proud French can talk about this kind of thing. In fact, they are already out of date.

However, everyone is here to visit and travel anyway, so a few compliments are also due.

All kinds of words of praise made the French very happy. Among the praises, the cabins were visited one by one. to exhaustion.

night.

In the dining room of the base, a dinner party was held in a friendly atmosphere.

"Now, let's raise our glasses and welcome our counterparts from the East." Philippe held his glasses enthusiastically: "Many of our French technologies have entered the East, our 100mm naval guns, Sea Sidewinder missiles, Dolphin helicopters, They have all become the main equipment of the East, let us wish that this aircraft carrier Clemenceau will become the strongest warship in the East!"

"On behalf of the Navy, I also thank France for its support. Thank you for donating our aircraft carrier for free." Zheng Ming raised his glass.

"Everyone has seen it today. This aircraft carrier is very powerful, but if it is to be equipped for Dongfang, it also needs to be improved." Duquena took advantage of this opportunity and made a request: "The aircraft carrier is We gave it to you for free, this modification problem..."

"Of course the modification will be carried out in our Mingzhou Shipbuilding Industry Group." Qin Tao took over the words: "We have modified a lot of equipment for the Navy, and we have also done a lot of work for the modification of the Minsk. Now, it is just right for the Navy Transform this warship."

"No, no, no, you don't have this ability, you have to rebuild it in our shipyard." Duquena almost took a breath.

"What, remodeling in your shipyard?" Qin Tao frowned: "Then we invite the navy to come over and provide the navy delegation with round-trip travel expenses and accommodation. We don't get anything? It's a bit too much for you to do so. Bar?"

"We give the warship to you for free, and the modification must be carried out here. This is an international practice."

"Mr. Duquena, it's too rude of you to do this. If it's not beneficial, then we won't do it." Qin Tao was very angry.

Zheng Ming's expression was not good: "We just came here because we heard that there is a free aircraft carrier, and now we have to spend money? How can our navy have funds! You businessmen are too much, and you are staring at our aircraft carrier. Military expenses, our small expenses are enough for daily expenses, and we can’t get a penny out of the excess!”

Duquesne was dumbfounded, Philip was dumbfounded, was the other party too naive, or was he too naive?
(End of this chapter)