Rise of Australia

Chapter 211 Warship Orders and Aircraft

In order to reassure Grand Duke Sergey, and also to make the Tsarist Russian government behind Grand Duke Sergey more generous, Arthur took Grand Duke Sergey to visit the largest shipyard in Australasia, which is Arthur's Sydney Harbor Royal shipyard.

Australasia's naval construction program is moving quickly, and construction of small and medium-sized warships is already underway.

Yes, Australasia chose to build small and medium warships first, leaving the most budget-hungry dreadnoughts for last.

In fact, it is not left at the end. The main reason is that the design of the dreadnought in Australasia is currently only theoretical. Many problems will arise when the dreadnought is actually built.

Therefore, an experimental product is needed to help the experts and employees of the shipyard become more familiar with the construction of dreadnoughts, and Arthur will naturally not build an additional experimental product.

Under such circumstances, it is the unanimous opinion of the shipyard experts to seek foreign trade and to explore foreign orders as experimental products.

It's actually not that serious.It's just that experts in Australasia want to build better and more perfect warships for the country, so they want to gain more experience and proficiency before building warships for the country.

It has been more than six years since the Royal Dockyard in Sydney Harbor was built.In the past six years, the scale of the shipyard has also ushered in earth-shaking changes.

The current Royal Dockyard in Sydney Harbor is fully capable of accommodating the simultaneous construction of two battleships or five small warships, and even at most three battleships at the same time.

This also laid a good foundation for the future naval expansion of Australasia. At least there is no need to worry that domestic production cannot keep up with sufficient funds.

In addition to the Royal Shipyard, Arthur's Royal Consortium has also invested in more than a dozen large and small shipyards in Australasia.

It's just a pity that among the more than ten shipyards currently capable of building warships, only one is the former shipyard in New Zealand.

The remaining shipyards can only undertake the construction of civilian ships and fishing boats, and most of them are small fishing boats under ten tons.

Even a shipyard located in New Zealand can build only a few hundred tons of coastal defense ships, and thousands of tons of small warships are capable of building, but there are no corresponding drawings and equipment.

In terms of the shipbuilding industry, although Australasia already has a relatively top royal shipyard, in addition to the royal shipyard, Australasia still lacks mid-to-low-end shipyards, and it will take a lot of time to make up for it .

Although the Royal Shipyard has not started to build dreadnoughts, Grand Duke Sergey believes that Australasia's top shipbuilding technology has surpassed that of Russia in terms of its professionalism in building small and medium-sized warships.

In fact, this is also a normal thing.Whether Russia is compared with established powers such as Britain and France or emerging powers such as Germany and the United States, there are some gaps.

If it weren't for the innate advantages brought by the huge land area, rich mineral resources, and large population, coupled with the fact that it is relatively close to Europe and can effectively absorb the technological changes brought about by the European Industrial Revolution, I am afraid that the fate of the Tsarist Empire and Ottoman The Turkish Empire was not much different.

Fortunately, the Tsarist Russian Empire still attaches great importance to maintaining its own military strength, and has invested a lot in the army and navy.

Regarding the dreadnought trade that may be born this time, Nicholas II also generously gave Grand Duke Sergey 500 million pounds of funds. The purpose is at least two dreadnoughts, and it is best to add some small and medium-sized warships.

After watching the Royal Dockyard in Australasia, Grand Duke Sergey also successfully shifted the topic to the order of dreadnoughts.

Arthur could see that the Russians really wanted to acquire dreadnoughts to strengthen their warships in Europe and the Far East.

Especially in the Far East, after the repair of the Crown Prince of the Pacific Fleet was completed, the Pacific Fleet can still maintain a little advantage.

But immediately afterwards, the battleships ordered by the island countries in Australasia were also launched and delivered, and the number of battleships in the Far East between the island countries and Russia maintained a balance.

However, both sides were dissatisfied with the results of the previous war, and both wanted to gear up for another war to change the previous results.

Then it becomes very important to maintain the advantages of one's own army and navy, which is why both Russia and island countries are very interested in the newly born powerful warship Dreadnought.

After learning about the specific performance of the Sovereign-class battleship, Grand Duke Sergey quickly asked questions about the price.

Price is also an important factor in determining the cost performance of dreadnoughts. No matter how enthusiastic the Russians are about dreadnoughts, they may be defeated by the high price.

In fact, Grand Duke Sergey's worries are unreasonable.

Compared with the old battleships, the cost and cost of dreadnoughts have indeed increased a lot.

The cost of a relatively powerful old-fashioned battleship was basically maintained at around 120 to 140 million pounds.

However, the cost of the British battleship Dreadnought is nearly 180 million pounds, which is a big improvement compared to the old battleships.

The real cost of this Sovereign-class battleship in Australasia is slightly higher than that of the Dreadnought battleship. This is because there are some technologies that Australasia has not mastered and need to be purchased from Europe.

The actual cost of the battleship Dreadnought is about 190 million pounds. If it is sold to the outside world, it may cost nearly 250 million pounds.

However, because of the good relationship between Russia and Australasia, and Arthur's intention to support Russia against the island nation, the price of the Sovereign-class battleship was not set that high. The price for Russia was 240 million pounds.

The price of 240 million pounds is a bit distressing to Grand Duke Sergey, but it is not at all unacceptable.

Judging from the powerful data and performance of the dreadnought, such a price is indeed not too exaggerated.

Grand Duke Sergey thought for a long time, finally gritted his teeth, agreed to Arthur's price, and decided to order two dreadnoughts on behalf of the Russian government.

Of course, it's not just dreadnoughts.After Grand Duke Sergey inspected the entire Royal Dockyard, he was also very interested in the Duke-class frigates of Australasia, and ordered more than a dozen frigates by the way.

As a result, the total cost of Russia's naval order this time exceeded 500 million pounds, reaching more than 510 million pounds.

In order to express the good relationship between Australasia and Russia, and to save the Russians money, Arthur was very "generous" and touched a fraction, saying that the Russians would invest 500 million pounds in this business.

This move has indeed won the favor of Grand Duke Sergey. After all, for the current Russian government, the savings of more than [-] pounds can indeed be used in more places.

On October 1906, 10, the naval trade order between Russia and Australasia came into effect after the agreement signed by Grand Dukes Arthur and Sergey.

The naval trade order includes two Sovereign-class battleships and more than ten Duke-class frigates, with a total value of up to £500 million.

After joint negotiations between Grand Duke Sergey and Arthur, the two parties agreed that the two battleships would be delivered at the end of 1908 and the middle of 1909, respectively, while more than a dozen frigates would be delivered at the beginning of 1909.

This trade will take about three years, and by then, Russia will become one of the few countries in the world with dreadnoughts.

It is also good news for Australasia. The net profit brought to Australasia by this trade is as high as one million pounds, and this one million pounds can also be used in other places, such as the plane that has already given birth to hope.

Yes, after Grand Duke Sergey completed his mission, discussed the wedding with Princess Louise and left, Arthur turned his attention to the plane again.

In fact, more than two years have passed since Arthur put forward the three concepts of aircraft militarization last time.

Over the past two years, Theodor and Ludwig, with the help of all the experts in the Aeronautics Laboratory, have also conducted a large number of experiments and improvements on the previous Pioneer-1, and successfully developed the Pioneer-2 and Pioneer-3.

Coupled with the fact that Australasia and the Victoria Awards have attracted European aviation talents during this period, Australasia now has at least one-third of the world's top aviation talents, and the progress of aircraft research and development has also advanced by leaps and bounds.

If the previous Pioneer-1 was simply flying in the sky, then after the transformation of Pioneer-2, the performance of Pioneer-3 is not weaker than the aircraft in World War I in history, if it is a skilled person If you are driving, you can already complete some more complicated tasks.

The average flight speed of the current Pioneer-3 has reached about 200 kilometers per hour, and the maximum flight speed can even reach 230 kilometers per hour.

Compared with the previous Pioneer-1 experiment, this level has already been significantly improved.

The maximum range of Pioneer-1 was about 360 kilometers to 430 kilometers before, and now it has increased to more than 500 kilometers.

Although the Pioneer three-generation aircraft has had several flight accidents during the more than two years of experiments, this is also an unavoidable thing in the development of aircraft.

Arthur also paid a lot of compensation to the pilots and experts who were involved in the accident, and even directly compensated [-] pounds at most.

This has indeed greatly increased the enthusiasm of pilots and experts, at least the vast majority of people are not opposed to participating in the experiment.

Of course, the most important thing is the improvement made by the aviation laboratory on the basis of the pioneer aircraft and according to Arthur's three visions for militarized aircraft.

In addition to the Eagle-2 reconnaissance aircraft, the Wild Tiger-1 fighter jet and the Ghost-1 bomber, the Pioneer-1 modification actually already has considerable combat capabilities and has even been able to be put into mass production.

　[-] words second update

　　
　
(End of this chapter)