readx; In the Mediterranean, after leaving the port of Mersin one after another, the capital ships of the 73rd Squadron and the fleet including the large anti-aircraft cruiser Hindu left the port of Mersin, and after moving westward to join the other three destroyers of the 73rd Squadron carrying out combat readiness cruising missions off the coast of Turkey in the Mediterranean, the 73rd Squadron headed for the Adriatic Sea in eastern Italy with the most complete lineup since entering the Mediterranean. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Like China's other mobile fleets, the number of subordinate sub-fleets in the seventh mobile fleet is also a clear division of labor, of which the 71st fleet is the main formation with aircraft carriers as the core, and has two CV18 Wuzhishan and CV20 Yandangshan that have just been dispatched from the Indian Ocean waters, forming a standard two-aircraft carrier formation. Generally speaking, an aircraft carrier squadron is composed of three aircraft carriers, but as China needs to use more and more sea areas for the navy, and the number of aircraft carriers is so much, coupled with the Admiralty's estimate of future wars, because the take-off and landing of carrier-based aircraft is becoming more and more difficult, and at the same time, the combat effectiveness is getting higher and higher. Therefore, at the end of the war, the Chinese Navy began to adjust its various sub-fleets, and instead of maintaining the establishment of three aircraft carriers for each sub-fleet, only two, and the extra aircraft carriers were used to form new aircraft carrier sub-fleets, so that the Chinese Navy could control more sea areas.

As for the fact that if a large-scale naval battle breaks out with the US Navy in the future, it will not be a single detachment that will go up, but an entire mobile fleet or even two or three mobile fleets will go up together to fight in a group, and it will be a melee between dozens of aircraft carriers, and there will not be much difference between two or three aircraft carriers in one detachment.

Based on these considerations, the Chinese Navy has only assigned two aircraft carriers to the 71st Fleet, and as for assigning more aircraft carriers to the Seventh Mobile Fleet, the Chinese Navy has not yet had the guts, and now the Suez Canal is in the hands of Britain, and once a war breaks out, the Seventh Mobile Fleet will not be able to return to the Indian Ocean, and now it is already a risky act to be equipped with two aircraft carriers.

The 71st Squadron is centered on the two battle-hardened aircraft carriers, Wuzhishan and Yandangshan, and is equipped with the large air defense cruiser Xinggui and three Youshao-class destroyers to serve as the personal escort of the two aircraft carriers.

The 72nd Squadron was actually the main force of the Navy's 28th Destroyer Group, which originally included one Fuguang-class fleet cruiser, the Fubin, six Zigui-class destroyers, and three Youshao-class destroyers. However, the three Shao-class destroyers were transferred to the 71st Squadron to serve as personal escorts for the two aircraft carriers, so there were only six Zigui-class destroyers left. This sub-fleet is equipped with high-speed ships and has a strong lightning strike ability, and its positioning in the Seventh Mobile Fleet is a lightning strike and night combat unit.

As for the 73rd squadron led by Hong Ronghan, it is a bit more complicated, and the detachment has two combat groups, namely, the 13th Cruiser Group, which has a large Xing'an-class air defense cruiser Xingdu, and the Fuyan-class light air defense cruisers Fuchangqing and Futong. In addition, the 31st Destroyer Group was the flagship of the Fuguang-class cruiser Fuchang, three Zigui-class destroyers, and six Youshao-class destroyers.

If there is a large-scale mission, such as the current attempt to bomb Venice in Italy, it will gather the main force and then act as the forward fleet of the entire mobile fleet to carry out multiple tasks such as forward reconnaissance, air defense, and anti-submarine operations.

The above three sub-fleets are the main forces of the Seventh Mobile Fleet, in addition to the 74th Squadron and the 75th Squadron, of which the 74th Squadron is a port defense force, mainly equipped with light torpedo boats, etc., and the 75th Squadron belongs to the escort transport fleet, equipped with a number of escort destroyers and many transport ships.

Most of the capital ships of the Seventh Mobile Fleet mentioned above are actually the second batch of ships sent by China to the Mediterranean, and the two light aircraft carriers in the first batch and the large cruiser Changjiang and Bandar Abbas returned to the Persian Gulf, after a short rest and replenishment, they will embark on a journey back to China, end their six-month combat readiness mission, and return to China for maintenance, and two of the light aircraft carriers will then be assigned to the 53rd Squadron under the Fifth Mobile Fleet as training ships. As for the Yangtze River, it returned to China to receive upgrades in radar equipment and fire control equipment, and was replaced with the 44-year-old main gun fire control system newly developed by China for the capital ship and the K4 long-range air search radar, which was finalized last year.

Although the surname-to-price ratio of large gunboats has been getting lower and lower in recent years, both the Chinese Navy and the US Navy have given up on building new large artillery capital ships, but these that have been built are constantly improving, so that they can give full play to their last residual heat. After all, tens of thousands of tons of hulls are still very useful, and there is a lot of room for upgrading and modification.

In the eyes of many generals of the Chinese Navy, the Xing'an-class large air defense cruiser and the main tactical positioning of the aircraft carrier battle group that replaced the previous large cruisers and even high-speed battleships are air defense!

The Xing'an-class large air defense cruiser is also the largest artillery ship that the Chinese Navy is still continuing to build, with three triple six-inch and fifty-fold caliber high-level dual-purpose guns, as well as up to 12 twin-mounted three-inch and fifty-fold anti-aircraft guns and a larger number of four-in-one 40-millimeter anti-aircraft guns, the number of anti-aircraft guns is only one aspect, and at the same time, the ships of this class are equipped with the latest electronic equipment, so that the ship's anti-aircraft fire can be fully automatic fire in all weather. This warship, with a combat displacement of 15,000 tons, has a huge anti-aircraft firepower.

The Chinese Navy even claimed that the ship's air defense effectiveness had reached 1.5 times that of the Yandi-class battleships, which looked like a hedgehog from afar. However, in terms of the number of anti-aircraft guns, the number of anti-aircraft guns of the Xing'an-class cannot reach the level of Yandi-class battleships.

In the Seventh Mobile Fleet, two large anti-aircraft cruisers of the Xing'an-class are attached to serve as the backbone of the air defense of the mobile fleet.

On June 18th, the Adriatic Sea, at this time the sea was calm and windless, calmer than the Pacific Ocean, Hong Ronghan stood on the bridge, looked at this sea, and couldn't help but sigh: "This European is really lucky, with this Mediterranean!" ”

The role of the Mediterranean Sea in the development of European civilization is not too many words to describe, this huge inland sea almost gave birth to European civilization, ancient Greece, Rome and even later many Mediterranean coastal countries in Europe, their rise is inseparable from the Mediterranean brought them many benefits.

"If we can occupy a place here, I'm afraid many people in China will be eager to come here for a visit!" As a naval officer, Hong Ronghan has been to many places, Iran, Burma, Singapore, the Philippines, and Ben have all been to and lived permanently, and he has also served briefly as a naval attache in the Chinese Embassy in the United States, lived in New York for a while, and has also been to Britain and Germany in Europe. But having been to so many places, he has not been here for a long time, and he deeply feels that the climate here is better than most places in the world.

Of course, he is not envious of the climate here, but thinks that such a good place has been ruined by the Europeans, and it would be great if China could get a foothold in the Mediterranean!

In fact, to put it bluntly, Hong Ronghan, like most soldiers, is full of thoughts about opening up the territory, and wants to grab good places in other countries when he sees them!

This sighed in his heart, when the mission is over, should he make a report to the top, let the Admiralty put pressure on the country, and strive to get a quick foothold on this side of the Mediterranean, whether it is in the name of the military base concession or directly ceding, as long as he can get the place in hand, there is no problem.

As soon as the army conquered Greece, Marshal Guan Shijie of the Admiralty suggested that Chen Jingyun should follow the example of the Philippines, Burma and others to obtain a naval base in Greece. And this matter is actually not difficult, now the whole of Greece is under the control of China, if it were not for the concern of the British and American attitudes, China would have directly annexed Greece, and there is no need to waste energy to support a pro-China Greek new political axe.

As soon as the Greek New Deal was established, China could not wait to propose a treaty on mutual assistance in two matters, although this treaty was said to be mutual assistance, but it was only to obtain a legal right to garrison China in Greece, and the treaty ostensibly China had the right to use military facilities in Greece, including army camps, air force airfields, naval bases, etc.

The most important of these for the navy is the Piraeus Naval Base, which has been granted the right to use the military at a certain annual rent, just as China has signed with other countries in the past terms of concessions for military bases.

After all, the current Chinese Navy's Seventh Mobile Fleet in the Mediterranean can only rely on Turkish ports for maintenance and supply, and Turkey's port facilities are honestly not good, and they can't even find a place to repair aircraft carriers, and Turkey is now an ally of China, but no one can say what will happen in the future, so the Chinese Navy urgently needs to seek a foothold in the Mediterranean, and the port of Piraeus meets this condition.

Once the Navy officially acquires the Piraeus Naval Base, it will be able to follow the example of Iran's Bandar Abbas and build it into a large naval base that can not only moor large warships, but also repair them

It's just that these things are still in progress, and Hong Ronghan doesn't know yet. Now he is still lamenting the good climate of the Mediterranean, thinking about how he can snatch a quick land from many mouths in Europe.

Just as Hong Ronghan was enjoying the sunset over the Mediterranean Sea, suddenly the adjutant ran up: "Commander, Colonel Qin, please go to the war room, saying that an unknown ship has been found ahead!" ”