1689, Battle of Dawn (seven)
Even if we look at the entire history of warship development in "Star Wars", Hunter Class Battlecruiser is definitely a weirdo among weirdos, with a total of 420 aircraft carriers, which is unprecedented.
And in order to carry so many fighter jets, Hunter Class Battlecruiser sacrificed too many things. Whether it is a single layer of armor, the Hangar Platform covering the entire bow, or the oddly positioned main gun, they are all designed to free up a lot of space for the fighter hangar.
In fact, the large number of aircraft did bring great advantages in the early stages of the war, but this advantage was soon overshadowed by more shortcomings.
For example, the Chaser-class battlecruiser/aircraft carrier, which has been developed by the Quat Power Shipyard and is being submitted to the Galactic Republic Battleship Manufacturing Committee for approval. This 2,200-meter-long large aircraft carrier has a designed carrying capacity of only 144 aircraft, which is equivalent to a little more than one-third of the Jaeger-class.
It is true that the Secutor-class battlecruiser/aircraft carrier is equivalent to a ship that combines the functions of Hunter Class and Acclamator-class, and is responsible for transporting 14,000 soldiers. However, as a large warship that is twice as long and wide as Hunter Class, the 144 aircraft carrier capacity also clearly shows the change in the design idea of Kuat Drive Yards.
Although there are only 144 fighter jets, Pursuer-class can provide complete maintenance services for each fighter jet. Each fighter jet has a separate hangar and automated maintenance device, which can complete the entire process of a fighter jet from cold aircraft to take-off within 5 minutes.
And Pursuer-class can launch all fighter jets through catapult devices within 30 minutes, or launch all fighter jets through anti-gravity engines within 5 minutes. In an ever-changing battlefield, this is a huge advantage.
On the other hand, if Hunter Class, 420 fighter jets, all take off through anti-gravity engines, the whole process will take nearly an hour. And if you want to use limited ejection devices to eject all the aircraft, it will probably have to last until night...
Inefficient maintenance brings high losses. Every time Hunter Class Battlecruiser goes into battle, a large number of aircraft and pilots are lost, which even Galactic Republic can't bear. Forget about airplanes, the training of pilots takes a longer period after all. Even Galactic Republic will inevitably face the problem of declining pilot quality.
Now among Galactic Republic Navy, the requirements for pilots who can fly fighter jets have dropped from 1,000 hours of flight training to 300 hours. In other words, including other courses, after more than a month of intensive training, you can go to the battlefield.
However, in the unprecedented scale of the battle taking place outside Dawn Star Planet, the fighter formation taking off from Galactic Republic fleet became their last straw! You can imagine how fragile this straw is!
Fighters continued to be shot down, and warships continued to be damaged. Less than half an hour after the war started, 7 Hunter Class Battlecruisers had been sunk, and every one of the remaining warships was injured!
Normally, the threat posed by frigates to capital ships is almost too small to be ignored. There is no way for the frigate to get close to the battleship. As soon as it enters the battleship's fire range, it will be destroyed within a few minutes and will be unable to fight back.
But what about 1,000 frigates?
Then every gun of the battleship will be involved, spinning around and exhausted, and finally destroying a target is only 1/1000 of the opponent's! How to fight?
However, this is indeed the case in theory, but why are capital ships still the main force of the navy?
This is because if a strategic attack is to be carried out and a long-distance and long-term operation is required, only capital ships can still accomplish it. Taking the frigate's small hyperspace engine and few supplies reserves, the crew would probably starve to death when they jumped to the target area.
Even if you don't starve to death, you can go all the way to someone else's Homeworld to sustain a high-intensity battle for half an hour? What can I do?
Therefore, whether before or now, it is rare for a large number of small warships to besiege a capital ship. Most interstellar battles are battles between capital ships.
But Fourth Civilization is different!
For space operations in various situations, the mothership database has a complete theoretical system! The combat system of this small battleship is naturally among them, and has been studied and known by Fourth Civilization Navy officers at all levels.
Today, this tactical theory finally came into use.
After Governor of Modell Sector Volgograd-Kanidi formulated the plan to further lure the enemy deeper and guide Republic fleet to attack Dawn Star Planet, Kanidi told Tang Xiao about his tactical ideas.
Tang Xiao agreed to this plan and began to mobilize all forces.
He used all the forces at his disposal, not only gang organizations such as Crimson Dawn and White Worm Gang, which he usually had good relations with, but also forces such as Hutt Oruba-Goresla that he supported. At the same time, he also issued high rewards through Oruba and hired a large number of desperadoes.
Not only that, he also gathered almost all the escort fleets of Fourth Civilization!
Everyone has a convoy fleet. In order to meet the huge material needs, Galactic Republic escorts various transport fleets. If the total number is to be counted, it is at least a thousand times that of Duchy of Dawn. But this time, Tang Xiao came with the mentality of a strong man breaking his wrist!
He took back all the escort fleets, which meant that the entire Duchy of Dawn material delivery was stagnant.
Don't think that Duchy of Dawn is not afraid of pirates if they take both black and white. On the contrary, within the Duchy of Dawn has many active pirates.
However, the stagnation of material transportation resulted in nearly 2,000 warships!
Therefore, within seven days after the plan was formulated, Tang Xiao continued to mobilize fleets from other places and ambush outside Dawn Star Planet. In this way, when Cassio-Tagge finally bites the hook and crashes into Dawn Star Planet, these sea-like small warships can be used to lay siege to Republic fleet!
That's right, the main force in this siege is actually Duchy of Dawn's own fleet. Crimson Dawn, White Worm Gang and those mercenary fleets can be the icing on the cake, but if they are really allowed to go up and fight with more than 60 Galactic Republic battleships, they will definitely not be willing to do so.
After all, if the escort sea tactic is to be implemented, another problem that needs to be faced is the decline in morale or even collapse caused by a large number of casualties. Because to put it bluntly, under such tactics, every frigate is actually a human shield for other warships. The only thing they can hope for is that the Galactic Republic battleship's muzzle will not be pointed at them.
That's why Tang Xiao personally led Glory mothership to rush forward to attract firepower, and the escort fleet warships advanced and opened fire without fear of death. Under such circumstances, Crimson Dawn and White Worm Gang would rush forward together with the mentality of picking up bargains.
But no matter what, the siege is now complete, and the two battle groups A and B led by Cassio-Tagge have no chance of winning!