Chapter 211 Warship Orders and Aircraft
In order to reassure Grand Duke Sergei and also to make the Tsarist Russian government behind Grand Duke Sergei more generous, Arthur took Grand Duke Sergei to visit the largest shipyard in Australasia. It's Arthur's Royal Dockyard in Sydney Harbor.
Australasia's naval construction plan is moving very quickly, and construction of small and medium-sized warships has already begun.
Yes, Australasia chose to build small and medium-sized warships first, leaving the most budget-intensive dreadnoughts for last.
In fact, it is not left to the end. The main reason is that Australasia's design of dreadnoughts is currently only theoretical. When the dreadnoughts are actually built, many problems will still arise.
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 shipyard experts to seek foreign trade and treat foreign orders as experimental products.
It's actually not that serious. It's just that Australasian experts want to build better and more perfect warships for the country, and therefore want to gain more experience and proficiency before building warships for the country.
It has been more than six years since the Royal Dockyard was built in Sydney Harbor. In the past six years or so, the scale of the shipyard has also undergone 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. At most, it can even start construction of three battleships at the same time.
This also lays a good foundation for Australasia's future naval expansion. At least there is no need to worry about domestic production failing to keep up with sufficient funds.
In addition to the Royal Dockyard, Arthur's royal consortium also invested in more than a dozen large and small shipyards across Australasia.
It's a pity that only one of these dozen shipyards can currently build warships, and it is the former New Zealand shipyard.
The remaining shipyards can only undertake the construction of civilian ships and fishing boats, and most of them are small fishing boats of less than ten tons.
Even the shipyards in New Zealand can only build coastal defense ships of a few hundred tons. They are capable of building small warships of thousands of tons, but they do not have the corresponding drawings and equipment.
In terms of the shipbuilding industry, although Australasia already has a relatively top Royal Dockyard, in addition to the Royal Dockyard, Australasia is still quite lacking in mid- to low-end shipyards, which will also take a lot of time to make up for. .
Although the Royal Dockyard has not started building dreadnoughts, from the perspective of professionalism in building small and medium-sized warships, Grand Duke Sergei believes that Australasia's top shipbuilding technology has surpassed Russia's.
In fact, this is also normal. Whether compared with established powers such as Britain and France or emerging powers such as Germany and the United States, Russia still has some gaps.
If it were not for the innate advantages brought by its huge land area, rich mineral resources, and large population, coupled with its proximity to Europe and its ability to effectively absorb the technological changes brought about by the European Industrial Revolution, I am afraid that the fate of the Russian Empire would have been the same as that of the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish Empire was not much different.
Fortunately, the Tsarist Empire still attaches great importance to maintaining its military strength, and has invested a lot in the army and navy.
Regarding the possible birth of the dreadnought trade, Nicholas II also very generously gave Archduke Sergei five million pounds in funds, with the goal of at least two dreadnoughts, and preferably some small and medium-sized warships. .
After visiting the Royal Shipyard in Australasia, Grand Duke Sergei also successfully shifted the topic to the ordering of dreadnoughts.
Arthur could see that the Russians really wanted to acquire dreadnoughts to strengthen their warship strength in Europe and the Far East.
Especially in the Far East, after the previous repairs of the Pacific Fleet's Crown Prince were completed, the Pacific Fleet could still maintain a slight advantage.
But then, the battleships ordered by the island country in Australasia were also launched and delivered, and the number of battleships between the island country and Russia in the Far East was balanced again.
However, both sides were dissatisfied with the results of the previous war, and both wanted to start another war to change the previous results.
Then it becomes very important to maintain the advantage of our own army and navy, which is why both Russia and the 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 Sergei quickly asked about the price.
Price is also an important factor in determining the cost-effectiveness of dreadnoughts. No matter how enthusiastic the Russians are about dreadnoughts, they may be defeated by the high price.
In fact, Grand Duke Sergei's worries were unfounded.
Compared with old battleships, the cost and construction cost of dreadnoughts have indeed increased a lot.
Previously, the cost of a relatively powerful old-fashioned battleship was basically around 1.2 to 1.4 million pounds.
However, the cost of the British battleship Dreadnought is nearly 1.8 million pounds, which is a considerable improvement compared to the old battleships. The real cost of Australasia's Sovereign-class battleship is slightly higher than that of the Dreadnought battleship. This is because there are some technologies that Australasia has not mastered and needs to be purchased from Europe.
The actual cost of the Dreadnought battleship is about 1.9 million pounds. If it is sold to the outside world, it may cost nearly 2.5 million pounds.
However, due to the good relationship between Russia and Australasia, and Arthur's intention to support Russia against the island countries, the price of the Monarch-class battleship was not set so high. The price for Russia was two hundred and forty. million pounds.
The price of 2.4 million pounds was a bit distressing for Grand Duke Sergei, but it was not unacceptable at all.
Judging from the powerful data and performance of the dreadnought, this price is indeed not an exaggeration.
Grand Duke Sergei thought for a long time, and finally gritted his teeth, agreed to Arthur's price, and decided to order two dreadnoughts on behalf of the Russian government.
Of course, there are actually more than just dreadnoughts. After inspecting the entire royal shipyard, Grand Duke Sergei was also very interested in Australasia's Duke-class frigates, and ordered more than ten frigates by the way.
As a result, the total cost of Russia's naval order exceeded 5 million pounds, reaching more than 5.1 million pounds.
In order to express the good relationship between Australasia and Russia, and to save the Russians money, Arthur very "generously" touched the fraction, saying that the Russians would only need to invest 5 million pounds in this business.
This move indeed won the favor of Grand Duke Sergei. After all, for the current Russian government, the more than 100,000 pounds saved can indeed be used in more places.
On October 17, 1906, after the signing of the treaty between Grand Duke Arthur and Sergei, the naval trade order between Russia and Australasia officially came into effect.
The naval trade order includes two Monarch-class battleships and more than ten Duke-class frigates, with a total value of up to five million pounds.
After mutual negotiation between Grand Duke Sergei and Arthur, the two parties agreed that the two battleships would be delivered at the end of 1908 and mid-1909 respectively, while the more than ten frigates would be delivered in early 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 from this trade is up to one million pounds. This million pounds can also be used elsewhere, such as on the aircraft that has given birth to hope.
Yes, after Grand Duke Sergei completed his mission and left after discussing the wedding with Princess Louise, Arthur turned his attention to the plane again.
In fact, more than two years have passed since Arthur last proposed three concepts for aircraft militarization.
Over the past two years, Teodor and Ludwig, with the help of all experts from the Aeronautical Laboratory, also conducted a large number of experiments and improvements on the previous Pioneer-1, and successfully developed Pioneer-2 and Pioneer-3.
Coupled with the fact that Australasia and the Victoria Award have attracted European aviation talents during this period, Australasia currently has at least one-third of the world's top aviation talents, and aircraft research and development has also progressed by leaps and bounds.
If the previous Pioneer-1 simply soared in the sky, then after undergoing the transformation of the Pioneer-2, the performance of the Pioneer-3 is no longer inferior to the aircraft in World War I in history. If you are skilled When it comes to driving, it can already complete some more complex tasks.
The current average flight speed of Pioneer-3 can reach about 200 kilometers per hour, and the maximum flight speed can even reach 230 kilometers per hour.
This level has been significantly improved compared to the previous Pioneer-1 experiments.
The previous maximum range of Pioneer-1 was about 360 kilometers to 430 kilometers, and now it has been increased to more than 500 kilometers.
Although the Pioneer third-generation aircraft has experienced several flight accidents during more than two years of experiments, this is something that cannot be avoided in the development of aircraft.
Arthur also provided a large amount of compensation to the pilots and experts involved in the accident, and even directly compensated up to 30,000 pounds.
This has indeed greatly increased the enthusiasm of pilots and experts. At least the vast majority of people are no longer reluctant to participate in experiments.
Of course, the most important thing is the improvements made by the Aviation Laboratory based on the pioneer aircraft and Arthur's three ideas for militarized aircraft.
In addition to the Eagle-1 reconnaissance aircraft, the Wild Tiger-1 fighter jet and the Phantom-1 bomber, the Pioneer-2 modification already has considerable combat capabilities and has even been put into mass production.
Second update of 3,000 words
(end of this chapter)