Rise of Australia

Chapter 824 The Navy’s Problem

Listening to Navy Commander Daniel's report, Arthur frowned and discovered a more obvious problem in the scale of the Navy's deployment.

"Commander Daniel, why are the number of our medium-sized functional auxiliary warships not as large as our main warships?" Arthur asked with some confusion.

Especially the size of the Pacific Fleet can be described in four words, that is, top-heavy.

太平洋舰队拥有3+4+2共计9艘主力战舰，但以驱逐舰为首的中型辅助型军舰却只有7艘。

Although some small-scale warships are not included in the statistics, this is not the reason why the number of small and medium-sized warships in Australasia is so rare.

"Your Majesty, have you forgotten the order you gave?" Daniel reminded cautiously with a strange look on his face.

"Order? What order did I give?" Arthur continued to ask in confusion.

"Before the start of our naval construction plan, Your Majesty once said that priority should be given to building our main warships and submarines. After completing the construction of these warships, we will build medium-sized warships and functional auxiliary warships." Daniel replied.

Arthur was stunned for a moment. He also remembered that he had given such an order before the navy was built.

However, what Arthur meant at the time was that priority should be given to building main warships, and a small part of the productivity should be used to build small and medium-sized warships of various types.

But unexpectedly, both the Navy Ministry and the shipyards misinterpreted their orders and directly used all their productivity to build main warships, which really pushed all small and medium-sized warships to the end.

"Without the protection of destroyers and frigates, how can our aircraft carrier ensure safety?" Arthur was a little confused and looked at Commander Daniel: "Since such a problem has been discovered, why didn't anyone remind me?"

The power of an aircraft carrier is not only due to the various types of carrier-based aircraft it carries, but also the protection of the aircraft carrier by a series of auxiliary warships including frigates, destroyers and cruisers.

A complete aircraft carrier battle group, in addition to powerful aircraft carriers, must also have a large number of functional warships, so that the aircraft carrier can exert sufficient combat effectiveness.

"This..." Commander Daniel was a little silent and did not dare to tell the real reason.

Arthur also understood instantly. Since the founding of the Empire, Arthur's popularity in Australasia has reached its peak.

As the founding emperor, Arthur's prestige in the government and among the people was such that no one was allowed to provoke him.

The consequence of this is that officials who are not close to Arthur no longer have the courage to question Arthur's decision.

Except for a few of Arthur's trusted confidants, how could the rest dare to question Arthur's decision openly?

With a slight sigh, Arthur said to everyone attending the meeting: "If you find such a problem in the future, you should report it to the Ministry of Defense in time. Or Commander Daniel, you can come to me in time after you find the problem.

Australasia needs everyone's efforts to become strong, and the empire will never punish ministers who serve the country wholeheartedly. "

"Yes, Your Majesty." Everyone responded.

"Does the Admiralty have any plans to remedy these problems?" Arthur then asked.

Now that the problem has been discovered, the next most important thing is to naturally remedy this problem that has caused harm to the navy.

Arthur believed that since Commander Daniel had already seen this problem, he should also have a certain solution to this problem.

Sure enough, after hearing Arthur's inquiry, Commander Daniel quickly stood up and replied: "Your Majesty, currently, the three major shipyards in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland have begun building our main warships. It is very important for us to interrupt the construction at this time. The loss is even greater.

I think that if we want to take into account the joint construction of main warships and small and medium-sized warships, we can hand over orders for these smaller warships to other shipyards. "

Arthur nodded and had no objection to giving small-scale orders to private shipyards.

"Is there any shipyard you like in the Navy?" Arthur continued to ask.

As a great power, Australasia is also the most powerful country in the Pacific. It goes without saying that the shipbuilding industry is developed.

In particular, several major mainland regions, such as Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia, are all separated by vast oceans, which leads to a heavy reliance on maritime transportation for exchanges between regions.

After more than 30 years of development, Australasia's shipbuilding industry has also reached the forefront of the world.

There are countless civilian shipyards, and there are hundreds of civilian shipyards of varying sizes in Australia and New Zealand.

As for military shipyards, except for the Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland branches of the Royal Dockyard, Arthur was not familiar with other military shipyards, which was why Arthur asked.

"Your Majesty, the current Christchurch Combined Shipyard in South New Zealand meets our requirements." Navy Commander Daniel said: "We have investigated the background of this combined shipyard and it is built by local New Zealanders and Australians. The current Christchurch Combined Shipyard has become the largest private military shipyard in New Zealand and can start construction of two small warships of less than 8000 tons at the same time, which basically meets our requirements. "

"Christchurch United Shipyard?" Arthur looked a little strange. If I remember correctly, there is a royal consortium behind this joint shipyard, which is the original royal consortium.

The Australian capital Daniel mentioned should be the Royal Consortium in disguise.

This also represents good news. After being disguised, the royal consortium has become multiple capitals, large and small, and even the military can hide it.

"Now that the military has investigated, let's separate some of the orders for small-scale warships and give them to Christchurch United Shipyard." Arthur nodded and agreed to Commander Daniel's proposal.

“There will be many similar examples in the future, and it is impossible for the three major royal shipyards to take all the naval orders.

In the future, the Navy can also add vetted private military shipyards to its shipyard cooperation list as appropriate to expand our productivity in warships.

In terms of military industry, no factory is a fixed cooperation target of our military. There is only one prerequisite for cooperation with the military, and that is to be able to produce finished products of high quality and low price. "Arthur ordered.

Although the three major royal shipyards are all enterprises of the royal consortium, Arthur has no intention of favoring these three major shipyards.

After all, country is the most important thing to Arthur. The interests of the royal family can be appropriately compromised in front of the country, let alone the three small shipyards.

Whoever has stronger technology in the shipbuilding industry, whoever designs drawings is more trusted by the navy, and whoever builds warships that are not only of excellent quality but also low-priced, will be able to win the favor of the military, rather than being fixed under the three major royal shipyards. Order.

Staying the same will only make people slack. Only reasonable and compliant competition can make companies like the Royal Consortium stronger.

If the three major shipyards cannot gain an advantage in the competition against private military shipyards, then Arthur should consider completely replacing the main leaders of the three major shipyards.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Many naval generals, including Commander Daniel, all had expressions of excitement and admiration on their faces.

You know, the net benefits brought to the three major shipyards by the Navy alone are worth millions of Australian dollars each year.

Arthur was able to allow fair competition between private military shipyards and the three major royal shipyards, which already required great determination.

How can the navy not feel admiration and excitement when facing such a monarch who can give up personal interests for the sake of national interests?

After all, the more powerful the navy is, the more benefits they, the senior leaders of the navy, will receive.

"Replenish the number of small and medium-sized warships as soon as possible and add them to the fleets in the Pacific and Indian Ocean." Arthur ordered: "

Only an aircraft carrier with enough frigates and destroyers can be called a powerful warship.

As compensation for the navy, on behalf of the royal family, I will donate 500 million Australian dollars of the defense budget to the defense sector.

As for how much you can get out of the 500 million Australian dollars, it depends on whether you can convince Minister Thomas. Arthur said with a smile.

The competition for the Ministry of National Defense's financial budget every year is truly a whirlwind.

Obviously, the national defense budget accounts for a large part of the government's financial budget every year, and the amount is increasing year by year.

But these commanders of the army, navy and air force are really show-stoppers when it comes to crying.

But the good news is that Australasia has gone through eight cabinet governments so far, but there are only three defense ministers so far, namely former Prime Minister Kent, former Prime Minister Raul and Minister Thomas.

From this aspect, we can already see how important the Ministry of Defense is to Arthur. Except for Minister Thomas, who is still serving, the other defense ministers have successfully passed through the terms of the Ministry of Defense, deputy prime minister, and prime minister, and then retired honorably with the title of earl.

This also means one thing. Although Minister Thomas currently only has the title of baron, it is almost certain that he will obtain the title of earl after retirement.

As long as he makes no mistakes during his final term, he will at least be able to get the position of deputy prime minister and be one of the most promising candidates to compete for the prime ministership.

This is also Arthur's way of ensuring that there will be no problems in the competition for the defense budget every year, that is, the choice of the Secretary of Defense can steadily suppress the commanders of the navy, army and air force.

It goes without saying that former Prime Minister Kent and former Prime Minister Raul need to say more. Even the current Minister Thomas truly rose from the grassroots level of the military. He served successively as Commander of the Guards Division and Deputy Minister of Defense before being promoted to Minister of Defense.

This kind of resume also determines one thing, that is, Minister Thomas is relatively good at controlling some of his generals.

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(End of this chapter)