Chapter 1110： Difficult choice (1/2)

International arms purchase orders have always been full of pits. If you don't reserve a few additional payment items, you must not be a qualified arms dealer.

Relatively speaking, the seller of the Vienna government has been very conscientious. He didn't do anything on the airship, and even gave away a lot of spare parts.

However, no matter how conscientious it is, it is inevitable to open up subsidiary additional business, and this time is no exception.

Facts have proved that transport airships do not only require large carrying capacity, but also need safety protection.

In the face of enemy aircraft, the survivability of transport airships is too low, and fighter jets must be escorted.

It is a pity that the poorer Russian government cannot play with such a tall new product as the air force. With just one flight formation supporting the facade, it simply cannot afford to escort.

If it weren't for the Japanese army on the opposite side, the poor ratio and the scarcity of aircraft equipment, the Russian army would have suffered a long time ago.

Now the big loss is not much to eat, but the front-line transport airship has been shot down, so that the airship transport team has been forced to suspend business.

Since ancient times, it is easy to change from frugality to luxury, but difficult to change from luxury to frugality. The Russian army is no exception.

When there was no airship transport team, everyone still didn't feel much. Now that they have it, they suddenly can't use it. Naturally, the frontline officers can't sit still.

We must know that since the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian army has been crushed and beaten by the Japanese. It was not until the smuggling trade flourished and the airship transport team joined that the trend of decadence was reversed.

A few days have passed since the good days, and now it has been cut off again, and the top Russian army naturally cannot bear it.

Affected by the butterfly effect, Russia has been in constant wars in recent decades, and even the level of its officers has risen to a higher level.

Both the professional knowledge level and the combat experience are much richer than the original time and space.

In order to solve the problem once and for all, the Russian military headquarters in the Far East decided to seize air supremacy and formulated a sound combat plan. Now it is the air force.

In theory, the Russian Empire is also capable of building fighters, and there are also a number of ”independent research and development” products with superior performance.

It stands to reason that priority should be given to those of their own businesses. Unfortunately, these ”superior products” have various deficiencies.

Not only the parts and accessories must be imported, but even the production and assembly must be found in foreign manufacturers.

There is no way, everyone who makes money grabs, and no one asks about the business that loses money.

The czarist government was poor in its pockets, unable to build an air force on a large scale, and civilian use was not popularized. Naturally, no one invested in aircraft manufacturing plants, even assembly plants.

The so-called domestic production has also produced an unreliable designer, and it is even uncertain whether the design is his own.

No surprises. As one of the quasi-industrial countries, the Russian Empire is also a big copycat country.

It's just that others are optimizing product performance, or reducing production costs, or modifying them in accordance with local cultural habits and aesthetics.

The Russian business community is different. First of all, performance is not the first pursuit; facilitating people's lives is also not the main goal; optimizing product performance, let alone expecting.

The notion of ”buying is worse than making” has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. If it weren't for cheating subsidies from the tsarist government or for preferential policies, no one would go to industry at all.

In this context, everyone's pursuit is limited to being able to produce products, and nothing else is important.

It's not that everyone is not pursuing, mainly because the industrial supporting system can't keep up, and the artificial quality is also dragging down.

Not to mention high-tech parts, even screws with slightly higher precision requirements need to be imported. It's not that it can't be produced, but the yield is too touching.

This is also the origin of Russia's ”silly, big, black and rough” manufacturing. It’s not that everyone wants to play this way, it is really impossible to make refined products.

In order to be able to ensure normal use, sacrifices can only be made in other areas, so performance is not expected. The only commendable advantage is that it is durable.

However, this advantage has great limitations and is limited to ordinary daily industrial products, not applicable to any high-precision products.

Not to mention the high-tech products like airplanes, what Russia can produce is only the first-generation wooden airplanes.

Now the most popular aircraft in the world has transitioned to metal alloys, and none of the core technologies can be handled by Russia.

If you want to make your own production, almost all parts and accessories have to be imported. The performance cannot be guaranteed, anyway, the cost must have gone up.

This is the time of war, obviously not the time to swollen faces and fills up fat people. Instead of forcibly launching domestically-made fighters that are uncertain about anything, it is better to purchase finished fighters directly.

At least the mainstream fighters equipped by the Shenluo Air Force are all produced in hundreds or thousands, and they have also stood the test of time.

After tapping the seat with his right hand a few times, King Nicholas II frowned and asked: ”How many fighters do you plan to purchase? How much budget do you need? How can the crew solve it?”

Time is the best teacher. After more than ten years of emperor career, Nicholas II is not the pink and tender boy before.

Maybe there is still some distance from becoming a good monarch, but basic common sense things can't be fooled now.

In fact, the Tsarist government was not the first to discuss the issue of purchasing fighters.

The importance of air supremacy is self-evident, if it can be held in hand, no one will give up. It's just that in the end, it was lost for various reasons.

Knowing that there are difficulties, the old things are still being brought up, and the military naturally has to come up with plans to deal with it.

Army Secretary Yevgeny: ”According to the intelligence from the front lines, we need at least hundreds of fighters to seize air supremacy.

Considering that the current international situation is tense and the Anglo-Austrian War may break out at any time, after this procurement, it will not be able to supplement for a long time in the future. We are going to imitate the establishment of the Shinra Air Force and form an air division.

In terms of preparatory battle damage, we need to purchase a total of 400 fighters. The approximate purchase budget is between 30 million and 50 million Aegis.

The specific figures can only be determined after formal negotiations. In the aviation field, Shinra has an absolute advantage, even the British are an era behind.

With Japan's industrial strength, it is not easy to be able to send the produced aircraft to the sky, and there is no performance at all.

To deal with them, it is enough for us to buy second-hand fighter jets that Shinra is about to retire. Not only can you save costs, but you can also get the spot in the shortest time.

As for the crew, after the war broke out, we commissioned Shinra to help train a group. After more than half a year of training, it is barely enough now. ”