Chapter 778 Five-Year Shipbuilding Plan

"Minister Thomas, isn't the Ministry of National Defense's naval construction plan too exaggerated? Even if we don't consider the country's financial problems, do we really need to build so many warships in five years?" In the Government Affairs Council, Prime Minister Raul looked at Defense Secretary Thomas asked with a look of disbelief on the report on the shipbuilding plan submitted.

Prime Minister Raul knows that the Naval Limitation Treaty is bankrupt, and he also understands that Australasia must join the naval arms race in the next time and improve the country's naval strength as much as possible.

But the problem is that the naval construction plan submitted by Minister Thomas is too exaggerated. It is a huge plan that has never been seen in Australasia.

"I hope you can give me a suitable reason, otherwise, you will have to convince the cabinet and His Majesty yourself!" Prime Minister Raul said with an annoyed look on his face as he looked at Thomas who was there.

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, I believe you also understand the importance of building the navy at present." Defense Secretary Thomas explained unhurriedly: "Now is no better than before, and our relationship with the British is not as close as imagined.

In order to ensure our territorial security, we must strengthen our naval forces in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Secondly, the islanders have obviously regarded us as potential competitors. If their shipbuilding plans are allowed to go unchecked, the navy of the island country will surpass ours, which is absolutely unacceptable to us.

If we lose our advantage over the navies of island countries, we are very likely to fall behind in competition with island countries, and even lose our hegemony in the Pacific.

It is precisely for these reasons that I believe it is necessary to greatly expand our navy to ensure our hegemony in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. "

"That being said, there is no need to build ten aircraft carriers at once, right?" Looking at Minister Thomas who was talking seriously, Prime Minister Raul said angrily: "Do you know how much the cost of ten aircraft carriers is?

Judging from the cost of the latest aircraft carrier, the cost of the aircraft carrier alone is close to 100 million Australian dollars!

If you let other ministers know that you plan to spend 200 million Australian dollars on the navy, I am afraid that the next cabinet meeting will directly turn into a busy vegetable market.

Our fiscal revenue last year was only AU$0.7 billion. It is impossible for me to agree to this naval construction plan of more than AU$200 million. "

"No matter what, Your Excellency Prime Minister, we must establish naval superiority over the island countries." Minister Thomas explained: "Your Majesty's dislike of the island countries is not unknown to you. I think it is very likely that we will break out a war with the island countries. .

Instead of waiting until war comes to build warships, we should prepare in advance and strive to crush the island countries in all three aspects: land, sea and air.

If you don't agree with this shipbuilding plan, how about taking another look at this plan? "Minister Thomas took out another prepared shipbuilding plan and handed it to Prime Minister Raul with a smile.

"Damn it, I knew you were definitely prepared." Prime Minister Raul glanced at Minister Thomas angrily, but still accepted another plan from Minister Thomas.

Compared with the previous very exaggerated shipbuilding plan, the second shipbuilding plan handed to Prime Minister Raul by Minister Thomas seemed much more normal.

Also taking five years, this shipbuilding plan includes 2 super-dreadnoughts, 3 aircraft carriers, 2 battlecruisers, 10 destroyers, and nearly a hundred small and medium-sized warships.

Among them, there are 7 main battleships, which can ensure that after the completion of the shipbuilding plan, the main size of Australasia's navy will be slightly larger than that of the island countries.

Coupled with the previously determined submarine construction plan, Australasia's naval superiority in the Pacific can be guaranteed.

If a conflict or even war breaks out between Australasia and the island country, with its naval superiority, Australasia can easily block the island country's logistics transportation lines and turn the island country into an isolated country in the ocean.

For countries like island countries, being cut off from their sea transportation lines is like cutting off their life supply lines.

This is why Minister Thomas has repeatedly emphasized the importance of maritime superiority, which can basically determine Australasia’s war advantage against island countries.

"Do all warships adopt the latest designs?" Prime Minister Raul frowned and asked for some instructions in the plan.

"Yes, Your Excellency Prime Minister." Minister Thomas nodded with a smile and explained: "As you know, our previous research and development focus was on aircraft carriers. Compared with aircraft carriers, our other warship designs have lagged behind slightly. , not even as good as the islanders.

Although it is necessary to expand the navy, we must not spend huge amounts of money to build backward products.

All major warships, including aircraft carriers, will adopt the latest designs and strive to create the world's most advanced maritime warships. "

After hearing Minister Thomas's explanation, Prime Minister Raul nodded without any objection.

As an official who was promoted from Defense Minister to Prime Minister, Prime Minister Raul naturally understands the impact of advanced warship design on the combat effectiveness of the entire warship.

It also spends huge sums of money to build warships. Being able to build warships with the most advanced design and best performance is naturally the first choice of the Australasian government.

"How much budget is expected to be needed for this shipbuilding plan?" Prime Minister Raul asked the question he was most concerned about.

Only after becoming Prime Minister did I understand the importance of reducing the country's budget. It seems that Australasia has a lot of fiscal revenue, but there is also a lot of money that needs to be spent every year.

Take last year as an example. Last year's fiscal revenue was as high as 0.7 billion Australian dollars, second only to Britain and France in terms of total fiscal revenue.

But last year's fiscal expenditure was as high as 5.5 billion Australian dollars. Not only did the fiscal revenue not have a surplus, but it also suffered a loss of nearly 48 million Australian dollars.

Although a large part of the reason is due to the large-scale construction being carried out by the country, fiscal losses are not a good thing.

If it weren't for Prime Minister Raul's savings, I'm afraid last year's fiscal expenditure would have been infinitely close to 500 million Australian dollars.

"The budget for the seven main warships is at least 65 million Australian dollars, plus other small and medium-sized warships, the estimated budget is about 100 million Australian dollars." Minister Thomas reported truthfully.

Minister Thomas dared not conceal or fabricate any of the fiscal budget required for the construction of warships.

After all, all the warships were built by Arthur's industry. How much budget was needed for the construction of warships? Didn't Arthur know it?

Hearing Minister Thomas's answer, Prime Minister Raul frowned and said with a little dissatisfaction: "The cost of aircraft carriers and battlecruisers is also close to 10 million Australian dollars? What kind of warships are you going to build?

This cost is too much, reduce it to about 85 million Australian dollars. It will be built in five years, which means an annual cost of 17 million Australian dollars, which the government can barely afford.

Among them, the Ministry of Defense squeezes out 5 million Australian dollars each year, and the government subsidizes another 12 million Australian dollars."

After all, the higher the official, the more powerful he is. Prime Minister Raul easily cut Minister Thomas's budget of 15 million Australian dollars with a few words.

Moreover, 5 million of the annual construction cost of 17 million Australian dollars comes from the fiscal budget of the Ministry of Defense.

This also means that the government only needs to invest an additional 60 million Australian dollars in this naval construction plan, and the remaining 25 million Australian dollars need to be cut off from other places by the Ministry of Defense.

"Understood." Although Minister Thomas was reluctant, he could only nod helplessly to show that he understood.

There is no way. This is because Prime Minister Raul comes from the Ministry of Defense, so he has a slight preference for the Ministry of Defense.

If the prime minister comes from a conservative force, I am afraid that the fiscal budget of 85 million Australian dollars will have to be cut.

This cannot be blamed on Prime Minister Raul's frugality. Although the construction of the navy seems to only cost 85 million Australian dollars, of which the government only needs to contribute 12 million Australian dollars per year, it seems that there is no big deal.

But in fact, the cost of the navy does not refer to the construction cost of warships. In addition to this construction cost, the training of naval soldiers, the daily maintenance and repair of warships, etc., are also one of the major military expenditures.

Why is the navy one of the most expensive arms? The reason is that the maintenance and repair costs of warships are too high.

The subsequent maintenance costs of the 7 main battleships in the shipbuilding plan alone are not a small number.

This is also the real reason why only countries at the level of great powers can afford to play with large-scale navies. Even only some top powers with relatively high fiscal revenues can afford to play with large navies with more main battleships.

As for those small countries, it is fine to have a small navy to maintain coastal order and patrol.

Even if they are given warships, they cannot afford the training and daily maintenance costs of soldiers. This is the natural gap between small countries and big countries.

After the demise of the United States, the strength of the world's navy has formed a relatively obvious level.

The strength of each country's navy is basically linked to its own fiscal revenue. As the country with the largest fiscal revenue, the British Empire also controls the most powerful Royal Navy.

Relying on a large number of colonies, the French can maintain a relatively good navy, which can be called the second largest in the world.

Australasia completely relies on winning by lying down, plus the contrast of its peers, and has sat firmly on the throne of the world's third largest naval power without doing anything.

Although the island country is not the top among the great powers in terms of fiscal revenue and industry, it has also put together a world's fourth largest navy with the determination of the whole country to build a navy and the motivation to support its ambitions.

Further back is the weakest existence among the unrestricted great powers, the world's fifth largest navy owned by Italy.

In fact, it can be seen from this point that there is a gap in the strength of the countries in the world.

From the perspective of the navy, only the navies of Britain, France, Australasia and the island countries can barely be seen.

Starting from Italy, the navies of various countries have suffered great restrictions, and the gap with the top four is already very large.

The sixth navy in the world should be the fleet that has been reduced by more than half in the hands of Tsarist Russia.

Nicholas II sold most of his warships in exchange for military aid and weapons and equipment from various countries for his own war.

This also weakened Russia's naval strength too badly, and it is currently not even comparable to Italy.

As for the seventh and eighth in the world, this ranking is actually not worth ranking. Because the ones on the list are neither Germany nor Austria, but the three South American countries whose naval strength has slightly increased due to the small-scale naval arms race before.

As for Germany and Austria, whose comprehensive strength is obviously stronger, their navies have suffered great restrictions after World War I. All the main battleships were taken over by Britain, France and other countries, and they only have small-scale gunboats near the coast.

It is also because of this that when it is called a naval arms race, it is actually mainly a competition among the navies of Britain, France, Australasia and the island countries, plus the unexpected Italy that took advantage of the situation.

Although there are only four main characters, there are still many conflicts between these four countries.

The most obvious one is the conflict between Britain and France. Although the gap in strength between Britain and France is already large, this still cannot hinder France's ambition to become the hegemon of Europe.

Coupled with Britain's willingness to interfere in the European situation, the conflict between Britain and France has become increasingly irreconcilable.

In order for these two countries to resolve their conflicts, another more powerful country will rise and threaten the security of Britain and France at the same time.

In addition to the conflict between Britain and France, the competition between the island countries and Australasia in the Pacific is also one of the conflicts.

This is actually what the British want to see. Although Britain and Australasia still maintain an alliance, Britain has begun to be wary of Australasia.

There is no way, Australasia has made too many achievements in the past few decades.

At present, Australasia has completely unified Oceania, and also owns two territories in the Persian Gulf and Alaska, and its sphere of influence is spread across Southeast Asia and the United States.

Such a huge country is bound to conflict with Britain's global hegemony.

Coupled with Australasia's fairly good army strength and navy size, it is normal for the British to be vigilant.

Although the British are reluctant to tear their faces with Australasia, it is still easy to create some competition and opponents for Australasia.

The continuous expansion of the island country in the navy may not be without the shadow of the British behind it.

Especially after the defeat of the United States, Australasia has no rivals in the Pacific. It was also during that period that the relationship between Britain and Australasia has become increasingly alienated, and the contradictions between the island country and Australasia have become increasingly intense.

In this way, the main reason for this naval arms race is Britain's global hegemony and regional balance policy.

The British have indeed tasted the bitter fruit of it. Because no matter which country's navy is strong, Britain's global hegemony will be challenged and threatened.

With the naval construction plans of various countries coming out one after another, the pressure on the British government at this moment is very huge.

Although Britain's fiscal revenue is the highest in the world, Britain's fiscal expenditure is also the highest in the world.

With Britain's sphere of influence all over the world, Britain's colonies are not so peaceful.

Just maintaining peace in India and the United States required the British to invest a lot of manpower and financial resources.

The naval arms race at this time was a competition that the British had to participate in and it cost a lot of extra money.

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