Fang Lang's attitude obviously surprised Adams Teach. He looked at Fang Lang in confusion for a long time, and then confirmed that the other party was not joking.
Then he said with a puzzled and somewhat worried look on his face:
"Brother, this is a brand new warship. It is produced by your own shipyard and I personally supervise it. I guarantee there will be no problems. Why are you not interested?"
Obviously, Adams Teach didn't believe that Fang Lang would really be humble and courteous. He was a little worried that there might be some inside story that he didn't know, so he became worried in an instant.
Seeing the other party's worried expression, Fang Lang couldn't help but laugh. He reached out and patted the other party's arm and said:
"Haha... Don't worry, brother. I won't cheat you. Although I haven't learned the details of this warship, I won't joke about the reputation of our shipyard.
There will be no problems with the warships produced by our shipyard. You can participate in the entire production process, and I believe you should see the actual situation."
Fang Lang's explanation obviously failed to dispel Adams Teach's concerns. He still looked at Fang Lang with a worried look on his face, raised the wine glass and put it down again, obviously still very worried.
"Okay! I'll tell you the truth! But, brother, you must keep this a secret for me!"
...
...
Hearing Fang Lang's words, Adams Teach's eyes lit up. He looked around and made sure that there was no one around before he leaned over to Fang Lang and said,
"Don't worry, brother. I will keep it strictly confidential!"
Seeing the other party's nervous look, Fang Lang shrugged and said:
"Actually, it's not a particularly confidential matter. When I was discussing the independent construction of warships with General Crook, my suggestion was to directly build the latest missile destroyer.
Unfortunately, the current missile technology is not mature enough, so in the end General Crook asked us to start by imitating the Fletcher-class destroyer.
The Gearing-class destroyer that the US military is currently building is definitely superior to his in performance, so I don’t have much interest in it.
I want a more powerful, state-of-the-art guided missile destroyer, you know what I mean?"
Fang Lang's words obviously hit Adams Teach a little. After thinking for a while, he slowly said:
"Are you saying that our warship has been outdated from the beginning?"
Seeing the other person's look, Fang Lang smiled and stepped forward, patted his shoulder and comforted him:
"It can only be said that it is slightly behind the United States, but there is no obvious generation gap. You yourself said that our warship has also reserved room for upgrading and modification from the beginning.
As soon as our missile technology matures, we can convert these warships into a new generation of missile destroyers.
The Gearing-class, the main destroyer currently produced by the United States, is actually not much different from ours.
So we are not lagging behind.”
Hearing Fang Lang's words that were obviously meant to comfort him, Adams Teach still couldn't let it go, but he also understood why Fang Lang was unwilling to accept this new warship.
Since there was no problem he was worried about, he felt relieved.
After pondering for a while, Adams Teach raised his head and looked at Fang Lang with a serious face and said:
"Is the guided missile destroyer you mentioned really that powerful? I know that you, Brother Fang, often communicate with American generals and have your own understanding of new equipment around the world.
I wonder if you can help me popularize today about the direction our navy’s future warships should develop in.”
Seeing the other party's serious expression, Fang Lang looked at him seriously with some surprise, then looked at the wine glass in his hand and found that there was no more wine.
Adams Teach noticed Fang Lang's actions, stood up without hesitation, opened the balcony door behind him, waved to the waiter in the banquet hall, took two glasses of champagne and placed them on the small table, then turned around and closed the balcony door before returning to his seat.
He looked at Fang Lang expectantly.
Fang Lang was stunned by the other party's series of actions. Finally, seeing the other party looking at him expectantly, Fang Lang couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"Okay! We are all family. Since you want to hear my opinion, I will tell you my personal opinion. But first of all, I have to state that this is just my personal judgment based on the development of some technologies.
Whether it is accurate or not remains to be tested by time, and whether you agree with it is up to you.”
Hearing this, Adams Teach said without hesitation:
"I trust you!"
Fang Lang smiled and picked up the glass of champagne that the other party had just brought over. He took a sip, moistened his throat, and then slowly said:
"In my opinion, the development direction of warships is mainly centered around three aspects of scientific and technological progress. The first is the hull material. From wooden hulls to steel armor, the development path of this material is very clear.
The second is the advancement of power devices, from the most primitive oars to sail power, to coal-fired steam power, and then to the current steam turbines that burn heavy oil.
Secondly, there is the change in weapons and equipment, from the initial cold weapons, to artillery, and then to torpedoes.
Advances in every aspect brought fundamental changes to the way warships fought, from the initial ramming and hand-to-hand combat to naval guns and torpedo attacks.
As an old navy officer, I believe you should be very clear about this knowledge. "
Hearing Fang Lang's long-winded talk, Adams Teach did not show any impatience, but continued to look at Fang Lang seriously, waiting for his next words.
"So what progress has been made in these three areas since World War II?
Let's count them one by one. First of all, in terms of hull materials, the changes are not very obvious and it is still developing along the line of alloy steel.
But the changes in power plants and weapons and equipment will be foreseeable to be earth-shaking.
First, let's talk about the power system. Based on the current situation, the power of future high-speed warships will develop from the current steam turbines that burn heavy oil to gas turbines and heavy diesel power.
Of course, this does not mean that steam turbines will be directly eliminated. Compared with steam turbines, gas turbines have the characteristics of small size, light weight, high power and high thermal efficiency.
Even in terms of startup time, gas turbines have a clear advantage. Therefore, gas turbines will definitely be the main power source for future ships.
However, gas turbines consume a lot of energy and are not suitable for long-term use. I think combining them with other power sources would be a very good development direction.
And this is not the end of the power devices I can see. What I really want to look up to is nuclear power.
Unfortunately, our northern neighbors will never allow us to have something like this."
Fang Lang couldn't help but feel a little depressed as he spoke. After all, Brazil's biggest advantage was that it was too far away from God, while its disadvantage was that it was too close to the United States.
If Fang Lang had traveled through time a hundred years earlier, he might have really ignored the United States, but it is obvious that Brazil cannot escape the control of the United States now. If it wants to develop now, it can only hide in a corner and quietly look for opportunities.
After listening to Fang Lang's introduction, Adams Teach said with some doubt:
"When you say nuclear power, do you mean something like the American atomic bomb? Isn't this a bomb? Can it be used as a power source?"
Seeing Adams Teach's confusion, Fang Lang smiled and explained:
“The principles of nuclear power and atomic bombs are similar, except that atomic bombs use the huge energy released by uncontrolled nuclear fission reactions to cause huge damage.
But nuclear power prevents the nuclear fission reaction from getting out of control, and uses the huge heat generated by the nuclear fission reaction to drive the steam engine to provide power for the ship.
As for the benefits of this kind of power, I don’t think I need to say more.”
After hearing Fang Lang's explanation, Adams Teach was surprised and looked at Fang Lang in disbelief.
“Can this really be done?”
Fang Lang did not want to explain too much to the other party's question, he just shrugged and said:
"The Japanese have already told you the accurate answers to all of this through their own experiences."
After taking a deep breath, Adams Teach was speechless for a moment. He didn't know what to say and only felt deeply shocked.
Seeing this, Fang Lang did not explain further, but continued:
“And what we are going to talk about next is the progress in weaponry, that is, the emergence of missiles, and how it will change our future naval battles.
You should have heard of what a missile is!"
Adams Teach nodded upon hearing this:
"I've heard that Germany had a missile called V2 in the later stages of the war, but I don't know exactly what it looked like or how it worked."
Fang Lang was not surprised by this answer. After all, information in this era was far less developed than in later generations. In Brazil, a region where even news control had just been relaxed, it was normal not to have heard of missiles.
As for those who have seen it, it is even rarer.
In other words, Adams Teach is a senior naval official in Brazil and has the opportunity to access the latest information.
Fang Lang nodded and said:
"You can think of a missile as a weapon that has a control system installed on a rocket to control its flight and direct it to the target.
It is like a suicide plane loaded with explosives, a weapon that can be controlled by humans to fly directly to its target from a distance and then detonate directly.
Do you understand? "
This explanation was very vivid, and Adams Teach immediately understood what kind of weapon it was. At the same time, he couldn't help but feel a jolt in his heart.
As a naval officer, the first thing that came to his mind was a suicide plane loaded with bombs, controlled by the pilot and directly crashing into his warship. This situation was simply unavoidable.
In addition, what he was controlling was not a plane but a rocket, which meant that he was flying at a very fast speed and there was no chance of interception. Thinking of this, he was so scared that he broke out in a cold sweat.
No wonder Fang Lang said that missile destroyers are the future. With missiles, artillery battles will be directly eliminated from the stage of history.
The point is, it's impossible to dodge a missile! It's scary just thinking about it.
His face was grim, he swallowed hard and said:
“I understand!”
Seeing this, Fang Lang smiled and nodded:
“Missiles can be divided into many categories, so I won’t explain them all in detail here.
We only need to know that a missile is a weapon that can be accurately guided at long range beyond visual range.
Capable of launching beyond-visual-range attacks on land targets, air targets and sea targets and ensuring accurate hits.
Can you imagine what changes this weapon will bring to future naval warfare?"
Adams Teach smiled bitterly with a pale face:
“I finally understand why you don’t want the current destroyer.
When facing this kind of weapon, this old-fashioned destroyer is simply a sitting duck! "
Then he said with a worried look:
"Apart from having the same missile destroyers, is there any way to defend against missile attacks?"
Fang Lang smiled and patted the other person on the shoulder.
"Don't worry too much. The development of missiles also takes time. We still have time to work hard now. As for defending against missile attacks, I think we can only rely on missile interception!"
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