Relatively speaking, the Navy's technological revolution came later than the Army.

As early as 2040, when the Army's ground warfare platform made a major breakthrough, some people proposed that cheap fully electric submarines should be built in large quantities instead of fully nuclear-powered fleets, so as to reduce the cost of shipbuilding and quickly expand the fleet size.

At that time, Mu Haoyang was indeed moved.[]

Theoretically, after obtaining effective support from the naval base, as long as the mass-energy density of the fuel cell can be increased by three times, it can replace nuclear power. You should know that, in addition to aircraft carriers, the cost of fully electric warships powered by fuel cells is 20% lower than that of nuclear-powered warships. For the Navy, this means that one-quarter of the warships can be built with the same investment.

However, before the outbreak of the war, no one knew when fuel cells with an energy density of 1,600 voltam per kilogram could be released. You should know that in early 2052, the most advanced fuel cells were only half of this value, and they were still in the laboratory production stage. It was not until early 2054 that the production process of the second-generation fuel cells matured and began mass production in April 2054. The third-generation fuel cells with a mass-energy density of 1,200 voltam per kilogram (some people call it the second-generation and a half, because the planned third-generation fuel cells should reach 1,600 voltam per kilogram) are still under development. It is expected that the main technical difficulties can only be broken through at the earliest in 2056, and mass-produced in 2057 is already a very good result. In this way, fuel cells with a mass-energy density of 1,600 voltam per kilogram may not be mass-produced in 2058.

There is no doubt that during the war, the Navy will not be in a hurry to plan what will happen after 2058.

Of course, some people have proposed compromise plans, or technical supplementary plans.

The most influential technical supplement plan is to replace some medium-sized nuclear-powered ships with all-electric ships, and organize these ships into aircraft carrier combat groups so that they can replenish power from nuclear-powered warships at any time, thereby reducing the construction cost of aircraft carrier combat groups.

There is no doubt that this is a very attractive solution.

In June 2053, Mu Haoyang approved the design plan for an electric anti-submarine warship code-named DF-1, that is, to replace fusion reactors with fuel cells, reducing the construction cost of anti-submarine warships by 20%. These electric anti-submarine warships will all be included in the aircraft carrier battle group.

At that time, there was also an electric large warship design plan code-named dd-1, but it was rejected by Mu Haoyang.

Practical combat has proven that large comprehensive warships have strong independent combat capabilities, and when aircraft carriers are insufficient, large comprehensive warships often form combat groups separately. More importantly, combat tasks that require large comprehensive warships to perform, especially independent combat operations, are mainly dominated by the use of large-caliber electromagnetic guns, while fusion nuclear reactors are still the basic guarantee for providing sufficient power supply.

During the Micronesian naval battle, the four large integrated warships in the reconnaissance formation that went south consumed 5,000 tons of electricity reserved by the first generation of fuel cells when they attacked the US fleet. When they were changed to electric warships, the fuel cells carried by the "Heilongjiang" class would not exceed 8,000 tons. In other words, a gun battle lasted for several hours consumed 60% of the electricity. Obviously, the remaining electricity was not enough to allow the large integrated warship to perform other tasks, or even to return to the base.

In response to this situation, some engineers have proposed new solutions.

The most effective way is to let a few large integrated warships use nuclear power in an aircraft carrier battle group, while the others are powered by fuel cells.

The problem is that this plan also has obvious shortcomings.

First of all, how to solve the power transmission problem during combat? You must know that even in the past battles, large integrated warships were arranged in relatively neat formations, but in the future battles, all large integrated warships can still be together? If power is required by cables, there is a serious problem, that is, when tactical maneuvers are carried out, it cannot be supplemented for power. From a technical point of view, this solution is only possible after solving the wireless transmission technical problem of power.

In fact, the solution is not nothing, it is just not mature yet.

At that time, microwave power transmission technology had already been introduced, that is, first converting electrical energy into microwaves and transmitting it in a directed manner, and then converting the electromagnetic field energy of the microwave into electrical energy. The problem is that in 2053, the conversion efficiency of this technology was only one percent!

Theoretically, even if the power is transported in a one-to-one manner and two sets of nuclear power systems are equipped on the warship that undertakes the power supply, the efficiency of microwave power transmission must reach at least 10% in order to replenish the power of another warship in the most common tactical environment.

Of course, with mature technology, there must be supporting tactics.

Tactical, the biggest problem is how to protect the core warships that act as "power stations".

You should know that on the battlefield, the enemy will definitely attack the core warships, causing other warships to lose their vital power supply. In fact, as long as the core warships are destroyed by the enemy, the combat capabilities of other warships in the formation will be reduced and even lose their combat capabilities.

There is no doubt that the Navy cannot take risks with its main warships, and it is even more impossible to take risks with its fleet.

It is also true that Mu Haoyang only approved the construction of fully electric anti-submarine warships. The reason is very simple. Anti-submarine warships do not undertake ground strike tasks and are not equipped with large-caliber electromagnetic guns. Their main mission is to cover aircraft carriers, so they will definitely accompany aircraft carriers during combat. In this way, anti-submarine warships can basically obtain sufficient power supply from aircraft carriers at any time except for combat state. If there are large integrated warships in the formation, then anti-submarine warships do not need to rely on aircraft carriers, and will not have an impact on aircraft carriers' combat operations.

Of course, with the beginning, there will be subsequent development.

In a sense, the development of the fleet's all-electric direction is a historical trend, and what is lacking is only necessary technology and new tactical systems.

In fact, this development direction of full electrification ultimately completely changed the Navy.

Of course, it is not just the changes brought about by full electrification, but only after it is combined with another technology that the Navy has been reborn.

In a sense, the technological revolution eventually "eliminated" the navy.

This crucial technology is the "gravity field technology" mentioned above.

Before the war broke out, China had conducted in-depth research in the field of gravity field technology and achieved some very gratifying results, such as finding a way to shield the gravity field. Although according to the information disclosed after the war, before the war broke out, American scientists also made similar discoveries, that is, some rare metal alloys specially arranged on the atomic level could weaken the gravity field. However, during the entire war, China's research in this field has maintained a leading position, or even an absolute leading position.

In fact, Mu Haoyang also has great hope for this technology that breaks all previous physical theories.

You should know that if the "gravity field technology" has practical capabilities, the Navy will no longer be a navy, because the Navy will no longer need warships to navigate the sea.

Of course, this is also Mu Haoyang's ultimate expectation for the technological revolution.

According to the information disclosed after the war, at the end of 2052, Mu Haoyang provided nearly 300 billion yuan in research funds to Lu Wen's scientific research institutions, and increased it to 800 billion yuan in 2053. In 2054, after receiving the support of Huang Hanlin, Mu Haoyang also established a "Xingtian Engineering Project Team" in the Ministry of War, investing trillions of yuan and mobilizing hundreds of thousands of scientific researchers and engineering personnel. In terms of scale, the "Xingtian Project" surpassed the "Manhattan Project" during World War II, and its ultimate impact far exceeded the "Manhattan Project" and became the greatest and most significant military project that changed human civilization in history.

However, in the mid-2053, not to mention Mu Haoyang, even Lu Wen could not see any hope.

In fact, in 2053, the Ministry of War also launched many seemingly whimsical but extremely creative military research projects. The most representative one is the "Aerospace Mother Ship" project proposed by the Air Force. The core content of the project is to use the powerful energy provided by the fusion nuclear reactor to build a "Aerospace Mother Ship" with a mass of more than 50,000 tons that can carry 100 fighter jets and patrol the air for several months.

Obviously, the project targets the Navy's aircraft carrier.

Theoretically, there are no technically insurmountable problems for the "space mothership", but the tonnage must be reduced, and the number of carriers must be appropriately reduced. The biggest problem is the survival ability of the "space mothership", that is, whether such a big guy flying at high altitudes has sufficient self-defense capabilities.

Interestingly, as the Marshal of the Navy, Mu Haoyang did not reject this project, but instead devoted great enthusiasm.

In 2055, the project entered the project implementation stage. The genius designer Zhang Bo first built a 10,000-ton-class "Aerospace Mothership" with 12 aircraft carriers, and was named "Flying" and carried out two years of engineering test flights.

At that time, the Ministry of War had spent nearly 800 billion yuan in scientific research funds on the project.

In fact, the performance of the "Flying" was not ideal, and many problems were exposed during the test flight, which directly led to the "Aerospace Mothership" project being converted into a technical reserve. Importantly, the efforts made by scientists were not in vain and were eventually exploited in the next super military project.

In a sense, Mu Haoyang's emphasis on technology not only changed the end of this war, but also changed the entire human civilization. It is also undeniable that Mu Haoyang was able to attach great importance to technology. In addition to having a high education, he was also closely related to his wife who served as the chief science and technology consultant of the military. In fact, many people later did not forget Lu Wen when evaluating Mu Haoyang's contributions, and many people even believed that most of Mu Haoyang's contributions in science and technology belonged to Lu Wen.
Chapter completed!