Chapter 66: Adding Some New Toys

Vertical take-off and landing fighters are nothing new either; multiple types of VTOL fighters have already seen service.

The representative examples are the Harrier from the British and the Yak-38 series from the Big Brother's house, both capable of vertical take-off and landing.

But these two things have practically no real combat performance; the Yak-38's combat radius is only a few dozen kilometers, earning it the nickname "Mast Defender."

At this point people once thought VTOL fighters had no future, until the Big Brother's house continued pushing forward with the development of the Yak-141.

In the era when the latter was developed, aviation engine technology improved enormously, and materials science also saw significant progress.

The Yak-141 was the first to use a design combining a rotating tail nozzle with a lift fan, maximizing thrust efficiency.

Although the Yak-141 failed to enter production for historical reasons, the American F-35B inherited its mantle, adopting the same technical approach.

With the unprecedented F135 engine boosting it, the F-35B achieved quite respectable range while performing vertical take-off and landing, single-handedly making it possible for many helicopter assault ships to become small aircraft carriers.

The country had tried this technology before, but more than twenty years later, it had already grown dismissive of putting VTOL aircraft on amphibious assault ships.

After all, with the backing of powerful national strength, wouldn't it be even better to just install electromagnetic catapults?

You say an amphibious assault ship can't fit a catapult? Then I'll just build one a size larger.

Of course, today's navy doesn't yet have the brash capital to "brute-force miracles," so the dream of VTOL fighters still smells pretty sweet.

So many wild ideas on later-generation forums—bringing them out in this era truly made Yan Hai feel refreshed and inspired.

Especially the strike tactics centered on helicopter assault ships, which showed a brand-new possibility for landing operations.

"If we could organize two helicopter assault ship strike groups, breaking through the first island chain would be much easier."

Yan Hai couldn't help but sigh with emotion, and Tang Wen was also quite wistful.

The first island chain is still a shackle around the neck right now, but twenty years from now, people will only laugh when the island chain is mentioned.

Not just the first island chain—the strongest navy in Asia right now is the neighbor's Eight-Eight Fleet; as for the Seventh Fleet? That's a big boss one wouldn't even dare to imagine.

Until 2010, public opinion generally believed the navy couldn't withstand a single strike from the Eight-Eight Fleet.

Tang Wen thought again of the coast guard vessels he had encountered at the Dongsha Islands, and couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

He suddenly thought of something and couldn't help asking:

"A twenty-thousand-ton-class amphibious assault ship—structurally it's actually not much different from a WWII medium aircraft carrier, right?"

Yan Hai was a bit surprised by this question, but thinking about it, it really was about the same.

Medium aircraft carriers in the WWII era were also just twenty to thirty thousand tons; anything over forty thousand tons was a large aircraft carrier.

Helicopter assault ships also use a straight-through flight deck, don't need catapults, and don't have high demands on their own performance.

Apart from the electronic equipment, the hull aspects really are quite similar.

"Not much difference. Building an amphibious assault ship isn't hard, it's just... sigh, no money."

No money?

From Yan Hai's perspective that was indeed the case, but Tang Wen knew about the several ship-purchase orders that were about to happen.

Before '96, the authorities indeed took the economy as the top priority, and armaments could only "hold back a bit."

But after this incident, they first rushed north to buy two Sovremenny-class destroyers, and placed orders for two more, to be delivered in the millennium year.

In '98, through the efforts of patriotic businessmen, they bought back the Varyag, and at the same time the long-stalled nuclear submarine project was restarted.

As the saying goes, knowing shame brings courage; building and developing warships domestically still takes several years no matter how fast, and the navy, having suffered a big loss, now only wants to desperately strengthen itself.

If they could buy a twenty-thousand-ton "amphibious assault ship" right now, they probably wouldn't even blink.

Although the Hornet is an older version of the equipment, the hull is brand-new, and using it for twenty years would be no problem.

Push it into the shipyard for a modernization refit, swap in new electrical equipment and radar—it might well make a decent helicopter assault ship.

Anyway, holding onto a WWII aircraft carrier is useless; flipping it wouldn't be worth doing without a few hundred million on the table.

Of course, money is secondary—if one could watch the Hornet running around causing trouble all over the Western Pacific... wouldn't that be far more thrilling than fishing boats?

Especially if one day the Seventh Fleet comes for another freedom of navigation, and suddenly gets monitored by helicopters taking off from a Hornet—would they suspect the rabbits fished a Hornet off the seabed?

Unlike other ship types, vessels like aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships aren't that sensitive in their technical requirements for the hull.

Even the Kitty Hawk, which the American navy laid down in 1956 and commissioned in '60, is in no way behind the eighty-thousand-plus-ton Fujian in terms of hull and power systems.

The more Tang Wen thought about it, the more his heart itched; he even felt like going to the General Armament Department's gate tomorrow to set up a stall with a sign reading "Brand-new aircraft carrier, 100 million yuan clearance sale."

But in the end he calmed down; suddenly pulling out a WWII aircraft carrier might really scare the UN General Assembly into starting a "Destiny War of '99."

After all, the current shipyards' docks can only fit two or three thousand-ton destroyers at most—how could anyone really say this thing was fished out of the water?

The real Hornet sank over 40 years ago, and now he fished it up and refurbished it himself?

Tang Wen pushed the wild thoughts out of his head, but the idea of adding some new equipment for the navy just couldn't be stopped.

Too bad what he played back then was World of Warships, all WWII grandpas; if he'd played modern warships, he could have pulled out a nuclear aircraft carrier right away to give the Americans a fright.

Even if he'd played some Blue Fleet, having a ship girl would be nice too.

The big-guns-and-big-ships faction has done immeasurable harm!

After chatting with Old Man Yan for a long while, Huang Dongshun had already finished reading through the ship, and returned to the office in high spirits, saying to Tang Wen:

"I was just watching outside, and I felt like the ship was growing taller all by itself—really looking forward to it."

"..."

Oh no, he couldn't have actually seen through something, could he?

Tang Wen wiped the cold sweat from his forehead; he had just escaped from Old Man Yan and almost got another fright from Huang Dongshun.

But with Tang Yi watching and layer upon layer of separation, even if he really saw something it shouldn't be like this.

Tang Yi, who had been watching the ship with the latter, took the opportunity to say:

"I'll sort out the steam turbine's layout and parameter data in a bit, so your sailors can take it back and familiarize themselves with it first."

Huang Dongshun nodded, then continued:

"Since you shipbuilders are this fast, we also need to prepare coal and heavy oil at the dock—these things aren't easy to buy locally, but they really are much cheaper than diesel.

The Fisheries Bureau's procedures are also being handled; it won't be long before they come through.

"Boss Tang, when is the earliest the ship can be delivered?"

"Another month should be enough; the steam turbine is quite complex and requires at least half a month for sea trials."

In reality, the construction time for the Hashiramaru has only four days left, and no time is needed for break-in.

Of the one month, half is reserved for salvaging the Yamato, and the remaining half is used to install the actual fishing equipment.

A full seventy thousand tons of steel would be such a pity to leave on the seabed.