Empire Conquest
Chapter 385 - 381: The Mainstay Against Currents

Chapter 385: Chapter 381: The Mainstay Against Currents

Beside the dock, two towering giants undergoing outfitting were the "Province" class’s No.1 Ship and No.3 Ship, which had been named "Pu" and "Lu" when they were launched. The No.2 Ship and No.4 Ship, built by Cizhou Shipyard, were named "Min" and "Yue."

The outfitting work was nearing completion, and it seemed as if they could sail out at any moment.

Bai Zhizhan was no stranger to such large carriers that broke through treaty limitations from the design stage and measured their worth based entirely on "comprehensive construction cost"—he had joined the design team as a military consultant before the outbreak of the great war.

Compared with the "Imperial Capital" class, the "Province" class emphasized only one performance indicator during design: aerial combat capability.

Decades of fleet exercises had given the Imperial Navy a very comprehensive understanding of carriers, where the sole criterion for measuring their performance was their aerial combat capability.

In layman’s terms, it could also be referred to as the sortie rate of the ship-borne aircraft.

To achieve this goal, the Imperial Navy used a very simple and crude method: increasing tonnage and size.

This was, in fact, a major advantage for the Imperial Navy.

Although the Imperial Navy also fought in two oceans, facing challenges from the Saiyi Navy and Newland Navy in the East Ocean and dealing with the Royal Navy of Bulan in the Sunset Ocean, it was not constrained by the size of the Wangxi Canal locks, nor did it have to worry about its battleships being too deep to navigate through the Xifan Canal.

In the design of carriers and other main battle ships, the Imperial Navy was almost unrestricted in size and tonnage.

The Royal Navy of Bulan was slightly better off; the Newland Navy, less so, as the length and width of its main battle ships had to be less than the internal size of the Wangxi Canal locks.

It was precisely for this reason that the Newland Federation dug deep into its own pockets to build new large-size locks on the Wangxi Canal.

Before the new locks were finished, the Newland Navy could not build larger warships.

Otherwise, Hale would not have made a special trip to inspect the construction of the canal locks before the war began.

When designing the "Province" class, the Imperial Navy assumed that a great war would erupt before their completion and commissioning.

Once a state of war was entered, neither tonnage nor cost would be issues anymore.

In summary, the "Province" class was sufficiently large.

In appearance, the "Province" class was one size larger than the "Imperial Capital" class, and at first glance, looked like an "Imperial Capital" class increased by 20%.

Aside from size, there were actually many similarities in detail between the two.

Of course, there were also many differences.

Although the overall design of the "Province" class inherited and continued the lineage of the "Imperial Capital" class, by increasing tonnage to solve problems found on the "Imperial Capital" class, the quantitative change led to a qualitative change, making the "Province" class a brand-new post-treaty type carrier.

The most significant change was the sortie rate of the ship-borne aircraft.

During the design, the "Imperial Capital" class adopted the standard of the "Longjiang" class, launching 4 to 5 squadrons at a time in full deck status, which meant 32 to 40 ship-borne aircraft, with an interval of two hours between two full deck attacks, and at least one squadron of air defense fighters remained after two waves.

This indicator determined the maximum attack capability of the Imperial carriers.

In all battles before this, neither the "Longjiang" class nor the "Imperial Capital" class launched more than 40 ship-borne aircraft in a full-strength attack, typically around 35 aircraft.

It was this constraint that led the Imperial Navy to always maintain a carrier mixed fleet with two carriers.

The "Province" class’s aerial warfare capability theoretically improved by about 30% compared to the "Imperial Capital" class. In a full deck status, it could launch 40 to 50 ship-borne aircraft at once, and after an hour and a half of preparation, it could launch another attack in full deck status.

Being able to launch 40 to 50 ship-borne aircraft at once meant that the "Province" class had the capability to operate independently.

In theory, an attack aircraft group with 6 squadrons, totaling 48 ship-borne aircraft, after deducting 2 squadrons of escort fighters, the remaining 32 bombers and torpedo bombers were enough to deliver a fatal blow to two carriers in a medium-sized fleet.

The design of the "province" class was centered around this specification.

Since ship-borne aircraft can only be refueled and rearmed on the flight deck, the area of the flight deck directly determined the number of aircraft that could be deployed at once.

In practical use, the Imperial Navy had long discovered that expanding the flight deck’s width was more meaningful than increasing its length.

As a result, the flight deck width was expanded by a third from the "Imperial Capital" class basis, reaching 44.5 meters.

When deploying the full deck, if one more row of aircraft could be placed in the rear parking area and they were still staggered, the arrangement would change from 2+3 to 3+4.

This change alone could increase the number by a maximum of 13 aircraft.

Due to the extended flight deck, two more rows were added to the take-off waiting area, so theoretically, up to 50 ship-borne aircraft could be deployed at once.

Usually, one position was left empty in both the first and last rows, resulting in a total of 48 aircraft.

Theoretically, the "province" class could tether up to 80 ship-borne aircraft on the flight deck, and even with the bow take-off area cleared, it could still tether 56. This number wasn’t set arbitrarily, it was to retain 8 air defense fighters even after deploying the full deck.

The key was a turnaround time of one and a half hours.

The "Imperial Capital" class required at least 2 hours to prepare for a full deck assault, while the "Longjiang" class often had to wait 150 minutes.

The "province" class could shorten this to an hour and a half, and much effort was put into the design for this purpose.

Firstly, large-sized side elevators were adopted, capable of transporting two aircraft at once, nearly doubling the efficiency of lifting ship-borne aircraft.

Another advantage of using large elevators was the increased efficiency in recovering aircraft.

Secondly, four integrated supply stations were added, allowing more aircraft to be serviced simultaneously and shortening the time for refueling and rearming.

To improve the efficiency of resupply operations, the design personnel adopted the Navy’s suggestion to change the supply station locations from near the elevators to the edge of the deck. However, this was mainly for safety, to ensure that aircraft posing a safety hazard could be pushed away from the carrier in emergencies.

In addition, better-performing catapults were used.

In fact, there were many similar improvements.

For example, six repair stations were set up at the front and back of the superstructure and in front of the portside elevator, allowing routine maintenance to be performed on the flight deck. The key point was that ship-borne aircraft didn’t require comprehensive maintenance after every sortie, which was even less possible during combat.

Through this series of improvements, the operational capability of the "province" class was greatly enhanced.

Throughout the entire war, the sortie rate of the "province" class ship-borne aircraft was considered top-notch and became the benchmark of the post-treaty era.

Of course, the "province" class was originally the Imperial Navy’s "ideal type" carrier.

Three years ago, on the last day of the New Calendar year 97, when the "Pu" was laid down at Puzhou Shipyard, Imperial Navy Generals like Bai Zhizhan had high expectations for it.

At that time, everyone thought the war would break out at the earliest in New Calendar year 100.

According to the plans back then, the "province" class was to be the Imperial Navy’s flagship in crushing the opponent during the initial phase of the war and the key to victory.

Although the war broke out earlier than expected and the "province" class missed the early intense battles, its arrival now was just in time.

In the upcoming decisive battles with the powerful Newland Navy and not-so-weak Bulan Royal Navy, the "province" class would surely be the cornerstone of the Imperial Navy!