Rise of Australia

Chapter 313 The Secret Establishment of the Air Force

The Secretary of the Navy, Churchill, glanced around and found that in the British cabinet of Nuo Da, there was not a single cabinet member who supported him.

In desperation, Churchill finally agreed to the 1:1.5 construction plan proposed by Foreign Minister Edward.

Of course, this does not mean that Britain will build half a battleship, but that for every two battleships Germany builds, the British Empire must build at least three to maintain its numerical advantage.

This is Churchill's concession to other officials of the cabinet government, and it is also some concession of the British Empire to Germany in terms of finances.

But this is actually very normal.After all, although the British Empire has the most powerful naval fleet in the world, what this naval fleet must protect is a real empire on which the sun never sets.

Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Oceania, the six continents with large populations, all have territories or colonies of the British Empire.

This also represents the range that the Royal Fleet is to protect, in a real sense, even the whole world.

It is no exaggeration to say that the British Empire occupies one-fifth of the earth, about 2700 million square kilometers of land.

This land brought the British Empire supreme glory and profits, but it also caused the British Empire to spend a lot of defense investment and naval fleet, and had to be stationed in these areas separately.

If it is the entire British Royal Fleet, the German High Seas Fleet has no chance of surpassing it.

But if it is only the British home fleet, the German High Seas Fleet is still capable of fighting.

What makes the British choose to back down is not the more than 1000 million pounds in the annual fleet construction plan, but the high annual defense budget and endless growth.

The current scale of defense has already cost the British Empire a budget of more than 6000 million pounds. If the fleet continues to expand frantically, how terrible will the defense budget be?Is it 8000 million pounds, [-] million pounds, or hundreds of millions of pounds?

The British Empire can bear it for a while, but it is impossible to bear it for a lifetime.If such an exaggerated increase in the defense budget is allowed, not only other ministers in the cabinet are unwilling, but I am afraid that the public is also unwilling.

In fact, such problems are not limited to the British Empire, but to all powers that are currently expanding their armies.

Especially the German Empire, which is a direct competitor with the British Empire, the pressure on funds is even more exaggerated.

Although it seems that the economy of Germany has surpassed that of the United Kingdom, the arms race is carried out by the navy and the army, directly creating the world's largest army and the world's second largest navy.

But in fact, the financial crisis of the Germans is more serious than that of the British, but Germany seems to be taking a breath at this time, and they can't stop at all.

Either start this war and let the enemy repay the interest and losses of various loans for yourself, or just die and wait for the country to go bankrupt and the property to be divided up by other countries!

In fact, Australasia's own financial situation is even more serious, with military expenditures accounting for more than 40% of the total government expenditures.

But who keeps the Australasian government rich?Coupled with the large amount of construction that has made Australasia's finances steadily rising, as long as it is in a state of surplus, the high proportion of military expenditure is not an important thing.

When it comes to military spending, in fact Australasia's military spending can only be higher.

It's just that the current expenditures of the Air Force and the Guards Division all depend on the royal family, otherwise the military expenditure should have increased by at least [-] to [-]%.

Speaking of the Air Force, because the First World War was approaching, in order to prepare, Arthur also decided to establish the Air Force in advance.

Of course, the decision has been relatively secretive so far.With the exception of key senior officials of the Australasian Ministry of Defence, not even the Cabinet Government was aware of the establishment of the Australasian Air Force.

According to history, the British Empire should be the first to establish an air force, and the establishment time should be in May 1912.

Although countries all over the world place more emphasis on airships than airplanes, this does not mean that they will give up on the development of airplanes.

In fact, according to Arthur's intelligence, if the information is correct, top powers including Britain, Germany, France, and the United States have already developed preliminary militarized aircraft.

However, the technology of this kind of aircraft is not comparable to the first generation of military aircraft in Australasia, and their aircraft technology is still a long way from Australasia.

At present, Australasia has more than 600 military aircraft, but the air force still has no head.

After some careful consideration, Arthur secretly called the Prime Minister of Kent and Minister of Defense Raul to discuss the establishment of the Air Force.

"Everyone, it's time to formally form our aircraft into the army and establish a brand-new military branch that soars in the sky." Arthur said with a smile on his face, looking at Prime Minister Kent and Minister Raul.

The Air Force, this is a completely new branch of the military. Before this, there was no concept of the Air Force.

Hearing what Arthur said, Prime Minister Kent and Minister Raul finally understood the real reason why Arthur obviously formed a large-scale aircraft force, but did not attribute it to the army or navy.

It turns out that His Majesty is going to form a brand new army to equip these planes!

Although a little shocked, Prime Minister Kent quickly reacted and asked: "Your Majesty, how should this new military branch be established?"

After all, it is a brand-new military branch. How to establish it, its combat methods, and the importance of this military branch all need to be explored to know.

"I believe that you all understand the role of the three military aircraft. The importance of aircraft is no less than that of the army and navy. The air force will be listed as the three most important military services along with the army and navy." Arthur said with a smile.

Both Prime Minister Kent and the Minister of Labor nodded as a matter of course.

Although they have some doubts about the new branch of the Air Force, this does not mean that they will deny the role and combat capability of the aircraft.

A large-scale aircraft does play a vital role on the battlefield, and it is fully qualified to make the entire country attach importance to its development.

"The Ministry of Defense can secretly start to form the Air Force Department. I will transfer all more than 600 aircraft to the Air Force Department of the Ministry of Defense. Your task is to make our Air Force more than 2000 people within two years and have enough Trustworthy fighting ability." Arthur looked at Minister Raul and ordered.

There are aviation academies with military academies, and the training of pilots is completely sufficient at present.Not to mention the 1400 extra pilots, even if the number is doubled, it is not difficult for the current Australasia.

The relatively difficult thing is actually to conduct more detailed research on the Air Force as a service, to study its combat methods, specific organization, how to cooperate with other services, and daily training matters.

These are enough headaches for the Ministry of National Defense, and they need to be done in complete secrecy, which will test Minister Raul's ability even more.

"I understand, Your Majesty. Please rest assured, I will definitely complete the task." Minister Raul nodded and took Arthur's task without hesitation.

"Within a few years, the formation of the Air Force will be kept in complete secrecy. Without my consent, no information about the Air Force will be disclosed to anyone except the officers and men of the Air Force. This is very important for the development of our Air Force, It is also something that must be done." After instructing Minister Raul, Arthur looked at Prime Minister Kent again and instructed.

"I understand, Your Majesty. I will help Minister Raul and resolutely keep the information of the Air Force unit secret." Prime Minister Kent nodded, expressing his understanding.

The good news is that it is not as difficult to train pilots now as in later generations. At least Australasia currently trains thousands of pilots every year.

Of course, such a large-scale training is currently not cost-effective, so the temporary enrollment quota of the Aviation Academy is only 400 people.

However, if necessary, the Academy of Aviation can expand its enrollment scale to more than 1000 at any time, so as to train more air force talents for Australasia.

As for the production speed of the aircraft, with the investment of a large amount of funds from the royal consortium, the current production speed of the aviation laboratory has been able to reach at least a thousand aircraft per year, which just matches the training speed of the Aviation Academy.

This also means that if Arthur wants to, he can train at least [-] air force pilots and form an air force with more than [-] military aircraft before the war breaks out.

Such a large number of aircraft has a crushing air superiority for other countries.

That is to say, Arthur didn't want other countries to pay attention to the air force in advance, so he hid his plane.

In addition to the expansion of the Air Force to at least [-] aircraft, Arthur also placed demands on Army training.

Regardless of whether it is a standing division or an indigenous division, in the next few years, training must be strictly carried out.

Don't even worry about the waste of weapons and ammunition. Rapidly improving the combat capability of the army and the tacit understanding and cooperation between soldiers in different formations are the most important tasks of the Ministry of National Defense at present.

Arthur even promised that if Minister Raul could do this, he would allow the Ministry of Defense to increase the budget by 500 million Australian dollars each year.

This budget is provided by the royal consortium, which is regarded as a financial subsidy for the defense sector on the other hand.

The 500 million Australian dollars is not a small amount of money for the Ministry of Defense, at least it can speed up the equipment of military trucks and large-fire weapons for other troops.

Minister Raul was looking forward to this very much, so he was very motivated to complete the more rigorous training that Arthur required.

Naturally, there is no need to say much about the two guards. As early as more than a year ago, Arthur announced that the guards would be trained more strictly.

Of course, although the training time and items have increased, in order to keep the soldiers in good physical strength and condition, the food standards of all Australasian armies will be raised to a higher level again. Not only must there be meat in every meal, but also vegetables And meat, fruit, snacks, etc. will also be provided in different ways to relieve soldiers' fatigue and tense nerves caused by highly intense training.

　The third update of 3000 words, please support, please ask for a monthly ticket!

　　Today is 10000, 10000/[-] has been updated, ask for a monthly ticket, ask for support!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)