Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 1071: Aircraft Carrier, Gone (Second Update, Two-in-One)

The essence of the world is to speak with strength!

No matter how idealists try to cover it up, they cannot change this basic operating rule of the world order.

Nanyang was able to take the initiative on the issues of Egypt and Hungary because of its strength.

But to a large extent, it also relied on external forces. On the issue of Hungary, the Soviet Union did not dare to go all in. On the one hand, it was because of the strength of Southeast Asia, and on the other hand, it was afraid of being kicked when it was down by the United States and Britain, so they finally made concessions.

In Egypt, the South China Sea was basically a cooperative operation. After all, the South China Sea's maritime strength was still far inferior to that of the United Kingdom. During the crisis, the British and French forces invested 8 aircraft carriers and more than 200 warships.

In contrast, Nanyang only had two aircraft carriers, the Friendship and Katsuragi. Although both were remodeled, the latter was limited by a hangar height of only 5 meters, making it difficult to accommodate new aircraft. Even the F1C could only be accommodated with difficulty. This is why Nanyang did not import old aircraft from the UK - the hangar was too short. For example, the hangar height of the "Vengeance" class was only 4.3 meters high, so the Royal Navy would rather remodel the Victory class with a smaller hangar area, lower aircraft capacity but a higher hangar after the war, but did not choose it.

In this case, Nanyang would certainly not choose the British aircraft carrier.

The "special military operation" launched in Egypt made people across Southeast Asia realize that aircraft carriers are indispensable weapons for safeguarding overseas interests.

"For Nanyang, we have extensive maritime interests to protect, whether it is tens of billions of dollars in overseas trade or tens of billions of dollars in overseas investment each year, these all need to be protected by the fleet. Without aircraft carriers, we can't use naval guns to protect our overseas interests! And only two aircraft carriers cannot meet the mission requirements of the navy."

On the way to the official residence, Zou Tongjie spoke while observing Lin Zhiyuan's expression. Seeing that he didn't say anything, he continued.

"If the Americans were willing to sell the Essex-class aircraft carrier, there wouldn't be such a problem now. Otherwise, we could just use the drawings of the Friendship to modify it. However, the United States has made it clear that it will no longer transfer aircraft carriers to us!"

The transformation of the USS Friendship was extremely successful. Its transformation was influenced by the design of the Forrestal class. The main contents of the transformation include: changing the open bow to a closed bow, adding two steam catapults, building a flight deck with an angle of 10.5 degrees, strengthening the arresting cables and interception nets, and expanding the front elevator. The deck lighting has also been improved. Now the standard displacement of the USS Friendship is 30800 tons and the full load displacement is 41200 tons. The speed is 30 knots.

After Nanyang completed the transformation of the "Friendship" aircraft carrier, the US Navy also asked for the blueprints, referred to Nanyang's transformation plan to transform its aircraft carrier, and imported steam catapults. However, while learning from Nanyang's improvement plan, they refused to provide Nanyang with an aircraft carrier.

"So now we can only build our own aircraft carriers."

Turning his head to look at the silent chief of staff, Zou Tongjie spoke in a stern tone.

"After all, according to the maritime mission requirements in the South China Sea, the future navy should have at least three aircraft carriers, but we only have one."

In Zou Tongjie's opinion, the "Katsuragi" with a displacement of only 2 tons can no longer meet the requirements of the times, and its future is already doomed - it is just an amphibious assault ship.

"I know we need two, but..."

Turning his head to look at the commander, Lin Zhiyuan asked back.

"Captain Zou, have you considered the funding? Do we have enough money to build an aircraft carrier?"

Facing Lin Zhiyuan's question, Zou Tongjie was silent for a moment, then spoke.

"Let's not think about this for now. Anyway, let's get the project started first... I'll try my best to convince you when we get to the official residence!"

After that, he closed his eyes and tapped his knees with his right hand from time to time. No matter what, he had to get the plan approved first! As long as the budget was approved, the ship would be built. In the end, he could still make additional investments!
He was not familiar with this kind of thing, but there were many Japanese consultants in the Navy and many Japanese shipbuilding experts in the Navy Administration. They were very familiar with this kind of thing. Before the war, they often used compressed shipbuilding budgets to "induce" the government to agree to allocate funds for shipbuilding. But when the construction was in progress, they began to add funds, and the government did not agree? So, after building more than half of the warships, or even 70% of them, they gave up?

Obviously, that is impossible. In the end, the government can only accept it and try every possible means to cut other expenditures.

It's just two aircraft carriers, this won't happen again...

In fact, everyone would do this in peacetime, not just Japan, but also the United States. When building the Enterprise, the Navy also lowered the price, saying that $3 million would be enough. In the end, the expenditure exceeded the budget by 50%, which almost made the old men on Capitol Hill explode. This is also the reason why Capitol Hill did not approve nuclear-powered aircraft carriers for a long time. To put it in a good way, it was scared by the cost of $ million. To put it in a bad way, it was afraid that the Navy would play the game of getting on the bus first and then paying the ticket, and wasted military expenses. This is also why many purchases of the US military were compressed and cut in spending. The reason is that the initial price was low. Later, the military wanted to use the fait accompli to force Congress to recover the budget, but Congress refused to approve it and directly cut it. However, this does not work well on warships. After all, you can't just build half of a warship and stop building it! So later the masters in Washington became smart and directly approved a few aircraft carriers. If there was an overspending, they would simply cut the number. In short, they tried their best to ensure that the overall expenditure did not increase.

Crying poor is the military's habit, and bidding low is the military's tradition. It is the same everywhere. The people in Nanyang are just primary school students. The military and the government have not yet started to fight wits and courage over military spending.

While Zou Tongjie was thinking this, the car had already driven into the official residence.

Soon, the two generals in white naval uniforms entered the study of the official residence. Then Zou Tongjie, the naval commander, went straight to the point and said:
"Sir, considering the strategic interests of the South China Sea, we should keep an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean, based on Socotra Island, so that we can control both the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, and at the same time threaten the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Another aircraft carrier will be based in Dongning to deter Russia to the north, and another aircraft carrier will be stationed in the mainland to reinforce hot spots at any time. These three aircraft carriers should be considered large aircraft carriers. Well, the Friendship aircraft carrier is barely usable, but in addition to that, we also need to build two 60000-ton large aircraft carriers, that is..."

Zou Tongjie emphasized the importance of aircraft carriers from the perspective of Nanyang's strategic needs, and pointed at the aircraft carrier model, his tone sounded a little excited.

"It is exactly what we need - the nuclear reactor will give it an almost unlimited range, and we have now completed the basic design of the aircraft carrier's reactor. There are no technical problems at all. As long as your Excellency approves, we can officially start construction around June next year. As for the economy..."

Zou Tongjie had already made up his mind to "induce" His Excellency to agree, so he explained, "The Navy's plan is to complete the construction of the first ship in four fiscal years. The construction cost will be spread over four fiscal years, which is completely acceptable financially. Although the cost of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is relatively high, its performance is superior."

Listening to Zou Tongjie's explanation, Li Yian did not refute him immediately, but silently lit a cigar, took a few puffs, then paced back and forth in the study, and then stared at the model, falling into deep thought.

Judging from the experience of another world, although the US Navy completed the construction of the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier "Enterprise" in the future, due to the high cost, it did not continue to build subsequent ships. Instead, it continued to build the lower-cost Forrestal-class aircraft carrier at the same time, which cost only a little more than half of the "Enterprise".

Because the cost of building the Enterprise was so staggering, the United States stopped building nuclear-powered aircraft carriers for a time; therefore, the U.S. Navy subsequently built three conventionally powered Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carriers.

The cost of building an Enterprise is $4.5 million, while a Forrestal-class ship costs more than $1.73 to $2.25 million. Even the Kitty Hawk-class ship currently under construction costs only $2.6 million. In other words, to put it in a sense of pride, the money spent on building an Enterprise is almost enough to build two Forrestal-class ships!
Even the wealthy American Navy can’t afford it, let alone the South China Sea?

Li Yian walked around the office in silence for a long time, then stood in front of Zou Tongjie, looked at his face scrutinizingly, as if he was looking out the window, and asked:

"Then tell me, how much does a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier cost?"

"This... is about 6 million yuan based on the current budget."

That’s less than $4 million!

How is this possible?
Thinking this in his mind, Li Yian turned his gaze to the Navy Chief of Staff Lin Zhiyuan and asked.

"What do you think about this issue?"

When His Excellency's eyes were cast on him, Lin Zhiyuan could feel Zou Tongjie's gaze, also staring at him, as if saying to him - you must support me!

Facing their gazes, Lin Zhiyuan pondered for a moment before speaking.

"Your Excellency, I believe that, at present, our economy cannot support us building an aircraft carrier."

The sudden answer made Zou Tongjie dumbfounded. At this time, he heard Lin Zhiyuan say.

"After all, we need not only two aircraft carriers, but also more destroyers and other auxiliary warships. We currently have only 27 American destroyers, six Italian destroyers, four British destroyers, and two Japanese destroyers. In terms of quantity, it seems to be a lot, but it is already stretched to the limit to maintain two aircraft carrier battle groups. In this case, to build two more aircraft carriers, at least 15 destroyers and a large number of auxiliary ships will be needed, and the expenditure will be no less than that of two aircraft carriers. Therefore, my suggestion is to first build auxiliary ships including destroyers. As for the construction of aircraft carriers, we can wait until a few years later. At that time, Nanyang will have more financial resources, and the navy's personnel and equipment can meet the needs."

Although Lin Zhiyuan's analysis made sense, Zou Tongjie said on the side.

"Chief of Staff Lin, we have already discussed the issue of destroyers. We can seek help from the UK and the US. The UK plans to retire several cruisers and destroyers this year, and the US has also sealed a large number of destroyers. 15 destroyers is an easy problem to solve."

Even from the very beginning, Zou Tongjie did not consider the issue of destroyers. After all, the Nanyang Navy had long been accustomed to obtaining destroyers from the United States. After all, they had been getting them for free for so many years, so they didn't need a few more destroyers. It was nothing more than some more negotiations between the two sides.

"Also, I have had a brief communication with the US Navy before. They are willing to provide us with destroyers. After all, the Soviet Union is also expanding its navy. The United States needs to strengthen the maritime power of its allies, especially in the Western Pacific region. We are almost their only ally. Therefore, the US Navy is very happy to see us expand our navy."

In response to the commander's nonchalant answer, Lin Zhiyuan said.

"We can't always rely on foreign second-hand goods to protect our aircraft carriers! And we also need our own destroyers to cooperate with aircraft carriers in combat."

After that, Lin Zhiyuan turned his gaze to you and said:

“At the same time, in terms of protecting sea lines of communication, the biggest threat, apart from the Soviet Navy’s submarine forces, is the various attack aircraft and bombers shot down from shore-based airports.

Under the circumstance of limited economy, using the missile technology that has shown good development prospects to build a first-class air defense destroyer that focuses on air defense can not only protect itself from air strikes, but also protect the safety of the aircraft carrier battle group and enhance the air defense capability of the aircraft carrier battle group. For the Nanyang Navy, it is undoubtedly a good choice. So my suggestion is to build a new type of missile destroyer immediately. "

"Missile destroyer!"

Li Yian was slightly stunned and asked.

“Is the technology mature now?”

"Your Excellency, there are no technical problems. The Navy's technical department has not only tested the new anti-ship missile, but BMW has also completed the design of the gas turbine. I think now is the time to build a new missile destroyer!"

Listening to their conversation and seeing the gentleman's excited look, Zou Tongjie had only one thought in his mind - my aircraft carrier is gone...

It's not gone, it's just flown away temporarily!
(End of this chapter)