The Rise of the Empire

Battlecruisers above 28 knots have a huge advantage in dealing with light cruisers approaching for reconnaissance and providing reconnaissance for the main fleet. Then the high speed of the pure-blood battlecruiser is to avoid the above situation from happening, and can more effectively catch the British super fast battleships such as lions and tigers.

The prince's current attitude is that pure-blooded battlecruisers can be built, but definitely not now, at least until the small water tube boilers can be produced stably in large quantities, because the weight of the current power system is still relatively heavy, and if you want to obtain higher output, you will have to pay a lot. The weight and space cost is still too great. The overall weight of the warship is certain. What the prince means is that the tonnage of the warship in the later period will be less than 32,000 tons. If it is bigger, there will be problems with the difficulty of construction and the construction period. After all, if the battleship cannot be completed more than half before the start of the war, then whether it can be completed during the war will be a question mark. A large number of excellent warships of the German High Seas Fleet, such as the Saxon-class battleships and the Mackensen-class battlecruisers, did not all fail to serve in the end?

"Then the second question now is, how will we formulate the construction plan for the next stage of naval capital ships? How many ships will be built and what is the tonnage? Our first batch of plans is going well. It is expected that all ships will be launched in mid-1905, and by the end of the year All of them will be in service before. In other words, we will start building the second batch of warships next year." The Secretary of the Navy raised the second question.

"The Kaiser and I have considered this issue. All warships must use the new 350MM artillery. These artillery will be provided by Krupp. For the artillery deployment method, I suggest using three triple-mounted turrets. The speed is still according to my According to the previous plan, all warships will maintain a speed of more than 25 knots, the tonnage will be between 25,000 and 28,000 tons, and the total cost will be around 50 million marks." The prince revealed his plan.

"Three triple-mounted turrets? This is probably not a better choice. Our naval gunnery experts believe that 5 double-mounted 350MM artillery turrets can have the best spread. If it is more economical, 4 double-mounted The turret is also ok, and you can get a good walk. The actual power is not worse than the 9 350MM artillery, and the most important thing is that we can't replace the 350MM artillery turret. Compared with the 6 380MM artillery, the 9 350MM artillery is actually almost the same. And if you want to change to a 400mm-level artillery, the research and development of this artillery is a big problem." This time, Admiral Ball stood on the opposite side of the prince.

"Also, the ring of the 350MM guns installed in three units is too large, and the depth of the underwater defense system at the A turret located in front of the hull will be relatively small. This hidden danger must be brought to our attention." Tirpitz added on the side.

What the two said is indeed reasonable. In fact, the reason why His Royal Highness proposed the 3*3 layout is still relatively influenced by later generations, and purely from the perspective of efficiency, from the perspective of the 1st battle environment, 2*2 and 2 The layout of *4 is actually the same, and the layout of 2*5 is higher, but the weight and cost may not make people optimistic, and the conditions for the 3-unit 12-inch turret to be mounted this time do not need to be mounted on the 350MM artillery, because this time The artillery is really irreplaceable....

"You can discuss this issue of artillery layout in the future. In principle, I agree with His Royal Highness Ruprecht's suggestions on tonnage, cost and speed. Let's talk about the construction plan." The Kaiser temporarily suppressed this question and let the Minister of State of the Navy enter The next link.

"We started working on this batch of warships before 1905,

It is estimated that 6 ships will be built, 2 ships will be started in 1905, and then 3 or 4 ships will be started in 1906. The construction period is between 2.5 and 3 years. And according to the recently passed Navy Act, we will start construction of 2 to 3 capital ships every year. In this way, by 1910 we will have about 18 warships available, and by 1912 this number will increase to about 24! said Tirpitz.

"This plan is simply stronger than the previous one." His Royal Highness sighed inwardly. In fact, in terms of shipbuilding speed, this is not the historical German madness. Although the cost of a single ship has increased, because of the limited number, the annual expenditure will not exceed the historical level. The fundamental reason is that Germany started early. In history, Germany did not have a single Dreadnought in 1906, but in this plane, Germany has 6 ships.

The prince does not want to interfere with the budget and quantity of the specific shipbuilding. On the one hand, the money is paid by the German central government. They are willing to build it, and the prince has no control over it. On the other hand, Bavaria is one of the largest naval equipment suppliers in Germany. One, there is no need for the prince to throw out the money he earns...  If the army's expansion is really short of money, why would the prince come out and be the target if there is a lawsuit between Little Maoqi and Tirpitz?

"I agree with this plan in principle, but starting from 1907, I hope that the warships we restart will be equipped with larger caliber artillery!" said the prince.

"Bigger artillery? 400mm or 380mm?" Tirpitz said in surprise, he did not expect the prince to be so persistent in increasing the caliber of naval guns. "Isn't this technical span too big? It's hard for me to believe that our artillery factory can provide such artillery."

"The span is not large, and we still have enough practical experience. Think about it, our new batch of warships started construction in 1905 and entered service in 1908. From now on, the Krupp Gun Factory has at least 5 years to develop This artillery. We will not participate in the research and development of the 14-inch artillery. Bavaria will directly develop the 15-inch artillery on the basis of the 14-inch artillery. If we start construction of the 15-inch artillery ship in 1907, then it will be in service in 1910. We have enough time to complete this task!" the prince said calmly.

It is true that the schedule launched by the prince is much earlier than the update time of artillery in history. For example, the British 13.5-inch L45 artillery was designed in 1908 and entered service in 1912. Note that it is service, not the finalization time of the artillery. Considering that it is a battleship such as artillery, the finalization time of this artillery is actually earlier. In fact, it was October 28, 1908 when the British Navy proposed to develop a 13.5-inch gun, and the first sample gun came out on November 19, 1909. The real research and development time was only one year!

The 15-inch gun was designed in 1912 and entered service in 1915. But don't forget, the technology line of this era is much earlier than in history! The British Dreadnought probably entered service in 1904. Technically, countries are about 3 to 5 years ahead of history. For countries like the UK, the advance may be relatively small, but for Germany, which has relatively backward design concepts and requirements, this advance is quite large!

From a technical point of view, Germany's direct leap from 12-inch artillery to 15-inch artillery is quite successful. The German 15-inch L45 artillery took only 3 years from design to service. Moreover, according to the prince's plan, it is really impossible to let The battleship waits for the artillery for a while....

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