In August, after deliberating on the construction plans of the "Tuna" and "Great Wall" class submarines, Mu Haoyang turned his attention to the battlefield.

For the Chinese Navy, submarines have become an indispensable combat force.

Judging from the situation at that time, because the construction of the "Great Wall" class was planned at the beginning of the year, but several key technologies were not yet mature, the construction work was dragged down again and again, so the real focus was the "tuna" class all-electric submarine that was highly anticipated by the Navy.[]

The most important thing in this submarine project is the second-generation fuel cell.

To put it bluntly, if the second-generation fuel cell cannot be put into production on time, then the "tuna" class is just a twice-magnified "stingray" class, and its performance will not be significantly improved. Only with the second-generation fuel cell, the "tuna" class can become a truly "strategic submarine" and be able to operate independently in the ocean for more than one month, perform tasks that only nuclear submarines could perform in the past.

However, in mid-2053, no one can be sure that the second-generation fuel cell will be put into production in a few months.

Mu Haoyang must make two arrangements: one is to convince Qi Kaiwei to give priority to the purchase of second-generation fuel cells, and after the production increases, replace the battery module for the ground war platform; the other is to make second-hand preparations, that is, if the second-generation fuel cells cannot be put into production smoothly, first equip the "tuna"-class with the first-generation fuel cells to make them have combat capabilities, and then replace the battery module later.

This is also a clear instruction given by Mu Haoyang after deliberating on the construction plan.

Of course, this is mainly done to ensure that the construction of the submarine can proceed smoothly and will not be delayed due to battery problems.

A few months later, the series of deployments made by Mu Haoyang played a role.

At that time, eight shipyards in China were able to build conventional submarines below 10,000 tons. In addition, the Naval Shipyard in Karachi, Pakistan, the Cochin Shipyard and Visakhapatnam Shipyard in India, the Guaratina Shipyard in Malaysia, the Cam Ran Bay Shipyard in Vietnam and the Rayong Shipyard in Thailand all had the ability to build large conventional submarines. There were as many as 14 shipyards in the group, and more than 50 shipboards were available. Wuhan Shipyard and Wuhu Shipyard alone had six large submarines and shipboards.

At the end of June 2053, Wuhan Shipyard and Wuhu Shipyard were the first to start the construction of the "tuna" class.

In fact, at this time, the Ministry of War had not approved the "tuna" construction plan, and the Navy Command issued an order in advance.

In August, after Mu Haoyang approved the construction plan, Huludao Shipyard, Weihai Shipyard, Lianyungang Shipyard, Fuzhou Shipyard, Kaohsiung Shipyard and Beihai Shipyard also joined in. Because the eight "tuna"-class ships that were first to start construction of Wuhan Shipyard and Wuhu Shipyard were paused for two months before they were launched and were waiting for the installation of the second-generation fuel cells, all the "tuna"-class submarines that started construction in 2053 began to be equipped in early 2054 and were put into service in March and April 2054.

In terms of time, the construction cycle of the first batch of "tuna" grades was only eight months.

It can be said that this is a very amazing speed, because in peacetime, even the much smaller "stingray"-class construction cycle is more than three years.

But this is not the fastest speed.

According to the construction plan formulated by the Ministry of War, when building the first batch of submarines, technical workers must be trained simultaneously. The construction cycle of the second batch of submarines will be shortened to six months, and from the fourth batch to four months. If everything goes well, by the end of 2055, that is, when the fourth batch is completed, Pakistan's naval shipyard, India's Kochi Shipyard, Malaysia's Gualatin Ganu Shipyard, Vietnam's Cam Ran Bay Shipyard and Thailand's Rayong Shipyard will all start to build "tuna"-class submarines. Only Visakhapatnam Shipyard is not assigned to the construction task, mainly because the shipyard is responsible for the task of repairing naval ships.

In the end, more than forty boats of the "tuna" class will be built.

In other words, starting from 2055, more than 40 "tuna"-class ships have been completed and put into service every four months, which is equivalent to more than 100 submarines joining the Chinese Navy every year.

In fact, the construction scale of the "tuna" class is not that large. Mainly after the second generation of fuel cells was launched, the Chinese Navy upgraded and improved the "stingray" class, which improved the combat performance of the "stingray" class, especially its endurance, so it did not stop the construction of the "stingray" class. By 2056, five overseas shipyards had switched to improving the "stingray" class in service.

This is mainly because the construction cost of the "stingray" level is only half of the "tuna" level, and its mission adaptability is equivalent to 60% of the "tuna" level. After improvement, it can reach 80%, so it has a better cost-effectiveness ratio.

With the large-scale service of the "tuna" class, the situation on the marine battlefield has undergone a tremendous change.

In the two years before October 2054, the Chinese Navy sank less than 500 merchant ships in the battle of the war, with a total load of about 35 million tons. In the six months from November 2054 to May 2055, the Chinese Navy sank 558 merchant ships of the Western Alliance Group, with a total load of 42 million tons, and sank 144 warships while assisting the fleet in combat. Seventy percent of these results belong to the "tuna" class and the improved "stingray" class.

In a sense, large-scale breaking and intercourse battles are one of the main means to defeat the Western Alliance.

More importantly, the service of large-scale fully electric submarines greatly improved the safety environment of China's maritime transportation. Especially after the submarines joined the escort formation, the survival rate of the fleet was greatly improved, and the safer maritime routes injected new vitality into China's war machines. In 2054, the first year after the Navy organized the submarines into the escort fleet, it sank eighteen US submarines on the Indian Ocean, eleven of which were sunk by escort submarines, and three were the common results of the escort submarines and escort warships.

After the war, almost everyone believed that all-electric submarines were one of China's key weapons to win.

You should know that it was not until the end of 2054 that the United States began to build all-electric submarines, with performance equivalent to early models of the "Stingray" class. Moreover, these submarines would not be put into service until the end of 2055, and the first batch was only twenty. By 2056, the United States had only more than one hundred fully electric submarines, and at this time the Chinese Navy had more than four hundred fully electric submarines. The result was that before 2056, the U.S. Navy was unable to win in terms of quantity by relying mainly on expensive attack nuclear submarines.
Chapter completed!