Seven Seas Beacon Fire

Two Tiger-class battlecruisers with a standard displacement of 28,500 tons (Tiger and Trafalgar).

Five Queen Elizabeth-class battleships with a standard displacement of 27,500 tons (Queen Elizabeth, Warspite, Barham, Warrior, and Malaya).

Five Revenge-class battleships with a standard displacement of 25700 tons (Revenge, Sovereign, Royal Oak, Resolution, and Ramirez).

In addition, before the completion of the two newly started Nelson-class battleships, the Royal Navy can retain four Iron Duke-class battleships with a standard displacement of 25,000 tons. After the completion of the two Nelson-class battleships, the four Iron Duke-class battleships will be scrapped. Two of them can be retained for dismantling and using as target ships, while the other two will be used as gun training ships after removing some of their guns and armor.

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The Colombian Navy's total share of capital ships under the treaty is 580,000 tons, which includes:

Two South Dakota-class battleships (South Dakota and Indiana) with a standard displacement of 43,200 tons.

Two Lexington-class battleships (Lexington and Saratoga), each with a standard displacement of 43,500 tons.

Four Colorado-class battleships (Colorado, West Virginia, Maryland, and Washington) with a standard displacement of 32,500 tons. Among them, the Maryland and Washington were authorized to be modified with 16-inch guns. After the modification was completed, they would be classified as Maryland-class battleships.

Three Tennessee-class battleships with a standard displacement of 32,600 tons (Tennessee, California, and Idaho).

Two New Mexico-class battleships (New Mexico and Mississippi) with a standard displacement of 31,000 tons.

Two Pennsylvania-class battleships (Pennsylvania and Arizona) with a standard displacement of 30,200 tons.

Two New York-class battleships with a standard displacement of 27,000 tons (New York and Texas).

After the commissioning of two South Dakota-class battleships and two Lexington-class battlecruisers, the Colombian Navy could also select the hulls of two capital ships as target ships, and retain two Wyoming-class battleships as gun training ships after removing some of their main guns and armor.

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The treaty quota for the main warships of the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy was 580,000 tons, which included:

Four Longyuan-class battleships (Longyuan, Longgang, Longwei, and Longwu) with a standard displacement of 39,900 tons.

Four Dingyuan-class battleships (Dingyuan, Zhenyuan, Jingyuan, and Laiyuan) with a standard displacement of 29,000 tons.

Four Kaiyuan-class battleships (Kaiyuan, Huaiyuan, Pingyuan, and Ningyuan) with a standard displacement of 24,500 tons.

One Zhiyuan-class battlecruiser (Jingyuan) with a standard displacement of 29,500 tons.

Three Haiqi-class battlecruisers (Haiqi, Hairong, and Haichen) with a standard displacement of 28,000 tons.

Four Haiting-class battleships (Haiting, Haichang, Haizhao, and Haikang) with a standard displacement of 23,000 tons.

The Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty could complete the gun replacement work on one more Haiting-class battleship in addition to the three Haiting-class battleships that had already completed the gun replacement. They could also select two dreadnoughts to remove some of their guns and armor and use them as gun training ships, and select the hulls of two other dreadnoughts as target ships.

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The Gallic Navy's capital ship quota under the treaty was 245,000 tons, which included:

A Lyon-class battleship with a standard displacement of 29,000 tons.

A Normandy-class battleship with a standard displacement of 24,500 tons (Normandy)

One König-class battleship with a standard displacement of 25,700 tons (renamed Voltaire by Gaul).

Two Caesar-class battleships with a standard displacement of 24,100 tons (renamed Condorcet and Diderot by the Gallic people).

(The above three warships of the Leitanian Empire are named after the Danton-class battleships that sank during the war.)

Three Brittany-class battleships (Brittany, Lorraine, and Provence) with a standard displacement of 23,200 tons.

Two Courbet-class battleships (Courbet and Paris), each with a standard displacement of 23,000 tons.

The Gallic Navy could retain one dreadnought with some of its cannons and armor removed as a training ship for artillery, and another dreadnought with its armaments removed as a target ship.

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The Syracuse Naval Treaty quota is 245,000 tons, which includes:

Two Caracciolo-class battleships (Caracciolo and Columbus) with a standard displacement of 28,000 tons.

Two Andrea Doria-class battleships (Andrea Doria and Caio Durio) with a standard displacement of 22,700 tons.

Three Graf Cavour-class battleships with a standard displacement of 22,500 tons (Graf Cavour, Julius Caesar, and Leonardo da Vinci).

A Dante-class battleship with a standard displacement of 19,500 tons (Dante)

A Moltke-class battlecruiser with a standard displacement of 21,500 tons (renamed Pompeii)

Two Combined Forces-class battleships with a standard displacement of 18,500 tons (renamed Naples and Pisa)

Since the Kingdom of Syracuse's navy lacks dreadnoughts that can be retained as target ships, they can choose to convert their existing Combined Forces-class battleships into artillery training ships and target ships after they reach the end of their service life and can be replaced.

For all the treaty countries mentioned above, the active warships retained by each country can be replaced after 20 years of service, and some warships are allowed to be replaced after 20 years of construction (all of which are ships that entered service earlier, and the list is not listed here).

During the treaty period, the standard displacement of warships started by each country must not exceed 35,000 tons, the caliber of guns must not exceed 15 inches, and the number of main guns must not exceed 12.

The tonnage of the main warships of the five powers in the Honolulu Naval Treaty has been officially finalized. As for the shares of the Yingzhou Navy and the Bharat Navy, which were also finalized at the same time, only the two King-class battleships of the Yingzhou Navy, which occupy a significant tonnage, are worth mentioning.

The two King-class battleships of Yingzhou, which occupy a certain tonnage, were permitted to be replaced by two new battleships with a tonnage not exceeding 26,000 tons after the signing of the treaty. These two replacement battleships also had to comply with the regulation that the caliber of their guns should not exceed 15 inches.

Although not all countries are satisfied with the tonnage quotas and related provisions of the treaty concerning capital ships, it is indeed the most acceptable outcome for all countries.

However, the tension at the meeting did not end with the conclusion of the negotiations on the share of capital ships, which are currently the absolute mainstay of each country's navy. Since each country mainly relies on its existing capital ships, the relative strength of each country's navy is relatively clear. Therefore, everyone had a general expectation of the outcome before participating in the negotiations.

However, the subsequent negotiations, whether for aircraft carriers or the relatively less significant cruisers and destroyers, involved even greater disputes and disagreements among the countries than those for the capital ships.

Ultimately, the logic behind fundamentalist surface warfare is similar across countries. While the design styles of capital ships may differ, their core requirements remain relatively unified. However, the vast differences in requirements between nations for warships such as aircraft carriers, cruisers, and destroyers make the subsequent negotiations a torment for negotiators from all countries.

Chapter 299 An aircraft carrier must be an aircraft carrier.

With the restriction of equipping aircraft carriers with 10-inch heavy guns as previously suggested by Li Che, various countries began discussions on this emerging type of warship.

The idea of ​​putting aircraft on warships is not something that countries started trying very late.

Ten years ago, Columbia's test team laid a 25.3-meter-long and 7.3-meter-wide wooden flight runway on the foredeck of the new light cruiser "Birmingham". Pilot Eugene Ely successfully took off into the wind on this specially made runway in a single biplane.

On January 18, 2011, Eugene Ely successfully landed his aircraft on the heavy cruiser USS Pennsylvania. These two takeoff and landing tests laid the technological foundation for aircraft carriers as a new type of ship and attracted widespread attention from navies around the world.

If Colombia's early attempts to see aircraft on board were largely driven by a group of technical personnel, then the Royal Victoria Navy's development of aircraft carriers was more driven by practical needs. In fact, the Royal Victoria Navy currently has the largest number of aircraft carriers among all countries.

仅仅是当下，维多利亚皇家海军就有使用民用的商船改造的排水量7080吨的“皇家方舟”号水上飞机航母、 排水量2550吨用海峡铁道轮渡改造的“恩加单”号、“皇后”号和“里维埃拉”号水上飞机航母、排水量3888吨同样用海峡铁道轮渡船改造的“本墨赫里”号、“文德克斯”号和“马恩岛人”号，以及3070吨的“奈拉纳”号、3300吨的“飞马座”号。

If you think these are just trivial things, then the Royal Navy also has the HMS Campania, which has a half-fly deck and a displacement of 20,570 tons, and the HMS Furious, which has just completed the removal of its main guns and can be said to have the most luxurious aviation facilities among the active warships of various countries at present. Although it does not have a full-length flight deck, the flight decks of the fore and aft can be connected.

The third ship of this "Shhh" class large light cruiser has a standard displacement of more than 22,000 tons, and also has a high speed of 29.5 knots, which is the envy of most other aircraft carriers of this era.

Furthermore, the Royal Navy of Victoria also possesses the HMS Argus, an aircraft carrier with a displacement of 14,450 tons and the world's first full-length flight deck. Although the ship's predecessor was a passenger ship built for Syracuse, the design was changed during construction, so it is still a warship designed and built as an aircraft carrier from the beginning.

It can be said that, whether in terms of the types and numbers of aircraft carriers or the experience in operating carrier-based aircraft, the Royal Victoria Navy is undoubtedly at the forefront of most countries in this era.

Thanks to the Royal Navy of Victoria's strong interest in various aircraft carriers, this has also provided guidance for other countries without time travelers to develop similar aircraft carriers. As the leader of many technological revolutions in the navy over the decades, the Royal Navy of Victoria is basically seen by most other countries as someone who believes that "following its lead is never wrong."

Therefore, many countries, including Colombia, have conducted experiments on this, and even specially modified aircraft carriers for this purpose. The Colombian Navy has already converted a coal carrier into an aircraft carrier and named it Langley. The Tang Dynasty has also modified a cruiser into a temporary flight deck for testing.

Although the vast majority of naval professionals in the world, even those like David Beatty who are widely recognized as the most experienced naval aviation commanders, would hardly believe that aircraft carriers could replace battleships in the future, there is little disagreement among nations that aircraft carriers will firmly hold the position of the most important secondary capital ship after battleships.

After all, even in terms of the efficiency of basic aerial reconnaissance, the reconnaissance efficiency of an aircraft carrier far surpasses that of several cruiser squadrons. In addition, someone deliberately suggested limiting the caliber of aircraft carrier guns to 10 inches. At least in the eyes of the big ship and big gun faction, which currently holds absolute sway among the navies of various countries, the more of these secondary capital ships that can serve as golden auxiliary vessels to the main fleet, the better.

However, there is a fundamental difference between aircraft carriers and capital ships in the negotiation process. When countries negotiate the tonnage share of capital ships, their bargaining power and bargaining power come from the existing fleets they have and the future fleets on the slipway.

Whether it's an existing fleet or a future fleet, what they have in common is that they are tangible things; those steel behemoths are there, and you can actually see them.

Therefore, the Victorian Empire, with the largest existing fleet, and the United States of Colombia, with the largest future fleet, together acquired the two fleets with the largest actual tonnage share—at least other countries would not ignore Yingzhou and Bharat when considering the naval power of these two countries.

The Tang Dynasty, relying on its existing fleet and the warships under construction on the slipway, also achieved a status on paper that was on par with the other two powers.

However, when it comes to aircraft carriers... even the Royal Victoria Navy, which has the most extensive experience in operating aircraft carriers in the world to date, aside from the various seaplane carriers converted from railway ferries in the Channel that are rather small in tonnage, the Royal Victoria Navy only has three aircraft carriers and quasi-aircraft carriers in total. Moreover, among these three ships, those with advanced design concepts have poor hull quality, while those with good hull quality have unavoidable design flaws.

This shows that even the Royal Victorian Navy will need to build a large number of aircraft carriers in the future, because these three ships are simply not enough to make up the future aircraft carrier quota.

Under these circumstances, with the vast majority of countries needing to build a large number of new aircraft carriers, the demand for aircraft carrier tonnage among nations has shown a trend of polarization.

For both Columbia and Datang, their technical personnel have realized that with the finalization of their respective capital ship quotas, the high-intensity arms race of the past 20 years will come to an end in the next ten to twenty years, and the development of capital ships will enter an unprecedented period of respite.

Currently, most countries have vacant aircraft carrier tonnage slots. Regardless of how the negotiations on aircraft carrier tonnage ultimately turn out, for design bureaus and naval shipyards in various countries, aircraft carriers have effectively become the only large warships that these entities can start construction on and build for a considerable period of time in the future.

Why is Wong Jing, a director in the Hong Kong film industry, respected by so many actors and related professionals despite making so many bad films? Because he continued to work during the worst period of the film industry, regardless of whether the films were bad or not. For many low-level actors who relied on this income to support their families, Wong Jing truly gave them a way to survive.

For design bureaus and military shipyards around the world, aircraft carriers have also made significant contributions to ensuring talent training and maintaining their design and manufacturing capabilities for large surface warships.

For the Tang Dynasty, Li Che was very clear about the true role of future aircraft carriers. Naturally, the more of these ships with the tonnage representing the future, the better. For Colombia, which was severely lacking in high-speed, large surface warships, they also hoped to have as many of these warships as possible.

The somewhat impoverished Victorian Empire, looking at its depleted coffers, also acknowledges the importance of aircraft carriers. However, they actually hope that having a few is sufficient, and not too many. Otherwise, how much would it cost to build just the aircraft carriers that constitute the treaty quota?

Therefore, the Victorian Empire suggested that the tonnage share of aircraft carriers of the three countries, Victoria, Columbia, and Tang, be limited to 13 tons. Surprisingly, Columbia and Tang stood on the same side this time, both believing that the tonnage should be increased further—ideally to 18 tons.

As for Gaul and Syracuse, they weren't particularly interested in those flying creatures in the sky. Their immediate thought regarding the proposals from the other naval powers was—"Get lost!"

Ultimately, under strong pressure from Colombia and China, the share of aircraft carrier tonnage for the top three powers was limited to 18 tons, while the share of aircraft carrier fleets for Gaul and Syracuse was limited to 6 tons and 4 tons respectively.

However, just as the countries had basically finalized their tonnage quotas and were preparing to move on to the next stage, Li Che raised his hand and stood up to speak again.

"I believe that in addition to limiting the total tonnage of aircraft carriers and the amount of guns they carry, we must also strictly limit the flight deck and hangar to ensure that the aircraft carriers that our countries build in the future are indeed aircraft carriers with 10-inch self-defense firepower, and not some large cruisers that are actually equipped with nine 10-inch naval guns under the guise of mutton."

Li Che's remarks were also endorsed by most of the delegates at the naval conference. An aircraft carrier should be an aircraft carrier, not a large cruiser that is actually equipped with 10-inch guns but is actually just a ship that is called an aircraft carrier.

Building a warship that's all show and no substance, then haphazardly setting up some frames in the middle of the hull, laying down some wooden decks, and then putting a few small planes on it like an atmosphere set, and that's it, an "aircraft carrier"? That's definitely not acceptable.

When Li Che said these words, he noticed a look of disappointment on the face of the Syracuse Kingdom's naval representative. It seemed that the Syracuse Kingdom's navy was really preparing to build such an "aircraft carrier".

However, this doesn't seem surprising. In the other world, the Noodle Navy didn't invest much effort in the development of aircraft carriers. After all, the unique geographical conditions of the Apennine Peninsula made Noodle proudly declare that its territory was an unsinkable aircraft carrier.

However, we all know that almost everything that claims to be an unsinkable aircraft carrier has ultimately been proven wrong.

Based on this, Li Che suggested that special regulations should be made for aircraft carriers—the flight deck length should not be less than 60% of the waterline length, and the hangar area should not be less than 6% of the displacement.

In other words, for a 2-ton ship with a waterline of 200 meters, the flight deck must be 120 meters long, and the hangar area must be no less than 1200 square meters. Furthermore, these cannot be temporary aviation facilities; they must all be securely connected to the main structure.

Simply setting up a few supports and then laying a wooden track on top is definitely not acceptable.

Only an aircraft carrier like this can truly achieve the state of "being able to do everything, but doing most things in a mediocre way," which is Li Che's fundamental goal.

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Among the specific performance restrictions imposed by various countries on aircraft carriers, in addition to the restrictions on hangars and flight decks proposed by Li Che and generally recognized by various countries, restrictions were also imposed on the tonnage of aircraft carriers. The tonnage of newly built aircraft carriers shall not exceed 27,000 tons. However, apart from the restriction that the standard displacement is a maximum of 27,000 tons, various countries have another way to obtain aircraft carriers with a tonnage of more than 27,000 tons.

These aircraft carriers, which are converted from existing capital ships, can also have an additional 3000 tons of conversion capacity.

In this context, countries began to select appropriate hulls to be converted into aircraft carriers. These selected hulls had to be written in black and white in the treaty. Apart from the selected hulls, the remaining hulls under construction could not be used as armed vessels.

PS: Something really unbelievable happened today. While playing a game, Minna was helping Zhao Gou fight against the Jurchens, but later she discovered that her wife had been raped by Zhao Gou and even had a child.

To be honest, it wouldn't have been this dramatic if any other emperor had been in power. That weak-willed Zhao Gou managed to steal the player's wife; it's like watching a eunuch go to a brothel...

Take a day off

I'm really tired today, so I'm taking a break to adjust my sleep schedule. Logically speaking, I should have added an extra chapter today since a friend gave me a silver treasure chest as a reward, but I'm just too sleepy.

However, starting tomorrow and continuing through the entire Qingming Festival holiday, I will maintain a double update every day. During this holiday, I will not spend time with my girlfriend, play War Thunder, or collect model kits; I will dedicate myself to serving everyone wholeheartedly.

Chapter 300 The Noose Around the Neck of Future Aircraft Carriers

Converting unfinished warships on the shipyard into aircraft carriers is an irresistible deal for navies around the world. After all, countries have invested a lot of money in these fixed assets. Converting these hulls, which are outside the treaty's reserved quota, into aircraft carriers is undoubtedly an efficient way to mitigate losses.

The Royal Navy of Victoria accepted the suggestion with great delight. Although they did not have many warships under construction on the slipway, the Royal Navy of Victoria had built three Hush-class large light cruisers during the last World War. Of these three ships, only the last one, HMS Furious, had been converted into an aircraft carrier (although the conversion was not very complete at present). The other two ships still retained 15-inch main guns.

If these special warships, each with a displacement of less than 2 tons and equipped with two twin 15-inch guns, measuring a full 239 meters in length, were retained, these large light cruisers would undoubtedly be counted in the tonnage of capital ships. However, in the tonnage retained by the Royal Navy of Victoria, there is no place for these two ships.

Moreover, there have always been doubts about whether these large surface ships with shallow drafts, low main gun firepower density, and fragile armor protection can effectively carry out the originally envisioned combat missions. Opponents believe that these ships are not up to the task, after all, the Hush is not even a very good artillery platform.

Now this problem can be easily solved by converting all three ships into aircraft carriers.

Moreover, these ships were previously equipped with 15-inch or even 18-inch naval guns (the stern gun of HMS Furious), so replacing them with 10-inch naval guns now would not be a problem.

Although the Royal Navy of Victoria hasn't even decided where to place the 10-inch guns yet,

Is it better to place everything at the bow for easy pursuit of the enemy, leaving the mid-to-rear hull entirely for the hangar and flight deck?

Is it to place everything at the stern to deploy a dragline at any time, leaving the midships and forward hull entirely for the hangar and flight deck?

It wouldn't be impossible to go for a completely retro style, completely abandon the turret structure, and directly turn a 10-inch-class large-caliber gun into a gun turret gun.

But no matter how things change in the future, the Royal Navy, or more precisely, Downing Street in Victoria, is saving money by keeping these three attractive large light cruisers and converting them into aircraft carriers.

At present, saving money is the most politically correct thing for the Royal Navy. However, Downing Street, having tasted some benefits from this, sent a telegram instructing the negotiations that, in addition to these three warships that are obviously suitable for conversion into aircraft carriers, it would be best to also take some other unfinished warships or those that cannot be retained according to the treaty for conversion.

By this time, some officers in the Royal Victoria Navy had begun to miss the two Lion-class battlecruisers. If those two slender battlecruisers were still around, they would be perfect for conversion into aircraft carriers!

原本安装8门13.5英寸炮的船体想办法塞上8~9门10寸炮还不是轻轻松松？而且狮级原本就有的9英吋装甲虽然说现在对大口径舰炮来说已经有点像是纸糊的了，但是对巡洋舰级别的船体装备的火炮来说依旧是叹息之墙级别的。

Unfortunately, those two ships had already been sold before this. The Royal Navy looked around and found that the only ships that were not yet completed on the slipway were the third and fourth ships of the Admiral-class battlecruisers, whose construction had been suspended, and the second ship of the Admiral Torrare-class battleships, which the Chilean Navy had ordered before the outbreak of World War II.