readx; After the surname and cost of the Fuxi-class light battleships were reduced, the price of 60 million was only 5 million more than the 18,000-ton heavy cruiser expected to be built in the navy, but the combat effectiveness was obviously much stronger, and the 12-inch guns and 8-inch guns could not be compared. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The reason why the Navy revised the design of the Fuxi class was that in addition to the relatively low surname price of the original design of the Fuxi class, more importantly, there was a change in the strategic thinking on the use of battleships and auxiliary ships within the Navy in the second half of 1937, due to the end of the treaty restrictions, all countries started construction of new high-speed battleships in 1937, saying that "Ben started the construction of two Yamato-class high-speed battleships, and the United States also started the construction of two new high-speed battleships, and according to the intelligence of the Navy Division of the Military Intelligence Department, it was said" Ben's two Yamato-class battleships were not the 60,000-ton giant ships equipped with 18-inch naval guns in Chen Jingyun's memory, but only about 45,000 tons, and the capital ships were equipped with nine 16-inch naval guns, and the speed reached 30 knots.

The appearance of these new battleships of the United States and the United States has greatly changed the intended combat objectives of the Fuxi-class, and it is okay for the Fuxi-class to confront the battlecruisers and old battleships in the navies of the two countries, but it is very reluctant for them to deal with the new high-speed battleships in the navies of the two countries, and it is simply impossible to effectively escort the aircraft carrier formation in the face of a surprise attack by the high-speed battleships of the United States and the United States, let alone contain, and it will be difficult to even protect themselves at that time.

If it were to build such a high but not too low Fuxi class, it would be better to change the design and directly put the combat target on the eight-inch heavy cruiser against the enemy.

In this way, the navy will not need to build 18,000-ton heavy cruisers, so that this class can be saved and a large amount of capital can be spent elsewhere.

With these considerations, the Department of Naval Administration made large-scale design changes to the Fuxi-class light battleships under construction, reducing the tonnage from 27,000 tons to 25,000 tons, and was ready to continue to design a new type of ship with this ship type, which was initially set at a light battleship between 23,000 tons and 25,000 tons, with nine 12-inch naval guns, but the protection was only 8 inches, and the speed was only required to be 32 knots, and it was planned to use ships of this class to comprehensively suppress the heavy cruisers of the US Navy. And to a certain extent against the battlecruisers of the enemy navy.

Of course, the main role is still used as an air defense ship.

This shift in strategy was almost a complete abandonment of the idea of trying to use light battleships to cover aircraft carriers and fight enemy battleships. After the Shaohao was officially commissioned in 1937, the navy conducted a comprehensive test of the radar system equipped on it, and finally found that the role of radar in night battles was extremely obvious, and the enemy navy could be found dozens of nautical miles away, that is to say, with radar, aircraft carrier formations could find the enemy at night, and then evade it.

With the speed of the aircraft carrier formation, if the enemy is spotted and flees, the enemy's high-speed battleship formation will not be able to catch up.

Although this attitude is somewhat negative, it has to be said that this approach is the only feasible.

The reason for the reduction of the surname of the Fuxi-class light battleships is not only that the navy plans to build a large cruiser of about 20,000 tons, but also because the navy is carrying out a large-scale refit plan for the four battleships of the Yandi class and the Shundi class, and the refit plan also requires a lot of funds.

The Navy has long wanted to refit China's existing four old battleships, but it has been limited by military spending and treaties and has not been able to make the trip, after 1936 there are no many estimates, the Navy is to begin a large-scale refit plan for the existing four battleships, the modification is based on the replacement of the power system as the core, increase the horizontal protection and air defense forces.

The power system of the Yandi-class and Shundi-class battleships was originally equipped with Parsons-type steam turbines, and the technical level was only equivalent to the level at the end of World War I, if it could be replaced with the high-pressure impulse steam turbine newly developed by Shanghai Power Company, then the power could be improved a lot, and the speed of the power would naturally increase, and the increase would be very large, the power system of the Yandi-class was expected to be able to increase from 130,000 horses to 180,000 horsepower, and the Shundi-class power system would be increased from 120,000 horsepower to 100,000 horsepower. Both of these battleships are designed with high-speed battleships in mind, and they are extremely slender and suitable for high-speed sailing, unlike the battleships of other countries.

After the modification of power, the speed of these two classes of ships will be greatly increased to 30 knots, and the plan of the ship master department is that if the hull is properly modified to optimize the wave resistance at high speed, it is even possible to reach 3.5 knots.

After all, after such a refit, China's four old battleships will be able to give full play to their potential, and the speed of 30 knots can barely keep up with the aircraft carrier formation for maneuvering, once these four battleships are escorted, then even if they encounter the close attack of the enemy's high-speed battleship formation in the war, then they will be able to have enough self-protection and even counterattack force.

After all, although these four Chinese battleships are a little old, their combat effectiveness is still strong, especially after being replaced with new heavy shells, the power of the main guns has increased by about 30 percent compared with the original, and there is no pressure at all against the new 16-inch naval guns of various countries.

Therefore, although the cost of refitting these four battleships is high, the cost of the Yandi-class refit has reached 40 million yuan for one and 80 million for two, and the cost of the Shundi-class refit is 35 million for less, which is almost equivalent to more than a quarter of the construction cost of the new battleships of the same tonnage, but the navy gritted its teeth and squeezed out of the funds for the heavy patrol and Fuxi-class light battleships.

After all, the total cost of refitting is almost 150 million yuan, which can allow the navy to get four sixteen-inch battleships with a speed of 30 knots, so that there is no need to continue to build those more than 40,000-ton battleships.

This refit program is much more significant for the development of the Chinese Navy as a whole.

If the navy wants to gain a force that can compete with the new battleships of the US Navy, it will have to invest a huge amount of money to build at least four battleships of more than 40,000 tons in order to maintain a minimum balance, and this investment will not be able to be won without 700 million or 800 million yuan. Moreover, if so many new battleships are built, then those Fuxi-class light battleships will not be of much use, which is equivalent to repeated investment, which is a great waste.

In line with the model of obtaining the maximum combat strength with the least amount of money, the construction of heavy cruisers was cancelled in the revision of the eighth phase of the Navy's development plan, and the main forces were concentrated on the modification of old battleships and the construction of light battleships of about 25,000 tons.

At that time, the 27,000-ton Shaohao and three 25,000-ton Fuxi-class light battleships will become the main auxiliary ships in the Chinese Navy and will be used to accompany the aircraft carrier formation in combat.

Together with the original two Shiguang-class heavy cruisers and the four 10,000-ton treaty heavy cruisers built and commissioned in the early and mid-thirties, China's 10,000 to 20,000-ton auxiliary ships will be much more powerful and sufficient to provide a powerful escort for the entire fleet.

In the design of cruisers below 10,000 tons, the navy has designed two ship types, one is the fleet cruiser, that is, the light cruiser that accompanies the activities of the aircraft carrier and focuses mainly on air defense, with a design tonnage of 7,000 tons, and the caliber of the main gun is not a six-inch naval gun, but four triple five-inch high-level dual-purpose guns, and the firepower of the sub-caliber anti-aircraft gun is very powerful, with a total of 30 40-mm anti-aircraft guns and 16 20-mm anti-aircraft guns. In terms of speed, because it is to accompany the aircraft carrier to maneuver, it is not required to be too fast, and it is enough to have 34 knots.

Compared with the same tonnage and larger 10,000-ton light cruisers of the United States, the firepower of artillery battles is naturally worse, but the main task of this class of ships is not artillery warfare, but air defense, otherwise they would not give up the six-inch main gun and adopt the five-inch main gun, the most direct reason is that the rate of fire of the six-inch main gun is not as fast as the five-inch naval gun, and the air defense efficiency is too poor.

In addition to this type of anti-aircraft fleet light cruisers, there is also a lightning type cruiser, that is, a ship type that is equipped with a five-inch main gun based on the standard of 4,500 to 5,000 tons, but equipped with powerful torpedo tubes and a speed of more than 36 knots.

This series of shipbuilding plans was formulated in accordance with the strategy of the entire Chinese Navy, not to build whatever the surname can be good, but to build what the Chinese Navy needs.

And there is a very important point, that is, in the process of building ships of the Chinese Navy, there is no strict requirement for a single ship to be able to do so, and even hesitating to invest heavily in order to have a little surname ability, and the Chinese Navy is much more budget-conscious, sometimes because of cost factors or even take the initiative to give up the surname Neng, the downsizing of the Fuxi-class light battleship is the product of this kind of thinking, if it is put on the side of the Navy, it is estimated that it will not be reduced, but will be increased to more than 30,000 tons. Three months later, in July 1938, the Chinese Air Force also adopted the 1938 reorganization plan, proposing a plan to add five new air force wings.

In the second half of 1938, Germany once again expanded outward and demanded the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia, and at the Munich Conference, the four major European powers of Britain, France, Germany and Italy decided to cede the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Germany, which represented the peak of the appeasement policy of Britain and France.

But this did not satisfy Germany, and its pace of expansion continued!