Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

"The construction costs for an aircraft carrier of this level must be very high."

"Didn't we say that at the beginning? It's not like we're building it right now." Qin Yang said, "We're just doing technical reserves now, and we'll build it when the country's economy develops in the future and the finances can support it. When our GDP is in the top three in the world, not to mention one ship, ten or eight ships will be easy."

"Yes, in the future, our country's economy will definitely be able to support the construction of the military." The old leader nodded: "Let's do this preparation now."

This can be considered a confirmation that the future development of aircraft carriers will definitely be 60,000-ton displacement ships. However, we didn't specify standard displacement or full-load displacement just now. When it's built, it's normal to find that the displacement reaches 70,000 to 80,000 tons.

When warships sail at sea, they follow the basic Archimedes principle: the weight of the warship is equal to the weight of the water displaced, so there is a method of measuring the weight of warships by displacement.

However, there are many different ways to define displacement, such as empty, standard, normal, and full load.

Empty displacement is very simple: it's the displacement of the warship when it only has a hull and nothing is installed.

Standard displacement refers to the displacement of the warship after personnel and equipment, including various weapons, ammunition, and logistical materials, have been installed, but excluding fuel and boiler water. This displacement cannot be actually measured and is just a theoretical value.

Normal displacement is based on standard displacement, with an additional 50% of fuel and boiler water, and is used during sea trials.

As for full-load displacement, it includes all personnel, materials, fuel, and fresh water on the ship in a fully loaded state, and the displacement when spare boiler water is loaded and the draft reaches the safe freeboard depth.

Generally, warships will be loaded to full-load displacement when sailing long distances at sea, which is also the maximum displacement of the warship in a safe state.

The difference between different displacements is very large. For example, the standard displacement of the Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier is 60,100 tons, but the full-load displacement can exceed 80,000 tons. We can do the same, Liu Lao thought to himself.

"Lao Liu, continue with the introduction," the old leader said.

We've been talking about a displacement indicator for a long time, but an aircraft carrier has more parameters than just that.

"Yes, we plan to use boiler power on it. By improving the performance of our existing warship boilers and installing eight boilers to drive four gas turbines, the aircraft carrier can reach a maximum speed of 30 knots, which is also the standard speed for aircraft carriers."

Since the era of burning boilers began, the power of warships has been standardized at 30 knots. Anything below 30 knots is not a main warship. For aircraft carriers, the speed indicator is not only related to the level of maneuverability, but also to the launch of carrier-based aircraft.

Watching American blockbusters, you can often see the scene of American aircraft carriers operating: headwind, full speed, preparing to launch carrier-based aircraft!

Even if the power of the carrier-based aircraft is strong enough and the catapult is powerful, it still needs the aircraft carrier to provide the best conditions to make the launch of the carrier-based aircraft easier.

Now, our aircraft carrier must of course be designed in this way.

"It seems that our navy is still pragmatic and did not request nuclear power."

If the aircraft carrier does not carry its own fuel and only carries fuel for carrier-based aircraft, it can greatly reduce the number of fuel replenishments. What originally needed to be replenished once a week can be changed to once every half a month.

Therefore, when aircraft carriers develop to the extreme, they will inevitably be nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. They do not need to consume fuel and have almost unlimited endurance.

However, nuclear power is not something that ordinary countries can handle. Only the United States has nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. Although the old Soviets were also working on it, they had already disintegrated before they could develop it, and ultimately remained on paper. The French developed the Charles de Gaulle in the 1990s, which is also a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but it has become the shame of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers because it can only reach 25 knots.

To save trouble, the French directly used the nuclear reactor of a nuclear submarine and were reluctant to put in two more. There are only two K15 nuclear reactors, each with a thermal power output of only 150 megawatts. After driving the steam turbine, the total output is only 76,000 horsepower, which is less power than the previous 30,000-ton Clemenceau class.

Looking at the Americans, the nuclear reactor of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier has a single thermal power output of 550 megawatts, and the high-pressure steam generated ultimately drives the steam turbine, with a total output of 260,000 horsepower, allowing the 100,000-ton monster to speed at 30 knots at sea.

Looking at the East, what suitable nuclear reactors do we have at hand?

The Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant used on land has a power of only 150 megawatts and is huge in size, making it impossible to transplant to an aircraft carrier. The nuclear reactor of the 091 nuclear submarine has a thermal power of only 90 megawatts, and the output power obtained by driving the steam turbine is only 28 megawatts. This amount of power cannot even push a nuclear submarine to a speed of 30 knots, let alone a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

Of course, if the power is not enough, the quantity can make up for it, but stacking a dozen nuclear reactors on a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will greatly increase the complexity of the system and greatly increase the probability of failure.

In general, there are no relevant technical reserves. The navy's desire for a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier can only be an idea. Now, we still have to honestly burn boilers and not have other fantasies.

"In the future? That's right, there will really be opportunities in the future, not to mention aircraft carriers, escort warships can also have them."

Anyway, we're just bragging, let's just have fun.

When nuclear power was first popular, there were indeed nuclear-powered surface warships, and the Americans even planned to build an all-nuclear fleet, but they quickly gave up because it was too expensive and they couldn't afford to equip them.

The old Soviets also had nuclear-powered surface ships, one of the most famous of which was the Kirov-class, a 20,000-ton monster that was a symbol of the old Soviets' peak strength.

However, the era of the old Soviets is coming to an end. The power of surface ships is still mainly gas turbines. Although nuclear power is advanced, it is expensive, and not many countries can afford to equip it. When it is retired in the future, the disposal of the nuclear reactor will be an even bigger problem.