Chapter 2670 Inappropriate

"Welcome to the Andorsa Shipyard. If you need anything, you can contact me and I will try my best to help you." Colonel Gianniva of the Royal Italian Navy said to Leahy.

"Can we take a look at the construction progress of the Calacciono-class battleship? If time permits, we are willing to pay a high price to purchase this battleship." Colonel Leahy said straight to the point.

"So when does your country want us to deliver this battleship?" Colonel Giovanni asked.

"If possible, we hope to be in 3 to 4 months," Colonel Leahy said.

"Three to four months? Our turrets and servo equipment cannot be completed. This time is too tight." Colonel Giovanni shook his head and said, in fact, let alone three to four months, the Italians even We plan to complete the outfitting in one and a half years!

"Let's take a look at the battleship." Colonel Leahy felt a little bad, but it was definitely better to conduct an on-site inspection. After all, apart from German and Austrian warships, Italian warships can be said to be the best choice for the US Navy at present.

Half an hour later, when Leahy saw the battleship Calacciono being outfitted on the shore, his eyes were filled with anger! According to the information received by the Americans, this warship should have been launched two months ago. But judging from the current situation, let alone the superstructure, let alone the power equipment, it seems that even the armor plates on the sides of the battleship hull have not been installed yet! You know, whether in Germany or the United States, it takes less than a year from launch to commissioning of a battleship, which includes outfitting, sea trials, and the time for the crew to get familiar with the battleship! In other words, the real outfitting time may only be 9 months! But in Italy, Colonel Leahy's eyes were opened. He felt that the Italians had not done anything serious in the past two months.

"It's hard for me to understand that this is the condition of a warship that has been launched for two months." Colonel Leahy's words showed nothing but great dissatisfaction.

"This is peacetime, so due to cost considerations, we cannot build this class of warships at the wartime speed. After all, the cost of rush work is very high, and we also need a lot of accessories." Colonel Giovanni was also a little embarrassed. said.

"Accessories? If your country has boilers, armor plates or other equipment, we can ship them from the United States." Colonel Leahy said.

"We are not in a hurry about steel plates and power systems. The most important thing is the weapon system. We currently only have two turrets with twin 15-inch guns, and the other two are under construction, and there are only three 15-inch guns." Jowa Ni said.

"Hold the grass! There's nothing we can do about it." Colonel Leahy was completely speechless. If the armor plate and power system are okay, then the artillery is definitely not.

Because the Americans do not have 15-inch artillery, the triple 14-inch turrets are too big to fit in, and the twin 14-inch turrets are too small. Looking at the more than 200-meter-long warship in the distance, Colonel Leahy was filled with regret.

And after finishing the visit to the cradle of the stern. Colonel Leahy also consulted some official information of the Italian Navy, and in the process, he discovered the problem of the origin of the Calacciono-class main gun. In this dimension, the Calacciono-class battleship's artillery also comes from Italy and the United Kingdom. The British's artillery is obviously heavier, up to about 85 tons, while the Italian's artillery is less than 70 tons.

The Italian government prefers to equip its warships with British artillery. So what is the reason? Of course it’s a matter of artillery power! The same applies to 854kg shells. The Italian 15-inch artillery can only hit a muzzle velocity of 700 meters per second. The muzzle velocity of the British artillery is around 770 meters per second! Now, it is obviously impossible for the Americans to accept British weapons, and the performance of Italian artillery is too bad, and this has become the last straw for the Americans to give up Italian warships!

"Can we purchase 15-inch guns and turrets from Germany to install on the Calacciono-class battleships?" Nimitz asked.

"This is very difficult. The 15-inch naval gun is the current main equipment of the German Navy. They will not export it easily. Moreover, the German turret is larger and heavier. It is difficult to say whether the Italian warship can accommodate it. And the most important thing is that Germany The artillery and servo equipment accessories currently in stock must be supplied to the Su Xiong fleet in limited quantities so that they can quickly restore their combat effectiveness. Therefore, even if Germany agrees to export these artillery pieces, it may not be available in a short period of time," Colonel Leahy said.

In the end, the results of the Americans' inspection in Italy were very poor. The Calacciono-class battleship was listed on the list of battleships not suitable for purchase due to factors such as too long a construction period and poor main gun performance. Later, Leahy and others went to France and inspected the French Brestany-class battleship.

If Colonel Leahy went there with the idea of ​​making a deal when he inspected Italy's Calacciono-class battleships, then when he arrived in France, it was entirely to meet the government's requirements. The entire inspection process can even be described as scrawled. Unfortunately, the French really want to hand over this class of battleships to the Americans. After all, this class of battleships are useless in the eyes of the French!

"We can remove the turret in the middle and change it into a boiler room so that this class of battleship can reach the speed of a high-speed battleship. We can guarantee a speed of at least 25 knots. As for the defense issues required by your country, we will also carry out For improvements, we will add dome armor to improve the defense capability of the battleship's artillery shells, and also add an underwater protrusion to defend against torpedoes and mines. After adding the underwater protrusion, we can also perfectly solve the increase in the weight of the battleship. This will lead to an increase in draft. And all the work can be completed within half a year." Major General Darlan, who was in charge of receiving the American delegation, assured the Americans, patting his chest.

"Will it be completed within half a year? If the Italians feel too slow to me, then the French are too fast." Colonel Leahy said with a bitter smile. In fact, since the pre-dreadnought period, the reputation of French-produced battleships has not been good. Not to mention that compared with first-class companies like British Armstrong, even Italian warships have a better reputation than France. Although the French have sold quite a few battleships and subsystems in history, most of them were bought by the Russians. The Russians bought French ships because the French gave the Russians loans and military technical support.

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