Empire Conquest-Chapter 837 - 89: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Last night, Li Shenzhi convened all senior officers for a meeting, emphasizing one key point: the enemy will seek opportunities and launch an all-out strike.
To garner attention, Li Shenzhi also had a special agent from the Military Intelligence Bureau give a presentation.
Here, it concerns the overall strategy of the West Continent Group.
The West Continent Group has always had three main strategic directions. Namely, the North Sunset Ocean battlefield led by the Tiaoman Empire with assistance from the Bulan Kingdom; the continental battlefield with West Luosha as the absolute main force and support from other allies; and the Land Heart Sea battlefield co-led by the Raleigh Kingdom, Locke Kingdom, and Sban Kingdom.
Among these three strategic directions, only the Land Heart Sea is not directly related to the Tiaoman Empire.
It’s not that the Tiaoman Empire doesn’t want to interfere in the Land Heart Sea, it simply lacks the capability.
With a population just over 100 million, the Tiaoman Empire has to suppress West Luosha to the east with 80 million people, control the Bulan Kingdom to the west with 50 million people, keep watch on the Locke Kingdom with over 50 million people, and several small countries with populations between 10 to 20 million, which is almost at its limit.
Although the Tiaoman Empire has the most powerful navy of the West Continent Group, its main force consists of three large carriers and about 100 large ships and hundreds of combat aircraft, ranking third globally in total fleet tonnage; relative to the tasks it undertakes, this military strength is still far from sufficient.
Otherwise, the Tiaoman Empire wouldn’t have loosened restrictions on the Bulan Kingdom, effectively permitting the Bulan Kingdom to rebuild its navy.
Currently, the Bulan Kingdom possesses the fourth-largest fleet globally, with three small carriers and nearly a hundred large warships capable of operating in the deep sea.
However, the problem is that the operational missions of the West Continent Group in the North Atlantic are too demanding.
Even just protecting maritime routes requires almost all the naval forces of the Tiaoman Navy and Bulan Navy.
For decades, the paramount task of the Bulan Royal Navy has been anti-submarine and escort missions, and all the small carriers they have constructed are genuinely escort aircraft carriers.
The three active "Invincible" class carriers are also anti-submarine escort carriers, and their ship-borne aircraft are mainly anti-submarine helicopters.
In fact, the Bulan Royal Navy has always been striving for large carriers.
When initially collaborating with the Empire, the Bulan Royal Navy managed to acquire some techniques for building large carriers, gaining assistance from the Empire. But influenced by the Boi War and limited by the identity of a defeated nation, during a ten-plus-year honeymoon period, the Bulan Royal Navy did not construct large carriers. Later, the Bulan Royal Navy turned its sights towards the Newland Republic across the Sunset Ocean.
After relentless efforts, the Bulan Royal Navy initiated a design and construction plan for large carriers three years ago, intending to spend over a decade building three, at least two large carriers, to replace the three "Invincible" class carriers expected to retire after 30 years of service due to aging hulls.
The key also lies in, within the overall strategy of the West Continent Group, implementing a defensive strategy in the North Sunset Ocean.
Simply put, rely on the six carriers of the Tiaoman Navy and Bulan Royal Navy to seize and maintain sea control in the North Sunset Ocean, keeping the Liangxia Navy out of the North Sunset Ocean, then use ships and aircraft to protect the maritime routes connecting the West Continent and Beigu Continent.
It is evident, even with six carriers, they are primarily for anti-submarine duties.
As for deploying carriers for strike missions, it’s clearly not within the scope of consideration.
Moreover, neither the Tiaoman Navy nor the Bulan Royal Navy considered dispatching fleets to operate in the Land Heart Sea.
On the side of the Land Heart Sea, the West Continent Group also focuses on defense, but more actively, and can be said to achieve defense through proactive offensives.
Essentially, it’s about blockading the Land Heart Sea.
Post-war, the Raleigh Kingdom and Sban Kingdom placed more emphasis on carriers, leveraging their ally status to acquire several small carriers from the Liangxia Empire, which then were modified to become the absolute main force of their own navies. The Locke Kingdom even crafted a fleet with two carriers, which isn’t too bad.
However, this situation didn’t last long.
From a military standpoint, after the jet age commenced, the operational reach and strike capability of shipborne air force and shore-based air force increased severalfold. The result was the originally not-too-narrow Land Heart Sea, barely allowing carriers to operate, suddenly became very crowded.
Of course, there’s also the economic aspect: after completing reconstruction, the economies of the Raleigh Kingdom, Sban Kingdom, and Locke Kingdom did not swiftly develop. When it came time to update their fleets, they realized they had lost the capability to independently build large carriers or even large ships.
The result was the Raleigh Kingdom and Sban Kingdom regressed to each owning only one small anti-submarine carrier.
If saying so, these two "victorious countries" aren’t even as capable as the "defeated nation," the Locke Kingdom.
To consolidate its status in the West Continent Group and strengthen its say, the Locke Kingdom weathered the pressure, spending a great deal of funds and resources, to craft two medium carriers with a displacement of about 40,000 tons, thereby possessing the West Continent Group’s only fixed-wing conventional takeoff and landing shipborne air force outside of the Tiaoman Navy.
In the Land Heart Sea, this is not a major issue.
North of the Land Heart Sea lies the West Continent, and besides the eastern Xifan Canal, the southern North Xuan area is entirely under the West Continent Group’s control, with several countries occupying key positions, having a relatively developed social economy, and still members of the West Continent Group.
In other words, in the surrounding areas of the Land Heart Sea, there are enough places to deploy shore-based air force.
