Chapter 242 Military Rank Reform and Awarding of Honors

Although it is called a five-year shipbuilding plan, in fact, the five main battleships can be built almost before 1911, and the time for naval testing is about one year.

If the five-year shipbuilding plan can be successfully completed, Australasia will have three dreadnoughts and two battlecruisers, which are already world-class in terms of main battleships.

Secondly, there are various small and medium-sized warships, including armored cruisers and armored frigates. The tonnage of these warships ranges from hundreds of tons to thousands of tons, and the construction time and cost are only a small part.

Including all warships, Australasia's shipbuilding plan is expected to cost nearly 20 million Australian dollars, which is about 10 million pounds.

The total tonnage of the complete Australasia Navy will directly exceed 100,000 tons and reach about 120,000 tons.

If we only look at the total tonnage of the navy, the tonnage of the Australasia Navy before and after the five-year shipbuilding plan may differ by ten times.

Because Portugal's war reparations this time are 5 million pounds, the shipbuilding plan is not a big financial burden for the Australasia government, and it can even be said to be completely acceptable.

The reason why only so many can be built is entirely because the current construction speed of the Royal Dockyard can only maintain the construction of up to three warships.

After the five-year shipbuilding plan, the scale of the Royal Dockyard will expand again, and perhaps the next round of shipbuilding plans will be even more exaggerated.

The shipbuilding plan formulated by Australasia spread very quickly. In just a few days, everyone in Australasia knew about it, and even European media had reported the news.

It is no exaggeration to say that Australasia's emphasis on dreadnoughts can even be ranked among the top five in the world in terms of the current dreadnought construction plan.

The only countries currently building dreadnoughts are Britain, Germany, Russia and the United States. Of course, Russia's dreadnoughts were made by Australasia.

The countries that initially had plans to build dreadnoughts only included Italy and the island countries.

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire had ideas about dreadnoughts, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's naval investment was not large, and it had to rely on Germany to own a dreadnought.

The expansion plan of the army is not limited to the navy. The army of Australasia will also usher in a new round of expansion.

The previous war exposed the serious shortcomings of insufficient army numbers. Even a country like Portugal, which has a slightly smaller population than Australasia, has more than 100,000 troops.

The army of Australasia is only more than 60,000 at most. If it is dispersed to each state and colony, then the garrison of each state or colony will even be only a little more than one regiment.

On the premise of maintaining sufficient defense forces in various regions of the country, Australasia currently has a maximum of two divisions.

Although the combat effectiveness of the Australasia army is indeed good, the shortcomings in numbers are already obvious.

According to the research and decision of the Ministry of National Defense, the new round of Australasia Army expansion plan is divided into three types: Guards Division, Conventional Division and Colonial Division.

Among them, the Guards Division will add another infantry regiment and an artillery regiment. Its organization will have three infantry regiments, one cavalry regiment and two artillery regiments, with a total number of more than 20,000 people.

The Guards Division will also become the largest division in Australasia. Whether in terms of number, firepower, or combat quality of soldiers and officers, it is definitely the top of the Australasia Army and world-class.

The regular division will also be expanded by one, that is, the fourth division. The fourth division will be formed by taking out some officers and veterans from the first, second and third divisions, and adding longer training time.

In addition, there is the newly added establishment of the Australasia Army, which is the colonial division owned by most colonial countries.

The colonial division is also called the indigenous division. Like the indigenous army of Portugal, the middle and high-level officers of the colonial division are all composed of Australasia officers, and the low-level officers are rewarded to the indigenous people based on their performance.

And the vast majority of the soldiers in the colonial division are all composed of those indigenous people.

It is precisely because of this feature that the colonial division will be the best cannon fodder in combat, and it will not be painful even if many people die.

The formation of the colonial division was a decision made by Arthur and Minister Kent after a long discussion.

At present, Australasia already has two colonies, both of which are close to the mainland of Australasia and have rich mineral resources.

Although the total population of Australian New Guinea and Australian Timor is less than one million (New Guinea has at least 200,000 indigenous people flowing into the country), it is not a problem to arm one or two colonial divisions.

In addition, Australasia has another advantage, that is, the mainland is very close to the two colonies, and it can effectively control the two colonies, so there is no need to worry about the problem of indigenous betrayal and defection.

Are there indigenous soldiers who dare to defect? ​​Of course there is no problem, but the tribe where the indigenous soldier is located and the nearby tribes will be punished, which will implicate the tribe at the least and the region at the worst.

At this time, the Dutch East Indies has a population of more than 40 million indigenous people, and the lives of the indigenous people are not worth much.

It is precisely because of this that the colonial division is the most expanded organization of the army this time, and the first and second colonial divisions will be born in this expansion.

The organization of the Australasian colonial division is very simple, and a colonial division consists of four infantry regiments. This also means that the Colonial Division is a pure infantry division, with very few machine guns and artillery.

The infantry regiment of the Guards Division, the artillery regiment, the four regular divisions, plus two colonial divisions, Australasia has expanded its army by nearly 60,000 this time. Even if the indigenous soldiers of the colonial divisions are not counted, the army still needs to be expanded by at least 30,000.

In this way, the total number of Australasia's army will reach 120,000, and the available force in the event of war can reach 80,000 to 90,000.

During this period, the workers and leaders of Arthur's military factory were all smiling.

The previous war and the current military expansion have expanded the scale of Australasia's military factories and promoted the growth of Australasia's military industry.

At present, Arthur's military factory has more than 2,000 employees, which is definitely a large military factory even in the international arena.

Compared with the navy and army, which are expanding their military forces with great fanfare, the expansion of Australasia's aviation forces is much more low-key.

Airships are a technology that everyone knows, so they are also put on the surface.

After the victory of this war, Arthur announced in a high-profile manner that he would vigorously build at least 20 airships, in order to meet the transportation needs of some materials and to build the air force of Australasia.

Although the prototypes of aircraft have been born in various countries around the world, the reliability of current aircraft is much lower than that of airships, and the practical value is far lower than that of airships.

Coupled with the performance of Australasia's airships in the last war, European powers have decided to follow up on the research of airships.

In addition to the 20 airships on the surface, Australasia has also expanded its air force in secret.

Previously, Australasia had a total of 15 Ghost-3 bombers and 15 Eagle-3 reconnaissance aircraft.

After the actual combat test of the performance of bombers and reconnaissance aircraft in the last war, Arthur decisively placed an order for 30 bombers, 10 fighters, and 20 reconnaissance aircraft.

At present, with the establishment of the Royal Military Academy, the selection and training of pilots has become more formalized.

At present, the Aviation College of the Royal Military Academy can train at least 150 qualified pilots for Australasia every year, so Arthur can spend lavishly on the expansion of the aviation force.

This time, the order for a total of 60 aircraft is for construction. According to the speed of the aviation laboratory, it will take at least half a year.

In addition to the 30 aircraft it already has, Australasia will have at least 90 military aircraft in 1908. Whether in terms of scale or combat effectiveness, Australasia is currently the world's number one in the field of air force, and it is also the world's number one in a generation.

In fact, in terms of the practicality of these aircraft, they can be compared with the aircraft of various countries during World War I.

If Arthur insists, he can now build a powerful air force with thousands of aircraft.

But the current aircraft update and iteration speed is still very fast, and there is no need to spend too much on models that may be outdated.

At least according to the response of the aviation laboratory, the fourth generation of military aircraft has also been revealed, and the fourth generation of three types of military aircraft will have a significant performance improvement over the third generation aircraft.

This is also one of the reasons why Arthur has not formed a large-scale air force at present. First, the air force has no rivals, and Australasia currently has an overwhelming advantage in the air force.

In addition, the fourth-generation aircraft is not far from being born. Instead of spending money to buy aircraft that may be outdated now, it is better to wait until the new aircraft is born before expanding the army.

In addition to expanding the army, rewarding the soldiers who have made contributions in the previous war is also a very important thing.

The army is Arthur's trump card, and the military spirit must be firmly in his hands.

Since the end of the war, Arthur and Minister Kent have discussed the rewards for soldiers and officers.

The first and second divisions are undoubtedly the most meritorious this time. The former fired the first shot of the war, perfectly played the role of the vanguard, and captured Portuguese Timor with relatively low casualties.

The second division not only captured colonies such as Portuguese India, but also successfully defended and eliminated the threat from Portuguese reinforcements.

As the commanders of the 1st and 2nd divisions, Generals Silvio Lonnie Rodlin and Fritz Reiner are likely to advance in their ranks.

At present, the military ranks of Australasia are basically inherited from the British Empire, and the same is true for the navy.

Even the design of the military ranks is basically consistent with that of the British Empire. This time, it is just the right time to take advantage of the reward to issue new military ranks belonging to Australasia.

After a long discussion with Minister Kent, the new military ranks of Australasia were officially issued on November 1, 1907.

Starting from the newly enlisted privates, the ranks of Australasia are divided into 3 levels of soldiers (recruits, privates, privates), 3 levels of non-commissioned officers (corporal, sergeant, sergeant), 3 levels of lieutenants (second lieutenants, lieutenants, captains), 3 levels of colonels (major, lieutenant colonel, colonel), 4 levels of generals (brigadier general, major general, lieutenant general, general), and the highest rank, marshal.

This set of military ranks applies to the Army, Navy and Air Force of Australasia, and the ranks of soldiers in each military system will also be prefixed with their respective affiliations.

And if we have to say who is above the Marshal of the Army, Navy and Air Force, perhaps it is Arthur's title of the Marshal of the Three Armed Forces.

Of course, Arthur's previous title was the Marshal of the Army and Navy of Australasia. Now that there is an Air Force, he naturally became the Marshal of the Army, Navy and Air Force of Australasia, abbreviated as the Marshal of the Three Armed Forces.

It's just that Arthur's title of Field Marshal of the Armed Forces is just an honorary title most of the time.

But this title also gives Arthur the legal right to legally and reasonably mobilize all the Australasian troops, including the government's defense forces, in special and wartime periods.

At present, in addition to Arthur, the Field Marshal of the Armed Forces in Australasian, the highest rank is Lieutenant General Kent, the Minister of Defense.

As for people like Division Commander Fritz, their ranks are all Brigadier Generals. First, it is to facilitate the management of the Ministry of Defense, and second, there has been no war in Australasian since its founding. If these generals are given too high ranks without any merit, it will make the ranks of Australasian military worthless.

In addition, if too high ranks are given in the early stage, it may lead to a situation where there is no more to be given in the later stage.

If the marshal is rotten at that time, then this rank system will really be rotten.

On November 5, 1907, the Australasian Army Commendation Ceremony officially began.

The commendation ceremony can also be called the awarding ceremony. Although most of the participants are the troops that participated in the war in Australasia before, the venue was still chosen in the square outside the Sydney Palace.

This also led to many Australasia civilians to watch, after all, awarding medals is not a secret.

The two commanders of the 1st and 2nd Divisions were promoted the most this time.

Silvio Lonnie Rodlin, commander of the 1st Division, and Fritz Reiner, commander of the 2nd Division, were successfully promoted from brigadier general to major general, which may be the highest rank they can get in the position of division commander.

If they still want to be promoted in rank, in addition to entering the Ministry of Defense, they may only have to wait for the birth of a larger organization of the Australasia Army!

After all, a lieutenant general above the rank of major general is also a senior figure in a country's army. You can't let such a senior figure lead an ordinary regular division, otherwise there will always be many problems.

After all, the current Minister of Defense Kent is only a lieutenant general. If there is another lieutenant general division commander, then who should listen to whom when the ranks are the same?

In addition to the two division commanders being promoted to major generals, the two deputy division commanders of the 1st and 2nd divisions were also promoted to brigadier generals.

Of course, their promotions are in preparation for the expansion of the 4th and Colonial divisions, and their promotions also mean that they will become division commanders of these troops.

I'm going to take a leave of absence from writing 4,000 words today. I have a cold and a headache.