Seven hundred and seventieth chapters Orr's tangle
In the capital of Daheng, Crown Prince Holibart looked at the latest battleship design plan handed over by the Daheng Empire, but he was still hesitant in his heart.
This time the battleship plan is the latest hybrid main gun battleship designed by the Daheng people based on the requirements of the Kingdom of Orr.
Crown Prince Holibart is not someone who does not understand the navy. In fact, the Holibart dynasty is not a crown prince without real power in the Orr Kingdom. In fact, he is already the actual military commander of the Orr Kingdom, responsible for the construction of the army and navy.
affairs.
After all, King Orr is old, and Crown Prince Holibart has taken over most of the power in the Orr Kingdom more than ten years ago. This will be even more so after the Orr War.
Under his leadership, the Orr Kingdom's foreign policy and army and navy construction moved closer to the Daheng Empire. The two sides even reached a military base exchange agreement. Although this military base exchange agreement was actually the Daheng Empire's settlement in the Orr Kingdom's Lane
The base is mainly stationed with troops, and the Orr Kingdom only has a small fleet stationed in a small coastal port that Daheng exchanged with them.
However, even this symbolism also means actual military alliance cooperation between the two sides.
This is completely different from the Lieji Kingdom which was forced to unilaterally lease the Bova military base to the Daheng Empire.
After more than ten years of continuous deepening of exchanges, the diplomatic relations between the Daheng Empire and the Orr Kingdom have gradually evolved into a practical military alliance. All that is left is a military alliance contract.
In terms of diplomatic relations between the two parties, the military construction of the Orr Kingdom is also moving closer to Daheng. Its army is equipped with Daheng equipment, and the same is true for its navy.
In the early years, the Orr Kingdom would purchase some warships from countries such as the Kokel Empire, but since the Orr War, the Orr Kingdom's warship procurement has completely shifted to the Daheng Empire.
After the Orr War, the Orr Kingdom signed a military procurement contract with the Daheng Empire totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.
This includes the procurement of a large number of warships.
The two completed high-dry exposed turret battleships and two armored cruisers have become the current core battleships of the Kingdom of Orr Navy.
Since last year, the two sides have continued to negotiate for the purchase of the last two battleships in the 2+2 plan. That was also the time when the Daheng Empire relaxed the export of hardened armor and medium-caliber rapid-fire guns for the first time.
Based on this, last fall we signed a contract for the purchase of a battleship. Based on the improved design of the Jingzhou-class battleship, the new generation battleship is the No. 3 ship in the 2+2 plan.
However, the plan for the second battleship was slightly delayed. The plan was originally finalized in the first half of this year. However, due to the outbreak of the Liege Incident and the impact of the two Battles of Bova, the procurement plan for the ship soon changed.
, the Kingdom of Orr requested that it be based on the experience of the Battle of Bova, and also because both the Kingdom of Krul and the Navy of the Daheng Empire had hybrid main gun battleships that appeared and entered service, and other countries also followed suit. Therefore, the Kingdom of Orr proposed to
The fourth ship in the 2+2 plan was changed to a mixed main gun battleship.
The Daheng Empire naturally met its requirements and designed a hybrid main gun battleship based on the Gaoqing hybrid main gun battleship.
The firepower was enhanced by changing the secondary main gun from four single 250mm rapid-fire cannons to four twin-mounted 230mm rapid-fire cannons, for a total of eight 230mm rapid-fire cannons.
Crown Prince Holibart is still very satisfied with this design plan. All aspects have met the requirements of the Kingdom of Orr, and even exceeded them.
The only problem is that this thing is too expensive!
Just the four 300mm 45x caliber main guns and the eight 230mm 45x caliber main guns that come with them cost several million yuan.
Coupled with the comprehensive coverage of the latest Luo Jing hardened armor, the price of this armor is slightly higher than that of Luo Hai armor, but only by 20 to 30 percentage points, but the price is directly doubled.
Then there is the power system. In order to allow this battleship, which has a displacement of 17,000 tons, to run at 20 knots, a lot of mixed-fired steam units have been inserted.
When firepower, armor, and power are all designed according to the top contemporary standards, the price also skyrockets rapidly.
And because this is a foreign trade warship, the price can only be negotiated between the Orr Kingdom and the weapons trading company. This price is much more expensive than the Daheng Empire purchasing it itself.
In the end, the price initially negotiated between the two parties was that the hull of the No. 4 ship plus armaments and other bits and pieces of equipment were expected to cost 8.5 million yuan!
This does not include incidental costs such as purchased ammunition, spare barrels, etc.
At the same time, after purchasing this new warship, the Orr Kingdom will have to send personnel to receive training. At the same time, the country will also need to add specialized maintenance facilities, personnel, etc.
By then, the money spent will easily reach tens of millions.
This price is too expensive!
And this is not because the Daheng Empire deliberately deceives them, it is because the new generation of battleships are so expensive. In the past, a main battleship could be purchased for two to three million, but in the past few years, the price has risen to
Five or six million, as of now, it is already eight or nine hundred.
Faced with such an expensive price, the Orr Kingdom naturally tried to bargain, but the people from the Daheng Empire Arms Trading Company directly refused, and said that the current price is based on the good cooperative relationship between the two parties.
Otherwise, it will cost tens of millions every minute.
In addition, the Orr Kingdom also found out the cost of the Gaoqing through special channels. Although they did not know the exact figure, they probably knew that the ship cost more than seven million.
However, this is the main ship that was started three years ago, and the Gaoqing has a smaller tonnage and worse firepower. At the same time, the most important thing is that this is the internal purchase price of the Daheng Empire military. The shipyard has no profit at all.
Word.
In this way, Crown Prince Holibart also knows that there is probably no room for negotiation on the price of the new warship. Unless the firepower and protection are reduced, the price can be reduced by a large amount in an instant. It is not impossible to win it within 7 million.
But after lowering the standards, are the new warships still the most cutting-edge warships?
Besides, they have put in a lot of diplomatic efforts to obtain new naval guns and top-grade hardened armor, and there are a lot of exchanges of interests behind them.
Without such diplomatic efforts and exchange of interests, the Daheng Empire would not have let them export Luo Jing armor and top-notch naval guns with a caliber of 300 mm and 45 times, especially the 300 mm and 45 times the caliber.
The main gun, which the Daheng Empire itself has not yet completed mass production of, is the most top-notch naval gun in the contemporary era.
If you don’t pay a certain special price, you won’t be able to sell it no matter how much you pay for pure foreign trade purchases.
At least for now, except for the Kingdom of Orr, other countries cannot expect to get the top-notch naval guns of the Daheng Empire in a short time. In this case, you ask the Kingdom of Orr to give up new naval guns and top-notch naval guns in order to save costs.
They were even less happy when Luo Jing hardened his armor.
After paying such a high price to obtain export approval from the Daheng Empire, but not buying it because the price is expensive, isn’t this putting the cart before the horse?
It's just that this new battleship is really expensive. It's so expensive that a rich man like the Orr Kingdom would have to hesitate again, otherwise the order for the fourth ship would not have been finalized after talks for so long.