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, which is Arthur's Royal Dockyard in Sydney Harbour.

Australasia's naval construction plan is moving very fast, and it has already started to build small and medium-sized warships.

Yes, Australasia chose to build small and medium-sized warships first, leaving the dreadnoughts with the most budget for the last.

In fact, it is not left to the last, mainly because Australasia's design of dreadnoughts is currently only theoretical, and there will still be many problems when the dreadnoughts are actually built.

Therefore, a test piece 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 test piece.

Under such circumstances, it is the unanimous opinion of the shipyard experts to seek foreign trade and explore foreign orders as test pieces.

In fact, it is not that serious. It's just that the experts in Australasia want to build better and more perfect warships for the country, so they want to gain more experience and proficiency before building warships for the country.

It has been more than six years since the Royal Dockyard in Sydney Harbour was built. In these six years, the scale of the shipyard has also undergone earth-shaking changes.

The current Royal Dockyard in Sydney Harbour is fully capable of accommodating the construction of two battleships or five small warships at the same time, and at most three battleships can be started at the same time.

This also lays a good foundation for the future naval expansion of Australasia, at least there is no need to worry about domestic production not keeping up with sufficient funds.

In addition to the Royal Dockyard, Arthur's royal consortium has also invested in more than a dozen shipyards of all sizes in Australasia.

It's just a pity that only one of these more than ten shipyards can currently build warships, which is the previous shipyard in New Zealand.

The remaining shipyards can only undertake the construction of civilian ships and fishing boats, and most of the ships built are small fishing boats under ten tons.

Even the shipyards in New Zealand can only build coastal defense ships of a few hundred tons. They have the ability to build small warships of thousands of tons, but they do not have the corresponding drawings and equipment.

In the shipbuilding industry, although Australasia already has a relatively top-notch royal shipyard, in addition to the royal shipyard, Australasia is still quite lacking in low- and medium-end shipyards, which also requires a lot of time to make up.

Although the Royal Shipyard has not started to build dreadnoughts, from the professional level of building small and medium-sized warships, Grand Duke Sergei believes that Australasia's top shipbuilding technology has surpassed Russia.

In fact, this is normal. Russia has some gaps compared with old powers such as Britain and France or emerging powers such as Germany and the United States.

If it were not for the innate advantages brought by the vast land area, rich mineral resources and a large population, coupled with the fact that it is relatively close to Europe and can effectively absorb the technological changes brought about by the European Industrial Revolution, I am afraid that the end of the Tsarist Russian Empire would not be much different from that of the Ottoman Empire.

Fortunately, the Russian Empire still attached great importance to maintaining its military strength, and invested a lot in the army and navy.

Regarding the possible dreadnought trade, Nicholas II also generously gave Grand Duke Sergei 5 million pounds of funds, the purpose of which was at least two dreadnoughts, preferably with some small and medium-sized warships.

After visiting the Royal Dockyard in Australasia, Grand Duke Sergei also successfully shifted the topic to the ordering of dreadnoughts.

Arthur could see that the Russians really wanted to obtain dreadnoughts to strengthen their warship strength in Europe and the Far East.

Especially in the Far East, after the repair of the Crown Prince of the Pacific Fleet was completed, the Pacific Fleet could still maintain a little advantage.

But then, the battleships ordered by the island country in Australasia were also launched and delivered, and the number of battleships in the Far East between the island country and Russia remained balanced.

But both sides were not satisfied with the results of the previous war, and they were eager to have another war to change the previous results.

Then it becomes very important to maintain the advantages of their own army and navy, which is why Russia and the island countries are very interested in the powerful warships that have just been born, the dreadnought.

After understanding the specific performance of the Monarch-class battleship, Grand Duke Sergei quickly asked about the price.

Price is also an important factor in determining the cost-effectiveness of the dreadnought. No matter how enthusiastic the Russians are about the dreadnought, they may be defeated by the high price.

In fact, Grand Duke Sergei's worries are 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 battleship was basically maintained at around 1.2 to 1.4 million pounds.

But the cost of the British dreadnought battleship has been nearly 1.8 million pounds, which is a significant increase compared to the old battleship.

The actual cost of this Monarch-class battleship in Australasia is slightly higher than that of the dreadnought battleship. This is because there are some technologies that Australasia has not mastered and needs to purchase from Europe.

The actual construction cost of the HMS Dreadnought battleship is about 1.9 million pounds. If it is sold to the outside world, the price may be close to 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 2.4 million pounds.

The price of 2.4 million pounds was a bit painful for Grand Duke Sergei, but it was not unacceptable at all.

Judging from the powerful data and performance of the dreadnought, such a price is indeed not exaggerated.

Grand Duke Sergei thought for a long time, and finally gritted his teeth and agreed to Arthur's price, and decided to order two dreadnoughts on behalf of the Russian government.

Of course, there are more than dreadnoughts. After inspecting the entire Royal Shipyard, Grand Duke Sergei was also very interested in the Duke-class frigates of Australasia, and ordered more than ten frigates by the way.

In this way, 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 help the Russians save money, Arthur was very "generous" and said that the Russians only needed to invest 5 million pounds in this business.

This move did win 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 Arthur and Grand Duke Sergei signed the contract together, the naval trade order between Russia and Australasia officially came into effect.

This naval trade order includes two monarch-class battleships and more than ten duke-class frigates, with a total value of up to 5 million pounds.

After consultation 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, and 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.

This is also good news for Australasia. The trade brought Australasia a net profit of up to one million pounds, which can also be used in other places, such as the aircraft that has given birth to hope.

Yes, after Grand Duke Sergei completed his mission and discussed the wedding with Princess Louise and left, Arthur turned his attention to the aircraft again.

In fact, more than two years have passed since Arthur last proposed three ideas for the militarization of aircraft.

In the past two years, with the help of all the experts in the aviation laboratory, Theodore and Ludwig have also conducted a lot of experiments and improvements on the previous Pioneer-1, and successfully developed Pioneer-2 and Pioneer-3.

In addition, Australasia and the Victoria Prize have attracted and gathered European aviation talents during this period, resulting in Australasia currently having at least one-third of the world's top aviation talents, and the progress of aircraft research and development has also made great strides.

If the previous Pioneer-1 was just a simple soaring in the sky, then after the reconstruction of Pioneer-2, the performance of Pioneer-3 is no less than that of the aircraft in World War I in history. If it is piloted by a skilled person, it can also 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 with the previous Pioneer-1 experiment.

The maximum range of Pioneer-1 was about 360 kilometers to 430 kilometers before, and now it has been increased to more than 500 kilometers.

Although the Pioneer III aircraft has also had several flight accidents in the experiments of more than two years, this is also something that cannot be avoided in the development of aircraft.

Arthur also made a lot of compensation to the pilots and experts in the accident, and even the highest direct compensation was 30,000 pounds.

This has indeed greatly increased the enthusiasm of pilots and experts. At least most people are no longer opposed to participating in the experiment.

Of course, the most important thing is that the Aviation Laboratory has made improvements based on the Pioneer aircraft according to Arthur's three ideas for militarized aircraft.

In addition to the Eagle-1 reconnaissance aircraft, the Wild Tiger-1 fighter and the Ghost-1 bomber, the Pioneer-2 modification actually has considerable combat capabilities and can even be put into mass production.

3,000 words second update