Chapter 316 Malacca Class
22 years, September 11th.
Bandon Island.
The third shipyard.
In the fully enclosed dock, a dozen employees stood in the control console on the top, looking at the huge object under their feet.
Designer Ino, engineer Huang Weida and others were inside the console at this time.
Huang Weida looked at the rising water level in the dock and the hull slowly floating on the water. He showed a gratified expression: "The construction of the Malacca is finally completed."
"Are we really going to use the first one as a transport ship? That would be such a pity!" Ino was also delighted with the giant ship he designed.
Huang Weida shook his head: "There is no way. The company already has enough warships. With the production capacity of major shipyards, there is no need to build up warships at full capacity."
The warships currently in service at the Sapiens Company are:
3 Pacific-class battleships.
13 Greater Luzon-class amphibious assault ships.
11 Luzon-class amphibious assault ships.
57 Manila-class frigates.
32 Tuna-class nuclear attack submarines.
6 Orca-class strategic nuclear submarines.
There are also 8 Sumatran Crocodile-class landing ships, 30 Tiger Crab-class hovercraft, 35 Blue Whale-class supply ships, 21 Blue Whale-class special ships, and 1 Haili-class channel dredging ship.
This scale is already very large, and in the next 10 years or so, the Sapiens company will still build 15 to 20 ships every year.
This shipbuilding speed has actually temporarily withdrawn from the wartime mechanism. If it still follows the previous wartime mechanism, the scale of shipbuilding will increase more than ten times.
After all, the Sapiens company has applied too many new technologies and new materials in shipbuilding technology, resulting in a very fast shipbuilding speed.
After research and discussion, the headquarters believes that it is necessary to adjust the current production tasks and not continue to focus on warships, but to take into account the civilian field as well.
This is the new ship that Ino, Huang Weida and others are sailing on - the Malacca.
The Malacca is the first ship of the Malacca class. It is a 100,000-ton container transport ship, about the same size as a Pacific-class battleship, and is equipped with three small thorium-based molten salt nuclear reactors.
That's right, the Malacca-class transport ships are nuclear-powered.
The reason for developing nuclear-powered transport ships.
On the one hand, it is to reduce the consumption of oil and natural gas and reduce transportation costs.
On the other hand, in order to reserve enough spare warships, the Malacca-class hull used a large amount of new materials. Although it was not equipped with armor, its comprehensive performance was still 20 to 30% higher than that of an aircraft carrier hull.
In other words, when necessary, the Sapiens Company can completely transform the Malacca-class transport ship into a Malacca-class amphibious assault ship, an armed escort aircraft carrier, a special warship, etc.
The purpose of doing this is to reduce the number of warships that are too large during non-war periods.
Currently, a total of four Malacca-class transport ships have been built in the first batch, two of which were launched today, and the other two will be launched in the middle of next month.
After Huang Weida saw that the ship had stabilized, he picked up the intercom and said, "The test team is moving in."
"receive."
A crane lifted a special personnel cabin onto the deck, and 15 test team members walked and entered the cockpit of the transport ship.
The other five groups of testers also boarded the Malacca one after another.
Soon the dock gates opened.
Two of the three nuclear reactors began operating, with the third acting as a backup.
As the reactor outputted surging power, the Malacca slowly left the fully enclosed dock and sailed along the waterway towards the open sea.
At this time, inside the Malacca, various groups of testers were busy testing whether the ship met the design.
There is actually no big difference .
But on the Malacca class, the New Luzon Shipyard recently proposed a new design concept, that is, tools should be humane rather than developing in an anti-human direction.
So what anti-human designs are there on traditional transport ships?
In the view of Sapiens, the most inhumane thing about traditional transport ships is their long voyages, especially ocean-going cargo ships, where the crew will drift on the sea for several months once they go out to sea.
It is so boring that it is difficult for ordinary people to understand the pain. Long-term separation can easily cause relationship problems between couples, which in turn leads to psychological problems for employees.
Although Sapiens has biochips that can prevent cheating, the company's management believes that biochip prevention and treatment is only a temporary solution and is too repressive, which will still cause employees to suffer from mental illness.
Therefore, the company headquarters asked the New Luzon Shipyard to solve this problem in the new generation of transport ships.
After several revisions, designer Innova and more than a dozen other ship designers decided to use 3,000 tons of the nearly 6,000 tons of deadweight saved by the new material hull to improve the living facilities for the crew.
At the same time, the New Luzon Maritime Corporation also stated that it would increase the proportion of female crew members on transport ships to ensure that both husband and wife can be on the same ship.
At this time, one group of testers was testing the living facilities on the ship.
It includes a kitchen, restaurant, cold storage, vegetable greenhouse, satellite Internet room, small cinema, infirmary, gym, sauna room, chess and card room, and gun room.
In the gym.
The testers did not find any barbells or the like. This is mainly because the interior of the ship is very bumpy during sea voyages, and equipment such as dumbbells and barbells can easily injure people.
The sports facilities here mainly include indoor rock climbing, squash room, fixed treadmills, single and double bars, etc.
Several testers tested these sports facilities while the Malacca was sailing at high speed.
By the way, since the Malacca itself was designed as a reserve battleship, its speed is very fast, with a maximum speed of 35 knots. When fully loaded, it can still maintain a high speed of 25 knots.
After all, since it uses nuclear power, the speed must be increased. Low speed is not economical for nuclear-powered ships.
According to the design, Malacca will be equipped with four departments, namely: Deck Department, Engine Department, Affairs Department and Security Department.
The deck department includes the captain, first mate, second mate, third mate, radio operator, boatswain, carpenter and sailor, a total of 15 people;
The engine department includes the chief engineer, second engineer, third engineer, electrician, chief engineer, nuclear power maintenance worker, coppersmith, and mechanic, a total of 20 people;
The affairs department includes psychological counselors, chefs, second chefs, waiters, medical staff, and warehouse managers, a total of 15 people.
The security department includes the security team leader, security guards, and emergency communicators, a total of 12 people.
There are also 10 to 15 interns.
The entire ship has about 70 to 80 crew members, which is 3 to 4 times the crew size of large transport ships of other shipping companies.
But Sapiens can afford so many employees and does not need to worry about wages and benefits.
In the future, as Sapiens Company vigorously expands into other regions, the ocean shipping industry will definitely need a large number of nuclear-powered transport ships.
The full promotion of the Malacca-class transport ships now is also a good thing for the crew.
In fact, the reduction in transportation costs of the Malacca Class can basically offset the improvement in labor costs and living facilities.
After all, Sapiens' thorium-based molten salt reactor uses thorium rods with a concentration of 92%. After being loaded with fuel once, it can be used for decades.
Moreover, the nuclear fuel refining process of the Sapiens company is different from the traditional centrifugal separation method, with much lower costs, and other components are also self-sufficient.
The three thorium-based molten salt reactors on the Malacca-class transport ship have a total cost of only 4.2 million gold yuan, which is much cheaper than burning oil.
