Chapter 1439: Someone wants to purge the emperor’s side?

Although the British side has taken all necessary measures to block the news, the public opinion environment in 2009 is obviously completely different from that in 1997.

Even before the destroyer Courageous regained its autonomous power, curious people had already noticed the destroyer's unusual AIS information.

After all, as a warship, even if the mission requires it to stay in a sea area for a long time, it will generally present a trajectory characteristic of circling at medium or low speeds, rather than drifting at a speed not exceeding 2 knots.

Of course, even at this point, it can still be explained as some special training subject being carried out.

After all, the Type 45 used its "highly refined level of power control" as a publicity highlight during the design phase. In this case, it should be normal for me to test its ability to fight against ocean currents and waves at low speeds in the Indian Ocean, right?

Therefore, in the initial stage of the incident, that is, on the afternoon of the day the accident occurred, the Royal Navy and the Ministry of Defense were indeed guiding public opinion in this direction, and even sparked a debate on the Internet about whether the Type 45 destroyer had side-thrust capabilities, shifting a considerable amount of attention to the technical level.

But the good times did not last long. By the next morning, someone had found commercial satellite images of the sea area where the incident occurred, which happened to capture the scene of the Xingzhou and the Brave sailing side by side in close proximity before nightfall.

Normally, two combat ships would not deploy such a supply formation that is inconvenient for maneuvering and blocks each other's firepower range.

Unless one ship is providing assistance to another.

At this time, the Courageous had just determined that it could not restart the WR-21 gas turbine autonomously, so it could only change its course and rely on the weak power provided by its two diesel engines to slowly move back to the mainland for repairs.

The original plan to visit multiple countries all the way eastward was forced to be carried out by the frigate Kent.

Putting this series of information together, even the most dull-witted person should realize that something is wrong.

What’s more troublesome is that after all this trouble, the whole thing has gone beyond the initial small circle of military fans and entered the field of vision of the general public.

The Portsmouth News, which had the advantage of being close to the water, even temporarily included an analytical article in the newspaper of the next day, and began to question the rationality of the so-called "Elite Plan".

The Conservative Party, which has been in opposition for twelve years, is also ready to use this as an excuse to return to power.

What was originally a simple technical issue turned into a public relations crisis due to human instigation.

And all of this was almost completed overnight.

So when Defense Secretary John Hutton arrived at the office as usual the next morning, he was feeling quite good about himself.

It wasn't until his personal political adviser, Beat Elman, put a newspaper on his desk that he finally realized the seriousness of the problem.

Or, in other words, I overestimated the severity of the problem.

Although like most of his peers, the main reason why Hutton was able to become Defense Secretary was that he knew nothing about defense, as a veteran who had served in the Shadow Cabinet since the early 90s, Hutton knew Britain very well.

Since the Ministry of the Navy was merged into the Ministry of National Defense in 1965 and the position of the Minister of the Navy was abolished, the independence of the Navy Headquarters has actually been greatly enhanced.

As a professional soldier, the First Sea Lord's stance is actually closer to those wavering civil servants, and he and these political officials do not share the same interests.

You know, the reason why the Labour Party was able to win a landslide victory 12 years ago was largely because the Admiralty Headquarters ruthlessly stabbed the then John Major cabinet in exchange for the true situation of the Wave 97 mission not being fully exposed.

And now, for such a big thing, the navy and the secretary did not report it specifically, and he, the Minister of Defense, only learned the news through the newspaper early the next morning.

Even though this has always been a tradition in Britain, it is rare to go so far.

There is no guarantee that there are people who want to repeat the past and purge the emperor's side.

After a long silence, Hutton confirmed again:

"Beate, when I went to the cabinet meeting yesterday afternoon, no other reports were delivered to the office?"

Elman immediately shook his head and pointed to the suitcase on the table:

"Only the ones inside."

As a personal assistant, his interests were of course 100% tied to the minister's, so he quickly understood what the other party was worried about.

However, in his opinion, the conflict between the Navy and the Ministry of National Defense did not seem to be that serious, and it seemed difficult to read through the entire box of documents in one night, so he still confirmed cautiously:

“Could it be hidden in the corner of a certain report?”

Hiding information that you don't want ministers to know but that must be signed by the ministers is another traditional skill of the British civil service system.

But Hutton is not a real newbie, how could he be fooled by such a trick?

"I contacted Des Brown on my first day in office and learned from him that the Ministry of Defense secretarial system has a habit of hiding key information... and judging from the results, nothing similar has happened in the past few months. It shouldn't be that I missed any key information..."

The two fell silent at the same time.

But soon, Hutton could no longer sit still and grabbed his briefcase and the newspaper:

"I have to go to 10 Downing Street and report this matter to the Prime Minister so that the entire cabinet can make relevant preparations. Please contact Terry and ask him to..."

Having said this, he was about to go out when he suddenly stopped.

Terry William is his personal secretary. Whenever there is something that is inconvenient to go through official procedures, the minister is usually accustomed to handing it over to Terry William.

But now, since the entire civil service system is no longer reliable, private secretaries are naturally included in the list of "untrustworthy" people.

Therefore, Hutton immediately changed his words:

"No, you should contact the representatives of BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce in person and ask them to eliminate the impact as quickly as possible. Otherwise, if the incident gets out of control, no one will end up well..."

The identity of a personal assistant is quite delicate in the entire system. In fact, such matters are rarely dealt with, so Elman himself has little experience and asked hesitantly:

"What about priorities?"

The former was startled again:

"First, we must ensure that subsequent orders, including other Type 45, Zumwalt-class and Queen-class ships, are not subject to any problems. Secondly, we must restore the Courageous to normal combat capability as soon as possible... at least restore its ability to sail normally, and give the public an explanation..."

"it is good……"

The two people, who were already on high alert, moved quickly, leaving the office and running towards their respective destinations.

Almost at the same time, personal secretary Terry William hurried to the door holding a folder:

"Minister, an urgent report from the Navy Headquarters..."

However, what was in front of him was only a locked door...

……

In fact, Hutton was completely fighting a battle of wits and courage with the air.

As a professional soldier, Admiral Mark Stanhope really has no personal stance.

As for concealing the news and trying to overthrow the superiors, he didn't have the slightest idea about it.

He simply wanted to suppress the impact of the incident and prevent it from over-escalating.

And thanks to the poor efficiency of information transmission, until the end of get off work yesterday, this incident was still considered a normal navigation accident from the perspective of the UK, and was far from the level that required a special report to the cabinet.

By the time the Courageous finally determined that its two WR-21 gas turbines had completely broken down and had to return to base for repairs, it was already nightfall.

Logically speaking, it should fall under the category of reporting the next day.

However, the media, which is eager to see the world in chaos, doesn't care about you. So they work overnight like sharks smelling blood, and print the report early in the morning.

In the Internet age, speed of news is everything.

As for the verification phase...that will have to be put off until later.

Besides, it’s even better if the content is wrong, after all, the reversal later can be published in a new column…

In short, under such a series of coincidences, the entire Brown cabinet became tense at an unprecedented speed, preparing to deal with the attacks from old opponents and the completely false backstabs from the Navy Headquarters.

Such severe pressure was quickly transmitted to the very end of the entire system.

That is, the workers of the two contractors, BAE and Rolls-Royce.