Chapter 1009 New Battleship
Intervening in the Russo-Japanese War was just a casual move by Ernst, and it was ultimately a sideline. In the Russo-Japanese War, in addition to the two warring parties, the countries that benefited from the war were definitely Britain, the United States, and France, and East Africa could only rank behind.
So before the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Ernst still had to focus on the development of his country's industry, economy, military and other fields.
…
Bagamoyo Port.
At this moment, a celebration was being held at Bagamoyo Port. Vice Admiral Kainmas of the East African Navy held champagne and threw champagne at the bow of a huge ship.
The champagne bottle hit the bow and broke, the ship sounded the whistle, the dock door opened, and the fourth new domestic battleship in East Africa slowly moved out of the dock and docked at the pier.
So far, there are already four battleships among the first-level surface combat ships in East Africa. During the First Five-Year Plan, the development of the East African Navy continued to move forward steadily, and did not expand its naval power as much as other countries.
Looking at the newly launched new battleship, Vice Admiral Kainmas was in a good mood. Although it was an experimental ship, the launch of the Bagamoyo meant that East Africa had four battleships.
Today, the development of battleships has completely returned to the battleship era. Ironclad ships have become a thing of the past, but ironclad ships still account for the majority of East Africa's main surface combat ships.
Therefore, the East African Navy welcomes any new battleship. Although the specific data and reliability of the Bagamoyo cannot be guaranteed, it is already very satisfactory for the East African Navy.
Han Tangnio, the designer of Bagamoyo, said to the crowd: "Since the 1890s, with the advancement of large-caliber naval gun technology, the power, range, rate of fire, and accuracy of naval guns have been greatly improved. The advancement of sighting technology has also made the long-distance hit rate of naval guns higher and higher. However, the weak long-distance firepower of small-caliber naval guns and the different ballistics and rates of fire of the two caliber main guns when firing, the observation of the impact point, and the firepower control cannot be unified, which has led to the increasing impact of the long-distance hit rate. "
"Many naval powers in the world have observed this, and many people have proposed to build a new generation of battleships to solve this problem, and have proposed many solutions."
"The appearance of Bagamoyo is a new experimental ship built by our navy to deal with this. It has made great adjustments in the caliber, position, ship structure, etc. of naval guns, and is equipped with the latest electronic equipment, including radio systems for external communications and internal command telephone systems."
"It has also made bold innovations in protective armor and adopted the latest technology steel. The application of these new technologies has made the weight of Bagamoyo heavy. The total displacement has been greatly increased, reaching 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, so the speed of the Bagamoyo cannot be effectively improved, and can only be tested on the next experimental ship. "
"But I believe that the Bagamoyo can withstand the test of the navy. Even if it is placed in the navy of the world, the advancement of the Bagamoyo is impeccable. "
In response to what Han Tangniao said, Kain Mas said: "The design of the Bagamoyo is very bold, but its combat effectiveness still depends on subsequent development. For this kind of bold new warship, the results may not be all positive. "
Han Tangniao: "General, what you said makes sense, but I have confidence in my products. Even if we encounter some minor problems, we can correct them in time. "
For this point, Kain Mas naturally believes it, 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 provide a lot of experience for the East African Navy.
The Bagamoyo in East Africa is the first battleship completed in East Africa during the First Five-Year Plan. It already has some features of the dreadnought in the previous life, but it is still a pre-dreadnought.
There is no concept of dreadnought in the world at present. The birth of the dreadnought in the previous life originated from the British prediction of the development direction of naval warfare in the Russo-Japanese War, and thus launched a new type of battleship.
Although many people in the world have proposed many ideas about "dreadnoughts", no country has achieved this goal.
East Africa can only be said to be working towards the direction of "dreadnoughts", but this does not mean that East Africa can be the first to make achievements.
The main reason is that Ernst did not know much about ships in his previous life, 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 development direction of large caliber, high speed, high rate of fire, and strong armor should not be wrong, and with the mature application of outstanding technologies such as radio, there is absolutely no problem for the East African Navy to develop in this direction.
Large caliber is not too difficult for East Africa. East Africa has mastered the technology of producing large caliber naval guns. There may be slight differences compared with other countries, but the impact is not too great.
High speed is more difficult. The current development direction of East Africa is to use more efficient steam turbines to drive the speed of warships, but East Africa has difficulty mastering related technologies.
Steam turbines appeared as early as the 19th century, but Ernst had no idea about this thing, so using steam turbines to break through the current world warship speed limit was entirely an attempt by the East African Navy and East African shipbuilding technicians without Ernst's intervention.
But East Africa is relatively backward in ordinary reciprocating steam engines, and steam turbine research and development naturally encounters some difficulties. Fortunately, the principle of steam turbines is not complicated, and the navies of various countries do not pay much attention to it. Therefore, the East African Navy began to develop new domestic steam turbines in the 1990s. Although there is no finished product yet, when it is completed, it should be possible to obtain some first-hand information and accumulate experience. In this way, even if the first new domestic steam turbine has problems, East African technicians have the confidence to correct them in time.
The spirit of daring to try by the East African Navy and military shipbuilding industry is actually a forced choice. In the 1990s and during the First Five-Year Plan, the East African military industry was not a key development direction, which made it impossible for the East African Navy to engage in an arms race like other countries.
In this case, the East African Navy can 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 he did not want to work harder on the "pre-dreadnought", without the technical accumulation of the "pre-dreadnought", East Africa might be at a loss when the real "dreadnought" appeared.
Therefore, during the First Five-Year Plan, Ernst allowed the navy to build two to three experimental battleships, with the primary goal of integrating East Africa's current advanced technology in the military shipbuilding industry.
On this basis, new technologies such as large-caliber naval guns, steam turbines, radio, new armor, and hull structure design have made continuous breakthroughs.
And because of this, 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 all battleships, Bagamoyo has made a lot of applications for some new key technologies mastered by East Africa, which makes Bagamoyo move closer to the "dreadnought" in the past in some areas.
But it is just a close approach. East Africa is not a country that can lead the naval military reform. Among all the countries in the world, only Britain has this ability.
Without the British "Dreadnought" as a blueprint, the East African Navy cannot use the "copycat" method, and can only keep trying and exploring on its own. As for the three battleships before Bagamoyo, they are actually copycats.
Therefore, Bagamoyo is a product of epoch-making significance in the development history of the East African Navy and military shipbuilding industry.
Completely getting rid of the past style of plagiarism and copying other countries' warships, it is the first innovative large-scale main 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-scale main surface combat ship, it is because East Africa's submarines entered the self-development stage earlier than surface ships. When East Africa was developing submarines, there were no relatively mature submarines in the world for East Africa to refer to.