Alien Arms Empire

Chapter 357 357 The accumulation of new technologies

Although retaliation is launched immediately, it takes time for the operators to reach the target area, so there is no rush and they can only wait patiently.

Tang Mo was patient, so in the following days, he focused his main energy on developing aircraft and manufacturing Tamaki-class battleships.

Planes aside, the Tamaki-class battleship is the first true battleship of this era, and it is also a true invincible giant ship.

The Tamaki-class battleship is a complete copy of the Dreadnought battleship. It has a displacement of nearly 17,000 tons and is a proper super behemoth.

 It is larger than the free wheel, and during the construction process, the workers who built it were already frightened - the thickest part of the side steel plate of this thing is more than 270 mm!

 It is no exaggeration to say that it is a real steel sea fortress. Any warship is just a toy in front of it.

The hull, which has begun to take shape, amazes every worker who works on it. The densely packed watertight compartments and the never-before-seen power plant all highlight the extraordinary nature of this battleship.

 Because the Datang Group did not yet have torpedo weapons, the torpedo weapon of the dreadnought was cancelled, and only artillery was installed on this battleship as an attack weapon.

 In this way, this simplifies the design structure, allows the warship to carry more fresh water, and improves some support.

 The reason why the dreadnought battleship is called an epoch-making product is because it boldly uses a series of advanced technologies.

 First of all, it has rationally designed armor protection and comprehensively improved its armor protection, thus strengthening its defense and surpassing all previous designs.

As a decisive battle weapon, its armor thickness surpasses all previous battleships, which also gives it stronger survivability.

Secondly, in terms of core power, the steam turbine has improved its performance. It is far more advantageous than the ancient steam engine. Therefore, although the Dreadnaught battleship has a displacement of more than 17,000 tons, it can still achieve a terrifying speed that exceeds that of an armored ship.

This allowed the Dreadnought battleship to crush all other battleships in service as soon as it came out, achieve the highest sea speed, and gain absolute dominance in avoiding battles and pursuing pursuits by virtue of its speed.

Then, in terms of firepower, the Dreadnaught battleship abandoned the secondary battery design and boldly unified the artillery caliber. At the same time, it also used the latest technology to pile unprecedented 305 mm caliber artillery onto the battleship!

Hunter shells of this caliber can easily crush opponents and penetrate enemy armor with ease. The damage advantage brought by the huge shells makes it more capable when attacking.

 A total of 10 artillery pieces can concentrate the attack of at least 6 artillery pieces in any direction, maximizing one's own firepower.

 These cannons use loaders to feed ammunition internally, so the rate of fire is greatly increased, and the firepower density is even increased.

What’s even more frightening is that due to the bold unification of gun calibers and consistent ballistic performance, the fire control system of the dreadnought battleship is more precise and easier to command than that of other battleships.

The benefits of unified ballistics are gratifying, because only two sets of mutually backup artillery aiming and command equipment are needed to allow each main gun on the battleship to hit the target, which was simply unimaginable before.

Datang Group has experimented with this design on the Wolf-class cruiser. All the artillery on the Wolf-class battleship are 150 mm caliber naval guns. The effect of unifying the caliber of the artillery is very obvious.

Therefore, on the Yucheng-class battleship, Datang Group had no reason to give up such a good design idea, so the Yucheng-class battleship followed this design and carried it forward.

 Because the tonnage of the battleship is sufficient, the designers of Datang Group installed a more advanced and larger optical sighting system for this battleship.

This system uses the principle of light reflection to increase the length of the aiming baseline, thereby improving the accuracy of artillery hits at long distances.

At the test site, relying on this set of aiming equipment, the 305 mm caliber naval gun can easily hit a target 10 kilometers away, and may even hit a fixed target 15 kilometers away.

You must know that in this era, artillery that can hit a target 15 kilometers away has never appeared, let alone hit a target 15 kilometers away.

Although it is more difficult to hit moving warships on rocky seas, everyone feels that even if there is a discount, this set of fire control should allow the 305 mm caliber main gun to hit enemy ships about 7-8 kilometers away, which should be no problem.

　　However, there is still the worrying problem - the shells of the 305 mm caliber artillery are almost more expensive than the sailboats. This kind of artillery seems to be a money-losing business when used to bombard enemy ships...

In the shipyard where the Tamaki-class battleship is being built, a worker looked at the deck that had been laid and swallowed.

This battleship is so magical that it makes him feel unreal - standing on the bow of this battleship, he can't even see the stern of the ship!

Mountain-like equipment and machines stood in front of him, including steam turbines and boilers that were still kept secret.

The chimneys that need to be connected to these steam turbines and boilers have been transported. This thing is as high as several stories and is erected next to the hull. It is also huge. Because of the newer assembly method, the construction speed of this ship has also been greatly improved.

 He swore that he had never seen such a huge ship in his life, and he didn't even know what this thing was used for.

Even if it hits with its sharp bow, this warship can directly cut off all types and sizes of sailboats currently sailing on the sea. Even without weapons, this big ship is the most powerful warship in the world!

However, as a worker who built this ship, he knew that this ship was equipped with weapons. In order to ensure the safety of this battleship, the ammunition depot was arranged below the waterline, part of the hull he had just completed!

There are armored-protected compartments filled with ammunition racks. He saw with his own eyes that there were exactly five in total.

The three ammunition compartments in the front are distributed in a roughly Z-shaped shape around the conning tower, one on the bow and one on each side of the conning tower.

The two ammunition compartments at the back also have a boiler room sandwiched between them, separated by thick steel partitions and protected separately.

From today's perspective, such a design of a boiler room sandwiched between an ammunition depot and a boiler room promotes firepower, but it has a certain degree of negative impact on defense.

 Such an arrangement is gradually being eliminated. A more optimized arrangement for battleships should be two turrets at the front and one at the rear, or two turrets in the front and one in the rear.

 Both configurations can save the length of armor protection to the greatest extent, and thus thicker armor can be concentrated to ensure the safety of ammunition depots and boiler power areas.

However, because the Dreadnaught battleship was born in an era when there seemed to be no enemy ships that could compete with it at sea, these small defensive details were compromised for the installation of one more turret.

The main mast of the battleship Tamaki is more than 30 meters high, and there is an observation tower on it. Due to the design, the observation post above is very close to the chimney. It is estimated that the smell will not be very good when performing tasks.

There is no other way. In order for them to breathe better air, the mast has been raised by at least five meters.

If you include the flagpole on the watchtower, this huge mast is more than 35 meters high, which is definitely considered to stand high and see far.

 The reason why such a high flagpole is used is because this battleship was prepared to be used as the flagship of the fleet from the time it was built.

Tang Mo's dragon flag should be hung here to announce to the entire fleet that the master of Datang Group is here, and at the same time it can also scare the enemy.

 The other mast is between the two turrets at the rear of the battleship, with a spare watchtower installed on it, as well as telephones and other equipment.

 The crew of the entire battleship is close to 800, which is almost a reinforced battalion-level combat unit of the Datang Group.

It is not easy to control such a battleship, because there are 18 boilers alone on the entire battleship, and four steam turbine units drive four thick large shafts, allowing the huge propellers to rotate rapidly underwater to provide forward and backward motion. of propulsion.

Once replenished, it can sail more than 10,000 kilometers on the sea at economical speeds. Starting from Datang Group’s ports all over the Endless Sea, its combat radius can cover the entire Endless Sea.

If it keeps up with the supply ship, it can continue to operate at sea for a long time - this battleship is equipped with many cranes, both foldable and non-foldable. Relying on these cranes, it can simply carry out supply operations at sea.

Because the Datang Group does not have torpedoes, and the enemy cannot have such weapons, the Yucheng battleship has canceled the conspicuous anti-torpedo net hangers on the sides of the Dreadnought battleship, which makes the appearance of the Yucheng battleship look much simpler. .

It's a pity that the workers can't see the whole picture of the battleship yet. They can only see that the battleship changes every day and becomes more complex every day.

 Decks were stacked layer by layer, and complex wiring and ventilation equipment were installed in corresponding locations.

This warship is a master of new technologies and uses a large number of advanced technologies, including telephones.

It also installs real radio equipment that can implement instant voice communications over short and medium distances. These are all brand-new technologies that have never been used on Bunas-class ironclads.

 Don't underestimate these technologies. If it weren't for the development of fresh air air conditioning equipment, the huge vents on the Bunas-class ironclads would only be retained on the Tamaki-class battleships.

Now, the new ventilation system makes the Tamaki-class battleship look tidier and have higher protection performance.

All this is very clear to the workers who make it. If it were not for technological advancement, this battleship would not be usable at all! In fact, it cannot be produced at all.

 (End of this chapter)