Empire Conquest-Chapter 929 - 134: Twists and Turns

Central East Ocean, south of the Howay Islands, flagship "Liu Changxun" of the forty-first Special Mixed Fleet.

Although the Empire Navy still has two dedicated flagships, the one assigned to the East Ocean Fleet has always stayed at Nagiu Port, only leaving the dock during the annual fleet confrontation exercises, carrying the Fleet Commander and over 100 staff officers and soldiers to go out for several days.

Because the ship has been in service for over 30 years, the Empire Navy no longer modernizes it.

The flagship of the Special Mixed Fleet is still the carrier commanded by the Commander.

In the decades after the war, the Empire Navy fleet composition and tactical system underwent tremendous changes, generally experiencing three reforms. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

The first reform occurred after the end of the great war.

In the later stages of the war, the first generation of jet fighters had already been born and had been deployed to the battlefield by the Tiaoman Air Force. As the situation was under the control of the Consortium Group with a very clear strategic advantage, coupled with the jet fighter’s short range, it did not receive attention from the Empire.

It was not until after the war, with the establishment of the Air Force, that the first jet fighter was equipped.

Within a few short years, around New Calendar year 110, jet fighters replaced all piston-propeller fighters in the Air Force equipment, ruling the skies.

However, the Navy was not so lucky.

Although the jet fighters developed after the war solved many performance flaws, such as the "War-1A", the first jet fighter equipped by the Empire Air Force with an operational radius of 700 kilometers, and later improvements exceeded 1000 kilometers with two auxiliary fuel tanks, compared to piston-propeller aircraft, jet fighters still had a very prominent issue that the Navy Air Force could not ignore.

Landing speed was too high, and the minimum allowable speed far exceeded that of piston-propeller aircraft.

Air Force fighters could land on runways exceeding 2000 meters in length, hence a slightly higher landing speed was not a big issue.

Navy shipborne fighters were not so fortunate.

Because the flight deck length is limited, shipborne aircraft landing speed must be sufficiently low.

For carriers built during the war, especially dozens of large "province" class carriers, this issue was particularly prominent. As the flight deck is constrained by the length of the hull, it cannot be extended, thus even if these carriers underwent modernization after the war, including angled decks, the landing area was not long enough, requiring strict limits on the landing speed of shipborne aircraft.

As a result, jet fighters with poor low-speed performance were completely unable to be onboard.

The result was that while the Empire Air Force and even air forces worldwide were entering or about to enter the jet era, the Empire Navy Air Force was still using piston-propeller aircraft.

The influence of the Empire Navy fell to rock bottom during these years.

Because the performance of piston-propeller fighters was too poor, they could not ensure fleet air superiority, leading to a period of "carrier useless" commentary.

During this period, the only reliance of the Empire Navy was on the assets accumulated during the great war.

Shipborne fighters were not good enough, but there were dozens of carriers!

Critically, the Navy could also benefit from technological advancements.

With the completion and commissioning of the first carrier designed and built by the Empire Navy after the war for the purpose of carrying jet shipborne aircraft, which had a strong experimental nature, the "Imperial Capital" class, by the end of New Calendar year 112, the Empire Navy shipborne air force also entered the jet era.

Then came the explosive growth after long suppression.

In New Calendar year 112, the first "province 2" class completed the modernization improvement codenamed "Contract," replacing the straight-through deck with an angled deck slanting 11 degrees to the left. In the following years, except for three retired early due to damage, the remaining 23 "province" class and "province 2" class underwent similar modernization improvements, replacing with angled decks, thus acquiring the conditions for carrying and using jet shipborne aircraft.

Meanwhile, aerodynamics was rapidly developing, coupled with more advanced and reliable aviation engines, a large number of advanced-performance jet fighters came into being, and many previously insurmountable technical problems were solved one by one in the hands of engineers.

By New Calendar year 119, the last "province 2" class completed modernization transformation, plus newly built large carriers, the Empire Navy in total possessed 36 attack carriers.

In addition, there were 27 anti-submarine carriers and 17 amphibious assault ships capable of carrying fixed-wing shipborne aircraft.

During this period, the Empire Navy seemed to be at its peak!

Of course, this mainly refers to quantity.

For example, among the 36 attack carriers, none had a full load displacement exceeding 70,000 tons, and the "Chen Bingxun" class, with epochal significance and high hopes from the Empire Navy, was still under construction on the slipway, and as for the more powerful "Xue Yuanzheng" class, the design had not yet been completed.

At that time, the Empire Navy was indeed ungainly large.

Facing this issue, the Empire Navy initiated the first post-war reform of composition and tactics.

Mainly targeting the carriers.

The most critical issue was the insufficient combat power of the carriers.

Take the "Imperial Capital" class, this type of large carrier with a full load displacement exceeding 60,000 tons, can only carry 80 aircraft, the number of carriers falling short compared to the large carriers during the great war. If shipborne aircraft needed to perform strike missions, they could not carry too many anti-submarine patrol aircraft. Because the aircraft performing strike missions occupied the flight deck, even if they boarded a few anti-submarine patrol aircraft, they might not be dispatched to perform tasks.