Holy Roman Empire

Austria's shipbuilding plan was announced and Europe's public opinion erupted.

Although the Vienna Government repeatedly emphasized that it was not targeting anyone and merely sought to fill the gap left by retired battleships, still nobody was willing to believe it.

Notably, Vienna had already had a plan named "10 battleships in 10 years" before this, and the 3 pre-dreadnoughts currently in service were part of that shipbuilding plan.

Starting construction on one battleship every year was just normal procedure, perfectly maintaining the current main force of the Austrian Navy.

The sudden addition of five more battleships to the plan was clearly a response to the previous Royal Navy's shipbuilding plan.

At this time, many people realized that not long ago the Austrian Government had gifted numerous warships to the Russians, and their navy was in a period of vacancy.

A testament to Russian-Austrian friendship?

Perhaps that existed, considering the warships were given away for free. Secondhand warships were valuable too, and selling them for their construction cost as per international arms market practice was normal if they were in decent condition.

But, are they sure it wasn't to make space for the new battleships?

It wasn't only Austria that needed to update its fleet; England and France were also facing the retirement of a large number of warships, and there simply weren't enough capable buyers on the international arms market.

Despite the success of the Austrian land forces' equipment sales, naval equipment never enjoyed the same demand as the British.

This had nothing to do with the ships' technology, performance, quality, or price.

The main reason they were hard to sell was politics. Despite Austria's good relations with European countries, its relations with countries outside of Europe were quite average.

This wasn't due to a lack of effort by Austria's Foreign Ministry; rather, there just wasn't much opportunity to engage.

Outside of Europe, countries were either colonies, powers' subordinates, or within their spheres of influence, with very few fully sovereign states.

In fact, there was no need to count; other than the United States, which had significant power and maintained its sovereignty, most other nations had signed unequal treaties with the great powers to different extents.

Of course, this didn't mean Austrian warships couldn't be sold at all; occasionally, there were slim opportunities.

After all, Austria was also a great power with a respectable presence, and the Vienna Government dared to stand out and overcome political obstacles when needed, but the British had brand appeal!

Someone had propagated the theory that everyone took for granted as truth—that British warships were the best in quality and performance, with countries preferring British ships when purchasing warships.

Against this backdrop, warships from France and Austria became hard to sell. The governments even spread rumors that British warships exports were downgraded versions.

Unfortunately, people were not easy to cheat; whether they were downgraded or not was apparent once they inspected the goods.

While the most advanced warships for export were indeed downgraded by the British, John Bull was less particular about the older, retired ships.

Refitting downgraded warships also costs money, at the very least in labor. Old technologies that were phased out were not worth the money to conceal.

Political factors led to losing 60% of orders, and brand effects led to losing another 30% of the remaining share, leaving only 28% of international orders.

(1-0.6) * (1-0.3) = 0.28

This market share was not solely for Austria but was contested by all European countries, predominantly divided between France and Austria.

In those times, there were very few capable buyers, leaving a small market share for Austria, and naturally, they couldn't find buyers for retired warships.

This was the case not only for the Austrian Navy but also for the British. Knowing that the Royal Navy had to use warships for target practice every year showed how difficult they were to sell.

For controlling the proliferation of warships, the European powers had an understanding; even if they couldn't sell, they wouldn't resort to cheap deals or giveaways when using them for target practice.

In a sense, Austria's large-scale gifting of warships to Russia also broke this understanding.

However, since such unspoken rules weren't officially codified and had no verbal agreements, they carried no binding force, causing nothing more than internal dissatisfaction among the powers.

All these were minor issues. The real headache from updating technology and phasing out warships essentially came from the reluctance to part with them.

Battleships not yet due for retirement were too valuable to scrap but keeping them for continued service posed no problems. The key issue was that the new battleships were also coming.

Owning a large number of warships wasn't only imposing but came with massive military expenditure, which was economically very unfeasible.

Whether the speculation was accurate no longer mattered; the warships had already been given away.

Even if one could have second thoughts, given another chance, the Russians would still gleefully take them.

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Being able to become the world's fourth largest naval power without paying any cost is an opportunity anyone would know how to choose.

It's not often that one gets to watch the great powers directly tear into each other. Spectators have already prepared nuts and coffee, just waiting for the big show to begin.

The British had not yet reacted, and the French could not stand it any longer. For the first time, Napoleon IV felt that the Minister of the Navy was too narrow-minded in their shipbuilding plans compared to the Anglo-Austrian two countries.

Compared to the original timeline, France's situation is much better now.

There are no war reparations to pay and no Russians to please, and the recent anti-Semitic movement has resolved the debt problems accumulated over the years; the French government now actually has money.

"The shipbuilding plans for this year from the Anglo-Austrian two countries have been released, and from the current situation, our original shipbuilding plans have become outdated.

The Ministry of the Navy needs to revise the shipbuilding plans—while not saying we will surpass the British, we at least cannot be less than the Austrians."

There's nothing wrong with that. There is still some distance from becoming the world's number one naval power, France, but we cannot easily lose the title of the world's second largest naval power.

Although there is no essential difference between the world's second and third largest naval powers as both can maintain France's overseas interests,

politically, second and third place are completely different. Once we lose the title of the world's second largest naval power, it will give the outside world an impression that France is in decline.

Not to mention the many international enemies waiting to kick us when we are down, but even our proud domestic public would not accept it!

Finance Minister Roy Vernon reminded, "Your Majesty, building warships is not very expensive, but the troublesome part is the huge military expenses in the later stages.

Austria, before announcing their shipbuilding plan, donated a large number of warships to the Russians to reduce military expenses.

If we want to follow through on a large scale, it would be best to retire some of the warships to reduce military expenditures."

The French government indeed has money now, but even with money, we cannot afford to spend recklessly. When it comes to financial resources, the French government still falls short compared to England and Austria.

To avoid the worst-case scenario, Roy Vernon believed that controlling military expenditures as much as possible in the arms race was the key.

Minister of the Navy Hamdi said, "Minister, the ships currently serving in the Imperial Navy are all relatively new, and very few are nearing retirement.

Most of the warships are at about 50 to 60 percent of their lifespan, and all their performance metrics are very high quality. It would be a real waste to retire these ships.

The most critical point is that once these ships are retired, there is simply no way to dispose of them. There are no buyers internationally, and we do not lack training ships.

The only options in front of us are to either use them as target practice or drag them to the factory for dismantling and sell for scrap metal.

Such wasteful behavior is purely squandering taxpayers' money.

The old battleships may be outdated, but that is only when compared to the new battleships. Besides us, currently only England and Austria are equipped with them.

Taking these warships out to perform escort duties anywhere in the world, they are more than capable.

Even if we really had to retire them, it could wait until the new battleships are in service. Over the next few years, we could maximize the value of these warships."

Reluctance is the normal response; warships worth millions or tens of millions of Francs cannot just be disposed of at the drop of a hat—any Minister of the Navy would feel the pain.

After hearing this explanation, Napoleon IV nodded, "New battleships have not yet come into service, so there's no rush to deal with the retirement of old ships.

Our situation is different from Austria's; our overseas colonies depend far more on the navy.

In the meantime, everyone can still try to find buyers as much as possible, even if it means selling at a slightly lower price."

Since Austria can donate for free, France can naturally sell with tears; Napoleon IV still holds a sliver of hope.

If these soon-to-be-retired warships could be sold, that would be a profit. As for the need for overseas escort, that's just an excuse.

These days, who among England, France, and Austria doesn't have an excess of warships? Due to the influence of past arms races, all three countries now have a large number of warships.

As long as the three countries do not go to war with each other, even if half the fleet were scrapped, the French Navy could still fulfill its current duties.

This is also one of the reasons why the Austrian Government donated warships to the Russians; without the three countries clashing, the remaining fleet is adequate, and if the three countries do go to war, whether they donate or not, the result will be the same.

In a France-Austria conflict, navy is not needed as the outcome of the war will be decided by the army; if it comes to fighting the British, the navy has absolutely no chance of winning.

You either go out to disrupt trade or hide in the port to avoid the storm; naval battles are tantamount to suicide.

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