After Xiang Xiaoqiang's plan was made public, it was met with a lot of doubts. Ironically, the basis for such doubts was exactly what Xiang Xiaoqiang personally provided to others - the naval and air combat cruise he single-handedly led, which made everyone
See: in front of the aircraft, the seemingly powerful ship is actually how fragile.
What troubles Xiang Xiaoqiang now is that people's acceptance of new things is always easy to go from one extreme to another. At first, I had no confidence in airplanes at all, but after seeing several beautiful sea and air battles, I immediately became more and more convinced.
A 180-degree turn, all confidence went to the plane
I have no confidence in the ship at all. This kind of extreme understanding is useless just by explaining it verbally. It has to wait for time to wash away. As time goes by, battle after battle is truly revealed, and the advantages and disadvantages of both sides are revealed.
Only after it is fully displayed can people have a more substantial understanding.
There are currently two main types of objections. One is "tactical objections", which means that if a submarine wants to fight an aircraft, it is useless and cannot be defeated at all. No matter how many anti-aircraft guns are installed, it will not be able to defeat it. Because the mobility of the two sides is not in the same place.
On a peer-to-peer level. Although your submarine’s firepower is dozens of times stronger than that of an airplane, other people’s airplanes are much more flexible.
, how fast it is. Aircraft can dodge flexibly at high speed, calmly adjust distance and orientation in the air, and choose their most advantageous direction to attack. Compared with aircraft, your submarine has negligible maneuverability and is basically stationary. That is,
He said that there was no way to dodge, and the target was so big that he could only be passively beaten there.
The second type is "strategic opposition". This means that even if you can defeat airplanes, it is no problem to shoot down one or two enemy airplanes at a time, but building submarines specifically to compete with airplanes is not the right approach after all. The one who can really deal with airplanes is
Aircraft. That is, aircraft carrier. If true
If you want to deal with the Japanese aircraft, then send two aircraft carriers over there, and seize the air supremacy in a serious way. Now we have to blockade Japan and sink Japanese freighters. The existing submarines are not enough, so allocate some more to specialize them.
To engage in a null type is really putting the cart before the horse.
Xiang Xiaoqiang listened to all these questions, but ignored them for the time being and continued with his plan. Although he could not directly command operations, he could still directly make the decision regarding equipment research and development and logistics. Because these all belong to
For the "military affairs" aspect, I ordered Xiaoqiang to speed up and work hard to modify a few anti-aircraft submarines. The initial number
It doesn’t need to be many, just a few. Modify two or three large submarines and medium-sized submarines respectively and put them on the sea for testing. The actual effect depends on the facts. And Xiang Xiaoqiang knows that in the history of World War II, Dönitz’s
This move has achieved good results. For a long time, British aircraft have restrained themselves a lot, and German submarines have made it much safer to enter and exit the Bay of Biscay.
Of course, Xiang Xiaoqiang also knows that this is not a long-term solution. He wants to use this move as a transitional means. From now until the real "ideal submarine" in his mind is put into service, he will fight hard against Japanese patrol aircraft at a loss.
Japan should not be allowed to taste the sweetness of "aircraft anti-submarine warfare". Once they are allowed to taste this sweetness, it will be terrible. It will not be a matter of a few anti-aircraft submarines.
…
Listening to Xiang Xiaoqiang's narration, Qiu Qiu couldn't help but ask:
"Xiaoqiang, I've heard you talk about your 'ideal submarine' several times. What kind of submarine is it?"
Xiang Xiaoqiang ignored her and just ordered:
"Go and find me those technical research and development people."
Qiu Qiu was a little unwilling and asked again:
"Can't you tell me?"
Xiang Xiaoqiang raised his head and glared at her. Qiu Qiu shrank her head and ran out honestly.
After a while, everyone from the technical department in Office Zero came.
Qiu Qiu wanted to leave, but Xiang Xiaoqiang stopped her:
"Hey, you should also listen here. You are the only one here who is an active captain, and you have a say in many places."
"Hey! Okay."
Qiu Qiu looked happy, nodded, and sat quietly next to him, staring at Xiang Xiaoqiang.
Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled at several experts and said:
"Everyone, please take a seat. I wonder if some of you think the idea I proposed last time is feasible after going back to study it?"
The experts didn't show any embarrassment. They nodded and naturally took out a roll of drawings and spread them on the table. When Xiang Xiaoqiang saw their expressions, he felt relieved: Okay, the problem won't be too big.
.At least there are no insurmountable technical obstacles.
After the drawings were spread out, Qiu Qiu hurriedly stretched his neck to look at it. Several engineers also politely stepped back and gave the best position to Qiu Qiu.
Xiang Xiaoqiang coughed lightly, reminding Qiu Qiu to pay attention. Qiu Qiu was stunned, and felt embarrassed himself, and backed away with a blushing face.
There are several sketches drawn on the drawing, as well as many scrawled annotations. It seems that several engineers drew it casually while discussing. In the center of the drawing is a side view of a submarine.
Qiu Qiu stared at the shape of the submarine in the picture, and his eyes slowly widened.
Her first feeling was that it didn't look like a submarine, but rather like a torpedo. It just had an extra control tower above the torpedo.
She was about to ask "Is this a submarine?", but she glanced at Xiang Xiaoqiang and held back. The question rolled in her throat a few times, but she swallowed it. She decided to listen quietly and listen to what others said.
.
…
"Sir Xiang, in my humble opinion, your overall idea doesn't have any big problems. It's just..."
When Xiang Xiaoqiang heard this, his heart was completely relieved. He immediately asked:
"Just what?"
Sun Tingyu, the chief submarine designer of the General Administration of Military Industry, pushed up his reading glasses and said hesitantly:
"It's just that... Sir Xiang's idea, I still can't understand... whether this... is necessary. Well, in general, this is a concept that purely pursues underwater performance. The pursuit of underwater performance is true.
, but for the sake of underwater performance, too many things have been given up.”
He pulled out another drawing from underneath the drawing, laid it aside, compared it and said:
"My lord, please take a look. This is a drawing of an ordinary ocean-going submarine. My lord...oh, and madam, you can all see the difference at a glance. Especially madam, she is a submarine captain, so she must have a deep understanding of it.
Although the word "submarine" has the word "submarine" in it, it does not
It does not mean that it is a 'submersible boat'. It spends most of its time on the water. It only conducts short-term submersibles under extremely special circumstances such as attack and avoidance. Submarines are more scientific.
The explanation should be 'a surface ship that can dive'."
Qiu Qiu nodded repeatedly, obviously agreeing with Mr. Sun's words.
Sun Tingyu laughed and continued:
"Madam, you can also see that the appearance of these two submarines is completely different. This one is the current submarine. You see, its hull is like an ordinary ship, with an upturned bow and an upturned deck.
Straight, except for the difference in superstructure, the hull is very similar to that of a surface ship. This design ensures the speed of the submarine on the water surface and the stability of the submarine on the water surface.
Seaworthiness. This is very important. The speed of a submarine is already slow enough. With this hull shape suitable for sailing on the water, it can still maintain a speed of more than ten knots. But Sir, I really need to follow your instructions.
If the concept is changed to a streamlined hull, then...well, although the speed increases greatly when submerged, once it surfaces, the speed will be much slower."
Qiu Qiu nodded and understood. She thought to herself: I said this new submarine looks like a torpedo, so that’s it. Xiaoqiang had another whim. He probably thought that "submarine submarine" must have underwater performance.
That's the first thing...sigh.
Sun Tingyu shook his head and said:
"Sir, by simply emphasizing underwater performance, you have to give up more than just surface speed. You also abandoned the 75mm cannon on the front deck, and only retained a twin 20mm cannon on the control tower...
Although this greatly reduces underwater resistance, the self-defense ability of the submarine is simply negligible. And when dealing with cargo ships, the 75-gun is still
Very useful. During the European War, many German captains used deck guns to the extreme. Sometimes one torpedo failed to sink the freighter, but adding another torpedo was too wasteful, so they used artillery to sink it... That's it.
When encountering enemy torpedo boats, small patrol boats, etc., having this deck gun will give the submarine an advantage. Sir, I really don’t think it’s worth it.”
Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled slightly and said calmly:
"Well, is there anything else?"
Sun Tingyu was startled for a moment, then smiled and continued speaking openly:
"Haha, of course there is. What the adults are talking about... this 'snorkel' is the snorkel that allows submarines to use diesel engines underwater. It's not impossible, but the problem is..."
Qiu Qiu said "Hang" and was about to burst out. But she immediately took a peek at Xiang Xiaoqiang and restrained herself.
Sun Tingyu also glanced at Qiu Qiu, smiled bitterly and shook his head, as if he understood her reaction very well, and sighed with a smile:
"The purpose of submarine diving is to be concealed. However, the length of the snorkel is limited. As long as you use the snorkel, you can only dive very shallow... Moreover, a thick snorkel is exposed, and it is spraying black smoke and making a harsh sound.
The sound can be detected from a long distance... Excuse me, if that's the case, what's the point of submersing? Why not just surface and sail? The speed can be faster."
Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled and said:
"Why is it meaningless? This way the submarine can submerge all day long. This large submarine has eliminated the main gun and can install double batteries. With the snorkel, the battery can be charged while submersing, and there is no need to surface for charging.
.In this way... Well, if the underwater speed is increased to more than ten knots, there is basically no need to go out of the water. Mr. Sun, do you think that this level of submersible is meaningless?"
Sun Tingyu was startled, shook his head and said:
"It's not meaningless, it's unnecessary. Well, well, even if you have an underwater diesel engine, double the battery power supply, a streamlined hull, and cancel the main gun... a multi-pronged approach can increase the underwater speed to more than ten knots, then
I would like to ask: Is it necessary? Are the current submarines already on the water?
Is it unusable? Do you have to go underwater around the clock? Don’t forget, adults, the field of view of a submarine is inherently very low. Even if it floats on the water and stands on the control tower, the radius it can see is not large. Now go underwater again
, relying solely on periscope observation, how far can we see? Can we still search for enemy transport ships?"
Xiang Xiaoqiang shook his head and said with a smile:
"Mr. Sun, you have misunderstood me. I proposed this idea not for the current war situation. In the current submarine war, both sides are still working alone. The Japanese transport ships sail alone, and our submarines also patrol alone. And this kind of
The new submarine is tailor-made for the swarm battles that will appear in the future."
"What does group fighting mean?" Sun Tingyu said with a smile, "But what do you mean by 'wolf pack'?"
Xiang Xiaoqiang nodded:
"On the one hand, our submarines will form a wolf pack. When one submarine finds the target, multiple vessels will join together to attack together. On the other hand, the Japanese army will soon give up the single-ship navigation model and will form cargo ships into ships like the Allied Powers in the European War.
The fleet is escorted by armed destroyers. This kind of submarine is designed for this new combat mode."