Seven Seas Beacon Fire

Upon meeting Sa Dingming, Li Che immediately expressed his concerns about the navy's current high-speed ship force.

“Yes.” Li Che nodded: “Our army’s one Zhiyuan-class and three Haiqi-class super-dreadnought battlecruisers are sufficient in terms of performance in all aspects, but our three dreadnought battlecruisers… these three ships are indeed in a bit of an awkward situation now.”

"In terms of firepower, these three battlecruisers, still equipped with 280mm guns, are indeed somewhat outdated now, but if they are brought together..."

Sa Dingming once served as the captain of the Guiyuan battlecruiser, one of these three dreadnought battlecruisers, and he has a deep affection for these first and 1.5 generation battlecruisers of the navy.

"Using numbers to compensate for firepower?" Li Che shook his head with considerable disappointment, not at the people, but at the ships: "These four battlecruisers have been in service for over ten years, and their propulsion systems are definitely declining. In addition, although these four ships have survived many naval battles, they have generally suffered severe damage in the past. Even after repairs... these three ships can only run at a maximum of 25 knots now, right?"

Li Che's accurate guess left Sa Dingming with no choice but to nod with a wry smile: "On paper, these ships are indeed not as fast as the British Lion-class battlecruisers, but we are not entirely without a chance. We have the advantage in manpower."

The advantage in manpower? Li Che was slightly taken aback, then recalled what he had seen on a forum in another world: how Betty had exhausted a ship full of boiler crews while sailing at high speed. He quickly understood what Sa Dingming meant: "You mean we can use a long-distance run to outrun the enemy?"

Sa Dingming nodded repeatedly: "That's right. According to the information we had previously obtained, the total number of officers and soldiers in the Yingzhou Navy responsible for receiving the ships was just over 400. Even if we add some instructors and officers from the Colombian Navy, the total number of people on the two ships is only a little over 500."

For two battlecruisers, each with a rated capacity of nearly a thousand men, a crew of just over 200 men on each ship would only be enough to get them moving. Therefore, firepower and speed were not actually problems for us. With such a small crew, operating weapons and even maintaining high speeds would be extremely difficult. Furthermore, the two battlecruisers of the Royal Navy in Victoria were built relatively early, and their boilers were likely all coal-fired.

This reminded Li Che that what he was facing was not two warships, but actually just two deliverymen at sea.

In terms of firepower, these two battlecruisers were probably only able to spare a few men to operate the 12-pounder guns on the deck. They were mainly used to drive away pirates en route—although theoretically, no pirate would dare to target these two ships.

In terms of speed, coal-fired boilers are not only about boiler pressure, but also about whether manpower can keep up. After all, coal is not like fuel oil, which can be pumped directly into the boiler through oil pipelines. Coal really needs to be shoveled in by workers under the high temperature of the boiler room.

If a ship only has 200 or so crew members to meet it, then the speed will definitely not be fast, because at high speeds you won't have enough people to shovel coal in shifts.

"So in fact, we can not only rely on battlecruisers, but also mobilize the first-class cruisers we have on hand. Those first-class cruisers can reach speeds of 30 knots. As long as we can find those two battlecruisers, even our first-class cruisers can take them under control."

While there's nothing logically wrong with doing this, Li Che just felt it seemed a bit too optimistic.

"What if the Yingzhou people can equip these two ships with their full complement of personnel?" Li Che looked at Sa Dingming: "Although the quality of the Yingzhou navy's officers and soldiers is certainly far inferior to that of the Victoria Royal Navy's officers and soldiers operating these two battlecruisers, as long as they can equip them with their full complement of personnel, we must treat these two ships as two powerful capital ships."

At that point, not only will the three Suiyuan-class battlecruisers be unable to catch up, but if our first-class cruisers assume that these two ships have no counter-attack capability, they could very well suffer heavy losses.

Li Che's words were actually quite tactful. The difference in strength between light cruisers and capital ships these days was more like the difference between Tyson and Taro than Tydekaiser.

It should be noted that, in terms of protection, the second ship of the Royal Victoria Navy's defensive-class armored cruiser, HMS Black Prince, was far more robust than the few new first-class cruisers in the hands of the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy. This unfortunate armored cruiser accidentally collided with the Leitanian High Seas Fleet's battleship HMS Thuringia during the Battle of Skadrak.

The Thuringian was merely a dreadnought equipped with 12-inch guns, but facing the over 1-ton Black Prince with 6-inch armor, the Thuringian battleship sank this first-rate armored cruiser to the bottom of the sea in just 15 minutes.

It's important to know that the armored cruiser HMS Black Prince had far better protection than these new generation first-class cruisers. After all, these first-class cruisers were essentially light armored cruisers, and their armor protection was far inferior to that of the last generation of armored cruisers with large areas of six-inch armor.

Therefore, if the Tang army's first-class armored cruisers were preparing to board and inspect the ships, and the enemy chose to launch a sudden attack, then the Tang army's light cruisers would have no chance of survival.

After listening to this, Sa Dingming also felt that what the Crown Prince said made sense, but in this case, the navy would really not have enough high-speed forces available for interception.

Seeing the expression on the Crown Prince's face, Sa Dingming quickly guessed that the Crown Prince was now troubled by the speed of the Longyuan-class battleship. Only the high-ranking officers of the navy and the relevant personnel of the design bureau knew the actual maximum speed of this battleship.

The speed of 27 knots is the foundation of the Longyuan-class battleships. If the restrictions on the two Longyuan-class battleships are lifted, the navy will have two more exceptionally powerful high-speed ships capable of reaching 27 knots.

"Your Highness, are you considering whether to remove the disguises of the two Dragon Abysses?"

“Yes, that thought has been lingering in my mind since just now.” Li Che admitted directly: “After all, in terms of the international environment, we are not the West, and there is no country that would sell us high-speed ships right now. In fact, the high-speed ships that can theoretically be bought on the market are basically the old stock of the Germans.”

Given that it is unlikely that Li Che will be able to acquire foreign aid, he will inevitably turn his attention to the most powerful Dragon Abyss.

Li Che knew that Long Yuan's secrecy regarding his speed was mainly to give the enemy a big surprise at the most crucial moment in the future.

The question is, has the situation reached its most critical and crucial moment?

No one could answer Li Che's question, since no one can predict the future.

"Your Highness, we've arrived. I'll immediately gather the staff on duty for a meeting." Sa Dingming led Li Che to the door of a conference room, but Li Che shook his head.

"There's no need to make such a big fuss and hold a meeting... Let's go straight to the operations room and send out the personnel we can right now."

"Are we going to mobilize both Dragon Abyss locations as well?"

"Let's set off together, but the speed should not exceed 23 knots. Let's see if the other battlecruisers can block those two Yingzhou battlecruisers at sea first."

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P.S.: Sigh, are there any rich women among my readers? I don't want to work hard anymore.

Chapter 262 A Punch That Opens the Way (3) (Two-in-One)

Li Che now has a deeper understanding of the saying that playing too many bad players will seriously affect one's skill level.

In another world, the sport of Go has gradually been dominated by AI. The highest praise for a Go player has somehow become half-human, half-dog, because many Go enthusiasts in that era liked to practice with AI, and their playing style began to lean towards rigid imitation. So, if you played a few games with a bad player, you would exclaim: "Playing with you is simply polluting my database."

To some extent, the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy, which inherited the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy, likely had a high-speed advantage over the Colombian Navy for most of the war. Therefore, when faced with two Lion-class battlecruisers with a maximum horsepower of 78,000 and a top speed of 27.5 knots, how to search for and intercept these two fast ships at sea became a problem.

After all, no ship in the entire Ming Dynasty Royal Navy could match the speed of these two vessels. Whether it was the Zhiyuan-class, the Haiqi-class, or the Longyuan-class which had undergone "second-stage" upgrades, the speed of the Tang Dynasty's high-speed capital ships was at most 27 knots. The only Zhiyuan-class battlecruiser, the Jingyuan, should have been able to reach over 27.5 knots or even 28 knots under overload conditions if it were in good condition. However, the Jingyuan could only reach around 27 knots at most under its current condition.

It's important to know that at the very beginning of the Pacific War, the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy's fast fleet, led by General Deng, with a bit of luck, cleanly and decisively blocked the American battlecruiser formation in the Sulu Sea and annihilated most of them in a trap-like manner. However, when Colombia's last two battlecruisers rushed too fast in the Battle of the Java Sea in their eagerness for revenge and were killed in retaliation, from that time onwards until the end of the war, the Colombian Navy never produced any more battlecruisers to replace them.

The main responsibility for this lies in the Colombian Navy's indecisiveness regarding the development of subsequent models of its own battlecruisers, as well as the fact that the congressmen had no fondness for more expensive and costly battlecruisers. As a result, the first super-dreadnought battlecruiser that the Colombian Navy started construction on before the outbreak of war was their last battlecruiser for a long time. The Colombian Navy's strategic cruiser will have to wait until the Lexington, which is still under construction.

One internal and another external factor combined to create the advantage of the Ming/Tang navy in the Western Pacific region in recent years with its fast ships. They were used to bullying the Colombian navy's 21-knot ironclad ships with their high-speed ships of 25 knots or more. When they suddenly had to face high-speed ships, and even faster ones, they were at a loss for how to deal with them properly.

After all, a significant portion of the battleships in the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty now have a speed of 23 knots. With this speed advantage, even when the fleet was not as strong as the Colombian Navy for a considerable period of time, it was still able to maneuver against it on the high seas and achieve a series of victories.

"If you ask me, we don't need to think about how to rely on our numerical advantage to actively search for those two Victoria-class battlecruisers at sea. We can deploy several battleship squadrons, one outside Sagami Bay, one outside the Kii Channel, and one east of Kyushu Island. I don't believe we can't catch them while we're waiting for them to come to us!"

A naval lieutenant commander with a somewhat fiery temper pointed with his baton at the sea area around Yinzhou on the huge sand table: "These two ships came all the way from Honolulu, they must be going to port soon, right? Deploy the fleet to these places as a backup, then the battlecruisers can search however they want, I don't believe that with this arrangement, the ships can be missed."

Li Che looked at the lieutenant colonel. Hmm, his voice was loud and clear, and he seemed very energetic! It was as if he was going to bring out at least half of the main force of the navy right from the start. Li Che believed that if the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty really deployed its main force on such a large scale, the Pacific Fleet in Colombia would probably be so frightened that it would have to leave port and rush over to confront them.

“Those who know, understand that we’re going to intercept two battlecruisers. Those who don’t might think we’re about to launch a cross-sea landing on Yingzhou.” Another colonel shook his head: “The great war has just ended, and everyone’s nerves are still quite sensitive. How can we let the main force of the navy go out so recklessly? Besides, if we make such a big show of it, and it turns out that we’re only going to intercept two battlecruisers, it will only make foreign countries think that we’re all bark and no bite.”

"So what do you suggest we do? We only have a few ships that can reach 27 knots. At most, we only know when those two battlecruisers left Chile. As for their route after leaving Chile, we have no idea. Did they come from Australia, or did they go directly to Honolulu for resupply and then sail straight here?"

"Precisely because we don't know their exact route, we can't rely on this passive approach! The enemy could also come from the Aleutian Islands along the northernmost point of the Pacific. Are you suggesting we also deploy two fleets of capital ships around Hokkaido and in the Lapis Lazuli Strait? Where would our Royal Navy get so many ships for you to wreak havoc?"

The discussion on how to intercept the two Chilean battlecruisers had barely begun when a fierce debate inevitably broke out among the young officers.

Perhaps they wanted to make a strong impression on the Crown Prince, especially for these captains and lieutenants. Now that the war is over, their future promotion speed is certainly not comparable to that during the war. So if they want to climb up the ranks in the navy system faster, they must win the favor of the bigwigs above them.

Li Che rubbed his head, feeling a bit of a headache. After arguing for so long, no one could come up with a proper and comprehensive solution; they were all quite eloquent in their arguments about rejecting others' proposals...

Of course, this is the norm in any industry. Not everyone has the ability to solve problems, but almost everyone can find fault with things.

Li Che was also able to understand why these officers were so excited. Many of his small group had achieved a promotion speed that others envied. After all, these people were outstanding talents that he had found by relying on his experience in another world or by exploring in this time and space. Gold will always shine, and he just happened to give them a better stage.

On the other hand, this world is one that values ​​interpersonal relationships. These people are capable and have connections with the Crown Prince. Moreover, a considerable number of these officers are pursuing a "new path," which does not conflict with the traditional naval officer promotion system. Even the most conservative high-ranking officers are happy to do them a favor.

All of this, when seen by other young and middle-aged officers, naturally became a kind of "role model," and they also tried to attract the attention of the Crown Prince and enter the circle surrounding him.

how to say?

Li Che had never experienced before that so many men would go to such lengths for her.

Thinking this, his gaze couldn't help but drift to Xu Yueming. This guy had returned to the Navy Department to report on his duties these past two days, and just happened to run into this current situation. To outsiders, this guy might seem like the kind of person who is favored by God, able to happen to be in such a good situation.

Wait a minute... Li Che went directly to Xu Yueming, who was also staring at the sand table in front of him, frowning and deep in thought: "Qian Guang, can your HNA Group achieve anything?"

Upon seeing Xu Yueming, Li Che remembered that the Tang Dynasty also had an aircraft carrier, although it was currently just an aircraft carrier based on the hull of a first-class cruiser and not fully modified. Although the aircraft carrier's tonnage was only a little over 10,000 tons, it was still an aircraft carrier!

In conventional thinking, no warship at sea can compare with an aircraft carrier in terms of information gathering and reconnaissance capabilities. In another world, during World War I, we could see that top naval powers would use fast capital ships to form vanguard reconnaissance fleets. However, it seems that by World War II, the participating countries had stopped organizing vanguard fleets.

This is partly because before the outbreak of World War II, there was no arms race that lasted for more than 10 years like before World War I. No country's navy was fully prepared for war when it entered the war. As a result, the size of the main fleets of many countries was greatly reduced compared to before.

On the other hand, the emergence of aircraft carriers naturally led to the carrier task forces of various navies taking on the role of vanguard fleets. In fact, even in 1944, the United States, the beacon of war during World War II, still regarded battleships as the absolute core of fleet battles, and aircraft carrier groups were merely powerful vanguard fleets. These cowboys were still dreaming of a thrilling duel of big swords and big guns. They were the last of the participating countries in World War II to establish aircraft carriers as the absolute core of the fleet, and they were also the navies that most insisted on the doctrine of big ships and big guns.

If they accidentally overwhelm the Combined Fleet with their own vanguard fleet, there's nothing they can do.

Upon first encountering the special perspective on aircraft carriers in another world, Li Che couldn't help but ask Xu Yueming with some curiosity what use this first carrier-based aviation force, which he had developed based on the naval shore-based aviation force, had been after training for some time.

Xu Yueming smiled bitterly at the Crown Prince's question, "Your Highness, if you expect the current carrier-based air force to play any role, it's like expecting a young tiger to hunt a cow."

"Can't you even conduct aerial reconnaissance without launching air strikes?" Li Che was well aware of the limitations of naval carrier-based aviation in this era.

Limited by the performance of aircraft, the payload of carrier-based bombers and torpedo bombers is very limited. The structural strength of carrier-based bombers is insufficient to support steep dives, because doing so would either break the aircraft or prevent it from pulling up and turning it into a kamikaze. Not to mention that the small bombs weighing tens or hundreds of kilograms that they carry are like tickling a large warship in this era.

If carrier-based bombers have poor performance, what about torpedo bombers? Torpedo bombers are even worse. At present, the aircraft that can take off from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier can only carry lightweight torpedoes of 350 mm. The power of such torpedoes is barely enough to attack even a slightly larger cruiser, let alone a battleship.

Even battleships that run aground or sink with a single torpedo can still withstand such torpedo attacks in their TDS (Torpedo Displacement System).

If torpedoes were less powerful, they could at least slow down warships or be used to attack smaller vessels. However, the stringent deployment conditions practically sealed the fate of torpedoes in terms of actual anti-ship capabilities.

In any case, Li Che knew that the torpedo bomber currently being tested could only launch torpedoes at a maximum speed of 40 knots and a height of no more than three meters. If the speed was too fast or the height too high, the torpedoes would likely be destroyed when they entered the water.

But Li Che didn't intend to let these airmen show off their skills against those two battlecruisers today; all you need to do is find those two ships.

"Your Highness, currently all the aircraft on the aircraft carrier are single-seat light aircraft. Among these aircraft, the longest-range and largest are the torpedo bombers on our warships. Our torpedoes can currently reach a maximum speed of 120-130 kilometers per hour, and can fly continuously for 5 hours at this speed..."

"5 hours...that means the maximum range of this thing is at most 600 kilometers?" Li Che thought to himself that although the flight distance and speed could not compare with those carrier-based aircraft during World War II, and the combat radius was estimated to be only 200 kilometers, it would still be excellent if the search range could be extended by more than 200 kilometers.

"Yes, but in fact, none of our carrier-based aircraft have flown more than 50 kilometers away from the mothership yet," Xu Yueming explained. "If they fly too far, the pilots might not be able to find the mothership."

Current radios are still too large and heavy for our aircraft, and even miniaturized radios have limited communication range. We currently have no way to solve the problem of beyond-line-of-sight communication between carrier-based aircraft and aircraft carriers.

If this problem isn't resolved, our carrier-based aircraft will effectively only be able to operate within the carrier's visual range. Of course, if Your Highness requires, the naval air force will do its utmost. You can think of us as a cruiser formation with a speed of 30 knots, and our mainmasts are much higher than those of other formations.

Grass!

Li Che never expected that things would go wrong on such a problem. Moreover, Xu Yueming was quite good at finding humor in hardship. What did he mean by "our mainmast is much taller than other formations"? He was practically mocking his own carrier-based aircraft force, whose current role was just that of an "extra-tall mast".

In this way, although the current reconnaissance capabilities of aircraft carriers are indeed better than those of other cruisers, the area they can search is still limited in essence. Describing the aircraft carried on aircraft carriers as "floating masts" is not wrong at all.

“Your Highness, searching for and tracking two high-speed ships capable of reaching 27 knots at sea is indeed no easy task. At the beginning of the war, the Victorian Empire almost turned the entire Mediterranean upside down in its search for the Spee Fleet in the Mediterranean, which is still a relatively closed region. In the end, the cruiser Emden still managed to escape. We are now in the Pacific Ocean, and as things stand, it is impossible to come up with a perfect and foolproof plan.”

Xu Yueming's persuasion made Li Che slowly nod. He was actually well aware of the current difficulties. Finding a few ships at sea was not an easy task, even during the Cold War.

It's not uncommon for an entire carrier fleet to go for several days without being detected during NATO military exercises. During the Battle of the Coral Sea, the two sides' ships were once only 90 nautical miles apart and still couldn't spot each other, which shows how difficult it is to search in the ocean.

(Of course, if we look at it from another angle, if the two sides really did encounter each other, then we would probably be fortunate enough to witness the first aircraft carrier battle and the first artillery duel between aircraft carriers in human history. I believe that if it were a matter of artillery duel, my wife Lexington would definitely be stronger than my concubine Shoukaku.)

This is not a problem that can be solved by simply adding a few more high-speed ships and towing one or two aircraft carriers.

But while we understand, the problem still needs to be solved. Even if we have to come up with a solution, we need to come up with the most feasible one possible right now, right?

“Your Highness, I have seen and heard some things on my way to Yingtian Prefecture a few days ago. I think perhaps we can try to solve the current problem from the perspective of naval tactics.” Xu Yueming’s words made Li Che a little curious. He had heard of chefs studying military strategy instead of recipes before. Is there a naval officer who studies recipes instead of military strategy now?

"What have you seen or heard?"

"When I was traveling north along the river by boat, I saw two merchant ships belonging to the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce at the dock. These two merchant ships were loading goods at the dock. Does Your Highness know where these two merchant ships are headed?"

"Could it be Yingzhou?"

“It is Yingzhou.” Xu Yueming said, “The war has just ended, and these merchants are already eager to start doing business with the people of Yingzhou.”

"We have not imposed economic sanctions on Yingzhou?"

"Perhaps they forgot, or perhaps they haven't had time to think about it yet, but as of now... no, and I've learned from some merchants that business in Yingzhou is the easiest to do right now, because all the merchants are afraid that there will be economic sanctions against Yingzhou, and then they won't be able to do business."

Chapter 263 A single punch opens the way (4)

"Those bigwigs in the new capital should take a look at the merchant ships docking at Shimonoseki. The Tang Dynasty won't attack us now."

Kuroki Takeshi, commander of the Kii Kingdom's naval garrison fleet, let out a confident laugh.

However, the laughter puzzled the other mid- to high-ranking officers of the garrison fleet beside him.

"Why is the commander laughing?"

Commander Hisamitsu Shirane of the Second Cruiser Fleet of the Garrison Fleet asked tentatively. Although since the establishment of the current Yingzhou Garrison Fleet, the first commander of the garrison fleet, Kuroki Takeshi, the former commander of the Saga Garrison of the Yingzhou Kingdom Navy, had become the current commander of the naval garrison fleet by virtue of being the first in the navy to support the overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate and his own deep seniority in the navy.

However, any officer with a higher rank who originally came from the Yingzhou Kingdom's navy knew that this man's mind was never quite right.

Many people have labels attached to them by others, but the label that Kuroki Takeshi is most often given in the Navy is that of a genius.

Before the outbreak of war, when the Ming Dynasty and Colombia were engaged in a shipbuilding competition, he once caused a stir within the Yingzhou Navy with an article that analyzed the total industrial output of the two major camps, the Central Powers and the Allied Powers, and the scale of shipbuilding by both sides.

The final conclusion was that as long as the United States of Colombia joined the treaty, the Central Powers would not be able to break the Allied blockade and separation between the Ming Dynasty and Letania at sea during wartime. If war broke out between the two sides in the future, the Ming Empire would suffer its greatest defeat in hundreds of years.

In the entire East at that time, this Kuroki Takeshi was the first person to dare to publish such an article publicly. There were officers in the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy and even the Yingzhou Navy at that time who had such views, but no one would publish such an article publicly, and no one would expose the new clothes of Emperor Yongning that only children could not see.

You could call him stupid, but at that time, especially in a small country like Yingzhou, it was truly remarkable to have such a global perspective. Keep in mind that most officers in the Victorian and Leitanian navies did not have this kind of awareness.

But if you were to call him smart, he actually posted such extremely politically incorrect things so casually, and unsurprisingly he was swept away from the front-line fleet and sent to Sasebo to be a "deity bound to the earth." You could say he had absolutely no political sensitivity.

Imagine if, even today, an active-duty NATO officer published an article stating that if the Beacon and the University of Tokyo were to clash, the Beacon's invincible fleet would be utterly crushed by the University of Tokyo's now-powerful navy, combined with its rocket force and air force. He would be dismissed the very next day for "losing confidence," let alone in the present day.

However, his article later provided much confidence and support to the reformers, which gave him a special status in the current military and political circles of Taiwan. Throughout the war, he maintained a high degree of confidence in the United States of Colombia—even when the Colombian Navy suffered a disastrous defeat in the Battle of the Sulu Sea at the beginning of the war.

"I laugh at those old fogies in the court. They still harbor the same deep-seated fear of the Tang Dynasty as they did of the Ming Dynasty. They actually worry that the Tang Dynasty will intercept our ships at sea? The Tang Dynasty was able to sign a ceasefire treaty without recovering all lost territories and vassal states. How could they possibly intercept our warships by force today?"

Kuroki Gotsu patted the gun mount armor of the main turret with his hand, feeling the touch between his palm and the cold steel. This cold touch, on the contrary, made his heart burn with passion. Had the Tokugawa Shogunate ever obtained such a large capital ship from the Ming Dynasty?

He was currently in one of the four capital ships that the Kingdom of Kii's navy had purchased from Columbia for $1 each. The King was originally the lead ship of the King-class battleships of the Second Empire of Leitania's High Seas Fleet. It was the most powerful capital ship the Second Empire of Leitania's High Seas Fleet possessed when it participated in the Battle of Skadrak (at that time, although the first two Bavaria-class battleships were completed, they had not yet achieved combat capability).

Compared to the King in another timeline, who was known as "the fearless one with super-dreadnought power," in this timeline, after wielding five twin-mounted 330mm naval guns, it can be said that the King-class battleships were no less powerful than the Colombian Navy's standard battleships equipped with 14-inch guns or the Dingyuan-class battleships in the hands of the Ming/Tang Royal Navy.

Although the gun caliber was slightly smaller than that of the Columbia and Victoria navies, and the number of gun barrels was two fewer than that of the Dingyuan-class battleships, the King König-class battleships still possessed protection capabilities comparable to those of the Bavarian-class battleships, and their superior survivability kept them among the world's top-tier protective capabilities.