"Is 15,000 tons?" The crown prince fell into deep thought. The development of the 8-inch, 10,000 tons heavy cruiser is actually a product of the treaty, not a product of normal naval development. The 6-inch artillery light cruiser is the need of the world's first-class naval powers, because it can be well compatible with anti-destroyers, reconnaissance and cruise colonies. It has a high cost-effectiveness. How did heavy cruisers come about? This is a targeted product. Some naval powers do not need to consider patrolling colonies and cross-ocean operations, so they will definitely use tonnage for offense and defense. Therefore, this made those targeted powerful countries express dissatisfaction.

So, the powerful country with spare energy began to consider building super cruisers, the Americans' Alaska super cruiser, and the Japanese Super Arctic Cruise are the product of this targeted competition, which is more capable of fighting, resisting, and running faster than cruisers! Then it paid a very high cost. In fact, the German pocket battleships were also targeted. The same was true for the battle cruisers planned by the Dutch!

The final result was that the Americans built two Alaska-class super cruisers, and the Japanese finally gave up the flashy Super Arctic Cruise. The German pocket battleships were proven to be average. The Dutch also gave up the battleships. In fact, when it comes to the Super Arctic Cruise, it is better to build fast battleships. Of course, except for the countries in this special situation in the Netherlands, because their funds are enough to build two battleships, but they will definitely not be able to build two fast battleships......

Therefore, if nothing unexpected happens, all countries will find that if the tonnage of cruisers is too wide, then this vicious competition will not benefit everyone. Therefore, the best result is to make a relatively balanced restriction. Let both sides feel that this warship can be accepted by each other, and will not greatly depreciate their fleets due to improvements from other countries.

After Hippel slightly relaxed the restrictions on the basis of the 8-inch 10,000-ton cruiser in history, he met these two items. First, the 8-inch gun is indeed enough to suppress light cruisers and can meet the pursuit of combat effectiveness of Japan, Britain, France and Italians. Second, limiting the tonnage to below 15,000 tons is also beneficial to Germany and the United States, because they don’t have to worry about their pursuit of range and airworthiness being suppressed by the opponent’s warships of the same level, because for the defense of 8-inch guns, the displacement of 15,000 tons is relatively abundant, so they can balance other performance while taking into account soft performance! This is the so-called value preservation!

As for changing guns, this kind of thing must exist. For example, if you endure, you can choose to equip 6 12-inch cannons. However, the number of 6 cannons is still relatively small. In fact, most of the main gunboats choose at least 8 main cannons as the bottom line, which can already indicate that the efficiency of the 6 main cannons is actually relatively low. For example, the pocket battleship of the Earl Spey exposed the issue of artillery distribution in the battle of British cruisers. If it is designed from a long distance, the 6 cannons are almost the lower limit of correcting the firing. Even if one cannon fails, long-range shooting will be very affected. Therefore, navies of all countries will consider whether such a gun change is worth it!

As for the 15,000-ton warships equipped with more than 8 10-inch guns? Well, that's all you can say is that you're thinking too much... This will definitely sacrifice some performance. After all, the most radical Japanese and Americans only installed 10 8-inch guns. Moreover, the defense of treaty cruisers is generally problematic. Later Baltimore and others also have this tonnage, so why don't they still use 9 8-inch guns?

Therefore, for some mature naval powers, they will recognize the significance of this clause, which can not only satisfy the demands of different aspects to the greatest extent, but also stop vicious competition and prevent the arms race from developing in an unpredictable direction. If Ruprecht personally attends the Washington Conference, he will be sure to convince all parties to put their performance in a reasonable range.

For the German shipbuilding industry, a 15,000-ton heavy patrol hull is also more suitable for production. A 15,000-ton heavy patrol is definitely a high-speed hull with a relatively large length-width ratio, with a length of about 200 meters and a width of over 20 meters. This length is more suitable for most of the current naval ship standards of the German Empire. After all, in this plane, the German fleet has achieved overall high-speed speed, so it is inevitable that the hull will be lengthened. The length of the ship is also more suitable for warships of this size. The productivity will be better, at least there are enough ships.

Maybe someone asked, once the treaty is signed, the number of heavy cruisers will be relatively limited, right? That's for sure. But as a traverser, Ruprecht naturally knew some of the uses of cruisers' hulls in History 2, such as being used to change them into light aircraft carriers! In history, the most famous first-class light aircraft carrier in the US Navy, the Independent-class aircraft carrier, was modified with the cruiser's hull!

In actual combat, when the large US aircraft carriers were not in service, the nine independent-class light aircraft carriers that have been put into service have undoubtedly played an important role in naval warfare. However, it is undeniable that independent-class aircraft carriers still have many problems. Generally speaking, the number of carriers is small in size and the number of aircraft is relatively low, and the release of aircraft is mainly fighter jets. It is enough to do odd jobs, but it is still difficult to output.

The independent-class aircraft carrier was modified from the hull of the Cleveland-class light cruiser. So, why use Cleveland? The reason is very simple. There are too many cruisers of this class. In history, Americans built a total of 27 Cleveland-class light cruisers, and 9 were converted into light aircraft carriers...

It is enough to use the performance of independence to deal with the weak Japanese army in history, but in this plane, if a large-scale naval battle broke out between Germany and the United States, the ability of independence to be obviously not enough. The reason is very simple. Everyone is a super heavyweight player. I guess this plane, such as Midway Island and Montana, will also show off their strength in the second battle?

In the crown prince's plan, the hull size of the German heavy cruiser should be 210 meters long and about 25 meters wide, reducing the draft. The length and width ratio of this hull is obviously shorter and thicker than that of Kaohsiung and other ships in history. For example, the Kaohsiung-class heavy cruiser in history has a length of 203 meters, and the width is 19 meters at the beginning and it is 20.7 meters after modification. Compared with Kaohsiung, the length of the German heavy cruiser is slightly longer and has a much larger width. In this way, it is almost impossible to reach a highway of more than 35 knots, but it is still not a big problem to reach 33 knots.
Chapter completed!