What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 385 Fire in the Backyard
Think tank.

"Yamato has not yet developed its fighting capacity."

Brest and Tom had assembled a room full of naval experts who had just completed their assessment of the Taishan.

As with other equipment practices, they usually give nicknames to Russian or Tokyo equipment.

The nickname for the 001 battleship, Taishan, was the simplest; everyone agreed to use "yamato".

The refit of the Taishan has been carried out at the Darian shipyard, and satellites have already taken pictures of most of it, giving a general idea of ​​its armament and radar configuration.

Despite the exaggerated number of missiles and their multiple functions, think tanks are not optimistic about the "new Yamato." Even if it is launched, it is obvious that many indicators have not been achieved. At this stage, it is just an oversized Type 051G.

Finally, the presiding expert concluded:
"She will continue to return to the dock for outfitting or undergo secondary modifications, and will not be combat-ready until 99 or 00."

Completing a comprehensive analysis of a warship in two days is quite fast, and the summary report is almost finished and ready to be provided to the Imperial Navy and the Federation for reference.

Brest nodded, then picked up another document:
"The Type 055 also had its launching ceremony yesterday, let's continue. Also, what should we call it?"

The group seemed to have no real urgency regarding the Type 055 destroyer, and discussed the matter quite leisurely:

"Oh...it seems that the past two years have been too much of a shock to them. They would rather sacrifice quality than build quantity to save face, leaving space for the phased array installation. Now they can only use 'music station'."

"I suggest calling it the Luguang-class, which is also a reinforced Luda-class."

Just as they were about to begin the second round of work, the door was pushed open.

An IAA intelligence officer burst in, waving a stack of documents:

"Hey, the University of Tokyo's super battleship has been launched!"

"..."

Brest: "Sir, this news is from 72 hours ago."

"No, it's the second one, a 100,000-ton battleship, even longer than the Nimitz!"

……

"The Huashan is a 100,000-ton-class comprehensive experimental battleship designed independently by my country and built by Huangpu Shipyard. It adopts a hybrid multi-functional design concept. It not only has an aircraft deck and hangar capable of launching helicopters, but also carries a 610mm large anti-missile gun system, making it an important part of the 'Pioneer Project'..."

The Huashan also symbolizes that my country's shipbuilding industry has reached a new level and joined the ranks of the world's first-class...

On the 23rd, CCTV News featured the Huashan, a ship that almost filled the entire dock's maximum dimensions, on tens of millions of television screens across the country, accompanied by the host's introduction.

Its photo appeared in the newspapers just a little earlier, so the national audience was completely unprepared.

100,000 tons, aviation battleship, the world's largest?
Is this still the same Yellow River Navy that could only rely on Type 037 submarine chasers to hunt monkeys a few years ago?

Besides shocking the domestic community, this incident has also given the entire world a severe shock.

Building the Yamato is a joke, but everyone can tell that its overall cost-effectiveness is not high, so let's just leave it at that.

But even Yamato couldn't satisfy the University of Tokyo. They actually built a 100,000-ton battleship equipped with a 24-inch super gun, which was also an aviation battleship?

Now, military experts and technology companies around the world are starting to have second thoughts:
Could it be that these ancient relics of giant ships and cannons haven't completely died out yet, and there's still some strange technology tree they haven't finished exploring?
Although the University of Tokyo is weak in science and technology, the world, which has only just emerged from 40 years of Cold War, still holds a strong mystical impression of the country and has some strange stereotypes.

After all, they are a major power capable of producing missiles and rockets. They have devoted themselves to research for decades. What if they actually discover something amazing?

Only the Russians in the north were overjoyed:
Upon closer inspection, the Taishan and Huashan are simply enhanced versions of aircraft-carrying cruisers!
Since this thing can be recognized, can't we sell our pile of scrapped 1143s at home for a good price?
……

"Twenty-four inches?" Johnson put his feet off the table and gestured with his hand to indicate the size.

In the past, people often described the caliber of battleships as being large enough to fit a person inside the gun barrel, but in reality, only very slender sailors or children could barely squeeze in.

But at 610 millimeters, an adult can easily squeeze in, even with plenty of room.

The subordinate nodded earnestly:

"Yes, they just unveiled her yesterday in a secret dock at the Huangpu Shipyard... Judging from the photos, she is about 350 meters long, much longer than the Nimitz, and 10 tons may be a conservative figure, with the actual displacement being over 11 metric tons."

Although the images released by Huashan show it in the dock, we can guess its location fairly accurately by looking at the dimensions of various reference objects.

Even though they found it hard to believe, experts still had to admit that this thing was indeed the largest, largest-caliber, and most bizarrely designed vessel in the history of global naval shipbuilding.

"Because there is too little information, the IAA is trying to obtain more intelligence. The current analysis report only contains some superficial information."

After his subordinate finished speaking, Johnson picked up the multi-angle photos of the Huashan warship collected from public sources and the layout diagram drawn by experts, and examined them carefully. After a long while, he clicked his tongue and said:

"God, they must be insane. If I were their minister, I would make the shipyard throw away all those damn main guns and missiles. An aircraft carrier is far more useful than that!"

At this moment, the subordinate suddenly remembered something:
"More than a month ago, the IAA seemed to have mentioned that an informant had intelligence that a second battleship existed."

Johnson immediately said:
“Give them more information immediately, and then… no, they must participate in the Antarctic operation, and use these two battleships to replace the Missouri and New Jersey.”

Subordinate: "But these two ships have just been launched and are probably not combat-ready."

"No, no, no, all I need is the main gun and the armor. As long as it can be driven out, it will be useful."

Although he made it sound easy, Johnson clearly knew there were many difficulties involved, but this was an opportunity that could not be missed.

Moreover... he's the Minister of Operations; he only cares about getting things, how to get them is the business of those suit-wearing gentlemen.

However, just as he was pondering whether he wanted the Huashan or the Taishan, or both, there was an urgent knock on the office door.

The door wasn't closed. Johnson, noticing his assistant's furrowed brow, even joked, and asked:

"Are you here to tell me that the University of Tokyo has launched another 20-ton battleship?"

However, the assistant dared not respond, and instead said seriously:
"Minister, the main fleet of the task force was attacked by air an hour ago. They shot down four unidentified enemy aircraft and have entered combat status."

"Where!"

Johnson immediately stood up, picked up the telegram, walked to the map, and quickly located the position of the main fleet:

Because the USS Bremerton lost contact, the Missouri task force temporarily docked in Columbia, while the main fleet planned to head to Guyana. The location at this time... doesn't it look like the site of the destruction of the Tirpitz task force in the last great battle?

He immediately confirmed again:
"Aircraft? Fixed-wing aircraft? The Second Fleet?"

"The nationality is unclear, but it was a small jet aircraft that was shot down by missiles when it got close. We are currently trying to salvage the wreckage."

"Forget about the wreckage, it must be the Second Fleet. Get Fern away from the shore and away from land as soon as possible. There must be a secret Hans base in Lamei!"

Johnson slammed his pen down on the table as he spoke:
"The IAA is becoming more and more useless. It's one thing for a battleship from the East to suddenly appear out of nowhere, but Lamei is what they call their backyard. Last time they confidently told me that they had not found any trace of the Second Fleet!"

But now their planes, even their planes, dare to take off from our backyard to attack the great Imperial aircraft carriers!

(End of this chapter)