Chapter 654 The New Aircraft Carrier Is Completed

Norman Brooke also asked about management experience in Malaya, not directly about the overseas commissioner's meeting in Kuala Lumpur. But they were also concerned about the interests of the British Empire.

The two men also discussed the Korean War, which was not over but was obviously no longer very intense.

Because Alan Wilson himself was in Asia, Norman Brooke valued the opinions of this subordinate.

"According to public information from the United States, the U.S. fiscal year is still in surplus." Alan Wilson expressed his thoughts from public information. "Although it is not as exaggerated as in the first few years after the war, it can be judged that the situation on the peninsula is The war has no significant impact on the national strength of the United States. I am not saying that this war has no effect, but it is true that it is not a big problem for the United States."

This is entirely true. After the war, the United States had a fiscal surplus until 1957. It is not that difficult for the United States to afford a local war.

"In this way, the world war is really a huge accumulation for the United States." Norman Brook frowned slightly.

"Dear Sir, it does not have a great impact on the United States, but the world is not a static development. The United States is only facing off against the second most powerful country in the Soviet bloc. While the United States is at war, the Soviet Union has been developing."

In fact, the problem lies here. While the United States is fighting fiercely, the Soviet Union is holding back its efforts to develop. Although this war did not affect the national strength of the United States itself, the Soviet Union could use this time to close the gap.

Fortunately now, Britain has not been involved in this war, which is considered good luck compared to the same period in history. Historically, Britain's participation in the Korean War caused Britain's fiscal surplus to turn into a deficit again.

The national power of the United States is there. It would be fine if you took too many tonic pills during World War II and shed some blood. Britain itself was bleeding heavily during World War II, which directly brought down the Labor cabinet.

Talking about the impact of the Korean War on the United States with Norman Brooke, the cabinet secretary, is actually a very important matter.

The United Kingdom is also evaluating whether this war will have an impact on the national power of the United States, and if so, if so. Will it affect the strength of the entire free world?

Although there was some gloating in their words, from the perspective of the entire world, once the United States was severely damaged, who could stop the Soviet Union from liberating the world?

Alan Wilson's judgment is that after this war, the national power of the United States will not be depleted. What is lost is not national power, but the time for other countries to recover from the war. In other words, the United States is still so strong, but other countries can also take a breather from the heavy losses of the world war.

Norman Brooke nodded, agreeing with this judgment, and once again expressed that he would pay attention to the Olympics.

Finally, the two ended their conversation.

After returning home, as an honest husband, Alan Wilson naturally told Pamela Mountbatten everything.

"The national power of the United States has not been lost in a war. No wonder you have always been so wary of this country." Pamela Mountbatten sighed softly after hearing this, and there was also some envy in her words.

There was a time when this role of taking on any challenger head-on belonged to Britain. But that seems to be gone now.

"If the United States suffers a big loss, maybe it will be more restrained in the future. This is not necessarily a good thing!" Alan Wilson opened his mouth and said to his wife using the thinking of blessings and misfortunes.

The war that caused heavy damage to the United States and completely transmitted the power of the war to the mainland was of course the Vietnam War.

The strength of the United States was greatly weakened during the Vietnam War, and it fell into an unprecedented economic, financial and political crisis at home. After Nixon became president, he made adjustments to his foreign policy. In 1969, Nixon proposed the "New Asia Policy" in Guam, in which the United States would shrink its front lines, transform the Vietnam War into Vietnam, and use Asians to fight Asians.

Public opinion calls it "Nixon Doctrine." It is the overall policy of the United States to adjust its overseas obligations and relations with its allies, as well as its policy toward China and the Soviet Union. That is strength plus negotiation. This is a sign of the decline of U.S. hegemony and the short-term end of its containment strategy. It is also an important adjustment in U.S. strategy.

In this Korean War, the United States only gave away part of the dividends from World War II without losing its strength. Naturally, he has no memory of being involved in the war in Vietnam again. If it really hurts the United States this time, maybe the United States will be more cautious about intervening in the Vietnam War.

Generally speaking, there are good things and bad things, and things mostly play out in a double-edged sword mode. If Britain knew that the thirteen independent North American states were treating themselves this way, they would not be able to make them independent even if they killed all the Americans.

Even at that time, national leaders may not be able to see future trends. Take the matter of German reunification as an example. Not only Europe, Britain, France and Italy believed that the Soviet Union was just a minor problem, but it was not easy to adjust to curb Germany's ambition to unify.

Even the United States at that time did not think that the Soviet Union would collapse. The United States just believed that the Soviet Union would just give up and become a second-stringer. This was the United States' greatest wish at the time.

In the last year of the 1980s, President Bush delivered a speech at the graduation ceremony of Texas Agricultural University, proposing the new policy toward the Soviet Union that his administration had formulated after more than three months of review and deliberation. Called it the "Beyond Containment" strategy, it was declared to be a radical change in U.S. postwar policy toward the Soviet Union.

Its main purpose is to actively develop relations with the Soviet Union, strengthen cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union, draw the Soviet Union into the international family, and integrate it into the international community.

"As for our British policy, it is defensive. We will delay the colonies as long as possible. If we can't delay, we will evacuate. But we must maintain influence in the Persian Gulf and Malaya. We would rather lose the colonies in Africa." Ai Ai Len Wilson said to his wife, "The precaution against the Soviet Union is not to allow the Soviet Union to cut off Eurasia on land. Otherwise, it will be like the consequences of the Ottoman Empire's entry into the war in World War I, turning an encirclement situation into a Soviet counter-encirclement situation." This is consistent with the strategy of maintaining a presence in the Persian Gulf."

In World War I, the strength of the Allied Powers and the Central Powers was actually obvious. If the Ottoman Empire had not participated in the war, Imperial Russia would not have been the first to be defeated. The Ottoman Empire's participation in the war would have been equivalent to the consequences of the Soviet Union going south to cut off the Eurasian continent. It directly tore apart the encirclement network of the Allied Powers against the Allied Powers, but instead caused Imperial Russia to be surrounded by the Allied Powers group.

"It would be great if the war fought by the United States this time had the effect of the Boer War." Pamela Mountbatten was still worried about it, and was not so satisfied with the weakening of the United States by the Korean War.

"We must maintain the current military strength as much as possible and wait for the next opportunity." Alan Wilson comforted his wife softly. It is a good thing that the United States does not have a long memory. Isn't there still a Vietnam War?

When it comes to maintaining military strength, Sea Secretary Mountbatten has an absolute say. By coincidence, the two Malta-class aircraft carriers that escaped disarmament have been officially completed and shipped from the factory after adding inclined decks and steam catapults. .

Originally, this class of aircraft carrier, which had been under construction for many years, would be ready to leave the factory in mid-1951, but the installation of the inclined deck and steam catapult caused delays in the construction period.

Now this heavy aircraft carrier, which is of the same level as the Midway class and has a full load displacement of 60,000 tons, has finally arrived and will be officially unveiled at the end of February.

"Double island design? Inclined deck, beveled deck steam catapult!" Alan Wilson followed General Mountbatten and rushed over to see this heavy aircraft carrier that had not appeared in history. He had many thoughts in his heart. Although he was ill-fated, But it finally came out despite repeated calls.

Because of the addition of steam catapults, the deck is longer than before, fully three hundred meters long. But it can be said that there are modern aircraft carriers, and this heavy aircraft carrier that has not yet been seen by the public already has it.

After World War II, the weight of carrier-based aircraft, both new jet and propeller-based aircraft, has increased linearly, and the landing speed of jets has increased significantly compared to propeller-based aircraft. This means that new carrier-based aircraft have greater momentum when landing. Bigger and harder to stop, that's the whole point of tilting the deck.

Like the benchmark Midway-class aircraft carrier, the most conspicuous difference between the Malta-class aircraft carriers is that it was supposed to be a dual-ship island design decades later. At this time, Alan Wilson secretly asked his father-in-law, "Has it been officially named?"

"I originally wanted to use Malta and several islands in the Mediterranean as naming options. But it has not been decided yet." General Mountbatten's eyes did not leave for a moment, and the aircraft carrier that was about to meet the public replied absently.

"Since there are two ships in this batch, why not call them Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales." Alan Wilson put his hands in his pockets and gave an idea. Anyway, as soon as he saw the two-ship island, he could remember that Britain was on the 21st century's two aircraft carriers. In fact, apart from the difference in era, the two aircraft carriers themselves have projection factors of the Malta-class aircraft carrier.

"Um?" General Mountbatten pondered for a long time after hearing this, and finally said, "Actually, it's not impossible."

A conventionally fueled aircraft carrier has a dual-island structure, which means that the warship's multiple power systems will use different exhaust kits without having to share the same chimney. This means that the exhaust system design of such an aircraft carrier will be simpler than that of a single island aircraft carrier, thereby reducing the difficulty of design and construction.

The United Kingdom also took into account the working hours factor when adopting this kind of involvement. However, after the war, Britain had no money and did not allow this advantage to be used. The United States is much richer and does not bother with such detailed innovations.

After Mountbatten returned to the Admiralty, he immediately started a discussion on the naming of the new aircraft carrier and was very in favor of the name Queen Elizabeth. Because this is the beginning of a new era for the Royal Navy, and it also means celebrating the crown prince's coronation.

General Mountbatten said this, and no matter how hard others objected, they all finally agreed.