"Battleships" are only designed to hunt cruisers. In battleship decisive battles, their speed advantage is not enough at all (in fact, they are only a few knots faster than battleships), and their armor cannot withstand the battleships' cannons - they expose themselves

into great danger, which was clearly reflected in the Battle of Jutland.

In the Battle of the Falkland Islands in World War I, battlecruisers proved their worth as hunter-killer cruisers. In this battle, the British battlecruisers HMS Steadfast and HMS Invincible were easily eliminated

A German cruiser fleet in the South Atlantic (Spey Fleet). This is exactly what the battlecruisers were designed for, but this battle was also the only time the battlecruisers played their due role.

In the Battle of Jutland in 1916, a British battlecruiser fleet tried to fight German battlecruisers and battleships before the arrival of the British main fleet. The result was a major defeat. The British ships Queen Mary and Indefatigable

and Invincible exploded and sank. With the exception of a few men, almost all of the crew were killed, and Lion was forced to flood its own ammunition depot to avoid the same outcome. Although the armor of the German battlecruisers was stronger, their outcome was not much better.

Because they also encountered a British battleship (and a faster Queen Elizabeth-class battleship). The battlecruiser Lützow was sunk (this is still the most advanced German army), and the battlecruiser Seydlitz was severely damaged (

It sank after returning to port). Fortunately, Hipper escaped in time to avoid a disaster like the Battle of the Falkland Islands (again, one thing defeats another). In this naval battle, except for one old German battleship

Not a single British or German battleship was sunk. This battle proved that battleships are the real powerhouses at sea.

oss, and battlecruisers are obviously difficult to take on big tasks.

The battlecruiser of the Energy Group actually saw that the two large weapons of battleships and super battleships were too expensive, and even the financial level of the Energy Group was unbearable, so they built such a weapon, the first-class battlecruiser.

Named the Invincible class, the first one was built the year before last, with a full load displacement of 38,000 tons, which is basically the same as a battleship during World War I. It has eight 460mm giant air cannons and an empty deck.

There are dozens of missile launch holes on the ship. It can launch 46 missiles of various types in one minute. Each ship costs 1.2 billion US dollars. This price is acceptable to the energy group. It can be seen in the training. If it is right

In terms of ground support, their performance is not inferior to that of super battleships. Of course, they do not have air combat capabilities, but their own air defense system can do it. If they cooperate with the defense and control frigates, there should be no problem, so Li Cong made a large sum of money.

With the command, major shipyards around the world received orders from the Energy Group. Li Cong will build 127 battlecruisers within three years and distribute them to major fleets. He will also build 25 super battlecruisers with a displacement of 40,000.

Tons or more.

In fact, Li Cong has been studying the construction of battlecruisers for a while. Otherwise, the construction cost of these warships alone would be more than 180 billion U.S. dollars. Plus training costs and other miscellaneous expenses, Li Cong wants to build his battlecruisers.

It will cost at least 400 billion US dollars to put the cruiser fleet into use, so this must be done carefully. Analysts within the group also said that 90% of the economically developed areas in the world are in coastal areas, so some shore attacks

Powerful weapons must come out. The ammunition carried by aircraft is still relatively small. Now the main ground attack aircraft can only carry a few tons of weapons. But with such giant ships and cannons, it is different. They can

Hundreds of tons of ammunition can be poured out in an hour, and large-scale supplies are not required. Moreover, the pressure on people when dozens of such cannons are fired at once is obvious. As long as you are not a fool, you will almost always choose to surrender.

It is impossible to resist forcefully, because they will find that they cannot bear it at all.

The news that Li Cong wanted to build a battlecruiser quickly spread to several major forces. In fact, the navy of the Energy Group has long since left them out of sight, but Li Cong is still working hard to expand his fleet.

Navy. This makes his enemies sleepless. Take now. Several directors of the Skull and Bones Society are in a meeting at this time, but it has been five hours and no one can come up with a constructive idea.

According to their opinion, now their Pacific Fleet only has a small number of troops deployed in the Hawaii military port, and most of the fleet is on the mainland. They are also afraid of another Pearl Harbor Incident. In that case, they really have no capital to compete with the energy group.

, so they are very careful now.

"I really don't know what kind of pervert the energy group is. How can they build warships so fast? Don't you know that this is a high-tech era? It will take at least eight years for one of our aircraft carriers to enter service.

, but look at them, they can do it in as little as nine months. This is simply unbelievable. As for those destroyers and so on, they can be launched in just one month. I really want to go to their shipyard to see what's going on.

"The current rotating chairman is Harry Powell. This guy is also an admirer of giant swords and cannons, but he absolutely does not believe that his country can spend hundreds of billions of dollars to expand the navy, especially to build a navy similar to Li Cong's.

The same battlecruiser.

"Actually, people in our technical department have studied it. The energy group's navy only built its internal wiring and weapons and equipment by itself. The other things were done in shipyards around the world. It can be said that in the past year,

Eighty percent of the world's shipyards are cooperating with energy groups. Even several of our domestic shipyards are like this. Because they are applying for merchant ships, we have no reason to refuse. The result of this is that the whole world

They are all helping energy groups expand their navy." Kamal Nate is a giant within the Skull and Bones Society who controls shipping, so he is very familiar with these things. It is for this reason that several of his shipyards lost power last year.

At that time, he made approximately tens of billions of dollars.

"Then can we rely on our influence to take the lead in preventing shipyards around the world from starting work for them? If they don't have so many helpers, will their development speed directly slow down?" Yes.

said a guy with glasses.

"This method is not possible. The shipbuilding industry in all countries around the world is basically in decline now, and the same is true here. If we reject the order from the energy group, we will lose at least tens of billions of dollars in revenue, and our

Tens of thousands of workers will face unemployment. Another factor is that it will seriously affect the price of steel around the world. Unknowingly, the energy group has been able to influence the price of steel. Its orders are signed when the price of steel is at its lowest.

In fact, our shipyard also suffers a lot. If we use more steel, the price will definitely increase. We have to swallow this bitter pill ourselves." Kamal Nate naturally hopes that he can continue to make money. In his opinion,

Come on, your own navy has been dragged down a lot by others. It is very unwise to stop others at this time, and it may also cause your own side to suffer a big loss.

"Kamal is right. You can't mess around at this time. Besides, our economic department has already issued a warning. We can't let our economy collapse. I think we should not follow the energy group in this arms plan.

It's chaos. This is the batch of warships we need most. I think we should follow our plan." The Minister of Finance does not want the arms race to drag down the entire country's economy. This is how they killed the Soviet Union back then.

Yes, they don't want to follow the old path now, but they are at a disadvantage now. If they don't pursue it in the future, the final result will be swallowed up by them.

Our navy plan? At this moment, several people glanced sideways at the Minister of Finance. What time is it? You are still thinking about saving money. What a joke. This year’s Skull and Bones Navy procurement plan only includes two aircraft carriers and five destroyers.

Just one nuclear submarine and six frigates. A few decades ago, this purchase of hundreds of billions of dollars would have been pretty good, but compared with the trillions of dollars spent by other energy groups, the gap seems to be too big.

The situation on Europa is basically the same as that of the Skull and Bones Society. Their naval plan is similar to that of the Skull and Bones Society, so they are also worried at the moment. More than half of the earth is covered with water. If the navy cannot do it, what will happen in the future?

They are all very aware of the fact that they have to be controlled by others. The fundamental reason why the Sun Never Sets Empire existed back then was because they had naval strength that other places in the world did not have. Now they are going to lose this advantage. Is that right?

Will those unfair contracts befall them? This can be seen from the way Li handles things. This guy can definitely do it.

Just when Li Cong was enthusiastically expanding his own navy, an unexpected incident occurred, which made Li Cong's navy immediately useful. On the South Pacific route, two ten-ships of the shipping company affiliated to the Energy Group

The 10,000-ton oil tanker was sunk and torpedoed in the South Pacific waters. Now the whole world seemed to be blown up. How could such a situation happen? At this time, someone actually attacked the warships of the energy group.

, is this a joke? The Australian Squadron of the Energy Group immediately dispatched two high-speed 8,000-ton destroyers towards the sea area where the accident occurred. The investigation ships of several other major forces also headed towards the sea area where the accident occurred at full speed.

In fact, he is afraid that Li Cong will use this incident as an excuse to provoke another war. No one else can start a war. Although it has only been a small war in recent years, the annual military expenditure is also hundreds of billions of dollars.

As mentioned above, Li Cong, a war madman, has a lot of money, and there is no good harvest to be had against him, so he must investigate clearly and not give Li Cong a chance to get angry. Of course, the other three major powers all want to do this.

For the other two, you can sit back and relax.

The two destroyers that rushed to the scene of the accident were both Poseidon-class destroyers that had just entered service this year. The entire ship was equipped with a 128-unit vertical launch unit. Six 8-unit vertical launchers were located behind the 127mm naval gun in the bow. Four 8-unit mk41

The vertical launcher is located above and behind the helicopter hangar, equipped with ny-66 "Energy" 2mrblock3b and ny6 "Energy" 2erblock4a ship-to-air missiles. "Energy" **2block3b is the latest model in the "Energy" 2 ship-to-air missile family.

One of the most advanced mid-range and long-range ship-to-air missiles in the world. The missile is propelled by a solid rocket motor. It has a length of 4.72 meters, a diameter of 0.343 meters, a wingspan of 1.06 meters, a weight of 706.7 kilograms, a maximum range of 467 kilometers, and an effective range of 467 kilometers.

10 to 20,000 meters, flying speed Mach 2.5, using mid-course inertial radio command correction plus terminal semi-active radar guidance, and adding a set of auxiliary infrared sensors to become a dual-mode terminal guidance, and expanded missile guidance logic calculations

function, allowing the missile to better process information from shipboard sensors and missile seekers, thereby improving its performance against important targets in the final flight stage. The self-developed 6-seat 8-unit vertical launcher is located on the helicopter

At the front and top of the warehouse, 32 units are loaded with "Tianlong" land attack cruise missiles, and the other 16 units are loaded with "Red Shark" anti-submarine missiles.

The two destroyers numbered az01 and az02 were conducting routine patrols in the South Pacific waters. After receiving the order, they immediately rushed towards the accident area at full speed. Their maximum speed was announced to be 29 knots, but at this moment they were all

Demonstrating a speed of 35 knots, it can be said that they are already the fastest in terms of destroyers.

"az02, please pay attention, immediately fly your reconnaissance helicopter to the sea area where the accident occurred. The current distance is 42 nautical miles." Just when it was about to approach the area, the small fleet commander, Captain Lin Haizhong, the captain of az01, ordered az02 to take off the reconnaissance helicopter to see what was there.

What is going on? At the same time, the anti-submarine systems of the two warships are also turned on. It is obvious that this is not a threat from the sea, because the satellite shows that there are no attacking warships around at all, but they cannot see things under the sea. According to them

I think this must have been done by a submarine from some country. No matter who did it, the anti-submarine equipment on their warships could send them to the bottom of the sea.

As the order was issued, the helicopter on the az02 took off suddenly and flew towards the target area. The high-power telescope on the warship could actually see the surrounding situation. There were no hostile ships at all, so the small fleet

Senior staff officers all believed that the submarine was responsible.

"Report, no attacking ships were found on the sea. A small lifeboat was found, and there are confirmed survivors on it. Please send a rescue ship." Ten minutes later, the two soldiers on the helicopter discovered the lifeboat near the sunken ship. I believe it

The people above should all be workers on the ship. az01 and az02 immediately released two small boats and headed there quickly, hoping to find something on these workers.

"Does the sonar show anything around?" Colonel Lin Haizhong asked the sonar soldier in the command room while holding a telescope to see what was going on around him.

"There is no sonar display." This result also means that there is no submarine around. This is really weird, but it has been a few hours since the beginning, and the submarines may have escaped. Thinking of this

Lieutenant Colonel Lin Hai ordered, "Order the anti-submarine helicopters on our ship to expand the search range and make sure to find that damn thing for me." The sinking of the oil tanker made the group lose face in the world. If we can't catch something,

It is absolutely not allowed to bring things in. (To be continued...)
Chapter completed!