Rise of Australia

Chapter 242 Military Rank Restructuring and Awarding

Although it is called a five-year shipbuilding plan, in fact, the five main warships can be built almost before 1911, and the HNA test time is about one year.

If the five-year shipbuilding plan can be successfully completed, Australasia will have three dreadnoughts and two battlecruisers, and the main ships are already world-class.

Secondly, there are various small and medium-sized warships, including armored cruisers and armored frigates.The tonnage of these warships ranges from a few hundred tons to several thousand tons, and the construction time and cost are only small.

Counting all the warships, Australasia's shipbuilding plan is expected to cost nearly 2000 million Australian dollars, which is almost 1000 million pounds.

And the total tonnage of the complete Australasian Navy will directly exceed 12 tons, reaching about [-] tons.

If you look at the total naval tonnage alone, the tonnage of the Australasian Navy before and after the five-year shipbuilding plan may vary by a factor of ten.

Because Portugal's war reparations amounted to 500 million pounds this time, the shipbuilding plan is not a big financial burden for the Australasian government, and it is even completely acceptable.

The reason why only so many can be built is entirely because the current construction speed of the Royal Dockyard can only maintain a maximum of three warships.

After the five-year shipbuilding plan, the scale of the Royal Dockyard will expand again, and perhaps the next round of shipbuilding plans will be even more exaggerated.

The shipbuilding plan formulated by Australasia spread quickly, and in just a few days, it was well known in Australasia, and even European media reported the news.

It is no exaggeration to say that Australasia's emphasis on dreadnoughts can even be ranked among the top five in the world in terms of the current dreadnought construction plan.

The only countries currently building dreadnoughts are Britain, Germany, Russia and the United States.Of course, the Russian dreadnoughts were built in Australasia.

The countries that initially have dreadnought construction plans only include Italy and island countries.

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire had ideas about dreadnoughts, the Austro-Hungarian navy did not invest much, and it had to rely on Germany to own a dreadnought.

The expansion plan of the army is not limited to the navy, the Australasian army is also ushering in a new round of expansion.

The previous wars have exposed the serious shortcomings of the insufficient number of the army. Even a country like Portugal with a slightly smaller population than Australasia has an army of more than [-].

However, the Australasian army is only more than 6 people at full strength. If it is scattered in every state and colony, then the garrison in each state or colony is even a little more than one regiment.

Under the premise of maintaining sufficient defense forces in various regions of the country, Australasia currently uses only two divisions at most.

Although the combat effectiveness of the Australasian army is indeed good, the shortcomings in numbers are already obvious.

According to the research decision of the Ministry of National Defense, the new round of Australasian Army expansion plan is divided into three types: Guards Division, Regular Division and Colonial Division.

Among them, the Guards Division will add an infantry regiment and an artillery regiment again, and its establishment will have three infantry regiments, a cavalry regiment and two artillery regiments, with a total number of more than 2.

The Guards Division will also become the division with the largest number of establishments in Australasia. Whether it is in terms of numbers, firepower, or the combat quality of soldiers and officers, it is definitely the top of the Australasian army, and it is also world-class.

The regular division will also expand by one, which is the fourth division.The fourth division will draw part of the backbone officers and veterans from the first, second, and third divisions, plus longer training time to make it.

In addition to this is the newly added establishment of the Australasian Army, which is the colonial division owned by most colonial countries.

The Colonial Division is also called the Indigenous Division. Like the Portuguese Indigenous Army, the middle and high-level officers of the Colonial Division are all composed of Australasian officers, and the lower-level officers reward the indigenous people based on their performance.

The vast majority of soldiers in the colonial division are all composed of those natives.

It is precisely because of this feature that the colonial division will be the best cannon fodder in combat, the kind that will not feel bad even if many people die.

The formation of the Colonial Division was a decision made by Arthur and Minister Kent after a long discussion.

At present, Australasia also has two colonies, and they are both close to the mainland of Australasia, with land rich in mineral resources.

Although the combined population of Australian New Guinea and Australian Timor is less than one million (at least 20 aborigines have flowed into the country from New Guinea), there is no problem in arming one or two colonial divisions.

In addition, Australasia has another advantage, that is, the mainland is very close to the two colonies, and can control the two colonies very effectively, so naturally there is no need to worry about the betrayal and defection of the natives.

Any native soldiers dare to defect?Of course, there is no problem, but the tribe where the native soldier belongs to and the nearby tribes will all be punished, ranging from implicating the tribe to the region.

At this time, the Dutch East Indies had a population of more than 4000 million indigenous people, and the lives of the indigenous people were not worth much.

It is also because of this that the Colonial Division is the most expanded organization of the army, and the First Colonial Division and the Second Colonial Division will be born in this expansion.

The establishment of the Australasian Colonial Division is very simple. A colonial division consists of four infantry regiments.This also means that the colonial division is a pure infantry division, with very few machine guns and artillery.

The Infantry Regiment of the Guards Division, the Artillery Regiment, the Fourth Division of the Regular Division, and two Colonial Divisions. Australasia has expanded its army by nearly 6 people this time. More than ten thousand people.

In this way, the total number of troops in Australasia will reach 12, and the available troops in the event of a war can also reach [-] to [-].

During this period of time, the workers of the Arthur Military Factory and the leaders of the military factory were all smiling.

The previous wars and the current military expansion have greatly expanded the scale of Australasia's military factories and also promoted the growth of Australasia's military industry.

At present, Arthur's military factory has more than 2000 employees, even if placed internationally, it is definitely a big factory in the military industry.

Compared with the navy and army that are expanding their armies with great fanfare, the expansion of Australasia's air force is much more low-key.

The airship is a technology that everyone tacitly understands, so it has also been placed on the bright side.

After the victory of this war, Arthur announced in a high-profile manner that he would vigorously build at least [-] airships, firstly to meet the transportation needs of some materials, and secondly to build up the air power of Australasia.

Although the rudiments of aircraft have been born in various countries in the world, the reliability of current aircraft is much lower than that of airships, and their practical value is far lower than that of airships.

Coupled with the performance of airships in Australasia in the last war, European powers decided to follow up the research on airships.

In addition to the twenty airships on the surface, secretly, Australasia has also expanded its aviation force again.

The previous Australasia had a total of 15 Specter-3 bombers and 15 Eagle-3 reconnaissance aircraft.

After conducting actual combat tests on the performance of bombers and reconnaissance planes in the last war, Arthur decisively placed an order for [-] bombers, [-] fighter jets, and [-] reconnaissance planes.

With the establishment of the Royal Military Academy, the selection and training of pilots has become more formalized.

At present, the Aviation Academy of the Royal Military Academy can train at least 150 qualified pilots for Australasia every year, so Arthur can spend a lot on the expansion of the aviation force.

There are a total of [-] aircraft orders this time, and according to the construction speed of the aviation laboratory, it will take at least half a year.

Added to the thirty aircraft already in possession at present, Australasia would have at least ninety military aircraft in 1908.Whether it is in terms of scale or combat effectiveness, Australasia can be said to be the world's number one in the field of air force, and it is also the world's number one in terms of dating.

In fact, judging from the current practicality of these aircraft, they can already be compared with the aircraft of various countries during World War I.

If Arthur insisted, a powerful air force with thousands of aircraft could be established by now.

However, the current update iteration speed of the aircraft is still very fast, and there is no need to spend too much on models that may be lagging behind.

At least according to the response of the aeronautical laboratory, the fourth generation of military aircraft has already begun. The fourth generation of the three types of military aircraft will have a considerable performance improvement over the third generation.

This is also one of the reasons why Arthur has not formed a large-scale air force at present. First, the air force has no opponents, and Australasia currently has an overwhelming advantage in the air force.

In addition, the birth of the fourth-generation aircraft is not far away. Instead of spending money to buy aircraft that may be behind, it is better to wait until the new aircraft is born before expanding the army.

In addition to expanding the army, rewarding the soldiers who made contributions in the previous wars is also a very important thing.

The army is Arthur's hole card, and the military spirit must be firmly in his hands.

Arthur and Minister Kent had been discussing rewards for soldiers and officers since the end of the war.

The biggest meritorious service this time is undoubtedly the first division and the second division. The former fired the first shot of the war, perfectly played the role of the vanguard, and captured Portuguese Timor with relatively low casualties.

The Second Division not only captured Portuguese India and other colonies, but also successfully defended and eliminated the threat from Portuguese reinforcements.

As the division commanders of the [-]st and [-]nd Divisions, the two generals Silvio Lonnie Rodling and Fritz Leiner are also very likely to advance in their ranks.

The current military ranks in Australasia are basically inherited from the British Empire, and the same is true for the Navy.

Even the pattern design of military ranks is basically consistent with the British Empire.This time, taking advantage of the timing of the reward, a new rank belonging to Australasia was announced.

After lengthy discussions with Minister Kent, the new Australasian ranks were formally announced on 1907 November 11.

Starting from the privates who have just enlisted in the army, the military ranks in Australasia are divided into 3 levels of soldiers (new recruits, privates, privates), 3 levels of non-commissioned officers (corporate, sergeant, sergeant), and 3 levels of lieutenants (second lieutenant, lieutenant) , Captain), 3rd rank of school officer (major, lieutenant colonel, colonel), 4th rank of general officer (brigadier general, major general, lieutenant general, general), and the highest rank, marshal.

This set of military ranks applies to the Australasian Army, Navy and Air Force, and the ranks of soldiers in their respective military departments will also be prefixed with their own affiliation.

And if you want to say that the Marshal of Land, Sea and Air is above the Marshal of the Three Armies in the name of Arthur.

Of course, Arthur's previous name was the Marshal of the Australasian Army and Navy. Now that he has the Air Force, he naturally becomes the Marshal of the Australasian Army, Navy and Air Force, referred to as the Marshal of the Armed Forces.

It's just that most of Arthur's title of Marshal of the Armed Forces is only an honorary title.

But this title also gives Arthur the legal right to mobilize all Australasian troops, including the government's Defense Forces, legally and reasonably during special and wartime times.

At present, apart from the Marshal of the Armed Forces under the name of Arthur, the highest rank in Australasia is the lieutenant general of the Minister of Defense Kent.

As for people like Commander Fritz, they are all brigadier generals.One is to facilitate the management of the Ministry of National Defense, and the other is that there have been no wars in Australasia since the founding of the country. If these generals have no credit, if they are given too high a military rank, it will make Australasia Military ranks became worthless.

In addition, if you give too high a military rank in the early stage, it may cause an unsealable situation in the later stage.

At that time, if the marshal is rotten, then this military rank system will really be rotten.

On November 1907, 11, the Australasian Army Commendation Ceremony officially began.

The commendation ceremony can also be called the honor ceremony. Although most of the participants were troops from Australasia who had participated in the war before, the venue was still chosen on the square outside the Sydney Palace.

This also caused many civilians in Australasia to watch. After all, awarding honors is not a confidential matter.

The ones who got the biggest promotion this time were naturally the two commanders of the first and second divisions.

Both Silvio Lonnie Rodling, the commander of the First Division, and Fritz Leiner, the commander of the Second Division, were successfully promoted from brigadier general to major general, which may be their highest rank in the position of division commander.

If they still want to be promoted in military rank, in addition to entering the Ministry of Defense, perhaps they can only wait for the birth of a larger establishment of the Australasian army!
After all, a lieutenant general above a major general can be regarded as a high-level figure in a country's army.You can't let such a high-level person lead an ordinary regular teacher, then there will always be many problems.

After all, the current Minister of Defense Kent only has the rank of lieutenant general. If there is another lieutenant general and division commander, then who should listen to whom in the case of the same rank?
In addition to the successful promotion of the two division commanders to major generals, the two deputy division commanders of the first and second divisions were also promoted to the position of brigadier generals.

Of course, their promotion is to prepare for the expansion of the Fourth Division and the Colonial Division, and their promotion also means that they will become the division commanders of these units.

　Four thousand words to ask for a day off today, I can't do it if I have a cold and a headache.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)