Chapter 1009 New Battleship
Intervening in the Russo-Japanese War was just a casual move by Ernst. After all, it was a trivial matter. In the Russo-Japanese War, apart from the two warring parties, the countries that benefited from the war were definitely Britain, the United States, and France. As for East Africa, they could only be ranked behind.
So before the Russo-Japanese War broke out, Ernst still had to focus on the development of his country's industry, economy, military and other fields.
…
Port of Bagamoyo.
At this moment, a celebration is being held in Bagamoyo Port. Vice Admiral Kain Math of the East African Navy is holding champagne and throwing champagne towards the bow of a huge ship.
The champagne bottle hit the bow of the ship and shattered. The ship blew its whistle and the dock door opened. East Africa's fourth new domestic battleship slowly moved out of the dock and docked at the dock.
So far, there are already four battleships among the first-class surface combatants in East Africa. During the First Five-Year Plan, East Africa's naval development continued to move forward steadily, and it did not expand its naval power like other countries.
Looking at this new battleship that had just been launched, Lieutenant General Kain Maas was in a good mood. Although it was an experimental ship, the launch of the Bagamoyo meant that the number of East African battleships reached four.
Nowadays, the development of battleships has completely returned to the battleship era, and ironclads have become a thing of the past. However, among the main surface combatants in East Africa, ironclads still account for the majority.
Therefore, the East African Navy welcomes any new battleship. Although the specific data and reliability of the Bagamoyo cannot be guaranteed, the East African Navy is very satisfied.
The designer of the Bagamoyo, Han Donagno, said to everyone: "Since the 1890s, with the advancement of large-caliber naval gun technology, the power, range, rate of fire, and accuracy of naval guns have increased significantly. Improvements in sighting technology have also made the long-range hit rate of naval guns higher and higher. However, small-caliber naval guns have weak long-range firepower and the two-caliber main guns have different trajectories and rates of fire when shooting. The impact point observation and fire control are difficult. Failure to unify leads to an increasing impact on long-range shooting.”
“Many of the world’s naval powers have observed this, and many have proposed building a new generation of battleships to solve this problem, and have proposed many solutions.”
"The emergence of the Bagamoyo is a new experimental ship built by our navy to deal with this. It has made huge adjustments in terms of gun caliber, location, ship structure, etc., and is equipped with the latest electronic Equipment, including radio systems for external communication, internal command telephone systems, etc. "
“There are also bold innovations in protective armor, using the latest technology in steel. The application of these new technologies has greatly increased the weight of the Bagamoyo, and the total displacement has directly reached the level of 14,000 tons.”
"The only pity is that the latest domestic steam turbine technology is not yet mature, so the Bagamoyo still uses the traditional steam power mode. Therefore, the speed of the Bagamoyo cannot be effectively increased, and it can only be carried out on the next experimental ship. test."
“However, I believe that the Bagamoyo can withstand the test of the navy. Even if it is placed among the navies of the world, the advancement of the Bagamoyo is impeccable.”
As for what Hantangyo said, Caimath said: "The design of the Bagamoyo is very bold, but its combat effectiveness still depends on subsequent development. For this bold new type of warship, the results may not all be the same. Positive.”
Handonio: "What the General said makes sense, but I have confidence in our products. Even if we encounter some minor problems, we can correct them in time."
Caimath naturally believes in this, because even if the overall practical effect of the Bagamoyo is not good, it will not affect the application of those new technologies. Even if it is not suitable for the Bagamoyo, it can still be used for the Bagamoyo. East African navies offer a wealth of experience.
There is currently no concept of a dreadnought in the world. The birth of the previous dreadnought originated from the British prediction of the development direction of naval warfare during the Russo-Japanese War, and thus launched a new type of warship.
Although some people in the world have proposed many ideas about "dreadnought ships", no country has achieved this goal. East Africa can only be said to be working in the direction of "dreadnoughts", but this does not mean that East Africa will be the first to achieve results.
The main reason is that Ernst in his previous life did not know much about ships, so the East African Navy could only develop it on its own, and Ernst could not give any effective suggestions.
However, Ernst knew that the general direction of development of large caliber, high speed, high rate of fire, and strong armor should not be wrong. Coupled with the mature application of outstanding technologies such as radio, there is absolutely no problem in the East African navy developing in this direction.
Large caliber is not too difficult for East Africa. East Africa itself has mastered the technology for producing large-caliber naval guns. There may be slight differences compared with other countries, but the impact will not be too great.
High speed is more difficult. The current development direction in East Africa is to use more efficient steam turbines to promote warship speed, but it is more difficult for East Africa to master relevant technologies.
Steam turbines had appeared as early as the 19th century, but Ernst had no understanding of this thing. Therefore, using steam turbines to break through the current speed limit of warships in the world was entirely an attempt by the East African Navy and East African shipbuilding industry technicians. Without Ernst intervention.
However, East Africa lags behind in ordinary reciprocating steam engines, and the research and development of steam turbines naturally encounters some difficulties. Fortunately, the principle of steam turbines is not complicated, and the navies of various countries currently do not pay much attention to it. Therefore, the East African navy began to develop new models in the 1990s. Although the domestic steam turbine does not yet have a finished product, once it is completed, some first-hand information should be available and experience accumulated. In this way, even if there is a problem with the first new domestic steam turbine, East African technicians will have the confidence to correct it in time.
The daring spirit of the East African Navy and the military shipbuilding industry is actually a forced and helpless choice. During the 1990s and the First Five-Year Plan period, the East African military industry was not a key development direction. This made the East African Navy want to compete with other countries. Countries cannot do this even if they engage in an arms race.
Under such circumstances, the East African Navy could only devote its energy to the research and development of warships, and this research and development really allowed the East African Navy to come up with a lot of new things.
Ernst was supportive of this. Although Ernst did not want to put more effort into the "pre-dreadnought", without the technical accumulation of the "pre-dreadnought", it would be difficult to build a "pre-dreadnought" in the true sense. "When it appears, East Africa may be blinded.
So during the First Five-Year Plan, Ernst allowed the Navy to build two to three experimental battleships. The primary goal was to integrate the current advanced technologies in East Africa in the military shipbuilding industry.
On this basis, new technologies such as large-caliber naval guns, steam turbines, radios, new armor, and hull structure design continue to make breakthroughs.
Because of this, the Bagamoyo, as the fourth new battleship in East Africa, is completely different from the three more conventional battleships produced in East Africa in the 1990s.
Although they are both battleships, the Bagamoyo has made extensive application of some new key technologies mastered in East Africa, which has made the Bagamoyo move closer to the previous "dreadnought" in some fields.
But it is just getting closer. East Africa is not a country that can lead naval military reforms. Among countries in the world, only the United Kingdom has this ability.
In the absence of the British "dreadnought" as a blueprint, the East African Navy cannot use the "copycat" method and can only keep trying and groping on its own. As for the three battleships in front of the Bagamoyo, they are actually copycats.
So, the Bagamoyo is an epoch-making product in the history of the development of the East African navy and military shipbuilding industry.
Completely getting rid of the past plagiarism and imitating the style of other countries' warships, it is the first innovative large-scale surface combat warship in East Africa that is independently developed and built and adopts a large number of domestically developed new technologies.
As for why it is a large surface main battleship, it is because East African submarines entered the self-research stage earlier than surface ships. When East Africa was developing submarines, there were no relatively mature submarines in the world that East Africa could use as a reference.
(End of this chapter)