African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1010 Naval Development
Therefore, the development of submarine technology in East Africa has been relatively independent from the beginning, while the development of surface ships is just the opposite, and East Africa has always been the catching-up party.

It is only in recent years that East Africa's shipbuilding industry framework has begun to break away from its dependence on Europe, mainly due to East Africa's key investment in the shipbuilding industry in the 1990s.

In the 1990s, after the South African War, East Africa acquired some important ports in Angola on the west coast, which completely formed the two-ocean pattern of East Africa. Correspondingly, the central government of East Africa built a large number of shipbuilding companies on both the west and east coasts, forming an independent shipbuilding pattern. Coupled with the accumulation of more than 20 years in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the shipbuilding industry in East Africa has developed relatively maturely.

However, in the field of shipbuilding, East Africa can only be regarded as a big country, not a strong country. The country leading the development of the world's shipbuilding industry is still the United Kingdom. At present, the German shipbuilding industry is also developing rapidly. And because the German Navy has a different focus, it has formed competitiveness with the United Kingdom in the field of military shipbuilding.

As for other countries, including East Africa, the shipbuilding industry is developing rapidly, especially in terms of warships, but it will take a long time to reach the level of Britain and Germany.

Kainmath: "Now our navy can only seek technological breakthroughs. Unlike other countries, they are frantically expanding their naval strength by building or introducing a large number of warships. The Bagamoyo proves that our current naval warship manufacturing has completely got rid of its dependence on European technology, and its surface ship manufacturing technology is also at the forefront of the world." Han Tangnio said.

"Among them, Japan in the Far East proposed the so-called 6-6 Fleet Plan in the late 1990s. Now this country has a tendency to surpass our East African navy, so the national defense pressure on our navy has increased unprecedentedly, especially the defense in the Pacific region, which is almost unsustainable."

Japan's 66 Fleet, which was centered around six main battleships of more than 10,000 tons and six armored cruisers, brought the tonnage of the Japanese Navy's main battleships to 130,000 tons.

Together with auxiliary ships, the strength of the Japanese Navy will exceed the combined naval power of other countries in the Far East. In addition to the twelve main battleships, the Six-Six Fleet Plan also includes ten light cruisers, more than thirty torpedo boats and torpedo boats, and many auxiliary ships. The entire plan includes 103 newly built and purchased warships, with a total displacement of 153,000 tons.

East Africa currently has only four main battleships, including the Bagamoyo that was just launched, so in recent years, the Japanese Navy has surpassed the East African Navy in size.

"Moreover, the development of naval vessels in recent years is incomprehensible. They are changing almost every year, and the technology is updated and iterated very quickly, making naval competition increasingly fierce."

"There is actually no fundamental change in this kind of technological update and iteration. Countries continue to increase their investment in warship technology, resulting in a serious waste of resources. I don't know how a poor country like Japan can accomplish this."

Although the construction speed of East Africa's surface military ships seems to be slower than that of other countries, East Africa's technological breakthroughs have been growing steadily, and with the vigorous development of East Africa's science and technology field every year, East Africa's military shipbuilding industry has been strongly promoted.

The three battleships before Bagamoyo seemed to have no fundamental changes, but there were relatively large adjustments in the details, which also accumulated rich experience for the birth of Bagamoyo.

The reason why Kainmas used the Japanese Navy as an example is that the Japanese Navy has developed to a level that even East Africa has to take seriously.

Before the Far East naval battle, there was a big gap between the Japanese Navy and the East African Navy. Now, Japan has become a naval power at the same level as the East African Navy, or even slightly stronger.

Of course, this does not mean the decline of the East African Navy, but that the two countries' navies have different development paths. Take the current main battleships of the Japanese Navy as an example. They are basically ordered from abroad. The first four were introduced from the United Kingdom, and the last two were introduced from Germany and France.

In contrast, the four battleships in East Africa were all designed and built domestically, and Japan's 66 Fleet plan has not yet been fully completed.

East Africa will also continue to build one or two experimental battleships during the First Five-Year Plan. Under normal circumstances, by 1905, the number of East African battleships should be equal to that of Japan. However, in the past, due to the Russian Empire's gift of food, Japan captured a large number of Russian ships, so after 1905, the Japanese Navy may have obtained a batch of new equipment, such as the Russian battleship "Victory" captured by the Japanese Navy during the Russo-Japanese War in the past and renamed it Suho.

Of course, East Africa can never be compared with Japan. Even during the First Five-Year Plan, East Africa focused its main efforts on industrial construction and its military development was relatively slow, but it was still not bad in the world.

From the perspective of naval expenditure alone, East Africa's naval expenditure is still on the rise, and East Africa is not participating in naval competition, so most of these funds are used in the field of military equipment technology improvement.

For Japan's "Six-Six Fleet Plan", naval expenses alone account for about 50% of the national development budget, and this does not include army expenses.

Therefore, Japan is more militaristic than in history, and the high proportion of military expenditure has a visible impact on the Japanese economy.

Of course, Japan's approach is in line with its special national conditions, because the current Japanese government's idea is to make up for the fiscal deficit and obtain resources for its own industrial development through foreign aggression and expansion.

The premise of all this is that Japan has a large fleet that can meet Japan's invasion needs and achieve its strategic goals.

This is also a "gamble". After all, relying on war to achieve one's ambitions is extremely uncertain, and any war may interrupt Japan's national destiny.

For example, in the Russo-Japanese War in the past, some people estimated that this war seriously hindered the development of both Japan and Russia. The Russian navy lost nearly half of its navy, national self-esteem was severely frustrated, and the Tsarist government eventually collapsed. Japan did not receive war reparations from Russia. The war expenditure was very huge, which at least caused the Japanese economy to not recover for nearly 20 years.

Of course, Japan has gains and losses. The Russo-Japanese War established its status as a great power, and Japan's economy was seriously dragged down. It also depends on who you compare it with. If compared with European countries, then Japan lost an opportunity for development in the era. However, Japan's geographical location is the Far East. After the Russo-Japanese War, Japan had almost no rivals in the Far East region.

Of course, these have nothing to do with the current East African Navy. The development path of the East African Navy is relatively independent, especially after the 1990s, when it completely turned to the tide of local development.

Although East Africa has several colonies in the Pacific, their economic value is not great in the current era, so there is no need for a strong navy to maintain them for the time being. Even if they are temporarily lost, it will not have much impact on East Africa, and the local navy of East Africa does not need strong paper data to maintain its deterrent power for the time being.

Furthermore, in the military field, in addition to current strength, we must also look at military industrial potential. Before the two world wars, the US military data was not impressive, but relying on its strong industrial potential, it was able to expand rapidly to a level that made the enemy despair.

The same is true for East Africa at present. The East African Navy can be expanded on a large scale at any time, but this will affect the economic development of East Africa, so it is better to develop the country's own industry first.

Different focuses do not mean different strengths. If faced with external threats, a large army can be organized at any time based on East Africa's current industry and population.

(End of this chapter)