Chapter 496 Military Research Investment

If we talk about the research of military technology after World War I, we must not forget one of the important technologies, that is radar.

Although the British initially developed radar to find German planes in the sky, it is undeniable that radar has become the most important part of military weapons with the development of technology.

Arthur attached great importance to the research of radar technology. A few years ago, he asked Tesla to set up a radar research laboratory and allocated 2 million Australian dollars for Tesla to study as much as he wanted.

The research of radar is definitely not achieved overnight. As early as 1842, Austrian physicist Doppler proposed Doppler radar using the Doppler effect.

After that, in 1864, British physicist Maxwell derived a formula that can calculate the characteristics of electromagnetic waves.

So far, countries have made certain progress in the research of radar. Research on radio waves, electric mirrors, vacuum tripoles, etc. are all milestones in human research on radar, and also represent the progress of scientific research in the military field of various countries.

If Arthur remembers correctly, the first radar should have been born before World War II, to be precise, it should be in 1935.

There are still 16 years before the birth of the first practical radar. Tesla still has enough time to study radar, and even surpass Robert Watson Watt before he invents the first practical radar.

After all, 2 million Australian dollars in research funds is definitely not a small amount. If it is used sparingly, it is even enough for Tesla to study until the birth of radar.

The reason why it costs so much to study radar is that radar is very important for the improvement of military technology in the future. This is not only related to the most basic aircraft and tanks, but also to more advanced rockets and missiles.

Like radar, the missile research in Australasia has already been established. It is in charge of Tsiolkovsky, a former Russian expert and the current head of Australasia's rocket research.

Rocket research can not only allow Australasia to take a big step forward in aerospace, but also militarize it, making Australasia the first country to have missiles.

Missiles are definitely one of the most important weapons in the future. Their lethality, effective killing distance and deterrence are definitely one of the highest among all conventional weapons.

If equipped with nuclear warheads, intercontinental missiles that can cover the world will be the biggest trump card in Australasia's hands, and also a sharp sword to sanction some morally corrupt countries.

Of course, in addition to these trump card weapons that require a long time to study, Arthur has never stopped researching conventional weapons, and the intensity of the research is also very large.

First of all, the tanks that appeared in the late period of World War I still need a lot of research.

Tanks during World War I were generally not reliable, even the tanks carefully studied by Australasia.

The grounding rate of British tanks is as high as more than 80%, and with some accidents, the number of tanks that can be put into combat is even less than 10%.

Although Australasia's tanks are better, the grounding rate is still as high as 60%, and the number of tanks that can be put into combat is basically less than 30% (first-generation tank data).

Such data is obviously not feasible. Although the second-generation tank, that is, the T-14 tank, has not been actually put into combat, the grounding rate in the simulated battlefield is as high as more than 30%.

The grounding rate of the T-14A heavy tank is even as high as 40%, after all, it has a huge body and solid steel armor.

Although the rate of collapse has been significantly reduced compared to the first-generation tanks, the rate of collapse of 30% to 40% is still unqualified. It must be reduced to at least less than 20%, or even less than 10%, to meet the needs of war before and after World War II.

Therefore, the main direction of the research on the third-generation tanks focuses on the collapse rate, or failure rate, which Arthur is very concerned about.

The actual role of the first-generation tanks in World War I was still very huge, and they could cause a large number of casualties to the enemy, while their own casualties due to the war were not high.

The German army basically had no way to deal with the first-generation tanks. The only thing that could defeat the first-generation tanks was the collapse rate.

Compared with the first-generation tanks, the second-generation tanks have been greatly improved, and their deterrent power in the war is destined to be stronger than the first-generation tanks.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the second-generation tanks are not inferior to the tanks in World War II in terms of firepower, but the reliability is still very defective.

The main research direction of the third-generation tanks, in addition to reducing the collapse rate as much as possible and improving stability, is to strengthen the protection of the tanks. After all, the weapons in World War II were much more powerful. Germany even developed missiles, and there are more and more weapons that can sanction tanks.

With the emergence of various anti-tank artillery, the tank's protection capabilities must also become stronger and stronger.

This is not only a protection for the soldiers driving the tank, but also a protection for the victory of a battle.

After the tank was exposed, there was no need to use the Royal Agricultural Machinery Factory to hide it.

Arthur waved his hand and directly separated the tank business of the Royal Agricultural Machinery Factory and established a separate tank manufacturing plant, which was affiliated to the Royal Military Factory and was responsible for the research and development and manufacturing of tanks.

Because the tank manufacturing plant fully inherited the tank business of the Royal Agricultural Machinery Factory, the production speed of the tank manufacturing plant was still very fast, and it could produce at least 200 tanks a year, and an average of two tanks every three days.

After the establishment of a separate tank factory, the speed of tank construction can continue to accelerate. After all, in addition to building tanks, the Royal Agricultural Machinery Factory was also responsible for the construction of agricultural machinery, especially tractors.

In addition, the reason why tanks must be kept secret has greatly limited the speed of tank construction.

The new tank factory is expected to increase the speed of tank construction to about 500 vehicles per year within five years, and to about 1,500 vehicles per year within ten years, which can basically meet the requirements of the Australasian Army.

After all, judging from the current situation in Australasia, the importance of the navy is higher than that of the army, and the size of the army will also be greatly limited due to the population.

If Arthur is right, the speed of tank construction in various countries during World War II was very fast.

Germany, which is famous for its industry, has a maximum tank construction speed of more than 700 vehicles per month under various conditions.

At that time, Russia, whose industry had made great progress, produced a maximum of 2,000 tanks per month, which is enough to show the importance of tanks in various countries and how much investment they made in the military during the war.

However, for Australasia now, the quality of tanks is the most critical issue compared to the production speed of tanks.

After all, the total size of the army is limited, and it is impossible for each person to have a tank. The scale of Australasia's tanks is destined not to be too large. After all, it is an island country. The ocean is what Australasia should pay most attention to, and it is also the real defense line of the mainland.

No matter how powerful the army of other countries is, as long as the navy cannot crush Australasia, it will still not pose a threat to Australasia's mainland.

Australasia can completely defeat a large number of enemies with a small navy through a perfect island defense chain.

This also means that, except for long-range weapons such as intercontinental missiles, Australasia's mainland is difficult to be threatened, even by the powerful British Empire now.

And Australasia has been vigorously researching missiles and rockets. In the field of rockets, Australasia may not lose to other countries.

After all, the more than one-third of aviation dynamics talents that Arthur has won over are not vegetarians. As long as Arthur strongly supports it, other countries will have to spend more time or manpower and material resources than Australasia to achieve overtaking. But which country can win over more than one-third of aviation talents? Especially under the premise that Australasia has already won over a small half of the talents.

Arthur's expectations for the production speed of Australasia's tanks are basically based on the goal of the new tank manufacturing plant to reach 500 vehicles in five years and 1,500 vehicles in ten years.

Ten years later is only 1929, and the tank factory still has about ten years to increase the production speed of tanks, and use tanks as a weapon of arms trade, selling them in large quantities to both warring parties to earn a lot of profits for itself.

In addition to tanks, the research of aircraft is also a top priority in Arthur's plan.

Like tanks, the aircraft of World War I was just beginning after all, and there were still major design flaws, such as the biplane design that greatly affected the speed.

The aircraft in Australasia are fine. After all, they have gone through four generations of replacement. The current fourth-generation military aircraft are comparable to or even slightly better than the aircraft in World War II in terms of performance.

This does not mean that the fourth-generation military aircraft have completely surpassed the aircraft in World War II. At least there are still significant defects in some aspects of technology. Because of the backwardness of the times, some new technologies possessed by the aircraft in World War II are missing.

The most advanced fourth-generation military aircraft in Australasia are like this, let alone the aircraft of other countries.

The First World War in this world is still very different from the First World War in history. At least the number of aircraft invested by various countries in the First World War is not so exaggerated. At most, it is just over 10,000.

But in fact, although there are so many 10,000 aircraft, there are less than 1,000 aircraft that really determine the battlefield in the sky, and they are basically all from Australasia.

Including Britain, the aircraft produced by the countries participating in the First World War had significant defects in performance, which also limited the combat effectiveness of the aircraft to a certain extent.

After all, countries around the world initially focused on airships. When they discovered that airplanes could easily destroy airships during the war, they hurriedly developed airplanes, but it was too late.

Although the war was over, according to the intelligence Arthur had, European countries had not finished their research on airplanes, and even invested more.

For defeated countries like Germany, the Allies' current restrictions on Germany were still very strict, prohibiting Germany from conducting any research on new weapons, including airplanes and tanks that had appeared in World War I.

Even for airships that were already determined to be inferior to airplanes, the Allies imposed a lot of restrictions on Germany.

The famous Zeppelin airship in Germany before World War I had two production lines directly dismantled by Britain and France. Whether it could reach its peak as in history was a question.

Britain and France's restrictions on Germany's research on tanks were even more exaggerated. They directly moved all the factories that were researching tanks in Germany and explicitly prohibited Germany from conducting any research on tanks.

At the same time, Germany was prohibited from researching and producing artillery, heavy machine guns, etc. of any caliber. The 150,000 troops retained by Germany were only allowed to be equipped with rifles and pistols, and even the bullet rations for each soldier were restricted.

Under such circumstances, it was almost difficult for Germany to research military technology before the restrictions were relaxed.

Under Arthur's suggestion, the list of weapons prohibited from researching by Germany was also added with submachine guns to prevent Germany from taking advantage of the loopholes as in history, and failing to research machine guns and instead researching submachine guns.

Not only Germany, but also the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria were strictly restricted, prohibiting them from researching and producing large-caliber weapons.

This also means that only the victorious countries are really vigorously researching tanks and aircraft. In addition to Australasia, the only countries that have really invested heavily are Britain, France, and the United States.

Although it is not clear to what extent Britain, France, and the United States have currently researched their aircraft, it is certain that their research progress should soon surpass the first generation of military aircraft in Australasia.

After all, the difficulty of building the first generation of military aircraft is not high to be honest. Judging from the existing scientific and technological and scientific research capabilities of Britain and France, it is still no problem to research them in a short period of time.

Although the Americans are weaker than Britain and France in military technology, as long as the Americans pay attention, it is not difficult to break through the technology of the first generation of military aircraft.

Because of the flu, some of the benefits that the Americans should have obtained were also abolished, resulting in the Americans hardly sharing any of the benefits of the defeated countries. The United States in this world is still far behind the United States in the late World War I, especially in terms of talent reserves and scientific research capabilities.

More importantly, after taking the blame for the flu, the Americans are also in debt.

Originally, most of the profits in the war were taken up by Australasia, and they had to face huge debts. At this time, the United States lost both the wife and the army. Not only did it lose money to participate in World War I, but it also became the party that paid compensation.

In fact, it also represents a huge change in the status of the United States. The status of the United States in the late World War I has been greatly improved in history, at least no one will ignore the voice of the United States.

But now, although the industrial strength of the United States has not weakened, the comprehensive strength of the United States is still second only to Britain and France.

But the status of the representatives in the world is just like the real strength of the United States. Generally speaking, the World Alliance represents most countries in the world.

And the four countries with the greatest status and power in this alliance are naturally the four great powers of Britain, France, Russia, and Australia.

The notorious United States may not have a higher international influence than Australasia, and may only be ranked ahead of Italy.

If it weren't for a civil war that made the situation in Russia very tense, and Tsarist Russia and Soviet Russia weakened Russia's overall strength and status in the international arena, I'm afraid the United States' status would only be slightly higher than Italy.

The technological level of the fourth-generation military aircraft is equivalent to that of the aircraft during World War II, which also means that if Australasia's aircraft research stops, Britain and France will have no problem catching up during World War II.

However, there are still more than ten years before World War II, which is also an opportunity for Australasia to develop the fifth or even sixth generation of military aircraft.

The third update of 4,200 words, late, sorry.

I'm going out to play tomorrow, maybe two updates of 6,000 words or a large chapter of 5,000 words.