Hearing George Elliot mention airships, Prime Minister Robinson suddenly became interested and asked: "George, in fact, airships are the real trump card of the Royal Navy, right?"
"Yes, but not entirely," said George Elliot. "The Admiralty believes that airships are only part of the real trump card that the Royal Navy has in future wars. And the other part of this trump card is that the British Empire is the world's number one Merchant Marine!"
"Merchant ship?" Robinson was stunned. "George, does the Navy want to establish an armed merchant ship force and use privateers to deal with the Ming Empire?"
"Prime Minister," George Yilu said, "Of course we should equip a large number of armed assault ships... The four camouflaged assault ships that caused the battle of Jiyin Waterway are quite excellent weapons!"
Robinson interjected: "Who do they belong to?"
"It should be Japan," George Eryu replied. "To be more precise, it should be the Satsuma Domain of Japan... If you want to build a regular navy with the poor strength of the Satsuma Domain, It is impossible to be an opponent of the Ming Dynasty, and they may even become a thorn in the side of the Tokugawa shogunate prematurely. But by building camouflage attack ships, they have indeed become a threat to behemoths like the Ming Empire. In fact, so far, the Ming Navy has Still haven't captured those camouflaged attack ships!
It can be seen that the Satsuma Domain's disguised attack ship tactics are quite effective. So of course we should follow suit. The Admiralty should secretly build and modify a batch of raiding ships that can go deep into the Pacific and Southeast Asian islands to conduct diplomatic operations.
However, these attack ships can only play a role in harassment and diversion, and are still unlikely to be the key to determining the outcome of the war. Because they had no way to attack the transport convoys escorted by cruisers, they could not cut off the logistics of the Ming army invading India or Australia. "
"Well, how are merchant ships supposed to be part of the Royal Navy's cards?" Robinson asked.
"Prime Minister," George Elliot replied, "The Admiralty believes that we can convert some of the 10,000-ton merchant ships powered by coal-fired steam into airship carriers that can take off and land airships! The British Empire owns and maintains the largest fleet in the world. There is a huge merchant fleet, some of which are 10,000-ton ships more than 160 meters long. They are equipped with steam engines that can generate 8,000 to 10,000 horsepower, and the maximum speed can reach 15 knots.
If we can design a 10,000-ton merchant ship with the chimney and bridge placed at the bow or stern, we can reserve a huge space of 100 meters to 140 meters for laying the airship deck. At the same time, we will equip these merchant ships with more powerful steam engines so that they can reach speeds of more than 20 knots per hour, so that they can keep up with the naval fleet during wartime.
In peacetime, these 10,000-ton merchant ships are just cargo ships for peaceful purposes, used to transport grain, coal, iron ore or cotton. In wartime, we only need to lay a wooden deck on the cabin used to store grain, coal, iron ore or cotton, and with a few modifications, it becomes an airship carrier that can take off and land airships or large airships. ! "
It turns out that the British Admiralty also thought of building an aircraft carrier! However, their aircraft carriers are not used to take off and land aircraft, but are used to take off and land airships. And it is not used to take off and land small airships, but is used to take off and land giant airships larger than the Feilong III!
Obviously, the Battle of Nagasaki greatly stimulated the British Admiralty, so it decided to follow up with all its strength - the previous effect of using airships to blow up ships was actually not satisfactory, and it could also be used for effective defense. But the power of using an airship to drop napalm bombs into the city is a bit scary.
Such a terrifying weapon, the British Empire must have it!
Not only must we have them, but we must also develop carrier-based airships that can be carried by airship motherships and follow the main fleet. According to experts from the British Admiralty, the UK has an advantage that no other country has in developing carrier-based airships.
"Invincibility starts with sacrificing the ancestor"
Britain is currently the world's number one shipping power!
George Elliot said with some pride: "Because our colonies are spread all over the world, and countless bulk materials are shipped to our homeland every year, we can maintain more than 1,000 large cargo ships of 10,000 tons or larger. We can absolutely 'Hide' our airship motherships among these civilian ships... Then we can easily have 100 or even 200 airship motherships in wartime!
Moreover, these airship motherships 'hidden' in civilian ships can occupy no tonnage of warships... If the naval armament treaty reached at Versailles would limit the total tonnage of the navy, the British Empire would be a vacuum. An increase of 1 million to 2 million tons of quasi-military ships! "
This is awesome!
Because the current total tonnage of the British Empire's navy is only over one million tons. If a cap of 2 million to 3 million tons can be signed at the future naval armament conference, the Admiralty will have a party to celebrate.
The airship mothership plan proposed by Elliot on behalf of the Admiralty suddenly gave the British Royal Navy an additional 2 million tons of quasi-warships! Moreover, most of the cost of these 2 million tons of quasi-warships can be borne by commercial companies. The British government can at most provide a small shipbuilding subsidy... In fact, the British government does not even need to provide subsidies, and all investments can be pushed to Indian.
This is so beautiful!
"Okay! This is a good idea!" British Prime Minister Robinson thought about it and said, "Can I understand that in the future, the main ship of the navy will be an armored cruiser of about 10,000 tons, and at the same time, we will also have 200 airship carriers. The ship is hidden among civilian ships as our last resort?"
"Yes, Prime Minister."
"Then do we still need to build bigger, stronger battleships with stronger firepower?" the British Prime Minister asked again.
"Of course!" George Elu said, "Mr. Prime Minister, we also need a heavy battleship with a displacement of 25,000 to 30,000 tons, 6-9 14-inch or even 15-inch caliber main guns, and a speed of more than 20 knots! "
"What? Do we really want to build such a large battleship?" Robinson was stunned. "George, didn't you say before that our main force should be 10,000-ton armored cruisers?"
"Mr. Prime Minister," George Elliot said with a smile, "Our main force is indeed a 10,000-ton battle cruiser, but... we still need some large-tonnage battleships to show the glory of the Royal Navy. At the same time, these Large-tonnage battleships can also be used to mislead the Ming Dynasty, allowing them to allocate their main financial resources and total tonnage to large battleships, thereby neglecting the construction of 10,000-ton armored cruisers and airship carriers.
When a war does break out, our fast patrols and airships will, like the ancient light cavalry, firmly grasp the initiative on the battlefield and encircle and annihilate their small units through sneak attacks, luring the enemy, setting up ambushes, attacking logistics lines and concentrating the main force. Formations and other methods continue to destroy their large, clumsy, expensive capital ships. "
Robinson frowned: "How many big, clumsy, expensive capital ships do we need to build for this?"
"Prime Minister, the British Empire's huge, clumsy and expensive battleships will only exist on paper!" George Elliot said, "What we really need to build is huge and high-speed battleships! But we will build huge and slow battleships." In the name of the battleship, we used wrong paper data to mislead the Ming Dynasty and let them follow up and build such a battleship."
Robinson thought for a while and seemed to think it was unreliable, so he asked Count Nelson: "Your Excellency, Marshal of the Navy, can we really defeat the Ming Empire with a small number of large and high-speed battleships, a massive number of armored cruisers and 200 airship carriers?" ?”
Earl Nelson smiled and said: "Prime Minister, it depends on how you define defeat? If you want the Royal Navy to go straight to the mainland of the Ming Dynasty, land in Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Tianjin, occupy and destroy their most prosperous cities... Well, there was nothing the Royal Navy could do.
If you want to defeat an enemy from afar on the soil of India, Australia, or North America, you must rely on long sea supply lines to sustain the war. Then, we will be able to win victory for the British Empire with a small number of large and high-speed battleships, a large number of armored cruisers and 200 airship carriers! "
