"15,000 tons?" The crown prince was lost in thought. The development of the 80-inch 10,000-ton heavy cruiser was actually a product of the treaty, not a product of normal naval development. The 6-inch artillery light cruiser is the need of the world's top naval powers, because it can be well compatible with anti-destroyers, reconnaissance and colonial cruise missions. Very cost-effective. How did the heavy cruiser come about? This is a targeted product. Some naval powers do not need to consider patrolling colonies and trans-oceanic operations, so they must use tonnage on offense and defense. Ever since, this made the powerful countries targeted express their dissatisfaction.

So, powerful countries with spare capacity began to consider building super cruisers. The American Alaskan super cruiser and Japan's super armored cruiser are the products of this targeted competition. They can fight, resist, and run faster than cruisers! Then paid a very high cost. In fact, the German pocket battleship also has targeted considerations. The same is true for the battlecruisers in the Dutch plan!

The final result was that the United States built two Alaska-class super cruisers, and the Japanese finally gave up the flashy super armor cruiser. The German pocket battleship proved to be mediocre. The Dutch also gave up the battle cruiser. In fact, it is better to build fast battleships when it comes to the super armored cruiser class. Of course, except for countries in special circumstances such as the Netherlands, because their funds are enough to build two battle cruisers. , But certainly not able to build 2 fast battleships...

Therefore, if nothing happens, all countries will find that if the tonnage of cruisers is too wide, then this vicious competition will not benefit everyone. Therefore, the best result is to make a fairly balanced restriction. Let both parties feel that this warship can be accepted by each other, and also will not greatly depreciate their own fleet because of improvements in other countries.

While Hipper relaxed the restrictions slightly on the basis of the historical 80-inch 10,000-ton heavy cruiser, he met these two requirements. The first point is that the 8-inch artillery is indeed sufficient to suppress light cruisers and can satisfy Japan, Britain, and France. And the Italians’ pursuit of combat effectiveness. The second point is to limit the tonnage to less than 15,000 tons, which is also beneficial to Germany and the United States, because they do not have to worry that their cruisers that are too pursuing range and airworthiness will be suppressed by the opponent's warships of the same level, because they are for defense against 8-inch guns. In other words, the displacement of 15,000 tons is relatively rich, so it is possible to balance other performance while taking into account the soft performance! This is the so-called hedge!

As for changing the gun, this kind of thing definitely exists. For example, if you are forbearing, you can choose to equip 6 12-inch guns. However, the number of 6 doors is still small. In fact, most of the main gunboats choose at least 8 main guns as the bottom line, which shows that the efficiency of the 6 main guns is actually relatively low. For example, the Earl Spey’s pocket battleship exposed the artillery distribution during the battle of the British cruisers. If you want to design at a long distance, 6 artillery is almost the lower limit of hypothetical shooting. Even if one artillery fails, the long-distance shooting will be very affected. Therefore, the navies of all countries will consider whether such a change is worth it!

As for the 15,000-ton battleship equipped with more than 8 10-inch guns? Well, that can only say that you think too much... This must sacrifice some performance. After all, the most radical Japanese and Americans are equipped with 10 8-inch guns. And the defense of treaty cruisers is generally problematic. Later generations of Baltimore and his like are also of this tonnage, shouldn't they still use 9 8-inch guns?

Therefore, for some mature naval powers, they will recognize the meaning of this clause, which can satisfy different demands to the greatest extent and also stop vicious competition. Prevent the arms race between the two sides from developing in an unforeseen direction. If Ruprecht attends the Washington meeting in person, he is sure to persuade all parties to keep performance within a reasonable range.

For the German shipbuilding industry, the 15,000-ton heavy cruise hull is also more suitable for production. The 15,000-ton heavy cruiser must be a high-speed hull with a relatively large aspect ratio, about 200 meters in length and 20 meters in width. This length is more suitable for most of the current naval shipping standards of the German Empire. After all, the overall speed of the German fleet is achieved on this plane, so the length of the hull is inevitable. The length of the ship is also more suitable for the warship of this size. Productivity will be better, at least enough slipway.

Maybe someone asked, once the treaty is signed, even the number of heavy cruisers will be relatively limited, right? I am very sure of that. But Ruprecht, who is a traverser, naturally knows some of the uses of the cruiser hull in the second battle of history, for example, to transform it into a light aircraft carrier! In history, the most famous first-class light aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy, the Independence-class aircraft carrier, was modified from a cruiser hull!

In actual combat, when the large US aircraft carriers were not in contact with each other~www.novelhall.com~, the nine independent-class light aircraft carriers that served in succession undoubtedly played an important role in naval battles. However, it is undeniable that independent-class aircraft carriers still have many problems. Generally speaking, they are relatively small in size and have a low number of aircraft, and the released aircraft are mainly fighters. Miscellaneous is enough, but it is still a little difficult to play output.

The Independence-class aircraft carrier was modified from the hull of the Cleveland-class light cruiser, so good, why use Cleveland? The reason is simple. There are too many cruisers of this class. In history, Americans have built 27 Cleveland-class light cruisers, and 9 hulls have been converted to light aircraft carriers...

The performance of the Independence level is sufficient to deal with the historically weak Japanese army, but on this plane, if a large-scale naval battle breaks out between Germany and the United States, the capabilities of the Independence level are obviously not enough. The reason is simple. Everyone is a super heavyweight player. It is estimated that the existence of this plane, such as Midway Island and Montana, will also make a splash in the second battle, right?

In the plan of the crown prince, the hull size of the German heavy cruiser should be 210 meters in length and 25 meters in width to reduce the draft. The aspect ratio of this hull is significantly shorter and thicker than that of historical ships such as Kaohsiung in Japan. For example, the historical Kaohsiung-class heavy cruiser has a length of 203 meters and a width of 19 meters at the beginning and 20.7 meters after modification. Compared with Kaohsiung, the length of the German heavy cruiser is slightly longer and the width is much larger. In this way, it is almost impossible to reach a high speed of 35 knots or more, but the problem of reaching 33 knots is not big.

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