"Hmm?! What did you say? Next generation battleships? Do you have a new plan to expand the army?" Ferdinand's eyes shone. As a naval supporter, his interest in the navy can be described as fanatic! You know, the Austro-Hungarian Empire has two parliaments, and a resolution needs to be passed by the Austrian Parliament and the Hungarian Parliament to be effective. The rulers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire actually do not attach importance to the navy. The Hungarian Kingdom has no interest in the navy, and Emperor Fritz has the same attitude towards the navy!

Before 1901, the entire Austro-Hungarian Navy did not even have a warship of more than 7,000 tons! Compared with the Italians next door, it was simply a sliver! But in this extremely unfavorable political situation, our Crown Prince Ferdinand was able to join forces with other forces to start building three Radez-class battleships in 1907, and then started construction of four Joint Force-class battleships! If it were not for the reason of War 1, the other four Lord Loudon-class battleships could also be built. This persistence and persistence are admirable...

Of course, the prince still has this opinion. There is no need for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to start building large-scale construction so early. On the one hand, it is a waste of money, and on the other hand, it is probably impossible to approve funds... Without the stimulus of the launch of the dreadnought, the Austro-Hungarian government will not be determined to build large-scale construction for the time being.

The prince still revealed this news to Crown Prince Ferdinand to prepare for the next wave of naval gun bidding. Although the 12-inch l40 naval gun made the prince a lot of money, Krupp would not sit still and wait for death, and the Prussian military industry group led by Krupp would not sit still and wait for death. After the construction of the battleship Caesar Frederick the Great, when the prince was preparing for Germany, or the world's first dreadnought, the hateful capitalists believed that they had found an opportunity...

Under the tremendous pressure of the Southern Bavarian Industrial Group and the temptation of the huge profits of the naval gun business, Krupp finally decided to climb the technology tree well. According to internal news, they have begun to establish projects and prepare to develop a new 12-inch l45 naval gun to regain the lost market in the competition for new dreadnoughts.

To be honest, the last time the prince took the order, the whole process can be described as plagiarism. Basically, it was to take the Russian naval guns and then change them in Skoda factory... But this time it was different. Although Krupp had a 12-inch naval gun in history, it had to be admitted that Krupp's 12-inch l50 cannon was really good, and could hit a 405kg shell at an initial speed of 855 meters!

Judging from paper data, this cannon is at least not weaker than the British and American 12-inch guns of the same period. To truly stabilize the 12-inch guns, there are probably only the K10 12-inch l45 guns produced by Skoda. If it comes to the basics, the Bavarian Southern Industrial Group will definitely not be as good as the old fried dough sticks in the north.

So he could only hand over the design mission of this artillery to the Austrians, hoping that they could get this artillery out quickly! Historically, the transition from fearless to super fearless was still relatively long. The first dreadnought was put into service in 2006, and the first super fearless was put into service in 2012... and the upgrade from the 14-inch level to the 15-inch level was only less than 3 years!

Considering the early opening of the fearless era, the construction of the German Navy is about to begin! The German Emperor and the German Navy have been tolerant for many years. It is not easy for the prince to reduce the number of German pre-dreadnoughts from 2 to 6 in history! You should know that in history, the Germans built a total of 5-level 24 pre-defying ships from Brandenburg! When the last pre-defying ship was in service, the Nassau class was launched...

Let's calculate it based on the 1.1 million pounds in front of a ship. The prince saved more than 20 million pounds for the German government. (including maintenance funds) You should know that the sales of naval armor in Bavaria is a huge income. In order to save Germany some money, the prince's efforts are huge...

"Skoda is responsible for the artillery design, and then Bavaria and Austria have half of the production capacity, and we share the profits equally. What do you think?" The conditions offered by the prince cannot be said to be not generous. Basically, Austria is responsible for the research and development, Bavaria is responsible for the market, and everyone works together with each other. Of course, this is just the profit of artillery. Bavaria still accounts for the majority of the design and construction of the turret. After all, this difficulty is smaller than that of artillery.

"You want to design new warships? How many?" Crown Prince Ferdinand did not answer immediately, but asked back. Now, he has quickly transformed from a crown prince into a merchant and began to calculate his own gains and losses. If the transaction is relatively small and it is difficult to share R&D costs, then he will have to reconsider the profit sharing. At least he must pay some of the R&D funds for Bavaria.

"Our future battleships and large cruisers will use 12-inch naval guns. The former may be 2 to 3 ships, and the latter is probably the same number." The prince thought for a while and said.

"So when will these warships start construction and when will they be completed?" Ferdinand asked again.

"It should have started construction in 1902, the construction period may be 2 to 3 years, and all the completions should be from 1905 to 2006! Of course, this is just my personal plan at present. The prince replied.

The prince thought about the number and construction period of the first batch of warships, which was not something that could be thought of in a slap. Although the prince knew the value of the dreadnought and the appearance of fearlessness caused the former dreadnought to depreciate sharply, the construction was also quite difficult. In history, the British's fearless displacement reached 18,000 tons.

But in fact, this tonnage is not enough for a warship with good defense and good protection for naval guns and torpedoes. According to the prince's estimate, a tonnage of a dreadnought equipped with about 10 12-inch l45 artillery should be around 22,000 tons. 12-inch side-string armor, 3-inch horizontal armor, and better TDS, all require tonnage support.

The largest warship built by the German Navy now has a displacement of 15,000 tons, and then it jumps directly to 22,000 tons... The prince also felt a little overwhelmed!

This is the construction of battleships. Technical and engineering matters have put some pressure on the German industry, and battleships are more difficult because battleships have higher requirements for speed. If battleships can use kerosene mixed boilers and steam engines to make do with it, then the battleship must use a steam turbine, otherwise it will be really difficult to achieve a speed of 25 knots... It can even be described as slim.
Chapter completed!