The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 363: Chapter 312: The Secret Establishment of the Air Force

Navy Secretary Churchill glanced a, realizing that in the grand British Cabinet, no cabinet member actually supported him.

Left without a choice, Churchill evtually agreed to the to .5 construction proposal put forward by Foreign Minister Edward.

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

This is a concession from Churchill to the other Cabinet Governmt officials, as well as a financial concession from the British Empire to Germany.

But this is actually very normal. After all, although the British Empire has the most powerful navy fleet in the world, this fleet has to protect a true sun-never-setting empire.

Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Oceania—these six contints with large populations living on them—all have British territories or colonies.

This means that the range the Royal Fleet has to protect, in a true sse, can be ev said to be worldwide.

It is no exaggeration to say that the British Empire occupies one-fifth of the Earth, about 7 million square kilometers of land.

This land brings the British Empire unparalleled glory and profit, but it also forces the British Empire to deploy a large defse budget and navy fleet separately in these areas.

If it were an tire Royal Fleet of Britain, the German High Seas Fleet would have no chance to surpass it.

However, if it were only the British mainland fleet, the German High Seas Fleet would still have the power to fight.

What made the British choose to retreat was not the over t million pounds of the fleet's annual construction plan but the high and dless growth of the annual defse budget.

The currt scale of funding has cost the British Empire a budget of over 60 million pounds. If they continue to expand the fleet size at this crazy rate, how terrifying would the defse budget be? Would it be 80 million pounds, 0 million pounds, or ev several hundred million pounds?

The British Empire could afford it for a while, but it could not afford it forever. If the defse budget continues to grow so exaggeratedly, not only will other cabinet ministers be unwilling, but the people will also be unwilling.

In fact, such a problem exists not only in the British Empire but also in all the expanding powers.

Especially for the German Empire, which serves as a direct competitor to the British Empire, the pressure on funding is ev more exaggerated.

Although it seems that the economy of Germany's mainland has surpassed that of Britain's mainland, and military preparations have captured the world's first army and the world's second navy with both navy and army competitions, in reality, the Germans' financial crisis is ev more severe than that of the British.

However, Germany at this time is more like holding its breath, and they just can't stop.

Either they start the war and let the emy pay for their loan interest and losses, or they just go bankrupt, wait for the country to go bankrupt, and let other countries divide up the property!

In reality, the financial situation in Australasia is ev more severe, with military expditure accounting for more than 40% of the total governmt fiscal expditure.

But who can rely on the Australasian Governmt for money? Coupled with the large amount of construction that raises Australasia's fiscal revue, as long as they remain in a surplus situation, a high proportion of military spding is not a major problem.

Speaking of military spding, in reality, Australasia's military spding will only increase.

It's just that the currt expditure on the Air Force and Guard Division depds tirely on the royal family, otherwise, the military expses should have increased by at least two to three perct.

As for the Air Force, as the First World War approached, Arthur decided to set up the Air Force in advance to be prepared.

Of course, this decision is still relatively confidtial for now. In addition to the important sior officials of the Australasian Ministry of Defse, ev the Cabinet Governmt is unaware of the establishmt of the Australasian Air Force.

According to history, the British Empire should be the first to establish an air force, which should be established in May 9.

Although countries a the world pay more atttion to airships than airplanes at the momt, this does not mean that they will give up the developmt of airplanes.

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

However, their aircraft technology is incomparable to Australasia's first-geration military aircrafts, and their aircraft technology still has a long way to catch up with Australasia.

Australasia currtly has more than 600 military aircraft, but the Air Force still has no head.

After some careful consideration, Arthur secretly calls Prime Minister Kt and Defse Minister Raul to discuss the establishmt of the Air Force.

"Gtlem, it's time to formally organize our airplanes into troops and establish a new, soaring army in the sky." Arthur looked at Prime Minister Kt and Minister Raul with a smile.

Air Force, this is a completely new military branch, and the concept of air force did not exist before this.

Hearing Arthur's words, Prime Minister Kt and Minister Raul finally understood why Arthur had formed a sizable fleet of aircraft but did not attribute them to the army or navy.

It turns out, His Majesty is forming a whole new branch of the military to equip these aircraft!

Although somewhat shocked, Prime Minister Kt quickly reacted and asked, "Your Majesty, how should this new military branch be established?"

After all, it is a new branch of the military. How to establish it, its combat method, and its importance all need to be explored before it can be determined.

"I believe you should all understand the role of the three types of military aircraft. The importance of aircraft is not less than that of the army and navy. The Air Force, along with the Army and Navy, will be the three most important branches of the military," Arthur said with a smile.

Prime Minister Kt and Minister Raul nodded their heads naturally.

Although they had some doubts about the new branch of the Air Force, it did not mean they would dy the role and combat capability of the aircraft.

A large-scale fleet of aircraft indeed plays a crucial role in the battlefield, fully deserving the atttion of the tire nation for its developmt.

"The Ministry of Defse can secretly start forming an Air Force Departmt. I will transfer all 600+ aircraft to the Air Force Departmt of the Ministry of Defse. Your mission is to expand our Air Force to over ,000 personnel within two years, with ough combat capabilities to instill trust," Arthur instructed Minister Raul.

With the Aeronautical College of the Military University, the training of pilots is already more than ough. It's not a problem for the currt Australasia to cultivate ,400 more pilots, ev double that number.

The relatively more difficult task is actually to conduct more detailed research on the Air Force, discuss its combat methods, specifics, and how to cooperate with other branches of the military, as well as routine training matters.

These will be ough to vex the Ministry of Defse and need to be carried out under complete confidtiality, which will test Minister Raul's capabilities ev more.

"I understand, Your Majesty. Please be assured that I will complete the task," Minister Raul nodded without hesitation, accepting Arthur's mission.

"The formation of the Air Force Departmt must remain completely confidtial for several years. Without my const, you must not disclose any information about the Air Force to anyone other than the Air Force personnel. This is very important for our Air Force developmt and is something that must be done," Arthur instructed Minister Raul before turning his atttion to Prime Minister Kt.

"I understand, Your Majesty. I will assist Minister Raul in keeping the information of the Air Force strictly confidtial," Prime Minister Kt nodded in agreemt.

Fortunately, training pilots is not as difficult as in later gerations, at least Australasia can currtly train thousands yearly.

Of course, such large-scale training is not cost-effective at prest, so the temporary rollmt quota of the Aeronautical College is only 400 people.

However, if needed, the Aeronautical College can immediately expand its rollmt scale to over ,000 people, cultivating more Air Force talt for Australasia.

As for the production speed of aircraft, with the large investmt from the royal financial group, the Aerospace Laboratory's currt aircraft production speed can reach at least ,000 a year, just right to match the training speed of the Aeronautical College.

This means that if Arthur wants to, he can completely cultivate at least 4,000 Air Force pilots before the outbreak of war and form an Air Force fleet of over 4,000 military aircraft.

Such a large number of aircraft would give other countries a crushing advantage in air superiority.

It's just that Arthur does not want other countries to pay atttion to the Air Force early on, so he hides his aircraft carefully.

In addition to expanding the Air Force to at least ,000 aircraft, Arthur also made demands on the training of the army.

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

There is no need to fear the waste of weapons and ammunition. Quickly improving the combat capabilities of the military and the cooperation betwe soldiers in various formations is the most important task for the Ministry of Defse at prest.

Arthur ev promised that if Minister Raul can achieve this, he will allow the Ministry of Defse to increase its annual budget by 5 million Australian dollars.

The royal financial group will provide this funding as a financial subsidy for the defse departmt in another aspect.

This 5 million Australian dollars is not a small amount of money for the Ministry of Defse, at least it can speed up the equipmt of other units' military trucks and heavy weapons.

Minister Raul is looking forward to this, so he is very motivated to complete the strict training requiremts set by Arthur.

As for the two guard divisions, there is no need to say much. More than a year ago, Arthur had announced that more rigorous training would be carried out for the guard divisions.

Of course, although the training time and projects have be increased, to maintain the soldiers' physical and mtal condition, the catering standards for all Australasian troops will be raised again.

Not only suring they have meat in their meals but also supplying various vegetables, meat, fruits, snacks, etc., to alleviate the fatigue and tsion caused by the intse training for the soldiers.