Chapter 841 – CVA-01 Aircraft Carrier Program

“If I had the power to decide, I would agree immediately.” Alan Wilson glanced at the accompanying Her Highness and agreed without the slightest hesitation, “But I don’t have the power to decide, but it doesn’t matter, I’m willing to work hard for this to get a good result, and start communication with the country right away.”

Agreed! Why not agree, even though the Queen Class Heavy Aircraft Carrier was Britain’s most up and coming aircraft carrier. But the family knows its own business, and the renewal of the Royal Navy is already in question.

The Labor government, while certainly not having to worry about the debt to the US now, is still uncomfortable with increasing military spending. The military spending to maintain the size of the navy has also been replaced by the RAF and not much has flowed into the navy.

Once the Queen class has started work on a third, and even a larger heavy carrier could be designed straight away, it would be good news for the Royal Navy’s shipbuilding accumulation alone.

It’s entirely possible to do exactly what the Russians did, take India’s money and do Russia’s work, and get the cost back by converting an aircraft carrier, let alone doing it to Australia.

What with the big fat military purchases, India is just having fun, and it’s really Australia that can call it a big fat deal.

“Difficulty?” Menzies saw Alan Wilson did not speak for a long time, with doubt again asked.

“No, I will immediately communicate with the country for this.” Allen Wilson eyes burning, can not let that India …… Australian run away, the hope of the Royal Navy to renew and modernize the Royal Navy, rests on the Australian.

Not to mention a Queen class aircraft carrier, if the honored guests need, Britain can completely redesign a larger class, with practical action to prove that blood is thicker than water.

It simply went surprisingly well, and Prime Minister Menzies didn’t know why, but it was a little too easy.

He made the request, of course, for practical reasons; Australia is too vast and sparsely populated to really wait for a potential enemy to hit its doorstep, and it’s better to keep the enemy out of the country.

Otherwise, how many soldiers would be needed to guard such a long coastline in northern Australia? Australia simply didn’t have the manpower.

Alan Wilson understands this kind of psychology, if he were him, he would not have a second choice.

At this time, the royal princess needs to open her mouth to come and expound the facts of the relationship between Britain and Australia, Princess Margaret firstly opened her speech with I am also just a personal opinion, and then angrily denounced Churchill’s selfish behavior during the Second World War, and then said in a tone that could not be proved that the London political circles do harbor guilt for some of the behaviors during the Second World War.

“Your Highness, that was Churchill’s personal mistake.” Prime Minister Menzies said with a tone of respect, “Admittedly, it must have hurt Australia’s feelings, but what more can we say?”

Alan Wilson looked on coldly; the segments about Churchill being responsible for Britain’s decline, starting with the Father of the Soviets, were spread by himself through his wife, Pamela Mountbatten.

Within Britain he had restraint, but among the Commonwealth countries he was so polite. Especially with countries like Australia and New Zealand, which already had a grudge against Churchill, it was right to let him take the blame.

The countries with Churchill’s worst reputation today are not Britain, but Australia and New Zealand.

Leaving the Prime Minister’s Office and letting his sister-in-law of honorable status walk in front of him, if not for Princess Margaret’s presence, he, a colonial commissioner, although doing nothing different from a country’s prime minister, wanted to meet with Prime Minister Menzies not casually.

Her Royal Highness became Alan Wilson’s knocker this time, but she just didn’t reject it in her heart.

“The Australians want the latest aircraft carrier?” Princess Margaret asked, “Why is that?”

“The land is vast and sparsely populated, and a proactive approach to containment is being taken. The Bamboo Curtain in the eyes of the Americans is in East Asia, the Bamboo Curtain in the eyes of the Australians is Sukarno, who is close at hand shouting about Greater Indonesianism.”

Restricted by the evacuation and the presence of MI5, Alan Wilson couldn’t have a victory kiss with Her Royal Highness.

Despite some regrets, Alan Wilson was happy, and once it was done, he was sure the benefits to Britain would be enormous, and talk about an extraneous situation.

This is simply a windfall, if you can pull Australia into the fold, heavy aircraft carriers start, is not another reason?

Currently, the Royal Navy has only four Centaur, three Glory, two Vengeance, two Eagle, two Malta, and now the Queen’s class aircraft carriers in service.

In addition to these thirteen carriers, there are also the Giant class carriers, which have been sold to France, the Netherlands, Brazil, Canada, and among the potential buyers that are still looking for buyers, Argentina and other countries.

In fact, the UK is interested in selling one of them to Australia, but Australia, which has had money for two years since the discovery of iron ore, probably won’t be able to afford the Giant class anymore.

But it’s still not out of the question, one could buy one and give one away, for example, the UK would be willing to start a new heavy carrier while giving one away for Australia to use first, though conversion fees would have to be charged.

Didn’t Russia sell the Gorshkov carrier to India under the guise of giving it away and making money on the refit fee?

Returning to Pamela Mountbatten’s property purchased in Canberra, Alan Wilson was full of smiles, as if he had taken the princess’s first time, Pamela Mountbatten inquired about the cause of the matter, “What is there to be happy about?”

“You don’t understand, the Navy must have wanted to follow up with a larger tonnage aircraft carrier, only the Cabinet wouldn’t pay for it. Since Australia is interested in wanting better carriers, this is the key to solving the Navy’s dilemma.” Alan Wilson whistled.

“That should make Father happy.” Pamela Mountbatten knew a little about why her husband was happy.

“My wife is so smart.” Alan Wilson didn’t mince words in giving the compliment, “Including, but not limited to, carriers of tonnage below the Centauri class carriers, with limited conversion potential, meaning that the carriers available to Britain for twenty years or more can only be larger than that, and in the Pacific Fleet the Kouki class is in jeopardy as well. That means there are only six 30,000-ton carriers that will still be around ten years from now, and even of those six, the two Grudge Classes are only just over 30,000 tons displacement, and will be increasingly out of reach as their carriers get bigger and bigger.”

In other words, in ten years’ time only six of the British carriers that traversed the oceans would still have the potential for refit. More likely, there will only be two Eagle-class and two Queen-class left to hold the fort.

Most of the small stock of twenty carriers still available will either be sold or broken up. Can’t have the Malayan colonies keeping so many battleships while keeping no less carriers than battleships, can we?

It would be better to hurry up and see which country was stupid and rich and better suited to be the receiver, and make a fortune in refit fees.

“What are you going to do?” Pamela Mountbatten knew her husband’s nature, once he stumbled upon a good thing can still hold back?

“It’s a little hard to say, but for the good of the country, and likewise for the dreams of Mountbatten’s Minister of the Sea. I’m going to make a trip back to England right away.” Alan Wilson, a little embarrassed that plans don’t change as quickly as they should, emphasized, “We can’t let the simple Australians down, and I’m going to make this happen.”

Pamela Mountbatten sighed quietly, “Well, that’s just the way you are, as if nothing can be done without you ……”

“As a British official, this is all that should be done.” Alan Wilson looked like Great Britain can not be separated from Ai Zhongtang’s spirit of ownership, just short of three times bowing to the direction of London, performing a show of eating the king’s salary and loyalty.

Although he is the high commissioner of the Malayan colony, but the work has been in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, many later generations of African countries ambassadors, was originally called by the high commissioner, people who do not know still think that the British Empire is still there.

“What the Minister of the Sea is also just a figure of fun, really promote the construction of aircraft carriers, but also have to look at me.” In his wife and daughter and sister-in-law’s farewell, Alan Wilson boarded the Comet I, just a few days, and started the return trip.

But before doing so, he hadn’t forgotten to follow the list in his journal and shush his redheads everywhere.

The Honorable First Sea Lord received a telegram from his son-in-law long before Alan Wilson boarded the plane. The telegram said straight out that he had something good to tell, causing Mountbatten to fidget and wonder what good things his son-in-law had to say and what it had to do with him.

Twenty-four hours later, transferred from Paris to London, a tired Alan Wilson, with a peckish air arrived in London, wasting time is shameful, he never wasted even a minute, especially in logistics.

The combination of jet lag coupled with physical exhaustion left Allen Wilson groggy and walking lightly, but he had no regrets, and it was in this state that he appeared before Admiral Mountbatten to make peace with the communication with Australia.

“The Royal Navy has not built a single warship, not even a frigate, since the construction of the two Queen’s Classes was completed. Long periods of time without new warships being built will age the talent, and if there is ever a new project, it will cause costs to rise due to the break in talent. But this is something that won’t convince the Cabinet, the Royal Navy is too stocked and without justification the Cabinet will only see an increase in military spending.”

It didn’t take a son-in-law to say this, Admiral Mountbatten had already cited the lack of potential carriers to either be sold or disbanded, the Malayan colony was can’t afford to keep all the old warships in the Royal Navy, can it?

“Does the Admiralty have any plans for the construction of new carriers?” Alan Wilson asked after mentioning Australia’s needs.

“Of course there is, Cabinet clearance is another matter.” Mountbatten cut in, thinking of the CVA-01 program, “And then there’s the fact that the Cabinet is prepared to sell a carrier to India.”