Chapter 631 Hercules and Hurricane
The reforms of Sumatra and Java and the independence of Kalimantan were carried out almost simultaneously, which also allowed these three islands, which originally belonged to the Dutch East Indies, to continue to stay on the world news hot list for a whole month.
Sumatra and Java retained their original names and temporarily implemented militarized management.
Kalimantan directly became the independent Kalimantan United Sultanate, with its capital in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan.
For at least the next three years, the migration of the indigenous population will become the biggest topic among the three islands, and it will also be the only action of Australasia in Sumatra and Java.
When all the indigenous populations have been migrated, the development of Sumatra and Java will be carried out, and the two islands will also be fully localized, becoming the key for Arthur to control the Strait of Malacca.
While Australasia was annexing the Dutch East Indies, the British were not idle. They pulled a group of European brothers to the World League to launch a debate on whether Germany should join the World League. In the end, they obtained the consent of most countries and believed that Germany was qualified to join the World League.
This move directly angered the French. After all, in the eyes of the French, the so-called World League is an institution for the victorious Allied Powers of World War I to divide the fruits of victory. Naturally, it is impossible to tolerate the defeated country and the culprit of World War I, such as Germany, to join.
What's more, no matter what the relationship between Britain and Germany is, the relationship between France and Germany is definitely hatred.
The French can't get along with the Germans at all, which also means that Germany's joining the World League is a completely bad thing for France, which has hindered the development of France's power in Europe.
The French used a veto to refuse the Germans to join the World League, but this was also criticized by other countries, who believed that the French affected the development of Europe for their own selfish interests.
It has to be admitted that the veto is really a good thing. Even if the British have too much power in the World Alliance, France can use its veto power at any time to veto the diplomatic efforts made by the British.
But the question is, in the face of the current situation, can the French really prevent Germany from joining the World Alliance?
In order to give Germany more power to check and balance France, the British have made great efforts.
In fact, as early as five years ago, many countries have mentioned the topic of letting Germany join the World Alliance.
However, the war had just ended not long ago, and the French still had a deep hatred for the Germans, so they naturally rejected Germany's proposal to join the World Alliance very firmly.
But now five years have passed, and the French hatred for Germany has faded a little. In addition, the current situation in Germany is indeed terrible, and even some factions sympathizing with Germany have emerged in France, proposing that Germany join the World Alliance.
The more controversial point at present is that the French believe that Germany's joining the World Alliance will become a permanent member, which will greatly damage the interests of the French.
At the same time, joining the World Alliance will allow countries to relax restrictions on Germany, which will lead to a rapid increase in Germany's strength and Germany's threats will continue to increase.
These two concerns of the French were resolved in a secret negotiation between Britain and France.
The British guaranteed that Germany would not become a permanent member of the World Alliance, and it would not be possible to relax restrictions on Germany before Germany showed good performance.
After Britain and France reached a compromise, Germany naturally joined the World Alliance and became one of the ordinary members.
Although the German government was very dissatisfied with the status of an ordinary member, it had achieved its goal after all and entered the World Alliance, and there would not be much opposition for the time being.
This is also what the British want to see. The Germans are dissatisfied with their status, and their dissatisfaction will also be transferred to the French.
After all, it was the French who refused to allow Germany to become a permanent member, which was a direct conflict between France and Germany.
In this way, the World Alliance will naturally be divided into those who support France and those who support Germany.
The British can also play the neutral role they are good at and watch the competition between Germany and France in the World Alliance with a smile.
France has a great advantage in the current competition between Germany and France, which is why the British prefer Germany.
No matter what the relationship between Britain and Germany was before, for the British, whoever threatens them is their enemy.
The French are isolated and helpless in the World Alliance, so they will naturally focus on Russia, another permanent member.
And Russia is obviously a bottomless pit. If France wants Russia to firmly support itself, it must support the Russians to win the civil war and achieve unification.
But the civil war in Russia is not easy to win. Soviet Russia has obviously gained more people's hearts, and the civil war is a huge cost for Russia.
If France turns around to support Russia's civil war, I am afraid that the cost of the war alone will be enough to drag France down.
It is the best news for the British to solve a competitor without any effort, which is also the reason why they invited Germany to join the World Alliance.
After the threat of France is resolved, a Germany that suffers too many restrictions and a Russia that suffers too much losses due to the civil war are obviously not the opponent of Britain.
Australasia is far away in Oceania and cannot have much influence on Europe, and the World Alliance will become a one-man show for the British.
The development of the situation in Europe is not important to Arthur. Anyway, as long as there is no large-scale war, no matter how much the four countries of Britain, France, Germany and Russia compete for hegemony, it will not affect the international status and influence of Australasia.
Arthur's eyes are on the current military development of Australasia, to be precise, the development of aircraft carriers, which are already very important.
The existing aircraft carrier design in Australasia is called the Colossus aircraft carrier. It was designed in 1916, more than nine years ago.
More importantly, Australasia has also ushered in the development of jet aircraft in these nine years. The existing aircraft carriers are no longer suitable for jet aircraft. The navy urgently needs a new aircraft carrier design to equip a large number of jet aircraft.
It has to be admitted that jet aircraft have a huge improvement in aircraft performance. But the problem lies here. Jet aircraft are too fast compared to ordinary aircraft. They are so fast that they cannot stay safely on the deck between aircraft carriers.
Even if the giant-class aircraft carrier is equipped with arresting devices, the landing of the jet aircraft will be as high as 30% damage, which is obviously not qualified for an aircraft carrier used in actual combat.
How to make the jet aircraft land safely and effectively on the aircraft carrier has become the main goal of the current naval research and development.
In addition, the number of aircraft carried by the aircraft carrier, the armor and air defense capabilities, the speed of the aircraft carrier, etc., are also the improvement goals of the new aircraft carrier.
However, after nine years of development, the Royal Dockyard still has a certain direction for the research and development of aircraft carriers, and even has certain research results.
After Arthur asked about the progress of the development of the aircraft carrier, the design drawings of the two aircraft carriers were quickly sent to Arthur's office, named Hercules-class aircraft carrier and Hurricane-class aircraft carrier respectively.
The previous giant-class aircraft carrier had an obvious disadvantage. The total tonnage of the aircraft carrier was only over 10,000 tons, and it was not stable when sailing.
The consumption of fuel and the take-off and landing of the aircraft will cause the aircraft carrier to shake, which will make the landing of the aircraft more difficult and increase the probability of aircraft loss.
In order to solve this problem, the Hercules-class aircraft carrier has a much larger tonnage and volume, and has been fully lengthened and widened, and a more durable and tough special steel plate is used as the deck material.
Of course, the larger volume has caused the weight of the aircraft carrier to exceed 20,000 tons, almost twice that of the previous Giant-class aircraft carrier.
But if we only look at the improvement in armor protection capabilities, the increase in tonnage is completely worth it.
At the same time, the number of aircraft that can be carried by the Hercules-class aircraft carrier has also increased to 36, which greatly enhances the combat capability of the aircraft carrier.
In addition to changes in volume and weight, the Hercules-class aircraft carrier will also be equipped with a laser signal light on the deck to provide the best landing angle for the pilot of the aircraft through reflection.
The laser signal light is also equipped with a gyroscope bracket to ensure that the landing angle of the light reflection is the most correct in any case.
Where there are advantages, there are disadvantages. It is precisely because of the huge size and weight of the Hercules-class aircraft carrier that the speed of this aircraft carrier has not been greatly improved.
Although loaded with more boilers, the speed of the Hercules-class aircraft carrier is still only about 26 knots, which can only be said to be good in terms of speed.
However, in terms of firepower, in addition to up to 36 various combat aircraft, the Hercules-class aircraft carrier is also equipped with many CA-2-27mm anti-aircraft guns.
This gun is an improved version of the CA-1-37mm machine gun. Although the caliber is smaller, it is an anti-aircraft weapon specifically used for air combat.
With the improvement of the Royal Arsenal, the firing rate of the CA-2-27mm anti-aircraft gun reached a terrifying 88 rounds per minute, and the dense firepower network became a deadly weapon for enemy aircraft.
In addition, there is also a specially modified MA-107 Maxim heavy machine gun. After this machine gun was modified, it was specially used for air strafing. Multiple barrels increased the firepower of this heavy machine gun several times, and also made the anti-aircraft firepower of the Hercules-class aircraft carrier the strongest.
It is no exaggeration to say that with the data on paper and the most advanced jet aircraft in Australasia, the Hercules-class aircraft carrier will definitely be the most advanced aircraft carrier in the next ten years, and will also greatly enhance the naval strength of Australasia.
If the previous Giant-class aircraft carrier was only the first generation of aircraft carriers, then the current Hercules-class aircraft carrier is the real, powerful weapon that can easily control battleships.
Of course, no matter how powerful the Hercules-class aircraft carrier is, it cannot cover up the glory of the Hurricane-class aircraft carrier.
The difference between the two aircraft carrier designs can be seen from the name. The Hercules-class aircraft carrier is biased towards volume and weight, that is, the so-called armor protection and firepower.
The Hurricane-class aircraft carrier is more biased towards the power and deterrence of the aircraft carrier. The volume is not much higher than that of the Giant-class aircraft carrier, but the power increase is extremely obvious.
The Hurricane-class aircraft carrier is 2 meters long, 5 meters wide, and has a draft of 9 meters. It can carry 22 combat aircraft.
Compared with the giant aircraft carrier, the armor protection capability of this level of aircraft carrier is not much improved, but some anti-aircraft firepower is strengthened to ensure the self-defense and counterattack capabilities of the aircraft carrier.
The biggest improvement is the power system. After improving the previous steam turbine, several new steam turbines were installed, allowing the Hurricane-class aircraft carrier to reach a terrifying speed of 5 knots, infinitely close to 28 knots.
The speed of 28 knots is relatively fast compared to the most advanced battleships at present, which also ensures that the Hurricane-class aircraft carrier can escape when facing any battleship.
The slightly increased length of the aircraft carrier also allows jet aircraft to take off and land more freely on the Hurricane-class aircraft carrier.
The same interception device and auxiliary landing device (laser signal light) also make the design of the Hercules-class aircraft carrier and the Hurricane-class aircraft carrier more reasonable, and the deterrence of the aircraft carrier is greatly improved.
The two equally excellent battleship designs made Arthur a little embarrassed. One tends to be larger and the other tends to be faster. It is difficult to say which design is more suitable for the current naval development.
However, the designs of these two aircraft carriers have certain advantages. No matter which aircraft carrier is chosen, Arthur can guarantee that this will be one of the most advanced aircraft carriers at present.
The dilemma of choosing an aircraft carrier lasted until the next day, and William reminded him of it only when he was having breakfast.
"Why do we have to choose one of them? Why not build both?" Little William's simple words made Arthur feel like he was being enlightened, and also strengthened Arthur's determination to start building aircraft carriers quickly.
The designs of these two aircraft carriers will be first-class in the next 10 years, and will never lag behind even in 20 years.
This also means that if World War II happens as scheduled, the aircraft carriers built now will definitely provide a lot of help to Australasia.
Anyway, the government's finances are fully sufficient, and there is no worry about the problem of funds for building two types of aircraft carriers at the same time.
In mid-November, Arthur convened a cabinet meeting and unanimously passed the issue of building two new aircraft carriers, and also decided on the shipbuilding plan for Australasia in the next five years.
It is understood that the decline of battleships has become inevitable. Even if battleships are still powerful now, it cannot change the fact that battleships will decline in more than ten or twenty years.
Instead of building battleships now, it is better to use all the energy and funds to build aircraft carriers.
It is precisely with this idea that Australasia's shipbuilding plan for the next five years is almost entirely battleships and submarines, plus a small number of other small and medium-sized warships. Battleships will not be built in the future, and the existing battleships are enough.
From the end of 1925 to the end of 1930, Australasia built a total of 4 aircraft carriers, 32 submarines, 11 frigates, 25 small destroyers, 15 patrol boats and 8 coastal defense gunboats.
In order to conceal the truth, there are four battleships in the shipbuilding plan, but they will not be built.
At the same time, the four aircraft carriers will also be built in secret, so that countries can focus on the construction of battleships.
When all countries have taken out the most advanced battleships, when they are arrogant, they will understand which is the future development direction between aircraft carriers and battleships.
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