Empire Conquest-Chapter 834 - 87: The Backbone of Air Defense (Part 2)
According to the report submitted by the Empire Navy at the time, it was necessary to build 40 anti-air cruisers within 10 years to replace the retired old anti-air warships. If you include the design and construction time, you have to be prepared to build 40 anti-air cruisers in 4 to 6 years.
Obviously, this is simply impossible!
As a result, the Empire Navy had to modernize a batch of old warships, extending their service time by 10 to 15 years.
The key is still to quickly build new anti-air cruisers.
The lowered requirements for radar systems also meant smaller hulls could be used.
As it was, the Empire Navy could only make do with what they had, and the Ship Design Institute in Puzhou completed the overall design in less than 6 months.
Because the cost was extremely low, one might even say cheap, the plan was immediately approved by both houses of deliberation.
This is the "Qingzhou" class, the world’s first cruiser equipped with phased array radar, and also the most-built cruiser by the Empire Navy after the war.
To speak truthfully, the "Qingzhou" class was also the smallest displacement anti-air cruiser built by the Empire Navy after the war.
Its full-load displacement was only a mere 11,600 tons, not matching a Heavy Cruiser, let alone those Large Cruisers from the global war period.
In order to have a larger deck area to install more High-altitude Guns or Air Defense Missiles, to provide sufficient cover for carriers, the post-war anti-air cruisers of the Empire Navy never restricted or controlled tonnage, with full-load displacements all exceeding 20,000 tons.
Even those categorized as Destroyer Leaders during design, later upgraded to cruisers, were 15,000 tons.
The 11,600-ton figure simply couldn’t compare.
Quite simply, the "Qingzhou" class was originally just a backup for the Navy.
In fact, after construction commenced, the Empire Navy never regarded the "Qingzhou" class as the main force.
Given the situation at the time, the Empire Navy still hoped to be able to construct more powerful anti-air cruisers once the technology of the active phased array radar matured.
The key was that in designing the "Qingzhou" class, everything was essentially simplified.
For example, the originally collaboratively developed X-band active phased array radar for target illumination was cancelled due to insufficient funds and immature technology. Since the passive phased array radar couldn’t perform fire control illumination, the "Qingzhou" class could only be equipped with four X-band illumination radars. This resulted in being able to control only 16 missiles to intercept 8 targets simultaneously, even with time-sharing illumination guidance technology.
This number actually isn’t many.
According to the Empire Navy’s organization, a carrier battle group would have at most only two anti-air cruisers, tasked with almost all long-range air defense missions. Therefore, assuming 30 anti-ship missiles are encountered, a cruiser would need to be able to intercept at least 15 targets simultaneously.
The previously designed anti-air cruisers of the Empire Navy had 16 fire control channels, but the "Qingzhou" class had only half of that.
Moreover, the "Qingzhou" class was equipped with DK-8 "Zhuri" medium-range air defense missiles with a range of only 120 kilometers, rather than the XDK-9 with a range of 200 kilometers. Limited by the hull size, the "Qingzhou" class only installed one twin-launch system on each of the fore and aft decks, capable of launching only four missiles at a time. Although its reload time was only 15 seconds, the firepower density was evidently insufficient.
With only two launchers, only four illumination radars were set up.
During design, in order to reduce the displacement by 100 tons, even the anti-ship missile launchers were omitted. If it weren’t for certain senior generals firmly opposing and having the design institute revise the plan in time before construction to install two anti-ship missile launchers platforms at the stern, the "Qingzhou" class might have become the first, even globally, cruiser incapable of sea control operations.
However, this was not entirely unreasonable.
The sacrifice of anti-ship missiles was essentially to maintain more crucial anti-submarine warfare capabilities.
For the Empire Navy’s warships, sea control operations had never been the primary task.
Don’t forget, the Empire Navy had the world’s most powerful shipborne air force, with hundreds of shipborne attack aircraft and hundreds of shipborne fighters capable of strike missions, so even if there was a sea control mission against the enemy fleet, it would never be the turn of escort battleships.
During the second global war, the Empire Navy rarely deployed warships for sea combat missions.
If allowed, Fleet Commanders would first consider deploying shipborne air forces to eliminate enemy warships with bombs and torpedoes, now with air-launched anti-ship missiles.
Escort battleships had only two duties: air defense and anti-submarine warfare.
If one must say, the latter was more important.
Before the advent of anti-ship missiles, especially heavy supersonic anti-ship missiles, the Empire Navy’s air defense threat was actually not severe.
Relying on the numerous shipborne fighters, it could deal with those attack aircraft carrying iron-shell bombs.
In contrast, the threat from below the surface had never diminished.
According to statistics by the Empire Navy, nearly half of the carriers lost in the last war were sunk by submarines, more than those bombed by aircraft!
Even though the Empire Navy had the world’s largest underwater fleet and the best-performing large attack submarines, the pressure of anti-submarine warfare had never lessened. Therefore, the Empire Navy had an unwritten rule that every blue-water warship must have complete anti-submarine warfare capabilities.
Not just Anti-submarine Guard Ships, but also Anti-Air Cruisers.
The Empire Navy’s General-purpose Destroyers were almost all genuinely anti-submarine destroyers, with actually only a few true Air Defense Destroyers.
Thus, if a choice had to be made, it would certainly be the sea control combat capability that would be sacrificed.
In summary, the Empire Navy, having no other option, put the "Qingzhou" class, originally a backup, in the spotlight.
Fortunately, the pace of technological progress far exceeded everyone’s expectations.
Before the first batch of eight ships was completed, a vertical launch system capable of greatly increasing missile launch speed emerged, rendering firepower density no longer an issue.
Starting from the ninth ship, the "Qingzhou" class used two sets of 128-unit vertical launch systems, arranged fore and aft of the superstructure, to replace the two missile launchers fore and aft and later even removed the anti-ship missile launchers. As for the first eight ships, they underwent improvements during mid-life overhauls.
Subsequently, a mid-course radio command guidance system was also developed, allowing the number of missiles guided in one instance to increase to 32, without adding illumination radars, roughly meeting the Navy’s tactical requirement of intercepting 16 targets simultaneously.
Of course, the DK-8 "Zhuri" also increased its range by adopting a larger booster.
The latest DK-8D has a maximum range exceeding 200 kilometers.
Additionally, the Navy is developing a high-speed data link.
Theoretically, in the future, a Shipborne Early Warning Aircraft like the "Zhi-6C" can control and guide the air defense missiles launched by warships to intercept targets beyond visual range.
This way, the restriction of illumination radar can be overcome, continuing to extend the range of air defense missiles.
Moreover, managed and directed by shipborne early warning aircraft, air defense missiles can intercept targets below the sea horizon, no longer affected by Earth’s surface curvature.
In summary, thanks to technological advances, the combat power of the "Qingzhou" class has been greatly enhanced.
Because it can provide sufficient and effective air defense cover for carriers, and its anti-submarine warfare capabilities are also very strong, the issue of insufficient tonnage has long been left behind by the Navy.
However, the lack of tonnage limited the potential for improvements in the "Qingzhou" class and lowered the living standards of the crew.
But, these were all bearable, after all, the "Qingzhou" class was sufficiently cheap.
So far, the Empire Navy has ordered 42 "Qingzhou" class ships in three batches, of which 34 have been delivered and are in service, 26 are assigned to carrier battle groups, eight are undergoing pre-service seaworthiness tests, and eight are under construction. Additionally, the Empire Navy is very likely to increase the number ordered.
According to the shipbuilding plan formulated last year, the total number of anti-air cruisers should reach 86, excluding the 22-old-fashioned cruisers that haven’t reached their retirement age. All the others, 64 in total, are the "Qingzhou" class, so even if a war doesn’t break out, at least 22 more of such cruisers need to be ordered.
Of course, it was the radar that gave birth to the "Qingzhou" class.
In the past, it was also the radar that limited the construction scale of the "Qingzhou" class.
Fortunately, after achieving scale effects, not only were the costs of the hull reduced, but the procurement price of the radar also took a significant drop.
The key remains that the demand for air defense is endless.
As such, the Empire Navy had to seriously consider using phased array radar on more warships to enhance the fleet’s comprehensive air defense combat capability!
