Empire Conquest-Chapter 934 - 136: Returning to Fundamentals

From the perspective of the Imperial Navy, the main focus of the third round of military reform can be described with a single idiom.

Back to basics.

As mentioned earlier, after the end of the Global War, the Imperial Navy, having defeated all its opponents, was once lost in the glory of dominating the world. It wasn’t until they suffered setbacks in the Boi War that the Imperial Navy undertook the heavy responsibility of "covering the retreat" and had to move against the tide.

For decades, the Imperial Navy had been going in circles.

The most typical example was the tactical system centered around aircraft carriers.

According to Zhou Yongtao, changing the carrier battle group into a carrier strike group was not progress, but regression, a misunderstanding of the Navy’s value.

The key question is: what is an aircraft carrier?

Undoubtedly, from the day it was born, the aircraft carrier was not an isolated existence but a core part of a complete maritime combat system.

This is also the primary difference between an aircraft carrier and a battleship.

Even before the birth of the aircraft carrier, that is, in the era when battleships dominated the seas, the Navy also operated through a system, with battleships merely being the backbone striking force. However, in fleet battles, battleships were the absolute core, and other ships did not possess decisive value.

To put it bluntly, in one-on-one combat, battleships were absolutely invincible.

Obviously, aircraft carriers don’t have such an advantage.

In the era of aircraft carriers, they are merely platforms for carrying and operating shipborne air force. Even if shipborne air force is considered part of the aircraft carrier, the carrier is simply a force bearer within the fleet, primarily responsible for firepower projection, and its capabilities in defense and other areas are not prominent.

It is evident that after the birth of aircraft carriers, the Navy truly entered the era of systemic combat.

A fleet with aircraft carriers as the core must have the capacity to dominate the seas, possessing destructive strike power against all potential adversaries.

Simply put, a carrier fleet must have comprehensive operational capabilities, not only capable of sea and air control but also anti-submarine warfare, land strikes, and long-range power projection.

Based on this theory, the Imperial Navy built an almost all-powerful carrier battle group.

And it was relying on the carrier battle group that the Imperial Navy defeated all its opponents in the Second Global War, becoming the world’s sole navy.

The carrier battle group of that era was truly a versatile force at sea.

As it was said at the time: there is no enemy that a carrier battle group cannot eliminate, but if there is one, just send more carrier battle groups.

However, an issue had been mentioned earlier.

In the cross-era development, to maintain relatively strong operational capabilities, the size of the carrier battle group grew larger and its operational efficiency declined.

For any system, efficiency is always inversely proportional to the number of basic units.

But the problem with changing a carrier battle group into a carrier strike group is that it’s only avoiding the issue, not solving it.

During the second round of reforms, it was essentially about breaking up the carrier battle group into several combat formations, with the carrier strike group being the largest. Apart from the carrier strike group, there were also anti-submarine formations centered around anti-submarine carriers and landing fleets led by amphibious assault ships.

The result was that the Navy’s combat system did not become more streamlined, and it weakened the value of aircraft carriers in the Navy’s tactical system.

Which led to the rise of the "Carrier Useless Theory."

In the years when the "Carrier Useless Theory" was rampant, the Imperial Navy even organized personnel to discuss whether to continue building large carriers. The military armament committee of the Imperial Senate and House of Representatives even allocated funds to commission designers to come up with designs for medium and small-sized carriers. If the Imperial Navy had not firmly opposed it, and figures like Bai Zhizhan and Li Mingbo were still around, those dignitaries in the Senate and House might have forced the Navy to build medium to small-sized carriers of 40,000 tons, or even 20,000 tons, after the first batch of "Chen Bingxun" class ships were completed.

Subsequently, the "tonnage incident," which led to the resignation of the Director of the Military Intelligence Bureau and the early retirement of several Navy generals, was also related to the "Carrier Useless Theory."

Clearly, the value of aircraft carriers in the Navy’s system needed to be reshaped.

Before Zhou Yongtao took over the Prime Minister Mansion, many generals of the Imperial Navy had been striving for this.

In fact, the leader was Zhou Yongtao himself.

As the most outstanding Commander of the Imperial Navy after Bai Zhizhan, Zhou Yongtao’s understanding of aircraft carriers even surpassed Bai Zhizhan.

Don’t forget, Bai Zhizhan was a Commander who emerged from the era of battleships, while Zhou Yongtao had spent decades in front-line service on aircraft carriers.

Before becoming the Grand Secretary, Zhou Yongtao focused on the shipborne air force.

Under his promotion, the "War-9" project progressed smoothly, and there was the "War-12" project, along with the "Xun-4" ship-borne anti-submarine patrol aircraft and the "Zhi-11" shipborne early warning aircraft based on the new shipborne transport aircraft, as well as the "Attack-X" project led by the Navy after mutual compromise.

However, before these projects could bear fruit, Zhou Yongtao moved into the Prime Minister Mansion.

In the main shipborne aircraft projects of the Navy Air Force, the "Zhi-11," which was highly anticipated and based on the "Yun-7" twin-engine shipborne transport aircraft, has not been completed, not even a prototype has been made. In New Calendar year 145, five years ago, the project was indefinitely shelved, with the alternative being to install the radar system developed for it onto the "Zhi-6" to develop a more affordable shipborne early warning aircraft.