"Are you girls ready? Most specifically you Queen Elizabeth and Wales?"
"Y-yes we're ready" Prince of Wales says as she tries to prepare herself for a load of teasing
"Alright then"
Documentary starts
"65,000 tons, top speed 25 knots, and capable of holding more than 70 aircraft. These are the HMS Queen Elizabeth class carriers, the Royal Navy's most powerful warships"
"It seems our.. alter children got 'promoted' from battleships to aircraft carriers" Queen Elizabeth says, not completely understanding why alter futures don't build battleships anymore
I mean sure she knows that there were missiles and other weapons that were better than shells, and she knew that battleships are expensive as well but still...
"What I seem to notice is that these carriers have two control towers, carriers only need just one" Hiryu says confused
"I think it it will be explained eventually Hiryu-senpai" Zuikaku says
"These warships are floating runways for jet planes and helicopters, they can fulfill many roles anywhere in the world. Humanitarian aid, disaster relief, and of course high intensity war fighting. Each aircraft carrier has a strike group protecting them. The core National carrier strike group for HMS Queen Elizabeth are composed of two destroyers, two frigates, two support ships, a nuclear submarine and of course the aircraft carrier itself."
"That's quite the strike group, even though it's not much in terms of numbers" Warspite says
"The strike group doesn't all have to be together all the time, and say you can split that up you can choose how you want to employ them across a geographic region to gain maximum influence. Their flight decks are around 900 foot long, but in order for the aircraft to safely get on and get off, the decks had to be made with special material so the planes don't cause a fire. These carriers have two islands, one navigates the ship while the other is called 'flyco', there the crew monitor and communicate with pilots to coordinate takeoff and landings from the deck. The Queen Elizabeth class carriers are the first Royal Navy carriers to have twin island designs." The speaker states
"That's.. a little confusing" Taihou says
"Can't they just make a longer island then?" Shoukaku asks
"I think there's more reason to the weird design" Enterprise says
"Below the decks are the hangars from where many of the aircraft will wait to be called into action, currently being used to store supplies, but once fully operational four fighter jet planes can be moved from the hangars to the flight deck on each carrier in just one minute. Each carrier has a crew of up to 1600 making a combined number of 3200"
The shipgirls were a little surprised, most were surprised about how much crew can be serving on the carriers. Mikasa's braincells are dying one by one
"Before we continue, here are how the royals look like" The speaker says as two pictures are shown
The shipgirls were very surprised at how much they look like actual siblings even though they're half-siblings. A lot of shipgirls blushed furiously at how Prince of Wales's son looks though, some bad reasons.. at least some of them had good reasons.
"Wow.. that's... unexpected" King George V says, she didn't think that her nephew would look like her sister and she didn't expected her majesty's daughter to be tall
"It really is..." Warspite says having the same reaction
(So that's what she/he looks like..) Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales thought
The Royal Navy shipgirls were just silent
To the other shipgirls
"Hmph, he must be a pervert!" Hammann says
"You don't even know him Hammann..." Yorktown says
Taihou, and Junyo were had yandere eyes
Akagi still having some of her yandere personality just giggled, that's it
"I hope that Queen Elizabeth's alter daughter is better than the small loli.." Bismarck whispers to Tirpitz as she nods
Documentary continues
"A a fact about HMS Prince of Wales, Azur Lane high command stipulated that the Royal Navy only needed one aircraft carrier for building however the penalty is that cancelling the building of his ship would be more expensive than building the ship itself, so instead the government planned construct Prince of Wales then either place him into extended readiness or have him sold into an ally. In 2012 the Royal Navy published it's annual titled 'A global force 2012-13' which stated that both carriers are likely to be commissioned and may even be capable of operating together. One to two years later, the government thankfully will send him into active service and cancelled Prince of Wales into being mothballed and being sold.
(Mothballed means not using a piece of equipment but keeping it in good condition so that it can be used at some point OR cancel/postpone work on a plan/project)"
The shipgirls breathed a sigh of relief, fearing they would hear another sad event
"T-that was close" Hood says
"Indeed.." Ilustrious says
"Now, the question everybody is asking. Why did the Royal Navy come up with a design about the two islands? Well the answer can only be found below the deck in the engine room. To be exact there are two engine rooms on the Queen Elizabeth class carriers and they are spaced apart in order to increase redundancy and survivability, because you see during the siren war, the aircraft carrier known as HMS Ark Royal was lost to a single siren torpedo hit which caused flooding in the engine room."
The shipgirls were shocked
"It seems.. I sink in alter worlds..." Ark Royal says very stunned as some shipgirls comfort her, along with the destroyers
"Now we know why they designed the two islands.." Prinz Eugen says
"For this reason, the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales have two propulsion systems which are separated so in case one is compromised, the other can still function, but this creates a problem as both propulsion systems need their own set of exhaust shafts and down takes for the foul air and gases inside. The gas turbine exhaust pipe is 2.4 meters in diameter and it can't be easily bent meaning that the shaft has to be pretty much on top of the engine room since the downtakes and exhaust pipes are hidden within the island's megastructure so it means that the newest Royal Navy aircraft carriers could either have one long island or two smaller islands."
"So that's the disadvantage, very bad if it doesn't get fixed nya" Akashi says
"Royal Navy enginners conducted a thorough analysis to pick which design is better and since we already know the outcome, we will discuss the five advantages and one major advantage of having a twin island design"
The shipgirls are preparing to hopefully learn form this
"The first advantage is that the two smaller islands have less footprint than the one bigger island. The space between the two islands can be used to install an aircraft lift which is a much better use of space."
"So the space between the islands can be used to install another aircraft lift which can save more time when preparing the planes and the supplies. That can be useful, if we can even do something like that" Formidable says
"The second advantage is reduced air turbulence on the flight deck. Turbulent air is a major obstacle in flight operations and having less of it is always a good thing."
"The third advantage is increased visibility for both ship operations and the flight control having a front island forward to the bow of the boat results in better visibility for the crew on the bridge especially in tighter waters. Traditionally flight control is just an appendix section of the bridge but with a second island dedicated for that purpose, you can position it in an optimal location towards the stern of the carrier as that is where the planes land. The flyco tower has a 290 degree view of the flight deck through giant three meter tall windows and having such a view simplifies things and increases aircraft controllers awareness as they talk through the landing procedures with the pilots"
"The fourth advantage is that the twin island design allows for better separation for the main radars since having two sets of radars on two separate islands decreases signal interference and blind spots. The fifth and final advantage of having twin islands is that they can be constructed off-site as separate units and then installed into the hull which makes things much easier than building one large island made of many modules."
The shipgirls learning this information now know how these twin islands work, maybe when they get the technology needed, one day they can build advanced carriers like these. Mikasa had a few more braincells die.
"Now for the one major disadvantage, it seems to be the physical separation itself, because you see the front island is primarily used for ship control and the island towards the back is used for flying control since launching and landing aircraft from a moving ship is a delicate process it means that ship control and flying control need to be in constant communications as the ship's heading and speed must be precise during launches and landings having chip control officers and flight control officers work together in close proximity simplifies things so now having them on different islands means that they have to rely on intercom for their communications. This is something that will take some time to get used to, that said in case one of the islands is compromised the second one can assume its functions and vice versa. If the intercom breaks even though not ideal, everything can still be run from one of the island."
"Well.. that's interesting" Soryu says
"I think there's another reason for the two islands" Hornet says
(Oh no, what now) Enterprise and Yorktown thought
"What is it?" Javelin asks
"The bow tower is for the Admiral, while the stern tower is for the REAR-Admiral!" Hornet says as she laughs after
(...
bruh) Everyone thought
"Really sister?" Enterprise asks with a bruh face
"Yes really!" She says with a proud face as Enterprise and Yorktown sigh
"Anyway.. let's finish this" Prince of Wales says
"That's all for advantages and disadvantages. A few more things before this ends, HMS Queen Elizabeth was commissioned of December 2017 while HMS Prince of Wales was commissioned 2 years later. They may be half siblings but they have many things in common, they're royalty, love tea, and many more. Queen Elizabeth is not like her mother in terms of personality while Prince of Wales takes a lot after his mother. Both of them are the current leaders of the Royal Navy which plans to have more ships in the future like the daughter of HMS Belfast herself. May the holy light bless the Queen, may she continue to serve and guide her country until her last breath" The speaker says as the documentary ends
Belfast is surprised along with a few other shipgirls
(Again with the holy light stuff) the Iron Blood shipgirls thought
"Prince of Wales must be very gentleman like, considering he takes after his mother" Hood teases as Prince of Wales blushes
"S-stop it" Prince of Wales says
"I wonder how her majesty's alter daughter is like, since the speaker said she doesn't have the personality of our queen" Sheffield says
"Indeed, but we can't forget about the mention of my sister's alter daughter as well" Edinburgh states
"Maybe she'll be a maid like you Ms Belfast?" Unicorn asks
"Maybe" Belfast replies with a smile
"That's all for future warships, but you're going to react to another one. A battleship in fact. Let's start now, this will be short don't worry"
Short video starts
"The Eagle Union government back in the siren war, decided to build a series of brand new battleships. He is the first shipboy of Eagle Union, and he is named, Iowa" The speaker says as a picture is shown of the ship
"Woah, judging by the picture.. the ship must've cost a lot" Bismarck says
"The battleship had three main armament turrets with 406 mm guns that are capable of sending 11 tons of deadly metal into the air per salvo. The 57-ton ship was able to speed up to 33 knots, around 140 20mm and 40mm AA machine guns were mounted on the ship"
The shipgirls were very shocked at the info, Eagle Union was shocked as well but had some pride
"That thing must be a monster.." Nagato says
"Maybe he can even beat Bismarck and Tirpitz.." Arizona says
The Iron Blood faction did have pride, but they knew what Arizona said might be true
"Allied aircraft carriers favored the company of this battleship for the reliable AA cover fire called 'Umbrella' Iowa provided for them. Battleship Iowa was commissioned in early 1943, his first mission was to go north where Naval intelligence felt that Tirpitz the Iron Blood battleship may be coming into the North Atlantic to fight off a siren fleet and he was sent to help her."
"1943?! That's like two years from now!" Mikasa yells, she was glad that they were finally watching something in her time
"Yes, but we must not forget that this is an alter world.. I mean the battleship may be built sure but we're not sure if it will be a male or female" Ayanami says
Bismarck was concerned for her alter sister
"Battleships Iowa and Tirpitz nearly met, but unfortunately didn't but they did fight the siren fleets. Iowa had greater speed, greater maneuverability, and longer range of fire. In the operation, Tirpitz tried to meet with Iowa but was blocked by a siren fleet, Iowa was far from Tirpitz and he too was fighting a siren fleet. There is no need for concern because the battles were won anyway, the difference being they never met but Iowa's interference with the second fleet meant to sink Tirpitz was needed. If he didn't stop the fleet then Tirpitz would've been sunk and wouldn't live."
The Iron Blood shipgirls sigh in relief as the rest were glad nothing bad happened
"In early 1944, Iowa joined the Eagle Union fifth fleet, which operated in the pacific. By that time, Sakura Union forces were already attacking siren positions on various islands. His role was to provide fire support and escorts for the aircraft carriers and landing troops"
"At least we're learning some things after Midway, the sirens must've been not on the offensive anymore" Javelin says
"Iowa at one point went up to support MacArthur's, William Halsey's, and Takeo Kurita's offensive at Leyte Gulf. Unfortunately they went the wrong way and chased a siren aircraft carrier force that was really a decoy. Iowa did come back but was a little too late to assist in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, they missed that one opportunity to maybe have a contact with Project Orochi"
"It must've been a big battle if it involved the Orochi" Akagi says with some anger but not noticeable
"The ships never met in combat because Eagle Union and the sirens kept them at distance, there was great risk to lose their capital ships and have them severely damaged in battle. If Iowa and Orochi did meet in battle, Iowa would've probably taken the day in a battle against the Orochi. Iowa had very accurate fire control for a ship of the 1940s and I think that would've been an advantage for him if he fought such a battle. It was so accurate that in 1984 when they recommissioned him, they kept the existing system in place even though it used modern technology, Iowa could put a round very very close to the target so accurate that they didn't need to change it."
"He even got recommissioned? He must've been so powerful in alter worlds.." Kaga says wanting to fight him, only Akagi noticed her desire to fight strong people
"Iowa was the most dangerous enemy for Orochi, and if they had met at a range from 20,000 to 30,000 meters, especially in a one-on-one fight and in fine weather, Iowa would have almost no chance of winning. However thanks to improved radar, Iowa could fight in bad weather and at night. Powerful guns, high speed, and precise radar made Iowa a formidable adversary and if they fought each other then the victory would depend on the battle conditions in the field"
"So it's controversial then" Montpelier says
"It would seem so" FDG says
"Iowa at the end of the war, entered Tokyo Bay with his sistership Missouri, to put an end to the siren war on August 29, 1945. During the post-war decades, he returned to the Eagle Union navy several times to serve his country before becoming a museum ship." The speaker states as the short video finally ends
"It seems he served for a few more wars in alter worlds.. but at least he's now a retired war veteran" Yorktown says
"How sad, we didn't get to see how he looks like" Prinz Eugen says as her sister nudges her
"I'm glad nothing bad happened to you Shcwester" Bismarck says while Tirpitz nods understanding where she's coming from
"Now that's really the end for future warships. Take a short break girls, by the way be warned.. I have a small surprise for you" The screen states
"What kind of surprise?"
"You'll have to wait for a few minutes, so until then, your break starts now"
Epic, final part is done
Now you guys wait for Epilogue since it's another day of school for me tomorrow
Hope you guys enjoyed
reminder:
voting for naval battles and wars for them to react to is included in the Epilogue
some more shipgirls might be added as well. Just check the "More characters in the future?" chapter for a recall, if you want different shipgirls then just request.
For wars and naval battles, I mostly watch oversimplified, etc. Request as long as the vids are not too long. I will decide on what for them to react, if none of your requests seek my interest then I will pick on my own.
Nice day