Empire Conquest-Chapter 835 - 88: Ambitious Aspirations

The means of confrontation in war have always been evolving and advancing; no weapon can dominate the war stage for long.

On the battlefield, offense and defense have always alternated in taking the lead.

For decades, this is the situation that the Empire Navy has been facing.

Before the development of the "Golden Bell Shield" system, which is a ship-borne air defense system centered on a passive phased array radar, the greatest threat faced by the Empire Navy was the saturation attack constituted by 30 heavy anti-ship missiles fired within approximately 10 minutes.

Based on this standard, the Empire Navy determined the basic performance of the anti-air cruiser and thereby established the technical parameters of the "Golden Bell Shield" system.

At that time, it was assumed that in low-threat waters, only one anti-air cruiser needs to be equipped with the carrier battle group, while in high-risk waters, 2 should be equipped.

Theoretically, 2 "Qingzhou"-class can cope with the highest level of saturation attack.

Therefore, the Empire Navy determined a procurement quantity of 64 ships.

Each of the 15 carrier battle groups is equipped with 2 ships, and each of the 15 amphibious assault groups is equipped with 2 ships, with the remaining 4 serving as sub-fleet flagships.

Since the cruising rate of cruisers exceeds that of carriers and amphibious assault ships, at any time, about 8 cruisers are in a state of operational readiness. If necessary, these 8 cruisers can be reinforced to tactical formations without carriers and amphibious assault ships.

Additionally, it is precisely because they need to serve as sub-fleet flagships or command tactical formations in battle that the "Qingzhou"-class retained the flagship function.

Although thanks to the prevalence of electronic equipment, adding a flagship command system did not significantly increase the cost, the tactical command center disproportionate to the tonnage took up a lot of internal space, also causing the center of gravity to rise, occupying the limited redundant displacement.

The result of this is that the "Qingzhou"-class has almost no room for improvement.

In fact, this is a key reason for later dismantling the anti-ship missile launch devices and abandoning the sea control combat capability.

Under the circumstances at that time, 64 "Qingzhou"-class were more than sufficient.

Clearly, this was just wishful thinking.

To say the least, the most prominent impact of the "Qingzhou"-class was that it stimulated the enemy, causing the West Continent Group to start developing more advanced anti-ship missiles, and more powerful missile launch platforms, and increasing the strike intensity by increasing the number of missiles launched in one go.

According to reliable intelligence provided by the Military Intelligence Bureau, the West Continent Group already has the capability to deliver 60 to 80 heavy anti-ship missiles with a range of over 500 kilometers in an attack wave lasting 5 minutes, and it’s very likely to launch strikes from multiple directions simultaneously. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

The result is that the "Golden Bell Shield" air defense system, painstakingly crafted by the Empire Navy, nearly became a facade.

Even with 2 "Qingzhou"-class, they would undoubtedly be helpless when facing 60 to 80 heavy anti-ship missiles fired simultaneously from multiple directions.

In fact, even 2 upgraded "Qingzhou"-class cannot guarantee to shoot down 32 targets with 100% certainty.

Calculating with an 80% probability, 2 "Qingzhou"-class can intercept up to 26 targets, leaving dozens of anti-ship missiles enough to wipe out the entire carrier battle group.

Should a few more anti-air cruisers be added within the carrier battle group?

This idea is great, but the implementation difficulty is very high.

Counting the amphibious assault fleets of equivalent status, it means adding 30 to 60 anti-air cruisers. Even though cruisers have a higher cruising rate, 20 to 40 more would still need to be added. Although the "Qingzhou"-class is a "low-spec" standby, installing the vertical launch system afterward does not come cheaply.

Compared to destroyers and escort ships, it’s far from being considered cheap.

By increasing the number of anti-air warships to enhance air defense capabilities, the cost-effectiveness ratio is simply unacceptable.

To put it bluntly, the enemy only needs to increase the number of anti-ship missiles in one launch to force the Empire Navy to build more anti-air cruisers. From the cost-effectiveness perspective alone, the Empire Navy has already lost, so increasing the number of anti-air cruisers only solves an urgent need.

Enhancing the combat effectiveness of a single warship?

This method seems good, but the implementation difficulty is extremely huge.

From a technical perspective, the key still lies in improving radar performance, such as replacing passive phased array radar with active phased array radar.

Even now, active phased array radar has not matured; electronic equipment is difficult to miniaturize, leading to an excessively large system mass.

According to the Empire Navy’s plan, achieving breakthroughs with active phased array radar in 10 years is already quite impressive.

If passive phased array radar is still used, there is little substantive improvement in the combat capabilities of the anti-air cruiser.

Of course, the Empire Navy is also looking for solutions in other aspects.

As a secondary option, improving the performance of air defense missiles can also enhance the operational efficiency of the air defense system.

For instance, using the KK-12A’s active guidance head to improve the DK-8, enabling the shipborne long-range air defense missile to have terminal self-guidance capability, no longer needing the warship to provide guidance with illumination radar, enhancing terminal interception efficiency, and no longer being limited by fire control channels.

Furthermore, the Empire Navy is also working on the information field.

Simply put, it involves integrating the anti-air cruiser with shipborne early warning aircraft, using high-speed data links to allow the early warning aircraft to guide air defense missiles to intercept incoming targets. If the radar performance of the early warning aircraft can be improved, such as letting the early warning aircraft illuminate the target, it could even bypass the anti-air cruiser, with the early warning aircraft controlling the air defense missiles launched by the battleship to engage, especially against low-altitude flying anti-ship missiles.