Chapter 313 The Secret Establishment of the Air Force

The Minister of the Navy, Churchill, looked around and found that there was no cabinet member who supported him in the huge British cabinet.

In desperation, Churchill finally agreed to the 1:1.5 construction plan proposed by Foreign Minister Edward.

Of course, this does not mean that Britain has to build half a battleship, but that the British Empire has to build at least three battleships for every two battleships built by Germany to maintain its numerical advantage.

This is Churchill's concession to other officials of the cabinet government, and it is also some concessions made by the British Empire to Germany in terms of finance.

But this is actually very normal. After all, although the British Empire has the most powerful naval fleet in the world, this naval fleet has to protect a real empire on which the sun never sets.

Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Oceania, six continents with large populations, all have territories or colonies of the British Empire.

This also represents the scope of the Royal Fleet to be protected, which is actually even the whole world.

It is no exaggeration to say that the British Empire occupies one-fifth of the earth, about 27 million square kilometers of land.

This land brought supreme glory and profit to the British Empire, but it also forced the British Empire to invest a lot of defense and naval fleets to be stationed in these areas separately.

If it was the entire British Royal Fleet, the German High Seas Fleet would have no chance of surpassing it.

But if it was just the British Home Fleet, the German High Seas Fleet would still have the strength to fight.

What made the British choose to give in was not the more than 10 million pounds of the annual fleet construction plan, but the high annual defense budget and endless growth.

The current defense scale has already cost the British Empire a budget of more than 60 million pounds. If the fleet scale continues to expand crazily, how terrible will the defense budget be? Is it 80 million pounds, 100 million pounds, or hundreds of millions of pounds?

The British Empire can bear it for a while, but it is impossible to bear it for a lifetime. If the defense budget is allowed to grow so exaggeratedly, not only other cabinet ministers will not be willing, I am afraid the people will not be willing either.

In fact, this problem is not only the British Empire, but all the powers that are currently expanding their armies have it.

Especially the German Empire, which is a direct competitor of the British Empire, faces even more exaggerated financial pressure.

Although it seems that the economy of Germany has surpassed that of Britain, and the arms race is carried out by the navy and the army, directly creating the world's first army and the world's second navy.

But in fact, the financial crisis of the Germans is more serious than that of the British, but Germany is more like holding its breath at this time, and they can no longer stop.

Either start this war and let the enemy repay the interest and losses of various loans for themselves, or just go to hell and wait for the country to go bankrupt and its property to be divided up by other countries!

In fact, Australasia's own financial situation is even more serious, with military expenditures as high as more than 40% of the government's total fiscal expenditures.

But who makes the Australasia government rich? In addition, a large amount of construction has made Australasia's finances rise steadily. As long as it is in a surplus state, the high proportion of military expenditures is not a big deal.

Speaking of military expenditures, in fact, Australasia's military expenditures will only be higher.

It's just that the current expenditures of the Air Force and the Guards Division all rely on the royal family, otherwise the military expenditures should at least increase by 20% to 30%.

Speaking of the Air Force, because the First World War is approaching, in order to prepare, Arthur also decided to establish an Air Force in advance.

Of course, this decision is still relatively secretive so far. Except for important senior officials of the Australasian Ministry of Defense, even the cabinet government does not know about the establishment of the Australasian Air Force.

According to history, the British Empire should be the first to establish an air force, and the establishment time should be in May 1912.

Although countries around the world currently attach more importance to airships than airplanes, this does not mean that they will give up the development of airplanes.

In fact, according to Arthur's intelligence, if the information is correct, the top powers including Britain, Germany, France, and the United States have already developed preliminary militarized aircraft.

However, the technology of this aircraft is not comparable to the first generation of military aircraft in Australasian, and their aircraft technology is still a long way from Australasian.

At present, Australasian already has more than 600 military aircraft, but the air force still has no head.

After careful consideration, Arthur secretly called Prime Minister Kent and Defense Minister Raul to discuss the establishment of an air force.

"Everyone, now is the time to formally organize our aircraft into a unit and establish a brand-new military branch that soars in the sky." Arthur looked at Prime Minister Kent and Minister Raul and said with a smile.

Air Force, this is a completely new military branch. There was no concept of air force before.

Hearing what Arthur said, Prime Minister Kent and Minister Raul finally understood the real reason why Arthur had formed a large-scale aircraft unit but did not attribute it to the army or navy.

It turned out that His Majesty was going to form a brand-new military branch to equip these aircraft!

Although a little shocked, Prime Minister Kent quickly reacted and asked: "Your Majesty, how should this new military branch be established?"

After all, it is a brand-new military branch. How to establish it, its combat methods and the importance of this military branch all need to be explored before they can be known.

"I believe you all understand the role of the three types of military aircraft. The importance of aircraft is no less than that of the army and navy. The Air Force will be listed as the three most important branches of the military, along with the army and navy." Arthur said with a smile.

Prime Minister Kent and Minister of Labor nodded as a matter of course.

Although they have some doubts about the new branch of the Air Force, this does not mean that they will deny the role and combat capability of aircraft.

Aircraft of scale do play a vital role on the battlefield, and are fully qualified to make the whole country pay attention to its development.

"The Ministry of National Defense can secretly set up an air force department. I will transfer all more than 600 aircraft to the air force department of the Ministry of National Defense. Your task is to make our air force exceed 2,000 people within two years, and have enough combat capability to be trusted." Arthur looked at Minister Raul and ordered.

Aviation schools with military academies are currently fully capable of training pilots. Not to mention the extra 1,400 pilots, even if the number doubles, it is not a difficult thing for Australasia at present.

The relatively difficult thing is to conduct a more detailed study of the Air Force, to study its combat methods, specific organization, how to cooperate with other branches of the military, and the usual training matters.

These are enough to give the Ministry of Defense a headache, and they need to be carried out in complete confidentiality, which is more challenging for Minister Raul's ability.

"I understand, Your Majesty. Please rest assured that I will complete the task." Minister Raul nodded and took over Arthur's task without hesitation.

"Within a few years, the establishment of the Air Force department must be kept completely confidential. Without my consent, no one except the officers and soldiers of the Air Force is allowed to disclose the news of the Air Force. This is very important for the development of our Air Force and it must be done." After instructing Minister Raul, Arthur looked at Prime Minister Kent and instructed.

"I understand, Your Majesty. I will help Minister Raul and keep the information of the Air Force confidential." Prime Minister Kent nodded to show that he understood.

The good news is that it is not as difficult to train pilots now as in the future. At least Australasia can train thousands of pilots every year.

Of course, such large-scale training is not cost-effective at present, so the Aviation Academy has only 400 students for the time being.

But if necessary, the Aviation Academy can expand to more than 1,000 students at any time to train more air force talents for Australasia.

As for the production speed of aircraft, with the investment of a large amount of funds from the royal consortium, the current aircraft production speed of the aviation laboratory can reach at least 1,000 per year, which can just match the training speed of the Aviation Academy.

This also means that if Arthur wants, he can train at least 4,000 air force pilots and form an air force with more than 4,000 military aircraft before the outbreak of the war.

Such a large number of aircraft has an overwhelming air superiority for other countries.

That is, Arthur does not want other countries to pay attention to the air force in advance, so he hides his own aircraft.

In addition to the expansion of the air force to at least 2,000 aircraft, Arthur also put forward requirements for the training of the army.

Whether it is a regular division or an indigenous division, training must be carried out strictly in the next few years.

There is no need to worry about the waste of weapons and ammunition. Rapidly improving the combat capability of the army and the tacit understanding and cooperation between soldiers of various organizations are the most important tasks of the Ministry of National Defense at present.

Arthur even promised that if Minister Raul could accomplish this, he would allow the Ministry of National Defense to increase its fiscal budget by 5 million Australian dollars each year.

This budget is provided by the Royal Consortium, which is a financial subsidy to the Ministry of National Defense on the other hand.

This 5 million Australian dollars is not a small amount of money for the Ministry of National Defense. At least it can speed up the equipment of military trucks and high-powered weapons for other troops.

Minister Raul is looking forward to this, so he is also very motivated to complete the more rigorous training required by Arthur.

Needless to say, the two Guards Divisions, more than a year ago, Arthur announced that the Guards Division would be trained more strictly.

Of course, although the training time and items have increased, in order to keep the soldiers in good physical condition, the food standards of all the Australasian armies will be raised to a higher level. Not only will there be meat for every meal, but vegetables, meat, fruits, snacks, etc. will also be supplied in various ways to relieve the fatigue and tension caused by the highly intense training.

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