My Italian: Chapter 557 Roman class battleship

"Please look, Your Majesty, this is the new battleship plan selected by our Admiralty."

In Carlo's office, Admiral Yagier, who is the Minister of the Navy, is leading the designer Kuni Berti to introduce the new warship selected by the Navy to the king.

As the two attendants hung up the design drawings, Kuniberti, who had already met the king several times, made a slight gesture to him and then spoke.

"Your Majesty, what I'm going to talk about now is the Navy's new warship with a 380mm main gun. The ship was designed by me, so I know the design performance of the ship best, and I will be responsible for the description next."

Carlo knew a little bit about the navy's bidding work for the new battleship. During the bidding work for the new battleship, ship designers from all sides came up with their own design drawings. And it is very surprising that most of the designers come up with new warships equipped with 380mm main guns, and very few designers use 350mm main guns, because although they did not say it clearly, the hint is obvious enough. If you don't understand, you deserve to be eliminated in the first round.

However, it is not the only way to choose the design drawings of the 380mm main gun to pass the test. Some people are very avant-garde and choose the design drawings of the battleship with the 410mm main gun. Although this unconventional design passed the first round, it was directly rejected in the second round.

The reason is simple. This warship equipped with a 410mm main gun has a standard displacement of more than 33,000 tons and a full load of 37,000 tons. The cost of its construction was too high to meet the needs of the Italian Navy at all. Besides, the pre-research work on the 410mm main gun has just begun, and it will be impossible to wait for its design in five or six years. Could it be possible for the Navy to urgently develop a 410mm main gun specifically for this warship? The cost of this is too high.

After several intense discussions, the new warship still designed by Kuniberti finally won. Because compared with others, the warships designed by Kuniberti can always surprise the navy with performance, and can also give its not-so-outrageous cost.

"Your Majesty, the battleship you are seeing so far is exactly the Roman-class battleship I designed."

Kuniberti's words brought Carroll back to reality, looking at the blueprint in front of him, he heard his design concept.

"The design concept of this ship, I adopt the idea of ​​a fast battleship, and try to make its speed reach or catch up with the pace of the battle cruiser when it has enough firepower and protection. At present, this concept has been initially obtained on the Roman class. reflect."

After talking about his ideas, Kuniberti then talked about the data of the battleship. "According to the concept of high-speed battleships, the Roman-class battleships are longer than previous battleships, with a total length of 198 meters, a width of 29.4 meters, a standard draft of 8.37 meters, and a maximum draft of 10.1 meters.

Equipped with eight 380mm main guns, the twin mounts adopt a high-low backpack design with two fronts and two rears. The secondary guns use 16 single-mounted 150mm l50 times naval guns, and 14 single-mounted 105mm naval guns. In terms of firepower, it is already strong enough.

In addition, this class of battleship is also equipped with 24 Navy Type III oil-fired boilers, 4 Navy Type IV steam turbines, and 4 shafts, providing a strong power of up to 80,000 horsepower. Enough to propel the ship to a high speed of 25.5 knots. In addition, the ship can carry 800 tons of fuel oil and 200 tons of coal. The estimated endurance is 13 knots at 8,000 nautical miles and 21 knots at 3,900 nautical miles. "

Hearing this, Carlo was surprised by this. He is not someone who does not understand naval ships, and he also knows this speed, which is enough to be called a battle cruiser. And a battleship can reach such a speed, it will surely surprise people when it appears in front of the enemy.

Regarding Carlo's surprised expression, Admiral Yagiel seemed to see himself before, and he also had this expression at the time.

Although Kuniberti saw the king's surprised expression, it did not prevent him from continuing.

"For the Roman-class battleship, protection is also the top priority. For a battleship as large as the Roman-class, if a full-protection design is adopted, there will be two situations. One is that although they are all equipped with armor, who Neither can be defended. The other is that the armor protection is sufficient, but the speed and adaptability are reduced beyond the design, and the cost exceeds the standard.”

What Kuniberti said is also the current situation faced by designers all over the world. As warships are getting bigger and bigger, comprehensive protection has become somewhat inadequate, and far-sighted designers have considered the concept of key protection. As a top ship designer, Kuniberti considered it earlier than others, and had tried it on Battle Cruise before.

"So I also adopted the principle of focused protection this time, mainly equipping thicker armor on the core parts that are vulnerable to enemy attacks. First of all, on the most important main armor belt, the thickest midship part can reach 350mm, and then Gradually reduced to 152 mm on both sides. The frontal armor of the turret also reached 350 mm, the side is 300 mm, and the top is 120 mm. The armor of the gun base is 200-320 mm for the upper part and 120-150 mm for the lower part. The deck armor is 65-120 mm mm, the armor of the waterproof compartment is 102-152 mm, and the armor of the conning tower is 320 mm thick. The total weight of the armor is expected to be about 12,000 tons."

Having said that, Kuniberty paused for a while, because he will report the cost soon, so he needs to give everyone a little buffer time.

"The design standard displacement of the Roman class is 30,450 tons, and the full-load displacement is 35,000 tons. Its construction cost is estimated to be 61 million lire."

Hearing this, Admiral Yagil watched the king's expression nervously and carefully.

Although Carlo saw the small actions of the admiral, he didn't pay too much attention to them. Because he was also shocked by its high cost. To build four Roman-class battleships, 244 million lire is needed, which is really a bit high. However, he also gained the same mentality as Admiral Yagier. The performance is so good that the price can be accepted slowly.

Kuniberti, who is a designer, didn't know about Carlo's idea, so he opened his mouth to defend. "Your Majesty, there is also a reason for the high displacement. First of all, the estimated weight of the hull structure is more than 8,900 tons, and the weight required for the armor is about 12,000 tons. In addition, the weapons and equipment are about 3,800 tons, and the power equipment is about 3,100 tons. Then 1,000 tons are reserved for onboard facilities, 650 tons for supplies, and 1,000 tons for boiler feed water, and this is the standard displacement.”

Well, Viscount Cuniberty's professional explanation made Carlo suddenly smile. He felt that since he had decided to build it, he should be bold. The performance of this class of warships is absolutely outstanding in this era. Then there is nothing to hesitate, the big deal is that no more funds will be allocated to the navy to build new ships in the future.

"Very nice warship, I hope to see it in the navy in the future."

Carlo's words made Admiral Yagier and the designer Kuniberty smile, and they were waiting for this sentence.

"But here I have a requirement, that is, the four Roman-class battleships need to be in service after three years."

Regarding Carlo's request, Admiral Yagier said with some embarrassment. "Your Majesty, this request will make people in the shipyard work overtime, and their labor costs will also increase."

"Then add one million lire to the cost of each ship, but it must take three years to complete all the work and enter the navy."

Facing the king's insistence~www.mtlnovel.com~ Admiral Yagier, who has long coveted the new warship, can only nod in acquiescence.

Now that the drawings have been approved and the money is in place, what are you waiting for? The first ship of the Roman class, the Roman, started construction at the Ansa Shipyard in October. In the following three months, the second ship Empire, the third ship Caesar, and the fourth ship Octavian started construction at the Venice Shipyard, Fincantieri Shipyard, and Orlando Shipyard respectively.

In order to ensure that the four warships can be in service within three years, the Admiralty is also the first time to adopt the decision of each shipyard to build one. This will also allow the shipyards to concentrate the best boatmen and work hard for the construction of this class of warships.

The Roman-class battleship can be regarded as the masterpiece of the designer Cuniberty.

The next step is to look at the construction speed of the shipyard.

－－－－－Off Topic－－－－－

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