African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1009 New Battleship

Intervening in the Russo-Japanese War was just a casual move by Ernst, and it was ultimately a minor move. In the Russo-Japanese War, apart from the two warring parties, the countries that reaped the benefits of the war were definitely Britain, the United States, and France. As for East Africa, it could only rank behind.

Therefore, 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.

……

Bagamoyo Port.

At this moment, a celebration was being held in Bagamoyo Port, and Vice Admiral Kain Masi of the East African Navy was throwing champagne at the bow of a huge ship.

The champagne bottle hit the bow and broke into pieces, the ship whistle sounded, the dock gate opened, and the fourth new domestically-produced battleship in East Africa slowly moved out of the dock and docked at the pier.

So far, there are four battleships among the East African first-class surface combat ships. During the First Five-Year Plan, the development of the East African Navy continued to move forward steadily, and it did not expand its naval power as vigorously as other countries.

Looking at the new battleship that had just been launched, Vice Admiral Kainemas was in a good mood. Although it was an experimental ship, the launching of Bagamoyo meant that there were now four battleships in East Africa.

Today, the development of warships has completely returned to the era of battleships, and 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, the East African Navy is already very satisfied.

Han Tangnio, the designer of the Bagamoyo, said to the crowd: "Since the 19s, 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-range hit rate of naval guns higher and higher. However, the weak long-range firepower of small-caliber naval guns and the different ballistics and rates of fire of the two caliber main guns when firing have led to the inability to unify the observation of the impact point and the fire control, which has led to an increasing impact on the long-range hit rate."

"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 come up with a number of solutions."

"The Bagamoyo is a new type of experimental ship built by our navy to deal with this. It has made great adjustments in the caliber, position, and structure of its guns. It is also equipped with the latest electronic equipment, including a radio system for external communications and an internal command telephone system."

"We have also made bold innovations in terms of protective armor, using the latest steel technology. The application of these new technologies has greatly increased the weight of the Bagamoyo, with the total displacement directly reaching 14,000 tons."

"The only pity is that the latest domestically produced 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 increased 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 among the navies of the world, the Bagamoyo’s advancedness is impeccable.”

In response to Hantonio's remarks, Kain Math said: "The Bagamoyo is very bold in design, but its combat effectiveness still depends on subsequent developments. For such a bold attempt at a new type of warship, the results may not be all positive."

Han Tangniou: "General, you have a point, but I have confidence in my products. Even if we encounter some minor problems, we can correct them in time."

Kainmas naturally believed this, because even if the overall practical effect of the Bagamoyo was not good, it would not affect the application of those new technologies. Even if they were not suitable for the Bagamoyo, they could provide a lot of experience for the East African Navy.

The Bagamoyo in East Africa was the first battleship completed in East Africa during the First Five-Year Plan. It already had some features of the previous dreadnoughts, but it was still a pre-dreadnought.

There is no concept of dreadnought in the world at present. The birth of dreadnought in the past originated from Britain's prediction of the development direction of naval warfare during the Russo-Japanese War, and the resulting new type of warship was launched.

Although many people in the world have proposed many ideas about the "dreadnought", no country has achieved this goal. East Africa can only be said to be working towards the "dreadnought", but this does not mean that East Africa can be the first to achieve results.

The main reason was that Ernst didn't know much about ships in his previous life, so the East African Navy had to develop it on its own, and Ernst couldn't 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. Coupled with the mature application of outstanding technologies such as radio, there would be absolutely no problem for the East African Navy to develop in this direction.

Large caliber is not too difficult for East Africa, as East Africa has mastered the technology to produce 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 of East Africa is to use more efficient steam turbines to drive the speed of warships, but it is difficult for East Africa to master the relevant technology.

Steam turbines had already appeared as early as the 19th century, but Ernst knew nothing about this thing, so using steam turbines to break through the current speed limit of world warships was entirely an attempt by the East African Navy and East African shipbuilding industry technicians themselves, without Ernst's intervention.

However, East Africa was relatively backward in ordinary reciprocating steam engines, and naturally encountered some difficulties in the development of steam turbines. 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 are no finished products yet, when they are completed, it should be possible to obtain some first-hand information and accumulate experience. 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 East African Navy and military shipbuilding industry's daring spirit of experimentation 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.

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 he did not want to put too much effort into 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 or three experimental battleships, with the primary goal of integrating the current advanced technologies in East Africa into 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 continued to make 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 both battleships, Bagamoyo has made extensive use of some new key technologies mastered by East Africa, which makes Bagamoyo closer to the direction of the "dreadnought" of its previous life in some areas.

But it is just a close approach. East Africa is not a country that can lead naval military reforms. Among all the countries in the world, only Britain has this ability.

Without the British "Dreadnought" as a model, the East African Navy could not use the "copycat" method and could only keep trying and exploring on its own. As for the three battleships before Bagamoyo, they were actually copycats.

Therefore, Bagamoyo is a landmark product in the history of the development of the East African navy and military shipbuilding industry.

It has completely broken away from the past style of plagiarizing and copying other countries' warships. It is the first innovative large-scale surface main combat warship in East Africa that was independently developed and built and uses a large number of domestically developed new technologies.

As for why it is a large surface main combat ship, it is because East Africa's 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 for East Africa to refer to.

(End of this chapter)