The Rise Of Australasia

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In April 1933, Arthur, gradually getting into work mode, contemplated the several blueprints laid out on his desk.

These blueprints were from the Royal Shipyard's designs, the very same ones Minister Thomas had mentioned before, for the new battleships and aircraft carriers.

Because the Naval Limitation Treaty was no longer in effect, theoretically, there were no restrictions on the tonnage of newly built battleships and aircraft carriers for any country.

This meant that the projected displacement of the battleship on the blueprint before Arthur was expected to reach 45,700 tons, with a full-load displacement exceeding 52,000 tons, making it a true super battleship.

However, Arthur had no interest in building too many of such super battleships. Even in the construction plan proposed by the Ministry of Defense, only two of these super battleships would be built, and thereafter, they would be given up entirely regarding battleship design.

So the question arises, why bring forth such a powerful-looking battleship if the design is to be abandoned?

Besides increasing the navy's apparent strength, confusing their Pacific rivals, the Island Nation, was also an important reason.

According to various reports, the Island Nation was planning to build more warships, with battleships as their main focus of construction.

As the Island Nation's biggest competitor, Australasia's achievements in battleship design would naturally be passed along as intelligence to the Island Nation.

The Island Nation certainly would not accept Australasia's naval superiority, since the former had a greater need for maritime security than the latter.

This also meant that they would definitely follow up with super battleship research and build at least two, or perhaps even more.

Using two super battleships to mislead the Island Nation, prompting them to invest substantial funds into their research, was very meaningful for Australasia.

How did the Island Nation's famed battleship Yamato meet its end? It sank into the ocean after continuous bombing raids from United States Navy aircraft and torpedo hits from submarines.

This actually represents a truth that, once aircraft carriers reach a certain level of development, their strikes are fatal to these massive battleships.

A battleship's striking distance is determined by the firearms it is equipped with, but an aircraft carrier's attack range depends on the airplanes on board.

The distances firearms and airplanes can attack from are incomparable, which means that in cases where technology levels are similar, super battleships are no match for large aircraft carriers.

Unless a super battleship could press close to an aircraft carrier, it could then possibly achieve victory in a naval battle against the aircraft carrier.

The issue is, an aircraft carrier is also accompanied by other, smaller vessels in its fleet that help with reconnaissance.

Furthermore, the reconnaissance aircraft on an aircraft carrier are not to be underestimated, as they are unlikely to miss sighting hostile warships within ten kilometers.

This means that, in most cases, these highly visible and massive super battleships are essentially unable to get close to an aircraft carrier.

Returning to the design of the last class of Australasia's battleships, it is undoubtedly world-class.

According to the data on the blueprint, this battleship has an overall length of 252 meters, a breadth of 37 meters, a standard draft of 9.5 meters, and a full-load draft of 11 meters.

In terms of power, this massive battleship is equipped with 12 Dinsey custom high-pressure heavy oil boilers and three Fox Steam Turbines as auxiliary power, ensuring the vessel's navigational speeds in the ocean.

According to experts in dynamics, with such exceptional power, even though the battleship's size and weight are substantial, it could still guarantee a cruising speed of at least 30 knots.

30 knots is an extraordinary speed, which is one of the reasons Arthur commended the battleship's design.

Frankly, if it weren't for the hindsight provided by later generations that made Arthur understand aircraft carriers were the future of naval development, he might have spent a significant cost to build such a battleship.

The reason is nothing more than the excellence of this battleship's design, which could even claim to be one of the most powerful battleships currently in existence.

No country's ruler could resist the temptation of such a battleship, and I believe the Islanders could not either.

Thinking this way, Arthur became quite curious about how the super battleships constructed by the Island Nation at great expense would react when they encountered Australasia's carrier groups.

It's worth noting that with the development of the Dove missile, Australasia had begun deploying missiles on various types of warships.

Not only does this significantly extend the attacking range of the warships, but it also poses a severe threat to these large battleships.

Since it was known these were the last class of battleship designs, the three Royal Navy shipyards had put forth their greatest effort to design what might be Australasia's last battleship.

In terms of defense, the entire battleship was equipped with heavy armor, ensuring it wouldn't be easily silenced by enemy firepower.

The thickness of the belt armor ranged from 145 millimeters to 320 millimeters, and the deck armor thickness ranged from 50 to 120 millimeters.

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The armored protection of this battleship represented a significant improvement over previous battleship designs.

This is also one of the reasons why the standard displacement of this battleship reached a daunting 40,000 tons or more.

In terms of firepower, the battleship was equipped with four double-barreled 16-inch 52-caliber main guns (406mm), ensuring a high level of destructive power, which was also the battleship's primary armament.

For secondary armament, the Royal Shipyard used six 7-inch 55-caliber guns (178mm). The effective hit rate of these guns was the main reason for their selection as secondary armament.

Since nations had ample airplane reserves, Arthur specifically instructed the Royal Shipyard to strengthen the battleship's anti-air capabilities as much as possible to deal with potential enemy airplane bombing.

It was due to Arthur's demands that the battleship was furnished with a large quantity of anti-aircraft weapons.

The main anti-aircraft weapon was a total of eight double-barreled 4-inch 65-caliber anti-aircraft guns, four on each side, which could effectively engage enemy airplanes.

The secondary anti-aircraft armaments were eight 22mm fully-automatic anti-aircraft guns, which were mainly pursued for their wide coverage and striking power.

Additionally, there were two anti-aircraft machine guns at both the front and back, and six on each side – in a word, the firepower was quite formidable.

It is worth mentioning that in the center of this battleship, there was actually a runway designed specifically for airplanes to take off.

Yes, this battleship also had a role similar to that of an aircraft carrier, serving as a platform for airplanes to launch from the sea.

Though it was not large and could only carry four specially designed single-seater reconnaissance aircraft, it could significantly enhance the battleship's scouting range and ensure it wasn't ambushed by enemy aircraft carriers unknowingly.

All these designs constituted the complete data of the battleship. Overall, Arthur was quite satisfied with the design of this battleship.

At the very least, such a battleship was designed to prevent enemy airplane bombing to a reasonable extent, ensuring it wouldn't be as easily sunk by enemy air squadrons as the historical battleship Yamato.

However, it is undeniable that large battleships would struggle to maintain an advantage in the face of aircraft carriers.

Even if large battleships were fitted with numerous anti-aircraft weapons, they ultimately couldn't compete with aircraft carriers.

The differences in design concepts between the two types of warships had already determined their completely different developmental potentials and backgrounds.

The era of dreadnoughts had long been powerful, but from now on, aircraft carriers would gradually become the most dominant warships and rule the seas for even longer.

As airplane technology kept advancing, the role of aircraft carriers continued to rise.

At least for the next hundred years, the significance of aircraft carriers will only increase, and nations will compete to develop and construct them.

Later generations did indeed witness this trend; possessing a few small-sized warships did not make a navy powerful. Only the inclusion of a complete aircraft carrier battle group could qualify a navy as relatively strong.

But the problem arose again; aircraft carriers were inherently expensive to construct, let alone the battle groups specially assembled to enhance their capabilities.

Even just the maintenance costs of a single carrier battle group could plunge a medium-sized country into financial crisis.

Without exception, the countries that could afford to maintain a carrier battle group were all economically prosperous.

In later times, a country's potential and expected economic growth were closely linked with its population.

Even now, the population is one of the criteria for measuring a country's strength. It is undeniable that the more populous a country is, the greater its potential for development.

The most important factor in making a country more powerful is the continuous advancement of technology. And to drive technological progress, a large volume of talent must be devoted to scientific research and various development efforts.

The larger the population, the greater the likelihood of producing talent. Furthermore, the more people there are, the more wealth they generate.

Though this may consume a considerable amount of resources, for a region as rich in mineral resources as Australasia, these minor drawbacks are completely acceptable.

It further strengthened Arthur's conviction that whether in war or peace, whether in the 20th or the 21st century, Australasia's primary principle should be to develop its population as much as possible.

Given the land area Australasia currently possessed, even expanding the population tenfold would not be too much of a burden for the country.

Prior to reaching a population of 300 million, any population explosion would be a welcome development for Australasia.

To ensure an ongoing rise in population, Arthur decided to urge the government to enact a new Encouraging Fertility Policy to motivate more Australasians to marry and have children, thereby contributing to the growth of the native population.