Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 507

Chapter 505: How strong will the alliance fleet be in four years?

The Empire dislikes aircraft carriers, but Gu Hang has no prejudice against them.

Or rather, he doesn’t have the conditions to be prejudiced right now.

The Zhuge-class, after all, is a battleship-class warship.

What’s wrong with being an aircraft carrier? What’s wrong with being expensive? What’s wrong with not conforming to the mainstream?

The quality is there!

Gu Hang likely won’t be able to build a ship of this caliber until he’s saved up for his next million-level ten-draw streak.

Furthermore, just because it doesn’t conform to the mainstream style of the Imperial Navy doesn’t mean it’s weak.

Similar to the Command-class, the Zhuge-class’s core component is a catapult deck, used to “launch” fighter jets directly into the faces of enemy ships.

However, unlike light aircraft carriers like the Command-class, a heavy space carrier like the Zhuge-class can launch more than just three different types of fighter jets.

It can even shoot patrol ships into the face.

How can a small ship defeat a large ship and achieve a miraculous victory?

A long-range firefight would be a sure-fire defeat, with no chance of penetrating defenses. A single volley would shatter ship and shield alike.

But a close encounter would be a different story. Slow-firing heavy torpedoes are deadly weapons. And at close range, they’re difficult to intercept.

If that proves impossible, a patrol ship ramming in would be far more devastating than a single artillery barrage.

Even at its most extreme, with a bit more overbuilt technology, the Zhuge-class could even launch a destroyer!

Gu Hang actually calculated the technical specifications, and the largest catapult deck could actually launch the Alliance’s most commonly used Rage Shark destroyer. While

the Rage Shark is only five or six kilometers long, the Zhuge-class is even larger, reaching a whopping twenty-six kilometers, even larger than the twenty-one-kilometer Retribution-class. With modifications to its hangar and catapult deck, it’s possible to absorb a Rage Shark.

If a Raging Shark were to truly land a blow, even a legitimate enemy battleship would likely be more than just startled; there’s a high chance it would be destroyed.

The cost is a bit high. Destroyers are expensive, but the Zhuge-class’s conversion into a catapult destroyer is too extreme. To accommodate this, there’s virtually no remaining combat power. After launching a destroyer, the remaining available space is minimal. The battle becomes a one-shot deal, with no endurance, making it unsuitable.

Conversely, what the Raging Shark can do can be accomplished with a few more patrol ships.

However, to complement the carrier-launched ships, the corresponding launched warships require specialized design.

First, they must be extremely agile and fast. After launching, they won’t simply pierce the enemy’s shields or void shields. Patrol ships, with their small size and agility, can find better attack positions, even burrowing into the shields of larger enemy ships.

Second, their burst firepower must be substantial. To achieve this, sustained firepower and ammunition payload can be completely sacrificed. These are pointless, as they don’t last long. Carrying more shells is better than carrying larger ones that can unleash devastating damage on larger ships.

Forget defenses; just make a few adjustments to the energy shields and hull armor to prevent them from being easily destroyed by intercepting fire. Otherwise, even the best design, a small patrol ship, sent into an enemy fleet, regardless of its thick shields and armor, will have little impact on the outcome.

As long as it can hold out until the patrol ship unleashes all its firepower, then it’s destroyed.

With this overall approach, the Alliance will soon finalize a new patrol ship type called the Swordfish.

It’s essentially a self-destruct ship: thin, fast, and agile, it lacks endurance, and lacks even the ability to travel long distances or traverse astral tunnels. Its only advantage is its ability to neutralize an entire ship’s firepower within minutes. These firepowers include 8 Sky-Splitting Axe missiles, 4 Dongfeng Fen missiles, and two torpedo missiles converted from Dongfeng Fen missiles.

This torpedo missile has limited penetration capabilities, but its accuracy at close range is guaranteed, and it’s also adept at penetrating shields and armor. Crucially, its explosive power is nearly five times that of a standard L-type missile like the Dongfeng Fen.

This means that if unintercepted, a single strike could decimate a cruiser, and a large battleship could inflict significant damage.

From this perspective, the Zhuge-class, capable of continuously launching eight patrol ships and thousands of fighters, is quite formidable.

In a one-on-one duel, Gu Hang doubts that the current Alliance flagship, the “Burning Star,” could withstand a Zhuge-class attack; it would almost certainly be crushed.

Unless both sides deploy substantial escort fleets, the outcome might be uncertain.

However, the Zhuge-class is also more expensive than the Retribution-class; if you factor in the thousands of fighters and eight special attack ships, the cost per ship approaches 80 billion.

Construction takes eight years.

Even with the black box’s support, it would still take another four years for the first Zhuge-class aircraft carrier to be completed.

However, considering this, the Alliance Navy’s strength will have significantly increased in four years.

If all shipbuilding plans go smoothly, the Alliance will possess five top-tier battleships. Among them will be the battleship “Nova” and the as-yet-unnamed first Zhuge-class aircraft carrier. In addition, there will be three battlecruisers, two of which will be of the Alliance’s Holy Grail class; the third will be the flagship of the current Yunluo Fleet. While technically it belongs to the Imperial Navy, in reality, the Alliance cannot let go of the Yunluo Fleet it has already swallowed.

It’s a “Changlong-class” battlecruiser, and its performance is not significantly different from the Holy Grail class in all aspects, though it’s slower and has thicker armor.

Besides these five battleships, aircraft carriers, and battlecruisers, the Alliance could amass nearly thirty Moon-class cruisers by the time the Pegasus Fleet, Yunluo Fleet, Alliance Fleet, and future production are combined. That’s

not to mention the other destroyers and frigates.

Such a fleet is truly formidable.

Gu Hang wondered: four years from now, if the Eastern Universe’s main fleet were to be deployed, would it be able to defeat my fleet? Could

you, Iron Fury Stone, amass five more battleship-class vessels?

Well… I suppose you could, but at least the Alliance’s navy now possessed the capability to fight to the death.

Satisfied, Gu Hang now simply focused on developing his forces.

He would thoroughly digest the entire Dragon Eagle Star Region, save money, and use time to improve the quality of his navy. Add to that the increasingly powerful army, the Phoenix Chapter, the Sisters of the Holy Lily, the Glory Guards, the Stormcasters, and the Alliance would have a host of high-quality units at its disposal.

Add to that the Dragon Eagle Star Region, which had become rich and powerful thanks to Gu Hang’s various gift points, and he would have become the strongest in the entire region.

However, the peaceful development period that Gu Hang longed for did not come.

Only three months after his return to the Dragon Eagle Star Region, the “Princess’s Rebellion” officially broke out.

(End of this chapter)