If possible, Stark is willing to install all the Trident C4 equipped with anti-ship warheads on an Ohio-class submarine, and incorporate this submarine into a special mixed fleet, shoulder the heavy responsibility of anti-ship combat, and let other Ohio-classes do their jobs.

Unfortunately, reality is not so ideal.

These missiles are installed on five Ohio-class submarines, and each of them is 14, which means they are just filled with two vertical launch systems.

As long as five Ohio-class ships take action at the same time, the missiles launched can form a saturated attack!

But the problem is that these submarines are also loaded with more land-attack cruise missiles.

In fact, Stark has long raised this question to the Navy Command, hoping to allow a few Ohio-class ships to be equipped with anti-ship "Trident" C4 and be incorporated into the aircraft carrier battle group, thereby reducing the sea-control and anti-ship missions of carrier-based aviation and surface warships.

In theory, the anti-ship of an Ohio-class ship exceeded the entire aircraft carrier battle group.

To be honest, there are no warships, and even no fleets that can project 200 heavy anti-ship missiles at the same time in a single attack.

Even the Air Force bomber group does not have this ability!

In fact, the Newland Navy has always had a similar plan, namely the equipment project.

However, it is not a submarine used to carry heavy anti-ship missiles, but a cruiser-level or even larger surface warships.

That's right, it's the "Arsenal Ship".

According to the planning made by the Newland Navy, the arsenal ship is actually a battleship in the missile era.

This kind of warship has a displacement of tens of thousands of tons, second only to aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, surpassing all warships, including cruisers. Unlike other warships, the arsenal ship is not equipped with expensive electronic equipment, and its main mission is to carry and launch various types of missiles, especially anti-ship missiles, and cruise missiles used to strike ground targets. With its powerful carrying capacity, the arsenal ship will be the main strike force in the fleet, so that other warships, including aircraft carriers, can concentrate their strength to do their jobs well.

The Newland Navy did not choose the Ohio-class submarine with the characteristics of arsenal ship, and there is a good reason.

In fleet combat, it is too difficult to cooperate with submarines.

Because it is not equipped with electronic equipment, it is necessary to cooperate with other warships, such as relying on battlefield information provided by other warships, the arsenal ship must frequently communicate with other warships during combat, and the submarines are born with this defect.

In addition, in the eyes of the Newland Navy, the Ohio-class is not equipped with enough missiles.

According to the tactical performance indicators proposed by the Navy, the arsenal ship must be able to carry at least 288 vertically launched missiles, preferably up to 432.

The "Ohio" class's ammunition load capacity is less than 40% of the highest standard.

The most important thing is that the Ohio class cannot carry ballistic missiles.

To this day, the Newland Navy is still focusing on building anti-ship ballistic missiles, and the development of arsenal ships is related to the anti-ship ballistic missiles being developed.

In a sense, the arsenal ship was developed as an anti-ship to missile carrier platform.

Without anti-ship ballistic missiles, there will definitely be no arsenal ship.

Here, it has a very close relationship with the front end of the attack chain, that is, searching for targets, obtaining target information and launching attacks.

As mentioned earlier, ballistic missiles can fly thousands of kilometers or even thousands of kilometers away within a few minutes, while cruise missiles need to fly for several hours.

For fleets that have been sailing, minutes and hours are not the same concept.

The key is that the attack completed within a few minutes requires several orders of magnitude less than what takes several hours to complete!

This feature has unparalleled value to the arsenal ship.

In fact, it means using anti-ship ballistic missiles to launch an attack, and there is less information exchanged in the fire control process, so there is no need to equip the arsenal ship with an expensive fire control system.

According to the combat vision of the Newland Navy, only by obtaining the position information of the target warship or fleet, the arsenal ship can launch an attack with anti-ship to missiles.

If it is replaced with a cruise missile, it will definitely be a lot of trouble.

It is precisely this that the Newland Navy clearly stated that the arsenal ships carry at least 64 anti-ship ballistic missiles with a range of more than 1,500 nautical miles, and it is best to reach 2,000 nautical miles.

As for other missiles, they are mainly used to deal with ground targets.

Relatively speaking, the development of the arsenal ship is not very difficult.

The five shipyards participating in the bidding have proposed design plans that can meet the requirements of the navy, and without exception, adopted the construction standards of merchant ships. Two of them have also proposed to use existing merchant ships for transformation, or directly use the design drawings of merchant ships.

The biggest advantage of doing this is actually that it can significantly reduce design and construction costs.

It is not that the shipyard is saving for the Navy, but that the Navy has limited the price to $500 million in its bid, and it also requires the contractor to sign a fixed amount of contract.

As for whether civilian ships are suitable, the Navy does not think there is much problem.

The reason is also very simple. The arsenal ship is a missile carrier platform, and it must be organized into the aircraft carrier battle group and is protected by escort warships.

Then, the arsenal ship does not require much powerful survivability.

In addition, if it must be built according to the standards of warships, there is no big problem. The shipyard will definitely be able to do it, but it is impossible to keep the construction cost within 500 million dollars.

Compared with the arsenal ship, anti-ship ballistic missiles as core weapons are the real trouble.

As far as Stark knows, even if it can develop anti-ship ballistic missiles, it is extremely expensive, and it is definitely impossible to purchase in large quantities like cruise missiles.

In fact, cruise missiles are also very expensive.

Not to mention the "Trident" C4 strategic cruise missile, even the "Tommahawk" tactical cruise missiles, the Newland military's purchase price is more than 1 million dollars.

Obviously, such expensive cruise missiles have put a big question mark on the existence value of the arsenal ship.

According to the standard of 432, even if all of them are tactical cruise missiles, their total value is more than 400 million dollars, which is basically the same as the cost of the arsenal ship.

Is it appropriate to have the arsenal ship with extremely poor damage resistance carry so many and such expensive missiles?

That's why Congress has rejected the construction plan submitted by the Navy three times and also asked the Navy to try to improve the survivability of the arsenal ship.

In fact, there are also tactical problems.

The arsenal ship itself has no combat power, and is more like the navy's "strategic bomber" and is more similar to the strategic bomber of the air force. To make the arsenal ship work, it is definitely inseparable from other warships, especially aircraft carriers, that is, cover provided by carrier-based aviation.

If the air supremacy is lost, the arsenal ship may not be able to survive for even one minute.

In other words, even with the arsenal ship, the aircraft carrier is still the absolute core of the fleet.

Since we are building a special mixed fleet around aircraft carriers, what reason is there not to develop carrier-based aviation, but to build something that is not even a warship?

Upgrade the arsenal ship into a warship?

Obviously, this is absolutely impossible.

If the arsenal ship is built strictly according to the standards of warships and the tactical performance indicators are not reduced, the cost of the arsenal ship will definitely be the same as that of the aircraft carrier. If expensive missiles are included, the actual maintenance price of the arsenal ship will not be lower than that of the aircraft carrier equipped with dozens of carrier-based aircraft.

As for the efficiency and cost ratio of combat, the two are even less comparable.

To put it bluntly, since you are not short of money, why not build a few more aircraft carriers?

In fact, Stark is a staunch supporter of aircraft carriers and has always opposed the development of arsenal ships, at least not the kind of arsenal ships we are using now.

In his opinion, the arsenal ship should be mainly ship-based aviation, and it is an effective supplement to the existing assault forces.

In other words, the mission of the arsenal ship is to use the missiles it carries to perform the first round of assault missions, improve the penetration rate, and reduce the combat losses of the carrier-based aviation.

The same is true for sea-making operations.

After discovering the enemy fleet, the anti-ship missiles launched by the arsenal ship conduct a first round of assault, which consumes the combat power of the enemy fleet, especially the air defense firepower. If it can be destroyed, even if it is the main battleship that paralyzes the enemy fleet, it would be even better. Next, the carrier-based aviation team launched the assault, using anti-ship missiles, precisely guided bombs and other weapons to destroy and annihilate all enemy ships, and achieve the victory of the decisive battle of the fleet.

Just the first round of assault is enough.

At the critical moment of life and death of hundreds, or even hundreds of heavy anti-ship missiles, no fleet can send fighter jets to perform interception missions.

In fact, as long as the main air defense warships in the enemy fleet can be destroyed, it will be accomplished.

Without air defense warship cover and it is difficult to send air defense fighters, even Liang Xia's fleet will definitely not be able to withstand the subsequent air strikes.

From a different perspective, arranging the carrier-based aviation forces to perform the first round of assault missions will be another result.

Don't forget that the Newland Navy lacks not only aircraft carriers, but also combat aircraft with advanced performance and more valuable high-quality pilots.

If it really strikes head-on, the Newland Navy has no chance of winning.

According to this idea, Stark proposed a few years ago that there is no need to build arsenal ship, and the "Ohio" class can perform anti-ship missions.

The method is also very simple, which is to replace the anti-ship warhead for the "Trident" C4 on it, and then incorporate it into the aircraft carrier battle group like other warships.

A question about command?

Let the Ohio class partner with the aircraft carrier follow the aircraft carrier to ensure that it can float in Shanghai at any time so that it can communicate with other warships.

No matter how nervous you are, it is not bad for these few minutes!

168 "Trident" C4s were launched at a time, even if the opponent was a special mixed fleet with 3 super aircraft carriers, it was more than enough!

Unfortunately, a few years ago, the Starks were slight and no one took his advice seriously.

However, a few months ago, Stark's suggestion finally gained the attention of the Navy Command and immediately entered the operation stage.

At this moment, six Ohio-class ships affiliated to the Xiluoyang Fleet were overhauled in the shipyard. The main project was to replace the anti-ship warheads for the Trident C4 missiles on board. After completion, these six submarines will travel to the East Ocean through the Wangxi Canal.

This arrangement is only because the factory that produces anti-ship warheads, that is, the arsenal of Thunder Company, is in the East Coast region.

Of course, it is also related to the fact that the "Ohio" class submarine of the East Force must perform combat missions.

According to Stark's deployment, the 10 "Ohio" class were divided into two teams, of which the 1st team was in the rear, and the strategic deterrence mission was carried out to launch a strike on the Liangxia Empire's land or frontier military bases with great strategic value when necessary. Another team was organized in the 51st Special Mixed Fleet, to be precise, behind the fleet, and directly obeyed Stark's command.

These five "Ohio" classes are all equipped with the "Trident" C4 with anti-ship capabilities.

The problem is here!

A few days ago, the five Ohio-classes of the 1st Team sailed west as planned to go to the western waters of the Northeastern Ocean that could attack Liang Xia's homeland. Moreover, these five submarines were in the highest combat readiness and only followed the orders issued by the Supreme Commander, that is, the president or the chairman of the Joint Conference who exercised military command on behalf of the president. Not to mention Stark, even the commander of the East Ocean Fleet had no right to adjust the combat deployment.

Stark can command only five submarines from the 2nd Team.
To be continued...