Empire Conquest
Chapter 230 - 226: The Completed State of Ship-borne Aircraft

Chapter 230: Chapter 226: The Completed State of Ship-borne Aircraft

First to arrive were six squadrons of forty-eight torpedo bombers, followed by three squadrons of twenty-four bombers.

There wasn’t much to expect, just the "Flying Fish" and the "Wasp."

Speaking of which, they had the latest batch of engines with greater power, improved space utilization in the fuselage, and consequently, an increased fuel capacity. However, the increased fuel also offset the power of the new engines, so the basic flight performance didn’t change much, and the range was, in fact, somewhat reduced.

In addition, the "Wasp" had been fitted with 13mm axial machine guns.

The biggest change was that they were all equipped with radios, and the latest models at that. Thus, all bombers and torpedo bombers were sufficiently equipped to carry out reconnaissance missions.

This was thanks to the production capacity improvements made by the manufacturing companies.

Previously, due to the low demand, the high purchasing cost of airborne radios made them unaffordable for the Navy. They were only issued to a few squadron leaders and special reconnaissance aircraft. After the war broke out and war mobilization began, the first military enterprises taken over by the Imperial Authority included all electronics factories producing radio equipment. Subsequently, these factories produced according to wartime standards through allocation distribution.

With increased production, prices also dropped.

Entering the allocation state, discussing prices became impractical. Factories produced according to quotas and were compensated upon completion; failure to meet quotas resulted in penalties.

Of course, this was also related to the mission of the First Special Mixed Fleet.

Being far from the homeland and unable to rely on shore-based air forces or maritime patrol aircraft, finding the Permanent Fleet coming from the south in the vast East Ocean required a sufficient number of reconnaissance aircraft. If necessary, all bombers and torpedo bombers might even be assigned search and reconnaissance tasks.

Li Yunxiang considered this when assigning combat aircraft to the First Carrier Wing, emphasizing that all bombers and torpedo bombers should be equipped with radios.

Additionally, a few fighters were also equipped with radios.

The inclusion of over a dozen additional torpedo bombers and a corresponding decrease in the number of bombers was also related to the mission, specifically targeting battleships.

Although the shipborne air force had no actual combat experience specifically targeting battleships yet, explorations before the war showed that torpedoes were more effective than bombs. This was particularly true against Treaty Type battleships that had enhanced horizontal protection, where the commonly used 250 kg aviation armor-piercing bombs clearly lacked power.

Actually, this was also the key reason for the "Wasp" changing engines.

Previous batches of "Wasp" had insufficient engine power, and after being fitted with 500 kg air bombs, the flight quality became extremely poor, prompting the limit to use only 250 kg bombs. Thus, they never reached the performance targets set at the design stage.

With the engine replacement, this problem was resolved, and only then did they meet the design specifications.

Strictly speaking, the current "Wasp" is the true "Wasp."

Previously, the "Wasp," unable to carry 500 kg air bombs and clearly lacking in attack power, was jokingly called the "Big Honey Bee" by pilots.

However, even with 500 kg bombs, they struggled against modernized battleships.

The four "Jingang" had been upgraded to Fast Battleships, and during their second modernization, horizontal protection was significantly reinforced based on combat requirements.

In fact, this was a result of learning from the Imperial Navy.

After the last great war ended, the Imperial Navy was the first to upgrade battlecruisers to Fast Battleships for the purpose of escorting carriers.

In the remodel, both the "North River" class and "Lu River" class emphasized strengthening their horizontal protections.

The reasoning was simple. Fast Battleships, while covering carriers, were more likely to be bombed than shelled.

Speaking of which, these transformed Fast Battleships had evolved into Anti-Air Warships.

As for decisive fleet engagements, that was the responsibility of the ten or so old battleships reserved for dedicated air defense cover by the Fast Battleships.

The Saiyi Navy had followed suit, undertaking modifications on the four "Jingang" class vessels.

In theory, even a 500-kilogram aviation armor-piercing bomb could not guarantee a 100 percent penetration of the horizontal armor of the "North River" class. According to the tests conducted by the Imperial Navy, the "North River" class could fully withstand a 500-kilogram aviation armor-piercing bomb dropped from an altitude of 1500 meters in the key protected areas.

Clearly, the bombing height of dive bombing would not exceed 1500 meters, generally between 500 to 1000 meters.

If the horizontal protection of the "Jingang" class was comparable to that of the "North River" class, it would definitely withstand a 500-kilogram bomb.

Conversely, even for a genuine Battleship, the underwater protection against torpedoes was severely inadequate.

After the end of the last great war, more accurately after the Huacheng Treaty came into effect, several naval powers had to dismantle or scrap the battleships under construction for live fire testing.

The most extravagant was the Imperial Navy.

At that time, the Imperial Navy used four "Longxing" class battleships, which had their hulls completed but were required to be scrapped according to the treaty, as target ships!

It was just a test, and it took several years in total.

The results of the tests?

They remain top secret to this day.

For Bai Zhizhan, that was not a secret.

Bai Zhizhan had personally participated in the testing of two "Longxing" class target ships, testing various types of air bombs and air torpedoes’ lethality on battleships.

The results showed that torpedoes were almost fatally threatening to battleships!

In addition, the anti-torpedo design before the last war had inherent problems, one might say even the basic methods were wrong, leading to very poor protection effectiveness. Even for the "Longxing" class, the strongest pre-treaty type battleships, being hit on one side by three warheads carrying 150 kilograms of explosives each was enough to completely incapacitate them, even potentially causing them to sink. If the warhead’s charge was increased to 300 kilograms, one was enough to paralyze a battleship. Crucially, this was just according to conventional torpedo-hit tactics.

The torpedo hit location was on the side of the battleship hull, protected by anti-torpedo bulkheads.

This series of tests established the standard for navy air torpedoes, which preferred sacrificing range to ensure that the warhead carried 150 kilograms of explosives.

Furthermore, the Navy Air Force placed greater emphasis on torpedo bombers, related to an accidental discovery during testing.

In one test, a torpedo, due to a miscalculation of its depth setting, hit a platform below the target ship, and a metal frame that played a supporting role exploded beneath the hull.

A torpedo exploding underneath a battleship’s hull, avoiding the anti-torpedo bulkheads, even if it did not hit the hull directly but exploded outside, caused much more damage than a direct hit to the side, although the control was very difficult, requiring the development of non-contact fuses.

Until now, magnetic proximity fuses have not yet been successfully developed, and the reliability of several prototypes is not very high.

Of course, these are all digressions.

It took almost an hour for seventy-two ship-borne aircraft to land on the carrier, and many could only be placed at the front of the flight deck.

At this time, the fighters arrived.

Four squadrons, a total of thirty-six, of which four were spare aircraft.

"Zhou Yongtao, is that a ’Typhoon’?"

"Not quite."

"That’s good, I was worried I had seen it wrong."

With that, Bai Zhizhan put down his binoculars.

He had been holding the binoculars for a long time, just noticing that the shapes of those fighters were not quite right, which is why he asked Zhou Yongtao standing next to him.

Obviously, Zhao Yu had not spoken carelessly, and Li Yunxiang had not lied.

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