Chapter 635: US Military Market Research

Charles stayed in the town for two more days in the name of following up on tank development.

In fact, both of Charles' improvements to the tank were technically not difficult and were simple to think of, so there was no need for in-depth discussion.

As for the bistable fire control system, it is a long-term plan for the future and cannot be realized in the near future.

These two days, Charles discussed his business with Djokovic more, mainly the development of American military factories.

That afternoon, Charles had just returned to the office building from the tank research and development department when Djokovic handed him the documents that Joseph had sent from the United States.

"Joseph put the factory in New York," Deyoka said. "He thought that was the most appropriate place to produce."

Ciel took the document and nodded in agreement.

This decision was obviously correct. The Western Front was the transportation target, and New York was the port closest to France and also the largest and most convenient port.

When the U.S. military joins the war in the future, it will also deploy troops to the Western Front and will also need to transport equipment to France.

Therefore, we cannot set up factories in the center of the United States just because we need to equip the US military when doing business with the United States.

(The above picture shows the world's major navigation routes. The two sections marked by the red line are the route from New York to the West of France. The entire route only takes 7 to 10 days. New York is the largest and busiest port, and it is also the most important port for the United States to reinforce the Western Line.)

"The United States is indeed a good place to open a factory," Deyoka exclaimed. "There are cheap resources, cheap labor, and complete infrastructure."

Charles looked at the data in the file and smiled slightly. These were the exact opposite of modern America. Modern Americans were not as hardworking as they were in this era.

At this time, Djokovic changed the subject: "But our business is not going well."

"Not going well?" Charles looked up at Djokovic: "What's not going well?"

"Everything." Djokovic leaned forward and flipped through the documents. He found a page and pointed at the data. "This is the price and purchase volume sent by Joseph, as well as the market research he did for the US military. He thinks the results are not optimistic."

When Charles saw it, he found that all the equipment was purchased at the minimum purchase quantity, with the unit price only a few dollars to a dozen dollars higher, so there was almost no money to be made.

Charles was puzzled. Even if the war had not started and the US military was not under pressure of war, there were many equipments that the US military did not have and should be in urgent need of. Why would they only purchase so little?

For example, the Garand rifle has an overwhelming advantage over the Springfield rifle currently used by the US military.

For example, the "Saint-Etienne 2" light machine gun and mortars, the US military is completely blank in these areas, and the procurement volume is only a few hundred guns per month.

Then, Charles seemed to know the reason.

At that time, the entire US army had only 130,000 people. Buying a few hundred machine guns and mortars a month for such a small force seemed like a lot to them. It would take only a few months to equip all 130,000 people, so there was no need to rush.

However, after reading a market research report on the US military, Charles realized that this was only one of the reasons.

The US military is actually also preparing for war.

The military must be prepared at all times; even if it does not think it will take part in a war, it must still train and upgrade its equipment with the goal of taking part in a war.

The reason for the small amount of equipment is that the US Congress has always been skeptical about Charles' equipment.

Members of Congress commented on the Garand rifle:

"This rifle has a very high rate of fire. The rifle is equipped to every soldier, which means that the ammunition consumption of each soldier will increase."

"But now both Britain and France are facing a shortage of ammunition. Once the war breaks out, equipping ourselves with this kind of fast-firing rifle will undoubtedly put even greater pressure on our already fragile supply lines."

"The most serious thing is that by purchasing such a rifle, we can buy three Springfield rifles to equip three soldiers, and the three soldiers shooting at the same time are enough to make up for the Springfield's insufficient rate of fire."

(Note: The Garand rifle costs about $85, while the Springfield rifle costs only about $28)

Members of Parliament's evaluation of the "Saint-Etienne 2" light machine gun:

"We don't think it's an essential piece of equipment."

"Because we don't see any advantages of this machine gun over the Maxim machine gun."

"Although the Maxim machine gun is bulky, it has a faster rate of fire, and the Germans have proven its value on the Somme battlefield!"

Evaluation of mortar:

"It's a clumsy and ridiculous weapon."

"Simple, ugly, and more importantly, woefully inadequate in power and range."

"Why don't we just buy an infantry gun? Is it better than an infantry gun?"

…

Ciel smiled softly, closing the file and handing it back to Djoka.

Deyoka took the document and looked at Charles, with a hint of surprise in his eyes: "You don't seem to be in a hurry at all?"

Djokovic felt that he could no longer understand Charles, even though he was his son.

"No, father." Charles answered confidently, his tone full of confidence: "We don't need to worry, the situation will change. It's just that the time has not come yet. Let Joseph continue to expand production capacity!"

"Okay." Djokovic was a little helpless. He was almost certain that this was a losing business.

Charles thought about it for a while and realized that the United States was consciously boycotting his arms factory.

Although those words were said by members of Congress, it seemed like they were just a bunch of fools who didn't understand military affairs and had never experienced actual combat.

But in reality…

They were not that stupid. If they just sent a few people to the Western Front to ask the soldiers who had fought in the war, they would immediately know the function of these equipment.

Then why do these ridiculous answers and statements appear?

The root cause lies with the American arms companies behind those congressmen. They do not want the equipment produced by Charles to occupy the arms market that originally belonged to them.

So, even though they knew that the facts were not true, they relied on the power and discourse power in their hands to suppress the truth.

Charles originally didn't want to pay attention to it. He just needed to wait quietly for the United States to join the war and send troops to the Western Front. The battlefield would give the US military a shining slap in the face and expose the lies woven by the congressmen.

But on second thought:

Before the lie was exposed, the US military still purchased Springfield rifles in bulk for quite a long time. Even when expanding the military, the government would invest in urgently expanding the production capacity of Springfield rifles instead of Garand.

This way, it seems that you will earn much less money.

No, we must make Americans realize the value of the Garand rifle before that.

Thinking about this, Charles said to Deyoka, "We can release a batch of Garand to the public at half the price."

"Half price?" Dejoka looked at Charles in surprise: "You are crazy, Charles, this is not even enough to cover the cost!"

(End of this chapter)