Rise of Australia

Chapter 141 Selling Battleships?
"Your Highness, are you really talking about the main battleship of Germany, the Brunswick-class battleship? Australia has mastered the construction technology of the Brunswick-class battleship, and can export it?" Yuzawa Koichiro asked in surprise road.

"Of course, otherwise I wouldn't have mentioned it to you, Mr. Yuzawa Koichiro." Arthur nodded and said with a smile: "If your country is willing, Australian shipyards can pay 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 financial reserves."

Do island nations want to buy battleships?Naturally, there is no need to think about it.As a measure of the strength of a country's navy, 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 the battleship is far higher than that of other small and medium warships.

Yuzawa Koichiro nodded, and continued to ask: "What is the price of the Brunswick-class battleship produced in 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 should not be too long.

If an Australian-made battleship takes years to build, it is unacceptable for the island nation, and it might even be better to order it from the UK.

No matter how slow the United Kingdom is, it is still guaranteed to build a battleship in less than two years.Although the transportation and reception in the middle will also consume two or three months, it can be included in the Navy in at least two years.

If Australia's construction time can be less than that of Britain, then Yuzawa Koichiro and even the island government don't mind ordering battleships in Australia.

But if the time for the final handover is much longer than the time for ordering from the United Kingdom, it is better to order from the ally, the British Empire.

Knowing Yuzawa Koichiro's concerns, Arthur smiled and explained: "Please rest assured, under the guidance of German experts, our shipyard has fully mastered the construction technology of the Brunswick-class battleship. According to our expert's estimate The complete construction of a Brunswick-class battleship costs more than 100 million pounds, plus our various labor costs, we can give your country a friendly price of 130 million pounds. As for the construction time of the battleship 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 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 cost of the current main battleship is not as expensive as the subsequent dreadnoughts, which can easily reach millions of pounds.

Like the Brunswick class, as one of the main battleships of the German Navy, its selling price is only less than 800 million marks, which is less than 140 million pounds.

Arthur was right, the price of 130 million pounds was indeed a friendly price, and it even violated the treaty prohibiting price wars formulated by Germany at the time.

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

Although Arthur said that the cost of the Brunswick-class battleship was as high as millions of pounds, in fact, the real battleship cost only a little over 80 pounds, and labor and various costs were definitely less than 90 pounds.

The selling price is nearly 140 million pounds, and the net profit compared with the cost is at least 50 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 great powers 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 also understands that the cost of a battleship, especially the cost of a main battleship, is almost in this range.

The plan that Arthur promised to let the battleship be launched in one and a half years and be handed over within two years is also very in line with Yuzawa Koichiro's expectations.

The construction time of a battleship varies, but most of them take about half a year to a year and a half.

The test and sea trial after launching will also take some time. In addition to the distance between handovers, the actual delivery time of a battleship may not be until two years later.

In particular, the battleships ordered by the island nation from the United Kingdom took as long as one and a half years to build, plus some testing time and the distance required for handover, the final delivery time was even two and a half years later.

In normal times, there is nothing wrong with waiting for two and a half years.But now the island nation is about to make its next major 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, now our shipyard is building the Australian Navy order, the "Duke Arthur" cruiser. 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 Brunswick-class battleships, the importance of the Duke-class cruisers is not so high.

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

It has been nearly six months since the Navy's expansion program began in mid-May.

Under the guidance of German experts and the labor of a large number of indigenous people, the shipyard is still building very fast.

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

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

The two larger cruisers have also entered the final construction stage, and they can be built and launched in about a month, entering the real testing stage.

With Arthur's nod and agreement, Yuzawa Koichiro, Heino Toshiyuki, and the diplomatic missions of the island nation visited the shipyard. They not only boarded the three small frigates that had been built, but also witnessed the construction of two Duke-class cruisers. construction process.

Originally, the islanders were skeptical about Australia's ability to produce battleships, but when they saw that the skilled workers in the Australian shipyard were nodding with satisfaction from the German experts, they knew that Arthur What you said is true.

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(End of this chapter)