Chapter 242 Military Rank Reorganization and Awarding of Honors

Although it is said to be a five-year shipbuilding plan, in fact the five main warships are almost 10%, and the naval test time is about one year. new

If the five-year shipbuilding plan can be successfully completed, Australasia will have three dreadnoughts and two battlecruisers, which will already be among the best in the world in terms of main ships.

Secondly, there are various small and medium-sized warships, including armored cruisers and armored frigates. The tonnage of these warships ranges from hundreds to thousands of tons, and the construction time and cost are only a fraction of the time.

Counting all warships, Australasia's shipbuilding plan is expected to cost nearly 20 million Australian dollars, which is almost 10 million pounds.

The total tonnage of the complete Australasian Navy will directly exceed 100,000 tons and reach about 120,000 tons.

If we look at the total naval tonnage alone, the Australasian naval tonnage before and after the five-year shipbuilding plan may differ by a factor of ten.

Because Portugal's war compensation this time was five million pounds, the shipbuilding plan was not a large financial burden for the Australasian government, and it was even completely acceptable.

The reason why only so many can be built is entirely because the current construction speed of the Royal Dockyard can only sustain the construction of a maximum of three warships.

After the five-year shipbuilding plan, the scale of the Royal Dockyard has expanded again, and perhaps the next round of shipbuilding plans will be even more exaggerated.

The shipbuilding plan formulated by Australasia spread quickly. In just a few days, everyone in Australasia knew about it, and some European media even reported the news.

It is no exaggeration to say that judging from the current dreadnought construction plan alone, Australasia's emphasis on dreadnoughts can even be ranked among the top five in the world.

The only countries currently building dreadnoughts are Britain, Germany, Russia and the United States. Of course, the Russian dreadnoughts were built in Australasia.

The countries that have preliminary plans to build dreadnoughts only include Italy and island countries.

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire has ideas about dreadnoughts, its naval investment is not large. If you want to own a dreadnought, you have to rely on Germany.

The army's expansion plan is not limited to the navy. The Australasian army will also usher in a new round of expansion.

Previous wars have exposed the serious shortcomings of insufficient army numbers. Even a country like Portugal, with a population slightly smaller than that of Australasia, has more than 100,000 troops.

The Australasian army only has more than 60,000 troops at full strength. If it is dispersed to each state and colony, then the garrison of each state or colony will only be a little more than one regiment. newᴄᴏᴍ

On the premise of maintaining adequate defense forces in various regions of the country, Australasia currently uses only two divisions at most.

Although the combat effectiveness of the Australasian army is indeed good, the shortcomings in numbers are already obvious.

According to the research decision of the Ministry of Defense, the new round of Australasian Army expansion plan is divided into three types: Guards Division, Conventional Division and Colonial Division.

Among them, the Guards Division will once again add an infantry regiment and an artillery regiment. Its establishment will have three infantry regiments, a cavalry regiment and two artillery regiments, with a total number of more than 20,000 people.

The Guards Division will also become the division with the largest number of personnel in Australasia. Whether it is the number of people, firepower, or the combat quality of soldiers and officers, it will definitely be the top of the Australasian army and world-class.

The conventional division will also be expanded by one, which is the fourth division. The Fourth Division will remove some of its officer cadres and veterans from the First, Second, and Third Divisions, plus longer training time to complete it.

In addition to this is the newly added establishment of the Australasian Army, which is the colonial division owned by most colonial countries.

The colonial division is also called the indigenous division. Like the Portuguese indigenous army, the middle and high-level officers of the colonial division are all composed of Australasian officers. The lower-level officers reward those indigenous people based on their performance.

The vast majority of soldiers in the colonial division are all composed of indigenous people.

It is precisely because of this characteristic that the colonial division will be the best cannon fodder in combat, the kind that will not feel bad even if many people die.

The establishment of a colonial division was a decision finally made after a long discussion between Arthur and Minister Kent.

Currently, Australasia already has two colonies, and both of them are lands close to the mainland of Australasia and rich in mineral resources.

Although the combined population of Australian New Guinea and Australian Timor is less than one million (New Guinea has flowed into the country at least 200,000 indigenous people), there is still no problem in arming one or two colonial divisions.

Moreover, Australasia also has an advantage, that is, the mainland is very close to the two colonies, and it can control these two colonies very effectively. Naturally, there is no need to worry about indigenous betrayal and defection.

Do any indigenous soldiers dare to defect? Of course there is no problem, but the tribe where this indigenous soldier belongs and the nearby tribes will be punished, which may affect the tribe at least, or the region at worst.

At this time, the Dutch East Indies had an indigenous population of more than 40 million, and the lives of the indigenous people were not valuable.

Because of this, the colonial division is the largest expansion of the army. The first colonial division and the second colonial division will be born in this expansion.

The organization of the Australasian colonial division was very simple. A colonial division consisted of four infantry regiments. The new This also means that the Colonial Division is a pure infantry division and has very few machine guns and artillery.

The Guards Division's infantry regiment, artillery regiment, four regular divisions, and two colonial divisions, Australasia's total military expansion this time is nearly 60,000 people. Even if the indigenous soldiers of the colonial divisions are not included, the army still needs to be expanded by at least three More than ten thousand people.

As a result, the total number of Australasian army troops will reach 120,000, and the available strength in the event of war will also reach 80,000 or 90,000.

During this time, the workers of Arthur Military Factory and the leaders of the military factory were all smiling.

Previous wars and the current military expansion have greatly expanded the scale of Australasia's military factories, and also promoted the growth of Australasia's military industry.

At present, Arthur's military factory has more than 2,000 employees. Even internationally, it is definitely a large military factory.

Compared with the navy and army, which are expanding their forces with great fanfare, the expansion of Australasia's aviation force appears to be much lower-key.

Airships are a technology that everyone tacitly understands, so they are also made explicit.

After the victory of this war, Arthur announced in a high-profile manner that he would vigorously build at least twenty airships, firstly to meet the transportation needs of some supplies, and secondly to build Australasia's air power.

Although prototypes of aircraft have been produced in various countries around the world, the reliability of current aircraft is much lower than that of airships, and their practical value is also far lower than that of airships.

Coupled with Australasia's performance of airships in the last war, European powers decided to follow up on airship research.

In addition to the twenty airships on the surface, Australasia secretly also expanded its aviation force again.

Australasia previously had a total of 15 Phantom 3 bombers and 15 Eagle 3 reconnaissance aircraft.

After conducting actual combat tests on the performance of bombers and reconnaissance aircraft in the last war, Arthur decisively placed an order for thirty bombers, ten fighter jets, and twenty reconnaissance aircraft.

With the establishment of the Royal Military Academy, the selection and training of pilots has become more formalized.

At present, the Aviation School of the Royal Military College can train at least 150 qualified pilots in Australasia every year, so Arthur can also spend a lot of money on the expansion of the aviation force.

There are a total of sixty aircraft ordered this time. According to the construction speed of the aviation laboratory, it will take at least half a year.

Adding to the thirty aircraft it currently has, Australasia will have ten military aircraft. Whether in terms of scale or combat effectiveness, Australasia can currently be said to be the world's number one in the air force field, and it is still the number one in the world for generations.

In fact, judging from the current practicality of these aircraft, they can already be compared with aircraft from various countries during World War I.

If Arthur persisted, he could now build a powerful air force with thousands of aircraft.

However, the current iteration rate of aircraft is still very fast, and there is no need to spend too much money on models that may fall behind.

At least according to the reaction of the aviation laboratory, the fourth generation of military aircraft has already taken shape. The fourth generation of the three types of military aircraft will have a considerable performance improvement over the third generation aircraft.

This is also one of the reasons why Arthur has not established a large-scale air force at present. First of all, the air force has no rivals. Currently, Australasia has an overwhelming advantage in the air force.

In addition, the birth of the fourth-generation aircraft is not far away. Instead of spending money now to buy aircraft that may be lagging behind, it is better to wait until the new aircraft is born before expanding the force.

In addition to expanding the army, rewarding soldiers who have made contributions in previous wars is also a very important thing.

The army is Arthur's trump card, so the morale of the army must be firmly in his hands.

Ever since the war ended, Arthur had been discussing with Minister Kent the rewards for soldiers and officers.

The greatest meritorious service this time was undoubtedly the First Division and the Second Division. The former fired the first shot of the war, perfectly played the role of the vanguard, and captured Portuguese Timor with relatively low casualties.

The Second Division not only captured Portuguese India and other colonies, but also successfully defended and eliminated the threat from Portuguese reinforcements.

As commanders of the 1st and 2nd Divisions, Generals Silvio Lonny Rodlin and Fritz Lehner are also likely to advance further in their ranks.

The current military ranks in Australasia are basically inherited from the British Empire, and the same is true for the navy.

Even the design of military ranks is basically consistent with the British Empire. This time, we took advantage of the opportunity of reward to promulgate new military ranks belonging to Australasia.

After lengthy discussions with Minister Kent, 1, Australasia's new military ranks were officially promulgated.

Starting from the private soldiers who have just joined the army, the military ranks in Australasia are divided into 3 levels of soldiers (recruit, private, first class), 3 non-commissioned officers (corporal, sergeant, staff sergeant), and 3 lieutenants (second lieutenant, lieutenant). , Captain), Colonel 3 (Major, Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel), General 4 (Brigadier General, Major General, Lieutenant General, General), and the highest rank, Marshal.

This set of military ranks applies to the Army, Navy and Air Force of Australasia. The ranks of soldiers in the respective military departments will also have their own affiliations in front.

And above all the marshals of land, sea and air, perhaps he is the marshal-in-chief of the armed forces with Arthur's name.

Of course, Arthur's previous title was Marshal-General of the Army and Navy of Australasia. Now that there is an aviation force, he naturally becomes Marshal-General of the Army, Navy and Aviation Forces of Australasia, referred to as Marshal-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

It's just that Arthur's title of Marshal-in-Chief of the Armed Forces is only an honorary title most of the time.

But this title also gave Arthur the legal right to mobilize all Australasian troops, including the government's defense forces, legally and reasonably during special and war periods.

At present, in Australasia, apart from Arthur, the Marshal-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the highest military rank is Lieutenant General Kent, the Minister of Defense.

As for Division Commander Fritz and others, their military ranks are all brigadier general. Firstly, it is to facilitate the management of the Ministry of Defense, and secondly, there have been no wars in Australasia since the founding of the country. If these generals are given too high military ranks without merit, it will make Australasia's Military ranks become worthless.

In addition, if a military rank is given too high in the early stage, it may lead to a situation where no one can be sealed later.

If the marshal is in bad shape by then, then this military rank system will really be in bad shape.

1. The Australasian Army Commendation Ceremony officially begins.

The commendation ceremony can also be called an investiture ceremony. Although most of the participants were troops who had participated in the war in Australasia, the venue was still chosen in the square outside the Sydney Palace.

This also allowed many Australasian civilians to watch, after all, the awarding of medals was not a confidential matter.

The ones who were promoted the most this time were naturally the two commanders of the First and Second Divisions.

The commander of the first division, Silvio Lonny Rodlin, and the commander of the second division, Fritz Lehner, were successfully promoted from brigadier general to major general. This may also be their highest military rank in the position of division commander.

If they want to be promoted in the military ranks, in addition to entering the Ministry of Defense, they may have to wait for the birth of a larger establishment of the Australasian Army!

After all, lieutenant generals above major general are considered high-ranking figures in a country's military. You can't let such a high-level figure lead an ordinary regular division. Then many problems will arise.

After all, the current Minister of Defense, Kent, only has the rank of lieutenant general. If there is another lieutenant general and division commander, then under the same military rank, who should listen to whom?

In addition to the two division commanders who were successfully promoted to major generals, the two deputy division commanders of the first and second divisions were also successfully promoted to the position of brigadier general.

Of course, their promotion is to prepare for the expansion of the Fourth Division and the Colonial Division, and their promotion also means that they will become the division commanders of these units.

I have four thousand words to take a day off today. I have a cold and a headache.