Chapter 478: The Development of Submarines

The signing of the Neutral Nations Treaty effectively slowed down the wooing of Britain by Germany and the Franco-Russian side, because the British government had sufficient reasons to refuse premature interference in the confrontation between the two major military blocs.

However, this was acceptable to both major military blocs; after all, Britain and Spain had signed the Neutral Nations Treaty simultaneously, which also meant that in the future confrontation between the two major military blocs, no unexpected factors would occur.

The German government could focus on researching how to quickly defeat France or Russia, and France and Russia did not need to worry about Germany becoming even more unstoppable with Britain's help.

Of course, this did not mean they had completely given up on wooing Spain and Britain; they just shifted the overt wooing to covert, changing the priority of wooing to prioritizing the improvement of relations to ensure they would not face the worst-case scenario.

Upon learning that Britain had agreed to sign the Neutral Nations Treaty, Gao Da also breathed a sigh of relief. As long as Spain was given some time to develop, even if the course of the First World War was completely different from history, Spain would have the ability to pull the war back on track.

Relying on what? Naturally, relying on Spain's efforts in all aspects.

On June 12, 1910, Gao Da, accompanied by a group of high-ranking naval generals, secretly went to Gibraltar to watch the commissioning of Spain's new batch of warships.

After Spain recovered Gibraltar, it incorporated it into the Andalusia region and used Gibraltar as the main naval base for the Spanish Mediterranean Fleet.

Unlike the battleships watched previously, what was being commissioned this time were not capital ships, but the latest type of submarine that Spain had already updated for several generations, codenamed the T-6 submarine.

The reason for using "T" to codename the submarines had to mention the naming of the Spanish submarine series: *Tiburon* (Shark).

Spain's history of developing submarines had already lasted for over a decade, and the main submarines currently serving in the Spanish fleet were the T-5 and T-6 types.

The latest T-6 submarine currently had a length that could reach an exaggerated 71.52 meters, a width of 7.76 meters, a surface displacement of 1,278 tons, and an underwater displacement of 1,586 tons; it was currently Spain's largest submarine by tonnage and volume.

To give this submarine excellent power, the shipyard's designers equipped it with two 800-horsepower diesel engines plus two 700-horsepower electric motors, allowing the new submarine's speed to meet the needs of the naval department.

According to tests, the T-6 submarine's maximum surface speed could reach 15 knots, and its maximum underwater speed could reach 10 knots, which was already a quite excellent level among submarines.

The maximum surface range was 5,500 nautical miles (at 10 knots), and the maximum underwater range was 1,250 nautical miles (at 6.5 knots), which was also at a relatively excellent level.

The T-6 submarine's maximum diving depth was 67 meters, which also broke a new high for the Spanish submarine series.

In terms of firepower, the T-6 submarine was equipped with five 457mm torpedo tubes, possessing the ability to sink enemy capital ships in one hit.

Besides these five torpedo tubes, the T-6 submarine was additionally equipped with one 76mm deck gun, allowing the submarine to possess a certain combat capability on the surface as well.

Of course, such surface combat capability was destined to be unable to contend with enemy surface warships; what it was meant to deal with was not enemy warships, but enemy commercial vessels.

Because the tonnage reached over a thousand tons, the T-6 submarine could carry a total of 15 torpedoes, with each torpedo tube capable of firing three torpedoes on average, significantly increasing the submarine's firepower output.

As long as all 15 torpedoes were fired, the achievement obtained would be at least at the ten-thousand-ton level, which basically reached the value of building this submarine.

The T-6 submarine was the crystallization of Spain's current technology in submarines, and it could also be said to be the most advanced submarine at present.

Spain's requirement for the T-6 submarine was actually quite clear and explicit: it was a main ocean-going submarine with long-range strike capability.

It is worth mentioning that the T-5 submarine was not the predecessor of the T-6 submarine, but another type of submarine developed almost at the same time as the T-6.

If the T-6 submarine valued ocean-going combat capability, then the T-5 submarine valued close-range rapid movement and defense.

The T-5 submarine's length was only 42 meters, and its width was only 6.03 meters; it was a small submarine in the true sense.

Because of its smaller volume, the T-5 submarine's surface displacement was only 678 tons, and its underwater displacement was only 942 tons, almost only half that of the T-6 submarine.

Although it was not inferior to the T-6 submarine in terms of power, because the supplies and fuel it could carry were limited, the T-5 submarine's maximum sea range was only 2,500 nautical miles, and its maximum underwater range was only 420 nautical miles.

At the cost of sacrificing range, the T-5 submarine's surface and underwater speeds saw a huge improvement. The T-5 submarine's surface speed reached 18 knots, and its underwater speed reached 12.5 knots; in terms of speed, it was far ahead of the T-6 submarine.

Although its speed was extremely excellent, because of the reduction in tonnage, the number of torpedo tubes carried by the T-5 submarine was reduced to four, but it was still equipped with a 76mm deck gun.

From the completely different data of the T-5 and T-6 submarines, it could be seen that these two types of submarines would undertake completely different tasks in the future war.

The T-6 submarine would carry out ocean-going combat and would even likely participate in the navy's decisive battle, carrying out large-scale destruction of enemy civilian and military vessels.

While the T-5 submarine mainly focused on coastal defense; with its faster speed, it could support every piece of Spanish maritime territory in less time.

With T-5 submarines defending Spain's coastline, it could also greatly reduce the risk of Spain's coast being landed upon. As long as the enemy dared to send transport ships to Spain's coast, they wouldn't even need to wait for the Spanish Army to counterattack; these coastal defense submarines would be enough to sink the enemy's transport ships, and even keep all the warships escorting the transport ships on the coast.

Although Spain had focused most of its attention on the construction of capital ships in recent years, for the submarines that had been in development for a long time, Spain had also invested a large amount of funds to build them.

With the retirement of the earlier submarines, the Spanish Navy currently had a total of 42 submarines in service, among which 12 were the latest T-5 submarines, 6 were T-6 submarines, and the remaining 24 were T-3 and T-4 submarines from a few years ago.

In the next few years, Spain would continue to build more new submarines. According to the submarine construction plan submitted by the naval department, in the future, Spain would build at least 12 more T-5 submarines and 8 T-6 submarines, allowing the Spanish Navy to have at least 62 submarines before 1915.

Gao Da and a group of naval generals watched the launching ceremony of the latest T-6 submarine in the Strait of Gibraltar, and Gao Da was quite satisfied with Spain's latest large submarine.

Judging by the paper data of the T-6 submarine, currently, no submarine from any European country could match this submarine's design, which also meant that the T-6 submarine was almost invincible underwater. ===== CHAPTER 479 =====