In the center of Austro-Hungarian Empire, Vienna, the Imperial Admiralty. ←

"His Majesty Frederi demanded the acceleration of the installation of four Romanian-class aircraft carriers. These four warships must be put into service before we re-unlock the Suez Canal in November. For this reason, the Navy Equipment Department needs to send special personnel to the major captains to supervise and supervise the construction of each aircraft carrier." Marshal Mikloch Holty, the Minister of the Imperial Navy, conveyed the emperor's request to the naval generals. The construction of aircraft carriers was listed as a priority project, and all required armor plates and other materials were given priority.

As the link between His Majesty the Emperor and the Navy Command, the Navy Minister informed the senior generals who attended the meeting about the latest situation. Due to Japan's participation in the war, Germany's colonies in the Pacific region were basically out of stock. At present, except for New Guinea, the largest area, almost all German Pacific colonies have fallen into the hands of the Japanese.

The meeting included General Hans Frankel, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Lieutenant General Matthias Schindler, Commander of the General Staff of the Navy, General Matt Kovadic, Commander of the First Fleet, Commander of the Second Fleet, General Luka Wagner, Commander of the Third Fleet, General Wermotz Yankel, Commander of the Submarine Force, Lieutenant General Egon Leirsch, Commander of the Dalmatia Coastal Defense Force, and Lieutenant General Evan Kemp, Commander of the Dalmatia Coastal Defense Force, among others. The generals gathered in the conference room, and the naval giants gathered to discuss the overall strategy of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in future naval warfare.

The importance of the meeting is naturally self-evident.

"Everyone knows that due to Japan's participation in the war, our colonies in the Far East are in danger and may be attacked at any time. Since the Suez Canal is blocked, it will take at least three months to clear the waterway that was destroyed by the British army. Before that, the Far East would not receive any support." Navy Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Matthias Schindler continued to speak after Marshal Holty. At present, the Austro-Hungarian Navy is the only East African fleet with weak strength. The Far East Fleet can now hide in the ports of the Beibu Gulf and do nothing under the cover of the aviation force. "Before our army and the German army fully control the Suez Canal and clear the waterway, the important task of attacking the enemy's maritime transportation lines in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific region can only fall on the submarine forces."

"General von Leirsch, please introduce to you the recent combat readiness of the submarine force!" Admiral Hans Frankel, the commander-in-chief of the meeting, turned his attention to Lieutenant General Egon Leirsch, the commander of the submarine force.

"Yes, the respected marshal, and the commander-in-chief of the Navy!" Lyrch leaned forward slightly. "So far, the Imperial Navy has equipped a total of 112 submarines, of which 26 are old submarines built in the late European war to 25 years ago. They are no longer competent for the current combat mission and can only be used as training submarines. Of the 76 new submarines currently equipped by the submarine force, 8 are under overhaul in the shipyard, and 38 are in the Mediterranean region. In the Atlantic Ocean, we currently have 14 submarines in the Indian Ocean.

There are 6 submarines active. In addition, there are 10 submarines operating in the Far East and the Pacific. Since most of the submarines are in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, our submarines have achieved very limited results. However, our latest smub35c submarine has started to be fully constructed since March. Due to the use of segmented construction technology, our submarine construction cycle has been shortened to 7 months, and the average working hours have also been reduced to 170,000 working hours. It is expected that the first 16 new submarines to be built in early September will be able to enter service."

Currently, there are four shipyards in Austro-Hungary that can build submarines. The Navy is preparing to expand the scale so that some medium-sized shipyards can also join the construction of light ships and submarines. This requires the transformation of most shipyards, and the number of ships cannot be increased in the short term.

"Our future combat focus will be on the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean will be solved by the German Navy, which requires our surface ships to have sufficient endurance. Due to the emergence of aircraft, the chances of survival of surface attack ships are getting smaller and smaller. His Majesty the Emperor rejected our plan to send a single surface attack ship, that is, without the support of aircraft carriers, our surface fleet's range of activities is limited to the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean Sea." Marshal Holtie said, "In the absence of the support of aircraft carriers, our surface fleet's range of activities is limited to the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean."

Come, our surface fleet will operate mainly aircraft carriers and form a special mixed fleet. In view of this situation, our surface ship construction is mainly aircraft carriers and light cruisers and destroyers that are responsible for air defense and anti-submarine missions. The "City"-class heavy cruiser guns are being built from dual-mounted 203 mm to triple 127 mm high-level dual-purpose guns. In addition, we need to speed up the development of 150 mm anti-aircraft guns, and all 150 mm naval guns on light cruisers need to be replaced with anti-aircraft guns as soon as possible."

"Our current aircraft carrier displacement has exceeded 40,000 tons. Only the naval shipyards of Isleia, Royal, Danube and Bora can be built. In fact, the performance of the two medium-sized aircraft carriers currently being built for China is very good. We need more shipyards to participate in the construction of aircraft carriers. If it is an aircraft carrier with a displacement of less than 30,000 tons, we have a total of eight shipyards that can build such large warships. In addition to the construction of large air defense cruisers, the number of aircraft carriers built by our aircraft carriers can also be greatly improved." Yankeel said that the performance of the new aircraft carrier improved by the German "Graf Zeppelin" class aircraft carrier is actually quite excellent. In addition to the number of carrier-based aircraft aircraft carriers, the number of carrier-based aircraft carriers is not as good as that of the "Romania" class aircraft carriers built by Austro-Hungary, but when performing some tactical tasks, it has an advantage over heavy aircraft carriers.

At least this medium-sized aircraft carrier consumes nearly half of the fuel when operating than heavy aircraft carriers. From the perspective of combat economy, many small and medium-sized combat operations do not require the dispatch of heavy aircraft carriers.

"This is a good idea. I will instruct the naval shipbuilding department to evaluate the Chinese aircraft carrier under construction as soon as possible. If feasible, we will place an order to the shipyard as soon as possible." Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Hans Frankel said, "Parliament has passed an additional budget of 1.5 billion kroner, and the funding issue is not too big."

"For everything to win, we need to strengthen our strength as soon as possible. The parliament has me and the emperor come forward to solve it." Marshal Holty said. "One thing to note is that the emperor will no longer approve any construction plans for heavy cruisers and battleships, but can build air defense cruisers with displacement of more than 10,000 tons. This is what the Admiralty needs to pay attention to when formulating shipbuilding plans and budgets."

Due to the influence of Lee Hayden, the Austro-Hungarian Navy's understanding and use of aircraft carriers is one step ahead of other navies. In fact, by early October, after the four "Romanian" class aircraft carriers were put into service, the number of aircraft carriers the Austro-Hungarian Navy would have as many as the Japanese Navy, but the combat effectiveness of a single ship would be much stronger.
Chapter completed!