The Rise of Australia

"Your Highness, are you really talking about Germany's main battleship, the Braunschweig-class battleship? Australia has mastered the construction technology of the Braunschweig-class battleship and can also export it?" Yuzawa Koichiro asked in surprise road.

"Of course, otherwise I wouldn't have specifically mentioned it to you, Mr. Yuzawa Koichiro." Arthur nodded and said with a smile: "If your country is willing, the Australian shipyard can offer it at a price slightly higher than the cost price. Sell ​​a few battleships to your country. Of course, the specific number depends on your country’s capital reserves.”

Does the island nation want to buy a battleship? Of course, this doesn’t require much thought. As a measure of a country's naval strength, the number of battleships is very important to a country's navy and can even determine the victory of a naval battle.

In terms of combat effectiveness, the current battleship is the decisive factor in a naval battle, and the importance of battleships is much higher than that of other small and medium-sized warships.

Yuzawa Koichiro nodded and continued to ask: "What is the price of the Braunschweig-class battleship produced by your country? How long will it take to complete the construction of the entire battleship?"

Battleships are important, but the price must be reasonable, and the construction period cannot be too long.

If an Australian-made battleship took several years to build, it would be unacceptable for the island nation, and it might even be better to order it from Britain.

No matter how slow Britain is, it can still build a battleship in less than two years. Although the transportation and reception will also take two to three months, it can be integrated into the Navy in at least two years.

If the construction time in Australia can be shorter than the construction time in the UK, then Koichiro Yuzawa and even the island government will not mind ordering battleships in Australia.

But if the final handover time is far longer than the time it takes to order from the UK, it might as well be ordered from the ally the British Empire.

Knowing Yuzawa Koichiro's concerns, Arthur smiled and explained: "Don't worry, under the guidance of German experts, our shipyard has fully mastered the construction technology of the Braunschweig-class battleship. According to the estimates of our experts , the cost of completely building a Brunswick-class battleship is more than one million pounds, plus our various labor costs, we can give you a friendly price of 1.35 million pounds. As for Regarding the construction time of battleships, please rest assured that Australia has no plans to build battleships in a short period of time. If your country orders battleships, we will do our best to build your country's order, ensuring that the construction time of each battleship will not exceed one and a half years, and the handover time will not exceed Two years."

The current cost of main battleships is not as expensive as the later dreadnoughts, often reaching millions of pounds.

Like the Braunschweig class, one of the main battleships of the German Navy, its external sale price is only less than 28 million marks, which is less than 1.4 million pounds.

Arthur was right. The price of 1.35 million pounds was indeed a friendly price, and it even violated the treaty prohibiting price wars formulated by Germany at the time.

But if compared with the real cost of the battleship, it is actually nothing.

Although Arthur said that the Braunschweig-class battleship cost millions of pounds, in fact, the real battleship cost only a little over 800,000 pounds, and including labor and various costs, it was definitely less than 900,000 pounds.

The selling price is nearly 1.4 million pounds, and the net profit compared to the cost is at least 500,000 pounds. This is also one of the exploitations of other countries by Western powers.

Of course, this is also a huge profit for the military industry. Otherwise, there would not be so many powerful countries willing to sell the battleships they developed. The profits from each battleship alone can build a large warship, and the profits from two battleships can even build a new battleship. .

Yuzawa Koichiro naturally understood that the cost of building a battleship, especially the cost of a main battleship, was almost within this range.

Arthur's plan to launch the battleship within one and a half years and hand it over within two years was also very consistent with Yuzawa Koichiro's expectations.

The construction time of a battleship varies, but it usually takes about half a year to a year and a half.

The testing and sea trials after the launch will also take a period of time, and coupled with the distance between handover, the final actual delivery time of a battleship may not be until two years later.

Especially for the battleships ordered by the island country from the United Kingdom, the construction time was as long as one and a half years. Coupled with some testing time and the distance required for handover, the final delivery time was even two and a half years later.

If it is a normal period, there is nothing wrong with waiting for two and a half years. But now the island country is about to make its next big move in the Far East. The sooner the battleship can be delivered, the higher the success rate of this operation will be.

"Your Highness, can I visit your country's shipyard? If there is no problem, we are willing to order a battleship from your country." Yuzawa Koichiro asked tentatively.

"Of course, our shipyard is now building Australia's naval order, the cruiser "Duke Arthur". If your country is interested, the Duke-class cruiser can also be sold to your country." Arthur nodded and said with a smile .

Compared with the Braunschweig-class battleship, the Duke-class cruiser is not that important.

Although it is the current main warship of the Australian Navy, its actual role is only to patrol the coastline.

Nearly six months have passed since the Navy's expansion plans began in mid-May.

Under the guidance of German experts and a large number of indigenous labor, the shipyard built the ship very quickly.

In addition, Australia's naval orders are all small and medium-sized warships, and the construction time of the largest Duke-class cruiser will not exceed seven months.

At this time, the shipyard is in full swing. Three small frigates have been built and are about to begin testing.

The two larger cruisers have also entered the final stage of construction. They will be completed and launched in about a month and will enter the real testing stage.

With Arthur's nod of approval, Yuzawa Koichiro and Hirano Toshio and the diplomatic corps of the island country entered the shipyard to visit. Not only did they board the three small frigates that had been built, they also witnessed the construction of the two Duke-class cruisers. construction process.

Originally, the islanders had some doubts about Australia's production capacity of battleships, but when they saw that the skilled workers in the Australian shipyards had won the satisfied nod of approval from the German experts, they knew that Arthur What is said is true.

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