The Chileans' idea of a super-dreadnought quickly woke up Arthur, who was indulging in the dream of the rise of Australasia.

Although Australasia is currently a world leader in tanks, aircraft, dreadnoughts, etc., and the military industry is definitely world-class, this is far from enough.

Under the influence of the fierce arms competition between Britain and Germany, the extent of their arms technology change is unimaginable to Arthur.

Since its birth, the dreadnought has instantly become the most powerful battleship in the world. Even now, there are only five countries that actually have dreadnoughts.

Arthur was also a little complacent about this, because Australasia was not only a country with dreadnoughts, but also a country that mastered the construction technology of advanced capital warships such as Nassau-class battleships, Sovereign-class battleships, St. Vincent-class battleships, and unity-class battlecruisers.

In terms of the construction technology of the main warships of the dreadnought class, Australasia can be said to rank behind Britain and Germany, and can compete for the top three levels in the world.

But Arthur overlooked one point, and that was the speed at which Britain and Germany changed their armament technology during this period.

True, dreadnoughts are still the most powerful warships in the world at the moment. However, Britain has already developed and even successfully built super dreadnoughts, and is far ahead of the world in terms of warships, leaving behind the second and third places.

If Australasia is to truly rise, it must not be satisfied with what it has achieved so far, but must look further and know the world.

Therefore, Arthur also made up his mind that even if the super dreadnought order with the Chileans failed, Australasia must develop its own super dreadnought, and it is as fast as possible.

On 21 October 1910, at Arthur's call, most of Australasia's naval shipbuilding specialists arrived at the Royal Dockyards, including those German who had settled in Australasia.

Arthur attended a meeting at the Royal Dockyards and gave the experts a request to design a battleship with at least 23,000 tons of gross tonnage and at least 27,000 tons of full tonnage, with a 13.5-inch main gun caliber and a comprehensive upgrade in power armor protection and firepower.

To this end, Arthur took out the construction drawings of the Monarch-class battleships and the St. Vincent-class battleships, and asked experts to refer to the construction layout and technology of these two types of battleships to find ideas for designing new battleships.

With Arthur's order, shipbuilding experts began to get busy and began to design the appearance of the new warship in their minds.

Arthur gave a design time of three months, and those who successfully designed a battleship would receive a large number of rewards, and possibly even a knighthood.

This lucrative condition also attracted the enthusiasm of a large number of shipbuilding specialists, who surrounded the Royal Shipyard.

Fortunately, the construction of the two battlecruisers has been almost completed, and even if most of the specialists of the Royal Shipyard are transferred, it will not affect the final assembly of the two battlecruisers.

In November 1910, the Sydney Stock Exchange, founded by Arthur, began to take shape.

At present, the Sydney Stock Exchange has attracted more than a dozen foreign capital, as well as hundreds of small and medium-sized enterprises in Australasia.

It has attracted millions of Australian dollars in capital from abroad, allowing many small and medium-sized factories and enterprises to exceed 10,000 yuan in assets.

The current Sydney Stock Exchange can be regarded as a busy crowd of people. There are thousands of people and tens of thousands of dollars in capital every day.

This year has been a disaster year for East Asia, with various natural and man-made disasters, plagues, plagues, etc., causing very great losses to the region.

Australasia has exported more than 4 million tonnes of grain this year, half of which has gone to East Asia, where state-owned, royal and private farms have made a lot of profits.

In mid-November, Arthur attended the launching of two battle cruisers, which represented the completion of Australasia's five-year shipbuilding plan and the completion of the Navy's first five-year plan.

For the second five-year shipbuilding plan agitated within the Navy, Arthur temporarily chose to suppress it.

For Australasia, there is no need to pile up the number of dreadnoughts so high for the time being.

Before World War I, if Australasia had an increasing number of dreadnoughts, it would have attracted the attention and attention of the European powers.

Even if the great powers have no other ideas, they will have a certain amount of jealousy in the face of Australasia, which has an increasingly powerful navy.

This is not good news for the development of Australasia, after all, Arthur also hopes to buy the technology of 13.5-inch guns from the United Kingdom, and at least dozens of 13.5-inch guns to meet the main gun installation of super dreadnoughts in the future.

If it has attracted the attention and fear of the European powers in advance, and caused the European countries to impose a certain technological blockade on Australasia, it will be too much to gain and lose.

The navy is important to Australasia, but if the development of the navy is fearful in European countries, it is really unnecessary.

Australasia may have a second naval five-year plan, but it should not be the time when the clouds of war in Europe are looming.

Arthur's authority made the admirals afraid to say much, and they could only pin their hopes on the training of two newly built battle cruisers.

If the combat effectiveness of these two battlecruisers is almost the same as that of dreadnoughts, then Australasia can also usher in five dreadnought-class capital warships, and the naval combat effectiveness can also surpass that of the last powers such as the island nation, which can be regarded as having some means of self-preservation.

With the construction of the Australasian Navy, the national pride of Australasia has grown stronger and higher as seen by the naked eye.

I have to admit that for the current era, the navy is really the most important thing among all branches of the military.

A great power country can do without a strong army, but it cannot do without a strong navy to protect the coastline and homeland.

Of course, some of the truly landlocked countries are a different story. But in this era of great colonization, it is really not easy for a landlocked country to become a great power.

How important is the Navy? Suffice it to say, if Australasia has a few more dreadnoughts, it can really call for great power status.

By slapping the face of the last great powers in one or two naval battles, you can become a recognized new great power by stepping on the last great powers.

But this is not really necessary for Australasia. What Australasia lacks now is not the status of a great power, but the real strength and heritage of the top powers.

Among other things, the current island nation has indeed been called the Eighth Power. But the question is, what other power could afford to look up to such a country as the island nation than a decaying country like the Ottoman Turkish Empire?

Even if even the same decaying Tsarist Empire were to move all the main forces and navy of the Tsarist Empire in Europe to the Far East, the island countries would not necessarily be the opponents of the Tsarist Empire.

This is the true strength and heritage of the old powers, and this is what Arthur and Australasia dream of.

During this time, the specialists of the shipyard were also not without progress. Even ten warship blueprints have been completed, but each one is still a certain distance from Arthur's requirements.

Of all the requirements of Arthur and the Chileans, tonnage was actually the easiest to achieve.

The easiest way to increase tonnage is to add thicker armor to all parts of the warship.

Armor would greatly increase the tonnage of warships, and with the size of warships, it would be easy to achieve the tonnage required by the Chileans of 28,000 tons.

But the problem is that such a warship is basically just an empty shell. Increasing the volume and thickness of the armor without a brain will greatly reduce the power of the warship.

If he did, Arthur felt that it would be a question of whether the new warships would be able to match the speed of the old battleships.

Problems with the design of warships continued until the end of 1910.

On December 21, 1910, Arthur finally had the good news that the shipbuilding experts at the Royal Dockyard had finally come up with a design that looked much more reliable than any other warship.

The design of the new warship is based on the design of the two dreadnoughts, the Monarch-class battleship and the St. Vincent-class battleship, but it is generally a completely new design battleship.

More than 60% of the design of the new battleship was all technology that was not available in Australasia. This also meant that if you wanted to build a new battleship, you had to rely on the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to negotiate with the British Empire and purchase the corresponding technology.

Of course, this shortcoming was already expected by Arthur. After all, even if it was only a 13.5-inch main gun, Australasia did not have the corresponding technology, and it needed to be imported from the British Empire.

Not to mention the fact that there are more advanced power systems, armor protection, etc., which need to be imported from the British Empire, and of course it is better to buy the technology and principles of their construction.

The design of the battleship, which was reported to Arthur, had basically met the requirements of Arthur and the Chileans.

Of course, not all of the requirements are met, after all, we have to think about the specific construction technology of Australasia, and we must not let the design drawings of warships become empty paintings.

The battleship was expected to be about 181 meters long, 28 meters wide and 8.4 meters in draft.

In terms of size, the new battleship far surpassed the Monarch-class battleships and the St. Vincent-class battleships, and was definitely a veritable super-large battleship.

The increase in size is actually an expansion of the armor and power system. Counting all blocks and systems, the new battleship is expected to be able to achieve a standard displacement of 22,800 tons and a full load displacement of 26,910 tons.

If nothing else, the battleship will be armed with a 13.5-inch gun of the 45x diameter MKV. type, and the number of main guns will reach ten.

In addition, it will be equipped with 18 4-inch 50-diameter secondary guns and 4 533-mm underwater torpedo firing.

Compared to the Monarch-class battleships and the St. Vincent-class battleships, the new battleships have achieved a huge increase in firepower.

In terms of power, the new battleship adopted the same power system as the St. Vincent-class battleships, including two sets of four-shaft Parsons direct-drive steam turbines and twenty-two Hercules Viaro mixed-fire boilers.

One of the changes was the addition of four water-mixed boilers, which allowed the new battleship to reach an estimated power of 34,000 horsepower and a speed of at least 21 knots.

In terms of armor protection, the new battleship raised the armor thickness to 6.5 to 12 inches for the main armor belt, 3.5 inches for the deck, 4 to 8 inches for the watertight compartment partitions, 11.5 inches for the turret, 10 inches for the gun mount, and 11.5 inches for the conning tower.

This level of protection is a huge improvement over the previous dreadnoughts, and coupled with the increase in firepower and power, Arthur believes that the new battleship will have at least forty percent more combat effectiveness than the current St. Vincent-class battleships.

Of course, the increase in combat effectiveness is also a relatively conservative estimate, if in a real naval battlefield, no one can guarantee what will happen, but the actual combat capability of the new battleship will indeed crush the old dreadnought.

Arthur was satisfied with the design of the new battleship, and finally made up his mind, and the design of Australasia's first superdreadnought was determined as the design plan in front of him.

After much deliberation, Arthur decided to name Australasia's super-dreadnought the Hope-class battleship.

Hope, that is, the hope of the rise of the country. Arthur hopes that with the super dreadnought, the dream of Australasia will continue to rise, bloom with the color of Australasia, and let the world hear the voice of Australasia.

The determination of the design of the super dreadnought made Arthur feel very good, and the experts of the Royal Shipyard began to reward him lavishly.

First of all, there is a reward for everyone, not only 10,000 Australian dollars each, but also a corresponding medal for the main designers of the Hope-class battleships.

Arthur is very generous to the scientists and other talents under his command, after all, these talents are the hope of Australasia's rise.

Even if they were given a reward of $10,000 each, including all the shipbuilding experts involved in the design of the superdreadnought, there would be only about 200 people.

More than 2 million Australian dollars in exchange for the design drawings of the Hope-class battleship is a bargain no matter how you think about it.

Because more than sixty percent of the technology of the Hope-class battleships had to be imported or purchased from the United Kingdom, the cost of this battleship was much higher than that of the Sovereign-class battleships.

According to conservative estimates by shipyard experts, the cost price of a Hope-class battleship could exceed £2 million, or even around £2.2 million.

How to price the Hope-class battleships became a headache for Arthur. If you follow the profit of the Monarch-class battleship, the price of a Hope-class battleship may be close to 3 million pounds, and I am afraid that the Chileans cannot afford such a high price.

Moreover, the Chilean naval order is seen by Arthur as an opportunity for shipyards to practice building super-dreadnoughts, and it seems that the price of warships will have to be pushed down even further.

4000 words for the first update, ask for support! Ask for a commuter pass!

(End of chapter)