Empire Conquest-Chapter 931 - 135: Super Carrier

Before Zhou Yongtao moved into the Prime Minister Mansion, the Navy’s third round of reform had already begun.

The landmark event was: the "Xue Yuanzheng" class Super Carrier received approval in New Calendar 127, construction officially commenced at the beginning of New Calendar 128, launched three years later, and finally delivered to the Empire’s Navy at the end of New Calendar 134, marking the entry into the "Super Carrier era".

Interestingly, the first batch of this class, consisting of three ships: "Xue Yuanzheng", "Bai Zhizhan", and "Lian Xusheng", were still called Attack Carriers.

This precisely reflects the process of the Empire Navy’s organizational and tactical transformation.

As mentioned earlier, after the great war, the Empire Navy divided carriers into "attack" and "anti-submarine" types and used the carrier battle group as the fleet’s basic combat unit. After the "Chen Bingxun" class entered service, due to strategic considerations, the carrier battle group was re-designated as a carrier attack group. Thus, the term "Attack Carrier" was retained, but no special "Anti-submarine Carrier" was constructed thereafter.

During this period, old carriers on the verge of retirement were generally used as Anti-submarine Carriers, mainly reflected in the composition of shipborne air forces. To put it simply, Anti-submarine Carriers would carry more Anti-submarine Patrol Aircraft and Anti-submarine Helicopters while reducing the number of Attack Aircraft.

The "Province" class and the "Province 2" class built during the war mostly retired as Anti-submarine Carriers.

It is clear that when the first batch of the "Xue Yuanzheng" class entered service, the Empire Navy’s tactical thinking had not undergone significant changes.

The "Xue Yuanzheng" class seems like just an enlarged version of the "Chen Bingxun" class.

But that’s not the case.

What hadn’t changed was actually the Imperial High Command. The Empire Navy continued using the term "Attack Carrier" simply to more smoothly secure funding and quickly commence construction work.

To put it more bluntly, the "Xue Yuanzheng" class was a product of being "forced" into existence.

Even though around New Calendar 125, the Empire Navy proposed that the tonnage of the "Chen Bingxun" class was still insufficient, limited in ship-borne aircraft operations, and its sustained deployment capability could not meet the demands of high-intensity combat, constructing larger and more expensive super carriers was of little interest, not just to the grand lords of the two councils, but also to the Minister of Defense, and even to Lian Xusheng during his second appointment as Imperial Chief Minister.

As a result, after completing the construction of the first batch of three, the "Chen Bingxun" class received funding again for a second batch of three.

In the situation at that time, the Imperial Authority’s attention was on the Boi War. Even if Lian Xusheng wanted to support the Navy, he was powerless. In the trend of strategic contraction, no matter how important the Navy was, it couldn’t go against the overall strategy of the Empire.

If no unexpected events had happened, there could have been a third batch of "Chen Bingxun" class.

The reason is simple, the "Chen Bingxun" class was the most powerful carrier at the time, far superior to the Newland Navy’s "Newland" class, the Tiaoman Navy’s planned "Prussian" class, or the Bulan Royal Navy’s "Royal Ark" class.

However, the powerful "Chen Bingxun" class also provided a huge stimulus to the number one competitor, becoming the target they swore to surpass.

This "number one competitor" was the Newland Navy.

Only two years later, at the start of New Calendar 137, the Military Intelligence Bureau intercepted a very crucial piece of intelligence: the Newland Navy had already begun designing a 100,000-ton Super Carrier and planned to start construction this decade, aiming to surpass the Empire Navy’s "Chen Bingxun" class in one go.

Although theoretically, the Newland Navy couldn’t immediately surpass the Empire Navy since no country could build dozens of carriers in just a few years, letting the Newland Navy start constructing a super carrier first would undoubtedly cause great loss of face for the Empire Navy.

To the empire that dominates the world, it would also be a great humiliation.

To put it more severely, the foundation of the Empire’s global dominance would be shaken.

Shortly afterward, a high-ranking officer who defected—more precisely, who was turned by the Military Intelligence Bureau—confirmed this piece of intelligence; the Newland Navy was indeed designing a super carrier, and the design was more than halfway completed, certain to start construction by mid-New Calendar 128.

Theoretically, as long as 75% of the design is completed, construction can begin.

Although this officer also mentioned that this carrier’s full load displacement did not reach 100,000 tons, in the report submitted to the Grand Secretary and the Military Committee of the Legislative and Executive Councils, Military Intelligence Bureau officials made a small maneuver by using short tons based on 2,000 pounds as their unit, rather than the internationally-used standard tons, and not long tons based on 2,400 pounds. This could be considered a big help to the Navy.

short ton is only 0.907 standard tons.

With this conversion, a large carrier of over 90,000 tons was transformed into a super carrier exceeding 100,000 tons.

After all this trouble, during the second quarter of New Calendar 137, the proposal submitted by the Grand Secretary was passed by the two chambers, and the super carrier’s design work was officially launched.

The key was, construction must begin before the Newland Navy!

The time available for the ship designers was less than a year.

If redesigned from scratch, it’s an unachievable task for anyone. Just the design drawings alone could keep the engineers of the Imperial Navy Ship Design Institute busy for years. What’s more, a redesign would definitely require listening to military opinions and determining specific performance indicators according to new tactical standards.