What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 699 Lunar Conspiracy Theory

The Paradise Project instilled in Levi was not a whim; only the name "Paradise" was made up on the spot, while the rest had been thought of many times in Tang Wen's mind.

As soon as the million-ton cruise ship plan was announced, shipyards and design experts, both domestic and foreign, kept sending emails to Geijin or leaving messages on BBS, and the vast majority of them reached a consensus:
With such a large tonnage, it can no longer be considered a "ship"; it could really be developed into a floating city.

Since it is a city, its operation strategy does not need to operate routes like traditional cruise ships, but rather focus on its own development.

It's a certainty that a million-ton cruise ship will be over 550 meters long, and 600 meters is not impossible. This would result in a huge amount of cabin space, enough to add various functions on board.

Disney recently published a suggestion in the newspaper to build a theme park on a cruise ship, while the Belgrade Hotel Group in Europe believes it could be transformed into a mobile super hotel.

Tang Wen combined all these ideas together, and his thinking gradually leaned towards real estate development:
A dedicated management company and investment institution were established for this cruise ship to raise funds by promising future projects, while pre-selling space on the ship to various companies, truly operating it as a mobile city.

Simply by relying on the fact that ships built in shipyards require no maintenance, costs can be reduced by more than 50% compared to the same period last year, and profits will follow!

From this perspective, the large cruise ship project, which originally had a very low cost-performance ratio, may actually become the focus of Gaikin's future profits.

Of course, the reason for external financing is that a million-ton cruise ship cannot bypass the market, especially since the massive demand for steel can only be met through procurement, which is at least 600,000 to 700,000 tons. Although Gaijin can afford it, it is unnecessary.

As for the basic hull design, Tang Wen also had an idea. The most important thing was the runway. Although the runway of about 500 meters was still very short, he could figure out a way to take off and land many small turboprop passenger planes. In any case, the cruise ship's deck did not need the sortie rate of carrier-based aircraft, and the impact during landing could be greatly reduced due to the long deck.

Putting aside everything else, the B25 only needs slight modifications to perfectly meet the requirements.

The idea of ​​drawing a supersonic business jet for McDonnell Douglas was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but if it were to succeed, it wouldn't be a bad idea to buy a few, since the bottleneck for supersonic passenger jets has never been in technology.

After seeing Levi's off, Tang Wen returned to the hotel and logged into Dingding—the renamed Tiantian Chat Room. The name "Dingding" came from an employee's inspiration from the message notification sound. Song Nan thought the new name was more popular, so she adopted it directly, which unexpectedly led to a surge in users.

Compared to BBS, "DingDing" is the future version of QQ. In addition to the public version, an enterprise version was also launched at the same time. As an internal communication tool, it is much more convenient than email.

Tang Wen was quite embarrassed when he heard the name, but he quickly got used to it and habitually asked everyone around him to register for DingDing.

He pulled up all the people from his friend list who could be associated with Project Paradise—Zhao Hande, Ni Zhenhai, Chang Busi, Lao Zhang, Wu Cheng, and Hu Li—to create a group chat, and then changed the name:

[Paradise City Project Exchange Group]

The message notification popped up the next second:

[Fox: Hello, boss!]

[94 Wu Cheng: What kind of group is this?]

[Beihai Youyu: This scared me! I thought the military network had been hacked.]

[ZHD: This is Secretary Chen. What happened?]

The group admin has enabled "mute all members".

[Young Master Tang: Everyone, I have a plan... (omitting 1000 words)]

The group admin uploaded a file titled "Hypothetical Project: City of Paradise.PPT".

The group admin uploaded a file titled "Heaven's City Financing and Operation Plan.PPT".

The group owner lifted the "all members banned" rule.

[Fox: Great plan, boss!]

[Fox: (fist) (snail) (flame)]

[Beihai Youyu: Wait a minute, why does the hull in the sketch look like an aircraft carrier? And what about the angled deck and the flared design?]

[Beihai Youyu: With a speed exceeding 20 knots and a 500-meter runway, theoretically this ship even has the potential to surpass the Nimitz, seriously?]

[94 Wu Cheng: (Thumbs up) Can Hudong Shipyard also participate in the construction?]

[ZHD: This will be an astronomical amount of funding.]

[NGN: The forces that the ship's hull will withstand will be enormous, requiring the construction of entirely new structures for simulation calculations]

[Beihai Youyu: The power system specifications on page 7 mention nuclear power? How will this pass safety certification?]

【…】

After the topic was brought up, the number of messages in the group quickly exceeded 99+. Tang Wen's hands flew across the page as he discussed the details with them.

……

Prism Building
The Joint Chiefs of Staff's topic today is McDonnell Douglas.

McDonnell Douglas, having recovered, has yet to find a way to save itself. The gap between its civilian division and Boeing and Airbus is now visible to the naked eye, especially after the crash on September 2, which made the MD11 series infamous.

President Jefferson still hoped that McDonnell Douglas would remain independent to prevent the formation of a new monopoly giant after being acquired, and hoped that McDonnell Douglas could obtain some military contracts.

The F-15 and F-18 are McDonnell Douglas's flagship products, but what really saves McDonnell Douglas is a new project... However, neither the JSF nor the NATF has left a place for McDonnell Douglas, and the A-12 attack aircraft is also dead.

After racking their brains, someone suggested that McDonnell Douglas also participate in the JSF Joint Fighter tender, as a way to give McDonnell Douglas a chance, and if they didn't seize it, they couldn't blame fate.

However, the X32 and X35 prototypes had already started development at this time. Suddenly inserting McDonnell Douglas would not only slow down the progress, but the "JAST" plan previously proposed for JSF had already been eliminated.

(This is suspected to be McDonnell Douglas's bid for the JSF program, jointly developed with Northrop Grumman and British Aerospace (BAE), and also belongs to the VOTL vertical takeoff and landing fighter jet category.)
Rams wasn't interested in McDonnell Douglas; his mind was still focused on how to reduce the budget of the current Imperial Army. The reality, even more brutal than in the original timeline, was causing Congress to complain daily about being overwhelmed.

Just as everyone was discussing this, Johnson's attendant came in and whispered something in his ear. Johnson's expression immediately changed, and he asked several questions before letting the attendant leave.

Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Johnson didn't hide it:

"It just so happens that McDonnell Douglas contacted them hoping they could use the F-15 as a base to modify a supersonic business jet that could carry 4 to 8 people, for his personal use."

The words immediately sparked various reactions. Some thought it was an absurd and unrealistic fantasy, while others began to seriously discuss its feasibility, since senior officers at Prism Building also had such needs.

Because the Empire's bases are scattered all over the world, sometimes if an overseas officer urgently needs to return, nearby fighter jets or transport planes will be dispatched to help. However, since an officer accidentally ejected himself from the plane, such incidents have become much less frequent.

Supersonic business jets may seem luxurious, but there is actually a market for them, and they might become a niche market that McDonnell Douglas can monopolize.

When the Joint Chiefs of Staff completely veered off-topic to whether Prism needed to purchase a supersonic business jet, Johnson dropped the second bombshell: the "Paradise City" project. This million-ton cruise ship, which has been making headlines recently, is familiar to many, but the situation changes when it's mentioned that it has a runway at least 550 meters long running through its hull.

When the demand for 20 "high-speed" units and the possibility of using nuclear power were also put forward, the same thought popped into everyone's mind.

"This is both a luxury cruise ship and a supercarrier, a true supercarrier."

Newly recruited Air Force officer Mark pushed up his glasses:
"Nuclear power gives it global navigation capabilities and high power generation. Although the speed of 20 knots is a bit slow, the 500-meter runway... allows us to even take off and land large aircraft weighing 60 tons. The C130 can be adapted with slight modifications."

This ship could easily serve as a mobile military fortress, capable of launching an absurdly large number of aircraft in a single wave.

Johnson: "Tang designed the runway to accommodate the way private jets travel as a means of transportation for the wealthy, and he demanded that supersonic business jets also be able to take off and land on it."

But did he know that this ship could effortlessly transform into a supercarrier in a critical moment? Because its hull is large enough and its runway long enough, its deck requirements are lower than those of an aircraft carrier, making it practically perfect in operation, except for being a bit slower.

They unanimously ignored the fact that the ship was huge, since there was no difference between a 500-600 meter ship and a Nimitz-class ship that was only 300 meters long when it entered the sea, so its stealth was still acceptable.

Rams suddenly interjected:
"Wait, you mean Tang won't take over Paradise City for himself, but will instead raise funds to develop it?"

"That's what McDonnell Douglas said. Tang also said that operating and building the Paradise City would require a huge amount of money, and a fund organization would be set up to manage it."

After Johnson finished speaking, he observed the reactions of the others, and after several exchanges of glances, they confirmed each other's thoughts:
Take control of the "Paradise City".

This cruise ship is an extremely luxurious paradise in peacetime, but it can also be transformed into an unprecedentedly powerful maritime platform at any time.

With a displacement of over a million tons, it could easily accommodate more than 30,000 people and even serve as a supply ship for the fleet. If it were to use nuclear power, it could travel around the world for a year without any problem.

Thinking even further ahead, it could even serve as a doomsday ark, a self-contained, closed system.

"Is it really possible for the Paradise City to be built? Does the University of Tokyo not have a ship reactor with such a high power output?"

"Tang revealed two plans to McDonnell Douglas: one was to use 40-horsepower steam turbines for propulsion, and the other was to purchase them from Russia or Westinghouse Electric."

"We? The Empire explicitly forbids the sale of any marine reactors! But if it's the Russians... they might actually sell them."

After several discussions, the Joint Chiefs of Staff was almost certain that the "Paradise City" might actually be built.

Regarding financing, some people have made a simple assessment and believe that if Tang Wen operates the "Paradise City" like a city, coupled with the geographical advantages of being offshore and in the high seas to attract capital, raising $100 billion in financing would be no problem. The cost of the cruise ship itself would not exceed $15 billion, and even with nuclear power, it would not exceed $20 billion.

This is not only a hugely costly project, but it may also be the first project that can recoup its costs and make a fortune before it even begins to be manufactured. Some of the generals present are already thinking about how to get involved.

The meeting ended in a lingering atmosphere of enthusiasm. Those connected to McDonnell Douglas were already planning to contact them and try to make connections, while Johnson caught up with Rams.

“Sir, I’m sure you’re aware of the military value of the Paradise City. I have an idea that could give us control of it.”

Rams immediately became interested: "What method?"

Johnson: "The biggest problem with this ship is its power and electricity requirements. Nuclear power is the best solution, but Geykin can only purchase it from outside."

In the field of nuclear power for large surface ships, only the Empire has complete control. If the Paradise City uses the Empire's reactor, we can naturally send people to maintain it.

"Think about it, if we need it, we can simply say the reactor needs repairs on the Paradise City in the Empire, forcing it to come to the Empire for inspection, and we can get a large sum of money from it."

"But this is a blatant violation of the export ban."

"But this violation is beneficial to the Empire. Besides, the reactor cannot be dismantled, so it does not constitute a leak of secrets."

Seeing that Rams' expression remained unchanged, Johnson continued:

"Having control of the Paradise City will bring us a continuous stream of wealth. Countless celebrities and dignitaries yearn for a secluded and luxurious place to enjoy different kinds of pleasures, and with that alone, we..."

American tycoons are quite fond of private islands, or places far removed from law and order, and Paradise City just happens to suit their tastes, which is why Johnson has such confidence.

"Alright, alright, I'm not interested in hearing any of that... But the military potential of the Paradise City is indeed not to be underestimated. Let's think about other plans."

Rams left quickly after saying that, but Johnson had a smile on his face.

Meanwhile, a deal to buy the island took an unexpected turn.

Archie Cumming looked at Epstein in bewilderment. Epstein had originally intended to buy Little St. James Island, which he controlled, for $795 million, but suddenly changed his mind when the final negotiation was completed and the contract was about to be fulfilled.

As an investor, Archie Cumming keenly sensed that Epstein's problem wasn't a cash flow issue, but rather that it had found a better alternative.

“Mr. Epstein, are you really not going to reconsider? Buying such a large island for less than $800 million is quite a bargain.”

"No, no, I have high hopes for Little St. James Island, but unfortunately the people behind me have decided to invest in other areas... You'll find out soon enough."

Furthermore, our transaction is only suspended; we may repurchase it if the opportunity arises in the future.

……

south atlantic
The Birmingham surfaced.

This fishing vessel, which was originally about to be decommissioned but was lost by the Imperial Navy, now looks to be in excellent condition. In the hands of the lost Empire, it often sails in the two oceans around the Empire. Relying on its excellent performance and friendly voiceprint signals, it has even encountered "friendly forces" a few times, but none of them have noticed.

Now, the HMS Birmingham has deployed all of the submarine's communication antennas for all wavelengths, including the long-wave transmitting antenna that is towed nearly 2 kilometers behind it.

Tang Wen appeared in the submarine's control room. Although he didn't recognize any of the numerous function buttons, he could use the transformed M-series crew members with ease. At this moment, they were preparing for global power-on.

During the preparations, he held an invitation letter from President Jefferson, inviting him to attend an important meeting of the FCC Association in the Empire at the end of October, and to take the opportunity to attend the President's midterm election activities.

Well, after revealing the Paradise City plan to McDowell and accepting financing, the Empire's attitude towards Geigin has softened considerably. At least the possibility of the Grand Commander's invitation being a trap is no longer there, and it's time to go and make some contact with Saturn V.

But in order to repay President Jefferson, Tang Wen decided to bring back the Lost Empire, which had been virtually invisible for the first half of the year, to do something interesting again.

After the captain told him that the power-on preparations were complete, he rubbed his hands together vigorously and thought to himself:
Since the conspiracy theory that Rhodes escaped to Antarctica succeeded, the conspiracy theory that established a base on the moon is also an indispensable part of the plot.

I wonder if the current empire has the capability to restart moon landings?

(End of this chapter)