Chapter 279: Fleet 2.0
On the Xianyang, in the not-so-spacious mess hall, high-level players of various professions from other ships were packed in.
Joy and pride of victory beamed on everyone’s faces.
Surrounded by good employees, Lu Yuan took his seat at the head of the dining table.
“Alright, everyone, let’s talk. Everyone is free to express their opinions.”
Prairie stood up.
“Let me start then! After practical testing, the actual role of space fighters is much greater than we initially imagined. Although their usable speed increment is not much greater than that of warships, they excel in easier penetration and greater flexibility! Of course,
this is also inseparable from the superb skills of our pilots.”
The pilot players all proudly raised their chins.
Their talent and efforts were affirmed, maximizing their emotional value.
“In this battle, the enemy’s fighter numbers far exceeded ours, or to put it another way, we realized our own fighter numbers were severely insufficient, which caused a lot of trouble for fleet air defense. According to post-battle data statistics, over 60% of our warships were damaged, directly or indirectly related to enemy aircraft groups.
“So, I think, should we consider building a dedicated carrier, deploying one to two per fleet operation, with each carrying about 100 carrier-based aircraft?”
Lu Yuan looked at a pad on the dining table.
It displayed Moto, the master shipbuilder at Li Star Shipyard, who was attending the meeting remotely.
“No problem. And frankly speaking, purely from the perspective of hull structure design, a space carrier actually doesn’t have much technical content; it just needs a large enough hangar, and then an engine to push it along. If no other weapons are installed on it, its energy requirements, and the corresponding power cabin volume, would even be smaller than a frigate’s.”
“Based on the standard of carrying 100 heavy carrier-based aircraft, how large would the hangar need to be?” Black Smoke asked.
“It would need a space about 450 meters long, 25 meters high, and 100 meters wide,” Moto replied.
“And this is calculated based on two rows of carrier-based aircraft placed vertically in a zero-gravity environment. Unless the top row is securely fastened to the ceiling, such a design would not be suitable for entering a planetary atmosphere; the hangar would be a complete mess.”
“Space carriers don’t need to enter the atmosphere, and future large warships can also remove the ground take-off and landing function.”
Lu Yuan said.
“Otherwise, as the volume and weight of warships increase, the size of warship landing gear will skyrocket, ultimately forming a large amount of dead weight, severely affecting flight performance.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Currently, Cangyuan’s two classes of frigates were equipped with four skid-shaped landing gear, primarily made of carbon fiber and titanium alloy.
Although Engineers tried their best to reduce weight, including the retraction mechanism, the total weight of the entire landing gear system still exceeded 600
tons, and occupied a considerable volume.
Lu Yuan looked at the pilot players.
“Do you have anything else to add?”
Loulan stood up.
“I think our current aircraft have sufficient survivability and firepower, but the type is too singular!
“Take the owl heavy fighter, for example. Its most effective anti-ship weapon is the large Warp missile in its main bomb bay, but it can only carry three at a time, which is too few! I think we can specifically develop a torpedo bomber.”
“No big problem, and it’s indeed very necessary.”
Jubian immediately expressed his support.
“I can appropriately enlarge the airframe based on the owl, increasing the length to 40 meters, while reducing the number and specifications of the laser cannons. This would easily increase the bomb load to 8 units. Of course, enlarging the airframe will definitely lead to some loss of maneuverability.”
“And the source of Warp Zero Element will be a big problem.”
Lu Yuan reminded.
“If Warp fighters and their corresponding Warp missiles are equipped on a scale of hundreds or thousands, the production of zero element biological extracts on Emerald Star will probably not keep up. By then, we’ll either have to import large quantities, or find other solutions.”
“We can make the Jialan pay war reparations!” someone suggested.
“As the second largest zero element producer in the Star Alliance, they must have a large inventory of Warp Zero Element!”
“That’s certainly a method, but the prerequisite is that we must thoroughly subdue Galan.”
Lu Yuan smiled slightly.
He had been eyeing this fat piece of meat for more than a day or two; who told them to fire first!
“Okay, we’ll talk about this topic later. Let’s first discuss the carrier issue. Based on a configuration where a quarter of the 100 carrier-based aircraft are torpedo bombers, how long would the hangar need to be?”
“500 meters.” Moto immediately replied.
Finally, after discussion, the length of Cangyuan’s first class of light carrier was set at around 700 meters, a width of 120 meters, a maximum height of about 55 meters, and a total mass of about 600,000 tons, with a volume equivalent to 10 times that of a heavy carrier in reality.
When these parameters were revealed, everyone was startled and immediately felt the inadequacy of current production capacity.
The light carrier required 50 times the material of a “Qinling” class frigate. Even if entirely printed by giant 3D printers, it would take at least 150 to 200 days to complete.
“We can first duplicate several sets of 3D printers and print from multiple directions simultaneously.”
A player suggested.
“Yes! For example, four sets working simultaneously, two sets starting from the middle of the hull and printing forwards and backwards at the same time; the other two sets printing from the front and back towards the middle!”
This suggestion received unanimous approval, but even so, the production cycle would still be one to two months long.
“Let’s optimize the production process further,” Lu Yuan said, “I don’t think full 3D printing is necessarily the fastest. Are there any other ship types that need to be added?”
“Yes!” Black Smoke stood up to speak.
“Our landing combat capability has also exposed deficiencies. Marines still need to hang in fighter bomb bays to land, which is too unprofessional!
“Therefore, I suggest building an additional class of amphibious assault ship, with hangars carrying transport craft, gunboats, armored aerospace planes for ground assault, and pods for individual Soldiers to penetrate the atmosphere!”
Orbital insertion, Helljumpers!
This combat style, full of violent aesthetics, immediately piqued the interest of the Soldier players.
“Can this function be combined with the carrier?” Ye Xing suddenly wondered. “No, that’s not appropriate!” Jubian waved his hand.
“Why?”
“Carriers need to maintain distance and hide behind the fleet, while amphibious assault ships need to operate in low Earth orbit. The battle positions and requirements for armor protection are completely different, like in World War II.”
Lu Yuan nodded silently; Jubian was right.
However, Ye Xing’s words also made sense.
If the carrier was only used as a flight hangar, it seemed that it didn’t need to have the currently estimated design mass and volume.
Players calculated the size of the space carrier based on its proportion to real-world naval carriers, but in reality, a space carrier does not need to carry as many personnel, nor does it require numerous watertight compartments, nor does it need to maintain a hull shape suitable for sea navigation.
This meant that the current design parameters had a lot of leeway; either reduce the production capacity required for the carrier, or pack more things into the hull.
“The amphibious landing ship still needs to be built as a separate class. Besides that, have any other combat issues been exposed?” He looked up at the players.
“That would mainly be logistical issues,” Ma Lou, who was attending remotely, said.
“Our fleet’s repair and resupply capabilities are severely insufficient, limiting long-term combat ability, and damaged warships cannot be repaired in a timely manner.
“Furthermore, although we have cleared Dark Sun and landed on Ruins Star, because we didn’t bring our production capacity with us, we cannot immediately begin constructing ground camps, nor can we quickly customize a large number of suitable exploration vehicles based on the planet’s terrain.”
Players began to whisper.
This was indeed the most frustrating point at the moment. Not to mention the damaged warships themselves, even the food and ammunition in the fleet were rapidly depleting.
Two of the four small 3D printers carried on the two “Wuyi” class frigates were damaged in battle. The remaining two were all transferred to the ground to produce cryo-pods for the teleportation points of “scarce talents,” with a pitiful output of only four per day, leaving no time to produce other materials.
At the current rate of material consumption, many people would have to return to their cryo-pods with regret before support arrived from home, temporarily bidding farewell to the exploration-inviting surface of Ruins Star.
This was too disappointing!
“Then let’s start the design of two more auxiliary ship types.”
Lu Yuan made the decision after careful consideration.
“One is a space supply ship that can unfold into a dry dock. As for the other, I think we can refer to the Cangyuan industrial ship,
appropriately reduce its size, and design it as a base ship to support ground construction.”
“No problem!”
Black Smoke immediately thumped his chest in assurance.
“The Engineer Guild is now full of talent, and we can completely undertake the design of these four types simultaneously.”
“Hmm, then let’s start as soon as possible!” Lu Yuan stood up, “Meeting adjourned!”