CHAPTER 1553: CHAPTER 1470: EMPIRE FLAGSHIP

In order to support long-distance cross-sea operations, many new weapons and equipment have been added to the Great Tang Empire’s arsenal, with dock landing ships being one of them.

Tang Mo introduced several versions of dedicated landing support ships in one go, some with tonnage exceeding 40,000 tons, while others are around 20,000 tons.

These ships look like small aircraft carriers, but they are much simpler and much cheaper than carriers.

However, there is one exception. The Great Tang Empire has built a dedicated command ship, which is a dock landing ship equipped with a large number of communication devices and electronic systems, pushing the cost through the roof.

In the Great Tang Empire’s equipment lineup, this warship is built as the sole piece and is named the Bernard Naval Marshal, serving as the flagship of the Empire’s Navy.

According to the plan, if Tang Mo is willing to personally visit the front line, his flagship will be this ship. This modified version of the luxurious warship even has a specially designed Emperor’s room, built to yacht-level standards.

This room covers an area of over 90 square meters, equipped with a private bathtub and reception room, considered lavish on a warship where every inch counts. The room is surrounded by armor protection comparable to an ammunition depot, with facilities fully equipped.

Meanwhile, the entire warship is equipped with a large number of satellite communication antennas, ensuring contact with every fleet of the Great Tang Empire, and if necessary, can directly contact the Air Force and Army.

The flat and continuous flight deck can simultaneously accommodate the takeoff and landing of seven Black Hawk Helicopters. Of course, in many cases these aircraft are not used to support landing operations, but to transport navy officials for meetings.

Likewise, the dock at the rear of this battleship named after the naval marshal does not house landing craft or hovercraft, but speedboats for transportation, ensuring the safe evacuation of important personnel on this command ship in emergencies.

Aside from this command ship, the navy has also begun constructing five equivalent dock landing ships, which are genuine support vessels for landing operations, similar in appearance and function to Huaxia’s 075.

The so-called stealth performance is indeed absent; although the appearance is similar, the technical standards have not reached the corresponding height. The warships of the Great Tang Empire’s Navy do not require stealth capabilities by radar, as the enemy’s radar is trivial.

Therefore, knowing that the Great Tang Empire is frantically building a large batch of advanced dock landing ships, it can be inferred that the Tang Empire will not carry out large-scale cross-sea landing operations in the short term.

Regrettably, no intelligence agency from any country managed to place operatives within such military restricted areas as Dragon Island, and the dock landing ships built in Linshui and Dongwan are small in tonnage and not very eye-catching.

Intelligence agencies from various countries are still focusing on traditional warships, observing Tang Country building aircraft carriers, cruisers, and destroyers, with no attention paid to ships whose purpose is unknown.

In reality, aside from warships, the strength of the navy is more directly reflected in the quantity and quality of support vessels. A strong naval nation has more and advanced support ships.

The Great Tang Empire is indeed like this now. What truly makes the Great Tang Empire Navy invincible are those seemingly inconspicuous advanced support and supply fleets. The technology used in the oil tankers of the Great Tang Empire even surpasses that of other countries’ conventional warships.

The cruising speed of Tang Country’s supply ships is generally over 20 knots, and they can perform lateral replenishment, improving supply efficiency with new techniques, which can also handle complex at-sea weapon supply operations if necessary.

These ships can replenish fuel and ammunition for aircraft carriers, some even reload missiles for destroyers and cruisers. It’s because of these supply ships that the Great Tang Empire Navy can operate unrestrained in the Dorne sea area.

Moreover, in wartime, it’s these supply ships that provide additional services to the officers and soldiers of the Great Tang Empire Navy, ensuring that navy personnel can endure longer in a tense combat environment.

In addition to conventional supply ships, the Great Tang Empire Navy has specialized cold storage vessels that provide ice cream and frozen meat products for the fleet.

Tang Country’s navy even has special cruise ships providing rest services, allowing navy personnel on rotational duty to rest on the cruise, with more spacious beds and more professional entertainment facilities, enabling soldiers to enjoy a brief holiday without returning to port.

Unfortunately, spies on the Eastern Continent find it difficult to gather intelligence on Tang Country’s destroyer features, leaving little concern for the performance of supply ships.

It’s thanks to these supply ships that Tang Country’s navy can maintain high efficiency and formidable combat power.

This is why Luff is always concerned about the construction of naval landing ships, as the progress there, to some extent, represents Tang Country beginning to plan actions on the Eastern Continent.

Additionally, the armed helicopters specifically prepared for the navy by Tang Country are undergoing test flights; the development progress of these helicopters also dictates the combat power of dock landing ships.

Everything is in preparation, with Tang Country not ceasing its military activities but instead stepping up the planning for operations on the Eastern Continent.

Although it seems like the Great Tang Empire is focused only on developing its infrastructure and economy, without much military investment, in reality, Tang Country’s preparations have never stopped and have even accelerated.

To deceive the world nations on the Eastern Continent, Tang’s 7th Corps stationed at Qingluan Port conducted a large-scale landing exercise amidst boring waiting.

This counts as a semi-public show of force, intending to capture the attention of Dorne and other empires, leading them to believe Tang Country’s landing operation is indeed planned to target Dorne.

Of course, this also serves as a test to assess whether Tang Country can conduct a large-scale cross-sea landing operation.

The exercise exposed many issues, leaving Tang Country’s Staff Department somewhat overwhelmed. It’s proven that although the Tang Army is strong, conducting a landing across over 900 kilometers is indeed more complex than imagined.

Various accidents occurred during the exercise, even resulting in a soldier’s death. This left Eric, the 7th Corps commander, ashamed and submitted a resignation letter to Emperor Tang Mo.

Fortunately, Tang Mo directly threw the report into the trash, or else Eric would become the first Corps-level commanding officer in the Great Tang Empire to resign due to an exercise accident.

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Happy New Year, everyone.