Churchill, the Secretary of the Admiralty, glanced around and found that none of the British cabinet members supported him.

In desperation, Churchill finally agreed to the 1:1.5 construction plan proposed by Foreign Minister Edward.

Of course, this is not to say that Britain is going to build half a battleship, just that for every two battleships built by Germany, the British Empire will build at least three, maintaining numerical superiority.

This was Churchill's concession to other cabinet officials, as well as the British Empire's financial concession to Germany.

But it's actually quite normal. After all, although the British Empire has the most powerful naval fleet in the world, what this naval fleet has to protect is a real empire on which the sun never sets.

Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Oceania, all six continents with large populations, all had territories or colonies of the British Empire.

This also represents the scope of the Royal Fleet's protection, in a real sense, and even the whole world.

It is no exaggeration to say that the British Empire occupies one-fifth of the earth, about 27 million square kilometers of land.

This land brought supreme glory and profit to the British Empire, but it also forced the British Empire to spend a lot of defense and naval fleets in these areas separately.

If it was a whole British Royal Fleet, the German High Seas Fleet had no chance of surpassing it at all.

But if it was only the British Home Fleet, the German High Seas Fleet would still have the strength to fight.

What made the British choose to back down was not the more than 10 million pounds of the annual fleet building plan, but the high annual budget and endless growth of national defense.

The current scale of defense has already cost the British Empire more than 60 million pounds of budget, and if it continues to expand the size of its fleet frantically, what will the defense budget reach? Is it 80 million pounds, 100 million pounds, or hundreds of millions of pounds?

The British Empire could withstand it for a while, but it could not withstand it for a lifetime. If such an exaggerated increase in the defense budget is allowed to occur, not only other cabinet ministers are unwilling, but I am afraid that the people are also unwilling.

In fact, such problems were not limited to the British Empire, but to all the great powers that were currently expanding their armies.

In particular, the pressure on the German Empire, which was a direct competitor to the British Empire, was even more exaggerated.

Although it seems that Germany's economy has surpassed that of Britain, the arms race is tackled by the navy and the army, directly creating the world's first army and the world's second navy.

But in fact, the Germans' financial crisis was worse than that of the British, but the Germans were more like holding their breath at this time, and they could not stop it at all.

Either start this war and let the enemy repay the interest and losses on various loans for you, or just end it and wait for the country to go bankrupt and the property to be divided among other countries!

In fact, Australasia's own fiscal situation is even more serious, with military spending amounting to more than 40% of total government spending.

But who makes the Australasian government rich? Coupled with the fact that Australasia's finances are rising due to a large amount of construction, a high proportion of military spending is not a big deal as long as it is in a state of surplus.

When it comes to military spending, in fact, Australasia's military spending is only going to be higher.

It's just that at present, the expenditure of the air force and the Guards Division is all dependent on the royal family, otherwise the military expenditure should increase by at least two to three percent.

Speaking of the Air Force, because it was already close to World War I, in order to prepare, Arthur also decided to set up the Air Force in advance.

Of course, this decision has so far been relatively secretive. Aside from the important senior officials of the Australasian Ministry of Defence, even the Cabinet Government was unaware of the formation of the Australasian Air Force.

Historically, the British Empire was supposed to be the first to establish an air force, which should have been established in May 1912.

Although countries around the world currently attach more importance to airships than airplanes, this does not mean that they will give up the development of aircraft.

In fact, according to Arthur's intelligence, if the information is correct, at present, including the top powers such as Britain, Germany, France, the United States, etc., have studied preliminary militarized aircraft.

However, the technology of this aircraft is not comparable to the first generation of military aircraft in Australasia, and their aircraft technology is still a long way from Australasia.

Australasia already has more than 600 military aircraft, but the Air Force still does not have a single head.

After some careful consideration, Arthur secretly summoned Prime Minister Kent and Defense Secretary Raul to discuss the establishment of an air force.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to formally organize our aircraft into a force and create a brand new branch of the military that soars in the sky." Arthur looked at Prime Minister Kent and Minister Raul and said with a smile on his face.

The Air Force, this is a completely new branch of the military, and before this there was no concept of the Air Force at all.

Hearing Arthur say this, Prime Minister Kent and Minister Raul finally understood the real reason why Arthur had formed a large aircraft force, but did not attribute it to the army or navy.

It turns out that Your Majesty is going to form a completely new branch of the military to equip these aircraft!

Although a little shocked, Prime Minister Kent quickly reacted and asked: "Your Majesty, how should this new military branch be established?" ”

After all, it is a brand new branch of the military, how it is established, how it fights, and the importance of this branch of the military, all need to be explored before we can know.

"I believe that you should all understand the role of the three types of military aircraft, and the importance of aircraft is no less important than that of the army and navy, and the air force will be listed as the three most important branches of the armed forces along with the army and navy." Arthur said with a smile.

The Prime Minister of Kent and the Minister of Labour both nodded as a matter of course.

Although they have some misgivings about the new branch of the Air Force, this does not mean that they will deny the role and combat capability of aircraft.

Aircraft on a large scale do play a vital role on the battlefield, and they are fully qualified to make the whole country pay attention to their development.

"The Ministry of Defense can secretly start to form an air force department, and I will transfer all more than 600 aircraft to the air force department of the Ministry of Defense. Your mission is to have our air force of more than 2,000 men in two years, with enough combat capability to be trusted. Arthur looked at Minister Raul and commanded.

Aviation academies with military academies are currently fully adequate for the training of pilots. Not to mention the extra 1,400 pilots, even if the number is doubled, it will not be a difficult thing for the current Australasia.

What is relatively difficult is actually to conduct a more detailed study of the air force as a branch of the armed forces, to work out its combat methods, its specific establishment, how to cooperate with other branches of the armed forces, and its peacetime training matters.

This is enough of a headache for the Ministry of Defense, and it also needs to be carried out in complete secrecy, which is even more a test of Minister Raul's ability.

"I understand, Your Majesty. Rest assured, I'll get the job done. Minister Raul nodded, and without hesitation, took Arthur's task.

"Within a few years, the formation of the Air Force division was to be kept in complete secrecy. Without my consent, it is not allowed to disclose information about the Air Force units to anyone, except for officers and soldiers of the Air Force. This is very important for the development of our Air Force, and it is also something that must be done. After instructing Minister Raul, Arthur looked at the Prime Minister of Kent again and instructed.

"I understand, Your Majesty. I will help Minister Raul to keep the information of the Air Force confidential. Prime Minister Kent nodded in understanding.

The good news is that pilots are not as difficult to train as they are in later generations, at least Australasia is currently training thousands of pilots a year.

Of course, such a large-scale training is not cost-effective at present, so the temporary enrollment quota of the aviation academy is only 400 students.

But if needed, the Aviation Academy can expand to more than 1,000 students at any time to train more air force talent for Australasia.

As for the production speed of aircraft, with the investment of a large amount of money from the royal consortium, the current aircraft production rate of the aviation laboratory has been able to reach at least 1,000 aircraft per year, which can just match the training speed of the aviation college.

This also means that, if Arthur wanted to, he would be able to train at least 4,000 air pilots and form an air force of more than 4,000 military aircraft before the outbreak of war.

With such a large number of aircraft, it is a crushing air superiority for other countries.

That is, Arthur did not want other countries to pay attention to the air force in advance, so he hid his own aircraft.

In addition to the expansion of the Air Force to at least 2,000 aircraft, Arthur also made demands on the training of the Army.

In the next few years, both standing and indigenous, the training must be rigorous.

There is no need to even be afraid of the waste of weapons and ammunition, and the most important task of the Ministry of Defense is to rapidly improve the combat capability of the army, as well as the tacit understanding and cooperation between the soldiers of various formations.

Arthur even promised to allow the Department of Defence to increase its budget by an additional $5 million a year if Minister Raul was able to do this.

The budget is provided by the royal consortium and is considered to be a financial subsidy for the defense sector on the other hand.

This five million dollars is also not a small amount of money for the Ministry of Defense, at least to speed up the equipping of military trucks and the equipping of large firepower weapons for other troops.

Minister Raul was looking forward to this, and was therefore motivated to complete the more rigorous training that Arthur demanded.

Needless to say, the two Guards Divisions had announced that more rigorous training would be carried out for the Guards Divisions more than a year ago.

Of course, although the training time and programs have increased, in order to keep the soldiers in good physical strength and condition, the food standard of all Australasian troops will be raised again, not only to ensure that there is meat at every meal, but also vegetables and meat, fruits, snacks, etc., to relieve the fatigue and tension caused by the high intensity of training.

3000 words for the third update, ask for support, ask for a monthly pass!

Today, 10,000/10,000 have been changed, ask for a monthly pass, ask for support!

(End of chapter)