The upcoming TV Expo has quickly attracted the attention of domestic and foreign capital, and a large number of capital have signed up to participate and are ready to come to Australasia.

Australasia seems to have been completely cut off from the rest of the world. It is quiet and peaceful at home, but it is becoming more and more chaotic abroad, and it can even be described as a mess.

This is not a one-sided statement, but the best summary of the current world situation. From developed and prosperous Europe to barren and barren Africa, rebellions and wars broke out everywhere.

The conflict between the colonies and the overlords, the conflicts between the peoples, the conflicts between the nations created a chaotic era.

In these chaotic times, Arthur is both a spectator and a participant.

February 27, 1931, Australasian Cabinet meeting.

This cabinet meeting is important to Australasia and will even determine the pace of the country's strategy over the next decade.

One of the decisive factors was the imminent expiration of the Naval Limitation Treaty signed a decade ago, and the differing attitudes of countries regarding its renewal.

"Your Majesty, judging from the current situation, the possibility of renewing the Naval Limitation Treaty is almost zero, and we must be prepared for this." Foreign Secretary Wellington's face was serious, and his words made the cabinet ministers look different.

It is important to know that regardless of the purpose of the Naval Limitation Treaty, it plays a great role in restricting the development of the navies of various countries and avoiding a naval arms race.

If the treaty of naval limitation is not renewed, the price to be achieved may be another round of naval arms race around the world.

What's worse is that Australasia is definitely a participant and has to pay a lot of money for it.

This is because once the navy falls behind in the arms race, the blow to the country will be enormous, and it is very likely that the country will fall behind in future wars.

"What is the current attitude of various countries?" Arthur rubbed his frown and looked at Minister Wellington.

"The attitude of Britain and France is very ambiguous, and it is not clear what the respective views of Britain and France are. But based on the information we have, there is a high probability that the islanders will not agree to renew the treaty on naval limitations.

They are already working heavily on super-large battleships and will most likely be the first to tear up the Naval Limitation Treaty. Foreign Secretary Wellington replied.

Arthur rubbed his brow again, not surprised that the island nation might tear up the treaty. It is not even an exaggeration to say that this country will do something even crazier than tearing up the treaty.

"We don't need to say anything else on this matter." Arthur glanced at the cabinet ministers with different looks, and ordered: "We just need to wait quietly for the British and French to act." If any country is the first to tear up the Treaty on the Limitation of the Navy, we immediately follow and invest in the construction of the Navy at any cost.

In addition, we will pay close attention to the movements of the islanders in the navy. I need to keep our Navy ahead of the island nation at all times, whether it's a submarine or an aircraft carrier, whether it's a destroyer or a battleship, understand? ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!" The cabinet ministers immediately stood up and replied with serious expressions.

Arthur didn't just give an order, it was a categorical order. In the face of major issues of right and wrong, if any cabinet member showed hesitation, Arthur would not show any mercy.

"Your Majesty, are you saying that we are going to expand in all aspects of the navy?" Defense Secretary Thomas asked excitedly.

The construction of the Navy is never a small investment, and the money is definitely in the tens of millions of dollars.

If a major naval arms race were to be launched, the investment in the navy could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

This is also where Defense Secretary Thomas gets excited. With so much military spending, the status of the Ministry of Defense will rise, and the strength of the army will also usher in a tremendous increase.

"At the moment we still give priority to the construction of submarines and aircraft carriers, and secondary to destroyers and battleships." Arthur shook his head and said what he thought: "But we still have to pay attention to the construction of capital ships abroad, especially the super-large battleships built by the islanders." ”

If Arthur remembers correctly, the historical island nations were very exaggerated in the construction of battleships.

The islanders seem to have created a behemoth called the Yamato battleship, with a standard displacement of 65,000 tons and a full load displacement of 72,800 tons.

Such data is very exaggerated, and the battleships built by the islanders are not even enough to describe.

You must know that at present, the Hope-class battleship in Australasia has a full load displacement of only 27,000 tons, which can only be regarded as a small guy in front of the battleships of the island country.

This is also the real reason why Arthur deliberately ordered to pay attention to the construction of battleships for the islanders. Even if an aircraft carrier can be used against a battleship very well, it is not as easy as imagined to deal with such a large behemoth.

Speaking of which, Australasia is in a much better position than the island nation in terms of economy. If it's just a naval arms race with the islanders, Arthur doesn't mind letting the islanders see what a real big investment is.

In fact, the naval arms race is not necessarily a bad thing for Australasia.

Looking at the size of the navies of the world, Australasia is actually not dominant.

But if you take a detailed look at the navies of various countries, you can actually find an obvious feature, that is, there are many old-fashioned warships.

The fleets of Great Britain and France, in particular, had a large number of old warships. The old warships here are not only those dreadnoughts that are outdated, but also the products of the last century, that is, the pre-dreadnoughts.

Compared with the British and French fleets, Australasia's fleet consisted mostly of dreadnoughts and super dreadnoughts, including a large number of battle cruisers and aircraft carriers, and in general it was mostly a new type of warship.

In fact, Britain and France have a large number of old warships, and it is reasonable to say that there are many of them. After all, Britain and France had a large number of vast colonies, and a large number of fleets were needed to patrol and escort the coast.

But for island countries, the large number of old warships in the country is entirely caused by the country's finances.

Britain and France needed those old warships, and the islanders were purely reluctant to throw away those old ships.

Under such circumstances, Britain, France, and even island countries, while maintaining the scale of huge old warships, have to build a large number of new warships, and bear much more military expenses than Australasia.

If a new round of naval arms race really breaks out, Britain and France have colonies to suck blood, Australasia has the Persian Gulf territory and rich mineral resources, and the other countries have basically nothing.

Consuming it in this way is conducive to Arthur's plan, and it can also take the opportunity to increase the control of Britain and France in the colonies, and in disguise, it is also weakening Britain and France.

In such a cabinet meeting, Arthur's firm support for the expansion of the army surprised the cabinet members.

As if receiving a signal, they changed their previous attitudes one after another, and turned into a staunch main battle faction.

After all, none of these officials are fools. In Australasia, the government's choice was largely determined by Arthur's attitude, not by the officials of those who were them.

As soon as Arthur expresses his attitude towards the main battle, the people will become fanatical activists. Can these officials still cower behind the people? The best way is naturally to conform to Arthur's attitude, and Arthur is at the forefront anyway.

Although the decision was to allow the Navy to limit the development of the treaty, this did not mean that the Australasian government would really do nothing.

Especially for potential rival island countries, there should still be some means of competition.

Intelligence began to closely monitor the island's naval construction programs. Once it is discovered that the islanders are privately building super-large battleships, Australasia will publicize the crimes of the islanders and occupy a righteous position in terms of public opinion.

However, the islanders have indeed done a good job of intelligence work in this regard. They understand that the Naval Limitation Treaty is in their own interest, so they will not blatantly tear up the Naval Limitation Treaty until it expires.

Australasia, on the other hand, has already begun research on super-large battleships and new submarines, as well as aircraft carriers.

As the battleship that could be the last in the series, Arthur deliberately ordered the shipyards to use their best capabilities to build the largest, fastest, most protected, and most powerful battleship.

At present, several major shipyards have joined forces to start researching and striving to design the most powerful and massive battleship in the world.

As for aircraft carriers, Arthur's request is to improve the existing aircraft carriers, increase the number of aircraft carried by the aircraft carrier, and the speed at which they travel.

Finally, there are submarines. The role of the development of submarines has become very important by now.

Australasia's submarines are a combination of Britain, France and Germany's submarine technology, and with the efforts of Australasian experts, it has been merged into Australasia's unique submarine technology.

At present, the most advanced submarine in Australasia is the AU-7 ocean-going submarine.

The entire submarine is 66.5 meters long and can accommodate 42 to 46 members. The maximum speed on the surface can reach 17.5 knots, and the maximum speed under water can reach 8.4 knots, which is relatively fast in a submarine.

The best thing about the whole submarine is the endurance of the submarine. At a speed of 5 knots, the submarine can travel 6,500 nautical miles, or 12,000 kilometers.

However, this data is for reference only. Although the fuel inside the submarine can travel 12,000 kilometers, the supplies inside the submarine may not last that long.

Taking into account the oxygen consumption inside the submarine, the submarine must surface to change oxygen after traveling at a maximum speed of 5 knots for 120 nautical miles (about 222 kilometers) or staying for 24 hours.

This is also a feature of submarines of this era. Although submarines give the impression of fighting in the sea, submarines spend most of their time sailing on the surface.

After all, people always have to breathe, and after entering the interior of the sea, the consumption of oxygen inside the submarine is a huge problem.

Back to the design of the submarine. The design of this AU-7 submarine is still relatively advanced. The submarine is designed to dive to a depth of 150 meters, and the maximum depth of the experiment can reach 220 meters.

This depth is already capable of evading the search of sonar of various countries, so it is not an exaggeration to call such a submarine a ghost in the sea.

If it weren't for the fact that it couldn't stay under the sea for a long time, such a submarine would definitely be a big killer in today's era.

But this does not in any way hide the strategic role of submarines at the moment. In World War I, Germany relied on its unrestricted submarine tactics to inflict great losses on British and French merchant ships.

At present, Australasia has more powerful submarine technology, and the strategic role it can play is naturally better.

In terms of the firepower of the submarine, this submarine can also be regarded as a powerful firepower. The submarine has a total of five torpedo tubes, and the maximum can carry a full 14 torpedoes.

In terms of the distribution of torpedo tubes, the submarine carried four torpedo tubes in the head and one in the tail.

After all, most of the time, it is the head of the submarine that faces the strategic target. The torpedo tube in the tail is to prevent special accidents and is also a life-saving card for the submarine.

In addition to the weapons under the sea, the submarine was also equipped with a heavy machine gun and a small-caliber gun on the roof.

After all, submarines are still floating on the surface of the sea most of the time, and it is inevitable that they will encounter enemies on the surface.

Moreover, there is always a time for submarines to dock to replenish supplies. The weapon on the top of the submarine is still very important, and at some point it may become a life-saving weapon for the members of the submarine.

On the whole, such a submarine design can be regarded as both offensive and defensive. Not only can you become a ghost and a grim reaper in the ocean, but with the fast speed and deep dive depth in the submarine, you can flexibly avoid enemy searches.

Because it can dive for up to 24 hours, it can effectively avoid enemy searches. However, after 24 hours, the submarine had to surface.

After all, hypoxia is the biggest problem of submarines at present, and it is also the biggest factor limiting the diving time of submarines.

As long as the problem of oxygen is solved, the time for the submarine to dive can be doubled. At that time, the submarine will truly become a ghost and a grim reaper in the sea, achieving the effect of coming and going without a trace.

Although there has been no movement in terms of the main warships for the time being, the defense department has already put forward new plans for the construction of submarines.

The plan was quickly escalated to Arthur's desk, and Arthur nodded in agreement.

Over the next five years, Australasia expects to build 120 submarines. In the next two years, 55 submarines will be built in Australasia, all of which are AU-7 class.

In two years' time, the AU-8 class submarines, which are in the testing phase, will become the mainstream submarine in naval construction, replacing the AU-7, and 65 will be built.

A whole 120 submarines is not a small number. Coupled with the original submarine scale of Australasia, the number of submarines in the Navy will exceed 200, which can already rank among the top three in the world in the original history.

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(End of chapter)