All-Electric Propulsion was naturally highly advanced, and the country was already ahead in this field. However, large vessels generally used conventional propulsion, mainly because the electric propulsion systems required by large warships were simply too demanding. No country currently had a particularly good solution.
This was especially true for super-large warships like aircraft carriers, which weighed tens of thousands or even more than a hundred thousand tons.
For submarines, All-Electric Propulsion was even more self-evidently useful. It had extremely powerful silencing capabilities and advantages in acceleration and every other aspect.
Upon hearing Jiang Yan Hai's words, the soldier at the helm immediately spoke. "Should we shut down the nuclear reactor and switch to All-Electric Propulsion mode?"
"Yes!" Jiang Yan Hai answered aloud, but inwardly, he was deeply surprised. The fact that the soldier had suggested it so directly meant that this submarine's nuclear reactor could be shut down at any time... and not only that. It meant its batteries could last for an extremely long time.
A nuclear reactor was not like a diesel or gasoline engine, something that could be shut down and restarted whenever needed.
At a dock, if a submarine's nuclear reactor was shut down and then restarted, it would take around twelve hours. The reactor had to be gradually raised from room temperature to the high temperature of several hundred degrees Celsius, and that process could not be rushed. It had to be increased slowly.
This was mainly to prevent thermal shock, much like pouring boiling water directly into an ice-cold glass.
Furthermore, starting the reactor this way required electricity. At a dock, shore power naturally posed no problem, but at sea, it would require batteries.
In fact, if the reactor was shut down at sea, it would inevitably be a hot shutdown. That meant that