African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 1010 Naval Development

 Hence, the development of submarine technology in East Africa has been relatively independent from the beginning, while the development of surface ships is exactly the opposite. East Africa has always been catching up.

It is only in recent years that East Africa's shipbuilding industry framework has begun to get rid of its dependence on Europe. This is mainly due to East Africa's key investment in shipbuilding manufacturing in the 1990s.

In the 1990s, that is, after the South African War, East Africa acquired some important ports in Angola on the west coast, which completely formed the two-ocean structure of East Africa. Correspondingly, the central government of East Africa built a large number of shipbuilding companies on the west coast and east coast at the same time, forming a The independent shipbuilding industry structure, coupled with the accumulation of more than 20 years in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, has enabled the East African shipbuilding industry to develop relatively maturely.

However, in the field of shipbuilding, East Africa can now only be considered a big country, not a powerful one. The country leading the development of the world's shipbuilding industry is still the United Kingdom. The German shipbuilding industry is also developing relatively fast at present, and because the German navy has a different focus, it is not as strong in military shipbuilding. It has formed competitiveness with the UK in the industrial field.

As for other countries, including East Africa, the shipbuilding industry is developing rapidly, especially warships, but it will take a long time to reach the level of Britain and Germany.

Kainmaas: "Today, our navy can only seek technological breakthroughs. Unlike other countries, which frantically expand their naval strength through large-scale construction or introduction of warships, the Bagamoyo proves that our country's navy's warship manufacturing has completely It will get rid of its technological dependence on Europe, and its surface ship manufacturing technology will also be at the forefront of the world," said Hantonio.

"Among them, Japan in the Far East proposed the so-called Six-Six Fleet Plan in the late 1990s. Now this country even has a tendency to surpass us in East Africa in terms of navy. Therefore, the national defense pressure of our navy has increased unprecedentedly, especially in the Pacific region. defense is almost unsustainable.”

Japan's Sixty-sixth Fleet is composed of six main battleships of over 10,000 tons and six armored cruisers as the core, bringing the main battleship tonnage of the Japanese Navy to 130,000 tons.

Coupled with auxiliary ships, the strength of the Japanese navy will exceed the combined naval strength of other countries in the Far East. In addition to the twelve main warships, the Sixty-sixth Fleet Plan also includes ten light cruisers, more than thirty torpedo ships, torpedo boats, and numerous auxiliary ships. The number of newly built and outsourced warships in the entire plan totals 103, with a total displacement of Amounting to 153,000 tons.

The current main battleships in East Africa, including the newly launched Bagamoyo, are only four. Therefore, in recent years, the Japanese Navy has surpassed the East African Navy in scale.

"And in recent years, the development of naval ships is incomprehensible. It is changing almost every year. Technology updates and iterations are quite fast, making the naval competition increasingly fierce."

"This kind of technological iteration does not actually have fundamental changes. Countries are constantly increasing their warship technology, resulting in a serious waste of resources. I don't know how a poor country like Japan accomplishes this."

Although the construction speed of surface military ships in East Africa seems to be slower than that of other countries, East Africa's technological breakthroughs have been growing steadily, and with the vigorous development of East Africa's science and technology field every year, it has given a strong boost to East Africa's military shipbuilding industry.

The three battleships before Bagamoyo seemed to have no fundamental changes, but the details were relatively large, which also accumulated rich experience for the birth of Bagamoyo.

The reason why Kainmaas took the Japanese Navy as an example is because the Japanese Navy has developed to an extent that even East Africa has to pay attention to.

Before the Far East Naval War, the gap between the Japanese navy and East Africa was relatively large. Now it has become a naval power on the same level as East Africa, or even slightly stronger.

Of course, this does not mean the decline of the East African navy, but that the two navies have different development paths. Take the current main battleships of the Japanese Navy as an example, they are basically ordered from abroad. The first four ships are imported from the United Kingdom, and the last two ships are imported from Germany and Japan. Introduced in France.

On the other hand, the four battleships in East Africa are all designed and built in China, and Japan's Six-Sixth Fleet plan has not yet been completely completed.

East Africa will also continue to build one or two experimental battleships during the First Five-Year Plan. Under normal circumstances, by 1905, the number of main battleships in East Africa should be equal to that of Japan. However, in the previous life, Japan captured a large number of Russian ships due to the food delivered by Tsarist Russia. Therefore, after 1905, the Japanese Navy may obtain a batch of new equipment. For example, during the Russo-Japanese War in the previous life, the Russian battleship "Victory" was captured by the Japanese Navy and re-established. Named Zhou Fanghao.

Of course, no matter what, East Africa will not be compared to Japan. Even during the First Five-Year Plan, East Africa's main focus was on industrial construction and its military development was relatively slow, but it was not bad in the world.

From the perspective of naval military expenditures, East African naval military expenditures are still on the rise, and East Africa has not participated in naval competitions, so most of these funds are used in the field of military equipment and technology improvement.

For Japan's "Six-Six Fleet Plan", naval funding alone accounts for about 50% of the national development budget, and this does not include the expenditure of the army.

Therefore, Japan is more militarily aggressive than in history, and with such a high proportion of military expenditures, the impact on the Japanese economy is noticeable to the naked eye.

Of course, Japan's approach is in line with its special national conditions, because the current Japanese government's idea is to use foreign aggression and expansion to make up for its fiscal deficit and obtain resources for its own industrial development.

The premise of all this is that Japan has a large fleet that can meet Japan's aggression needs to achieve its strategic goals.

This is also a "gamble". After all, relying on war to realize one's ambitions is extremely uncertain. Any war may interrupt Japan's national destiny.

For example, take the Russo-Japanese War in the previous life. Some people estimate that this war severely hindered the development of both Japan and Russia. The Russian navy lost nearly half of its navy, and its national self-esteem was seriously frustrated. The Tsarist Russian government eventually collapsed, and Japan did not receive war reparations from Russia. , the war expenditure was very huge, which caused the Japanese economy to not recover for at least two decades.

Of course, Japan has both gains and losses. The Russo-Japanese War established its status as a great power, and Japan's economy was seriously dragged down. It also depends on who it is compared with. If it is compared with European countries, Japan has lost an opportunity for development. , but Japan's geographical location is the Far East. After the Russo-Japanese War, Japan had almost no opponents in the Far East.

Of course, these have nothing to do with the current East African Navy. The development path of the East African Navy is relatively independent, especially after the 1990s, it completely shifted to the tide of local development.

Although East Africa has several colonies in the Pacific, their economic value in the current era is not great, so it does not need a strong navy to maintain it for the time being. Even if it is temporarily lost, it will not have a big impact on East Africa, and the local navy of East Africa does not need a strong navy to maintain paper data for the time being. Deterrence.

Furthermore, in the military field, in addition to current strength, we also need to look at military-industrial potential. Before the two world wars, the military data of the United States were not impressive. However, with its strong industrial potential, it could expand rapidly to the point of despairing its enemies.

The same is true for East Africa. The East African navy can carry out large-scale expansion at any time, but this will affect the development of East Africa's economy, so it is better to develop its own industry first.

The difference in focus does not mean a gap in strength. If threatened by the outside, based on the current industry and population of East Africa, a large army can be organized at any time.

(End of chapter)