Southern Africa is now also a great power, although sometimes it does not have this awareness.
There is nothing we can do about it. It is not good to develop too fast. Our thinking cannot keep up with the speed of development. It will take some time to digest the fact that southern Africa has become a great power.
So Southern Africa sometimes compromises, and sometimes it is extremely tough.
But at least when it comes to doing business, southern Africans are still very talented, so Sidney Milner's work is a bit busy now.
Just a few days ago, Sidney Milner was appointed by Roque as Minister of the newly established Department of Commerce, so now Sidney Milner is very motivated.
The establishment of the Ministry of Commerce was also out of necessity. In the past, Southern Africa had a large market like the Commonwealth. To be honest, commerce was not that important. As long as Southern Africa produced goods, there was no need to worry about sales.
Now that the Commonwealth market is gone, the importance of commerce has skyrocketed, so it is necessary to establish a department specifically responsible for commerce.
"Why can't you buy carrier-based aircraft directly? Your carrier-based aircraft must be sold together with the aircraft carrier, and the price is so expensive. It's completely blackmail!" Paul Reno was extremely angry. The conditions offered by Southern Africa were extremely harsh.
Paul Reno simply couldn't accept it.
To be honest, the aircraft carriers of this period really didn’t have much technological content.
Don’t look at the French, but France’s technology is actually quite good. After all, it is one of the established powers. It can build battleships of 40,000 tons, and aircraft carriers of more than 20,000 tons.
The French can build the power system needed for aircraft carriers.
The French can also make the marine steel plates needed for aircraft carriers.
Deck steel required for aircraft carriers
At present, aircraft carriers do not need deck steel, and the deck is a wooden floor.
So the only bottleneck restricting France from building aircraft carriers is carrier-based aircraft.
It is not the same as the main gun of a battleship. In addition to the main gun, a battleship also has secondary guns, but carrier-based aircraft are the only attack weapons of an aircraft carrier.
If there is time, France can slowly study carrier-based aircraft, and it is not impossible to even modify the current aircraft and use them on aircraft carriers.
This illustrates the disgusting nature of the arms race.
The Italians also want to buy carrier-based aircraft in southern Africa.
So whether the French are willing or not, the advanced carrier-based aircraft in southern Africa are the only choice for the French.
Unless Italians don’t buy it either.
Otherwise, the French Navy will wait to be laughed at by the Italian Navy.
It is still a trivial matter to laugh at, but if war breaks out, it will become more than just a matter of ridicule.
"Mr. Renault, this is the value of technology." Sidney Milner is not angry. It is completely a seller's market. If you French people are unhappy, you don't have to buy it.
Although Paul Reynold's surname is Reno, he is not the Reno of the Reno Company. This guy has a rich resume. He served as a lawyer in his early years, a member of Parliament for a long time, and has served as the Minister of Finance, Justice, Colonization and Deputy Prime Minister of France.
Although Paul Reynaud has rich experience in governance, he is less experienced in business.
This cannot be blamed on Paul Reno. It was really the southern Africans who suffered a lot. Paul Reno came to southern Africa earlier than the Italians. At that time, he only wanted to buy carrier-based aircraft.
Then Southern Africa sent a message to the Italians through special channels
Then the current stalemate was formed.
“Then we will only purchase aircraft engine-related technology.” Paul Reno wanted to save the French government as much money as possible.
“No!” Sidney Milner refused simply.
“You can all sell aircraft engines to the Germans, so why can’t you sell them to your allies?” Paul Reno was furious. He was not the type to bully others like this.
“If you also want to buy the German engine, you can.” Sidney Milner’s words made Paul Renault helpless and angry.
France is still an ally in southern Africa. There is definitely a difference between closeness and distance in southern Africa. Needless to say, the technology sold to the Germans is already backward in southern Africa, and this technology is meaningless to France.
France is not restricted by the Treaty of Versailles and can research any technology at will.
Of course, don’t put too much hope in France’s scientific research capabilities. France is now like a sloth in Australia. If you push it, it will move. If you don’t push it, it will never move.
Taking France’s latest project of the Richelieu-class battleship as an example, the French finally considered the need for air defense when designing it, so the Richelieu-class battleship finally has anti-aircraft weapons.
It is a pity that the French, who are good at being lazy, have made the old habit again. The anti-aircraft weapons prepared by the designers for the Richelieu-class battleships are 152mm high-level dual-purpose cannon and 37mm 48-fold twin automatic cannons.
It looks good, but in fact it has a big problem. As a battleship's secondary gun, the 152mm gun is successful, but as an anti-aircraft weapon, probably only the French are so weird.
As for the 37mm twin automatic cannon, this has not yet been successfully developed. In another time and space, until the Richelieu-class battleships were built, the 37mm twin automatic cannon was not successfully developed. Finally, the 37mm 50-caliber anti-aircraft gun was installed.
.
Although the performance of the 37 mm 50 times caliber anti-aircraft gun is good, its ammunition supply is semi-automatic, requiring manual loading, and there is no unified fire control. The cycle rate of fire is only 30 to 42 rounds per minute. This rate of fire is also very impressive.
By the way, taking into account the improvement of aircraft performance, the Southern African Navy is upgrading the air defense system of warships. In addition to replacing the caliber of anti-aircraft machine guns from 12.7 mm to 20 mm, the upgrade also replaces medium-range air defense weapons with
Quadruple 40mm naval version of the Powder gun.
Sidney Milner actually wanted to sell the 40mm naval version of the Powder gun to the French.
But the proud French feel that even if the performance of the aircraft is not as good as that of southern Africa, it needs to be imported. How much technological content can a 50-year-old weapon like the Powder Cannon have?
So the French didn’t buy it.
So France’s problem is very complicated, just like Duan Yu’s Six Meridians Divine Sword, which sometimes works well and sometimes fails.
The key is not to listen to advice, which will cause trouble.
Sidney Milner is very worried. In fact, Southern Africa does not mean to disgust the French. This is the national interest. If you don’t make money, you will be punished by God. Now France is asking for help from Southern Africa. If everyone loses
, if you switch to southern Africa, ask France. The French may be more extreme than the southern Africans.
No, it’s not maybe, it’s definitely.
Thinking this way, Sidney Milner immediately felt at ease.
“The French Navy is capable of protecting the security of France even if it does not purchase carrier-based aircraft from southern Africa.” Paul Reno has repeated these words countless times. In fact, they are all routines and bargaining.
Sidney Milner keeps smiling, if the French navy was really capable, Paul Reynaud would not be in Sidney Milner's office.
Sidney Milner is also very busy at work. He just finished meeting Paul Reno in the morning and will meet Itano Balbo in the afternoon.
Itano Balbo is also a legendary figure. He participated in the First World War and was appointed as the Minister of Aviation of Italy by the fat bald just last year.
When Itano Balbo got this appointment, he knew nothing about flying. However, Itano Balbo showed a special talent for flying. He quickly learned to fly and built the Italian Air Force into a force.
A very capable force.
But this guy likes to show off a bit. This time he personally flew a plane to southern Africa and brought a squadron with him.
In another time and space, in 1940, when Itano Balbo was returning from a tour, his plane was shot down by an Italian warship's anti-aircraft gun over the northeastern port of Tobrug.
Loss of life.
Compared with Paul Reno, Itano Balbo is obviously more proficient in aircraft. In terms of aviation, Italy's strength is still good. After all, as early as during the Italian-Turkish War, Italy purchased fighter jets from southern Africa, so Italy
He is also considered an old customer in Southern Africa.
Italy itself has the ability to manufacture aircraft, and the performance of the aircraft is not bad. Of course, there is still a gap compared with southern Africa.
"Your Excellency Minister, I think we can sign a contract today. Two aircraft carriers, one to be built in Southern Africa and one to be built in Italy. At the same time, Southern Africa will transfer the related technology of the second-generation Mercury aircraft engine to Italy, and
Authorize Italy to produce locally." Itano Balbo's confidence lies in the fact that Italy has dissolved Congress, so the budget does not require congressional approval, as long as the fat bald head approves it.
There is a saying, as long as the budget is sufficient, arms purchase contracts are actually very easy to negotiate.
After all, everyone knows that military purchase contracts have rebates, and the rebate ratio is very high. The higher the price, the more the rebates will be. Who has a grudge against money?
So now you understand why the single price of the Rafale purchased by India reached 250 million US dollars. The F35 is only 150 million US dollars. The French are really good at being able to bring the price from less than 100 million to 250 million US dollars.
Look, this is the face of France when selling weapons, so the French must not be given any advantage.
"Okay, but I have a question. How did your savior, the Forward, achieve the world's fastest record?" Sidney Milner was curious. If Alitalia was so good, it wouldn't go south.
Africa has come to purchase aircraft engines.
And it is a second-generation engine that has been phased out in southern Africa.
This second-generation Mercury aircraft engine is roughly equivalent to the technology of southern Africa during World War I.
The fourth generation Mercury aircraft engine now used by the Southern African Air Force.
"If you remove all the extra stuff on the plane, then the Southern African plane can fly faster." Itano Balbo did not hide it. The Savior-Forward is indeed good, but there is no pride in front of Southern Africa.
Qualifications.
Sidney Milner had a sudden realization.
It’s probably the difference between a sports car and a tank.
