Chapter 705: Roll Up

"Let's build a new type of ship. The Citibank guys just came up with it not long ago, the roll-on/roll-off ship!"

Gao Zhendong started to make a nest.

"Roll-on/roll-off ship? What type of ship is this?" At that time, there was no such concept in China. The real modern roll-on/roll-off ship was developed by the Citigroup in 58, which is only a few years old.

"It allows wheeled vehicles to get on and off the ship directly via the gangway, and the loading and unloading is done by rolling on the wheels, so I translated it as a roll-on/roll-off ship."

One comrade thought about it and suddenly realized: "Isn't this just a train ferry? It's just that the load has changed from trains to cars."

When the other comrades heard this, they also reacted, but they felt that it was not very necessary.

"Don't we have landing craft and landing ships to transport vehicles? Isn't this unnecessary?"

Gao Zhendong said: "I am talking about large ships of several thousand tons. The entire cabin or most of the cabin is specially designed for loading vehicles. It can be divided into multiple layers for loading, and can load many vehicles at one time. Moreover, this kind of ship can be designed with multiple gangways, so loading and unloading operations can be carried out directly in multiple places at the same time, greatly improving its speed."

In fact, a few thousand tons is just a small brother in a roll-on/roll-off ship, but at this time, no matter how big it is, it is unnecessary and unaffordable.

The comrades from the Ship Research Institute thought this was unreliable, but they couldn't say Gao Zhendong was talking nonsense. Who knew what else he had hidden behind it? They could only object in a very obscure way: "This kind of thing has no ability to rush to or retreat from the beach. It can only be used on docks of a certain size. I'm afraid it will be difficult to meet the requirements of the Maritime Equipment Bureau."

Unexpectedly, Gao Zhendong admitted it directly: "Yes, the main business of this thing is not military, but a civilian ship. However, after capturing the port, the efficiency of this thing in transporting mechanized troops is higher than that of all landing ships. My idea is to use it for civilian use in peacetime and for economic construction, and mobilize it when necessary, not for beachhead battles, but for large-scale transportation of support forces after consolidating the position."

Huh? This...

The comrades present had never heard of this kind of thinking, but it seemed to make some sense in it.

Comrades from the Defense Work Committee and the Maritime Equipment Bureau became excited, especially the Defense Work Committee. It was a new idea that could be used for both military and civilian purposes and sounded somewhat reliable. “Come on, tell us more about it!”

Gao Zhendong introduced the basic concept, structure and function of ro-ro ships, and then concluded: "My idea is to build a certain number of ro-ro ships for the transportation of goods and personnel between the two peninsulas of Bohai and Tianya Island to Dongyue."

"In this case, both docks will have to load and unload goods from the trucks. Wouldn't that be very inefficient?"

Gao Zhendong looked puzzled. "Why not unload the goods? The truck loads the goods from the source, drives to the dock to board the ship, and then goes straight to the destination. One of the advantages of this method is that it has high loading and unloading efficiency. The dock does not need to build complex loading and unloading equipment. It only needs to provide the conditions for berthing. Even docks with not very good conditions can undertake transportation tasks."

Fuck, this is quite a wild idea.

But if you think about it carefully, it seems to be true.

As the industrial leader at that time, Northeast China had a lot of things to transport to the east. Now it seems that the importance of Tianya Island is beginning to increase, and there may be a large demand for transportation in the future.

"But in this case, part of the ship's carrying capacity will be occupied by vehicles, right? It's a waste." The comrades at the Ship Institute are clear about this.

Gao Zhendong smiled and said, "The original advantage of sea transportation is that it is cheap. By taking advantage of this advantage and paying a certain amount of transportation capacity, we can get more sea routes, shorten the land transportation distance, and achieve higher transportation efficiency. The account should not be too bad. After all, sometimes we have to consider whether it can be transported and whether it can be transported efficiently. The simplest use is to use it to transport newly produced large trucks from the northeast to the south. This thing saves money and is more useful than any ship!"

To take an extreme example, for the same weight of goods, the price of transporting 1 kilometer by land may be more expensive than transporting 100 kilometers by sea.

Hey, Chief Engineer Gao is very familiar with this area. Comrades from the Ship Research Institute thought about his words. Although there is no clear calculation yet, this statement is not completely unreasonable.

Chief Engineer Gao even came up with a very cool way to use it: using it to transport trucks. Trucks can also be cargo! That's absolutely amazing.

Gao Zhendong added: "According to our route requirements, there is no problem in supporting the operation of a certain number of ro-ro ships. And this thing can transport at least one armored regiment at a time during wartime. As long as a port or dock of a certain size is seized, its transportation efficiency is much higher than any passenger ship, landing ship, etc. It serves economic construction in peacetime and contributes to landing operations in wartime, killing two birds with one stone. Besides, not all ships on all routes use ro-ro, so a certain number is enough."

An armored regiment has hundreds of tanks and other vehicles, which can be easily transported by a roll-on/roll-off ship weighing several thousand tons.

Ro-ro ships, although never registered in the military, are actually an important part of a country's large-scale strategic projection capabilities. Secretly speaking, the Americans took advantage of the situation after the Russians died suddenly. In 97, they bought a ro-ro ship produced by the Russians in 87 and converted it into the "Whitt" sea pre-positioned ship.

After hearing what Gao Zhendong said, the Defense Work Committee thought this was a really great idea. Usually, they are supported by civilians, including crew members, maintenance, etc., and they are all covered. Don't look down on them. They are capable of doing heavy work. Ordinary shipping units may not be able to support them.

When the need arises, they will gather together and first find a way to seize a few docks. They don't need many, just a dozen or so, and several divisions can be transported there and landed at different locations, and the speed is very fast. Once a few divisions are on shore, things can no longer be decided by others. If the support is strong, even if you bring hundreds of thousands of troops, they may not be able to deal with it.

It's like a fight in an alley. Having too many people won't necessarily help because they can't really get the fight going.

We should get this thing! It's not a loss anyway, at least we get the ability to project weapons at sea, right?
The Maritime Equipment Bureau is also happy because it can be used for free and it is quite useful. Who wouldn’t be happy?
The comrades who were working on ships wrote and drew on paper, and they all felt that this thing could really be made.

The Defense Work Committee and the Maritime Equipment Bureau whispered a few words and announced directly: "Well, this thing can be done, but it's not just us. When the time comes, the comrades from the Ship Institute will find local shipping and civilian ships, and work hard to make a good ship that is economical and can meet wartime needs."

Gao Zhendong's brain, tsk! ! ! !

Not only were they satisfied, Gao Zhendong himself was also satisfied. This thing was dual-purpose for military and civilian use. Although it was not a main ship type, it was very useful in special circumstances. It was undoubtedly a good thing to be able to make it early. In his previous life, this thing was available in 2000, and we only had a few small ones. If we wanted to use them, we had to ask the Japanese for help, which was very expensive.

But by the time Gao Zhendong went there, the situation had changed. We had nearly a hundred boats, the Japanese had more than 80, and the American boats had more than 40. However, they often rented boats from the Japanese.

Gao Zhendong didn't think that we would be able to produce such a large number and such large ships at that time. The roll-on/roll-off ships at that time could easily weigh tens of thousands of tons, and there was no demand for them. However, even if there were three to five, ten to several thousand tons, they could be of great help at a critical moment.

Strike while the iron is hot!

While everyone was still happy about the roll-on/roll-off ships, Gao Zhendong put forward another suggestion.

"In fact, compared to the dual-use military and civilian ships, I think the Navy should consider the research and development of another type of auxiliary ship."

Are there any experts?

To exaggerate a little, even if Gao Zhendong said now that the navy should consider landing on the moon, the Defense Work Committee and the Naval Equipment Bureau would first listen to what he wanted to say.

The leader of the Defense Work Committee laughed and said, "It seems that Comrade Zhendong is very knowledgeable about military auxiliary ships. Haha, what new ideas do you have?"

He did not expect Gao Zhendong to come up with new results in everything, as that was impossible. However, as long as there were new and good ideas that could be handed over to other comrades for implementation, it would be a huge success. Comrade Zhendong had his own job, so these small things could be handed over to other comrades to complete.

Facts have proved that Gao Zhendong's vision is very accurate and advanced, but just the right amount of advanced.

The Haizhuang Bureau is also concentrating on this, so what?
"Comprehensive supply ship!"

"Supply ship? Aren't we planning to build a new landing craft to provide supplies to the island?" The comrades were a little surprised.

Gao Zhendong shook his head: "The supply ship I'm talking about is not for supplying islands, but for supplying combat ships. The supply includes oil, water, food, ammunition and other supplies, as well as providing certain medical support."

Comprehensive supply ship, if you want to travel farther without a base, you have to rely on this thing.

Gao Zhendong didn't think of becoming rich overnight and building a supply ship that could support destroyers and protectors. That would be big and expensive, and it's not something that people can afford now.

But it is possible to support a smaller youth fleet consisting of a mixture of boats and ships.

The comrade from the Haizhuang Bureau's eyes lit up: "Comrade Zhendong, tell me in detail."

Gao Zhendong said: "We know that when the seaworthiness and living comfort are solved to a certain extent, for a considerable part of the sea area, the biggest impact on the combat distance is the self-sustaining capacity. Either we need a base, or we need to find a way to increase the self-sustaining capacity of the ship."

Gao Zhendong didn't need to explain further, everyone understood his thoughts.

Get a big ship, load it with oil, water, food and ammunition, run with the fleet and get supplies at any time. In this way, the fleet's range of activities can be greatly expanded.

Compared with oil and water supply ships or dry cargo supply ships, the beauty of this suggestion lies in its "comprehensiveness".

(End of this chapter)