Chapter 821 Disarmament
Of course, the construction of the East African Navy in the 1970s was also a last resort, and Ernst also wanted to develop step by step, but knowing the world situation, he had no choice but to hesitate.
At that time, the East African Navy's demand was to be able to take shape in a short period of time and to develop combat effectiveness in order to cope with the severe national defense situation in the 1980s.
After all, Ernst knew that the 1980s was a peak period of expansion of the great powers around the world, and the African continent was a key area. So in this case, the East African Navy must have a certain scale and strength to safeguard the actual interests of East Africa. Obviously, building a stronger navy in a short period of time would come at a price.
Fortunately, the East African Navy successfully fulfilled its historical mission and resisted the pressure of the British Royal Navy during the South African War.
The East African Navy was formed in the 1970s and began to form combat effectiveness in the 1980s. If it was like the Far East Empire, the United States and Japan, which only began to expand their navies in the 1980s, it would probably have been difficult for the East African Navy to compete with the British Royal Navy in the South African War. After all, adapting to ships and naval training is also a relatively long process.
Now, according to Ernst's judgment, the dangerous period in East Africa has passed, so the disarmament of the East African navy and army is inevitable. In addition to the need to cut spending, there is also the consideration of recovering funds.
In particular, the large number of weapons and equipment that were lost or captured during the South African War must be sold immediately while they can still be sold at a good price.
Of course, the East African Navy has a certain degree of localization capability, and it will continue to import warships from Germany and Austria. Apart from political factors, it is more important to learn from the advanced experience and technology of other countries.
In terms of experience and technology, Britain is undoubtedly the most powerful. The reason why East Africa did not introduce warships from Britain is more Versailles. That is, East Africa captured two British warships and sank three in the South African War.
After the South African War, East Africa was not returned to the British government. After all, six million pounds was not enough for East Africa to recover its investment. These two British warships were just used to make up for the losses in the South African War.
In fact, one of the three sunk warships has been successfully salvaged, which means that the East African Navy has three advanced warships in service of the British Army, including two ironclad ships and a cruiser.
Of the three warships, two were severely damaged and are undergoing major repairs. As for the ironclad ship that was salvaged, it has been dismantled and studied by technicians at the Bagamoyo Shipyard.
If we take into account the two British warships that will soon be commissioned into the East African Navy, and the East African government's shipbuilding plans for the next few years, the East African Navy actually did not suffer much loss, and even completed a small-scale update.
However, after this update, the East African Navy has changed from being dominated by the Austro-Hungarian Empire to being dominated by Britain, Austria and Germany. The East African Navy will fully compare the advantages and disadvantages of the actual combat effects of the three naval warships, and then provide feedback to shipyards such as Bagamoyo.
Now we only lack French warships for reference. As for Tsarist Russia and the United States, they can be completely ignored. Neither Tsarist Russia nor the United States is very strong in technology and is at the same level as East Africa. Tsarist Russia has a very poor industrial level and low naval investment, while the United States is not concerned about military development. Although the U.S. Navy has also made great progress in the 1980s, the U.S. Navy could be said to be "paralyzed" before that. Since the end of the Civil War, the United States has basically made no investment in the military, and the development of the navy in the 1980s was still due to the current international environment.
After all, Europe's external expansion activities in the 1980s were too frequent and intense, and no other region or country in the world was not frightened. Every country with eyes open was expanding its military.
As for those countries and regions that are short-sighted, their future fate will be the same as West Africa, where the great powers will carve up the place with knives, leaving nothing behind.
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First town city.
It almost became a rule that Ernst would start disarming after every war, and in 1890, the East African Defense Force was still doing so.
Ernst: "In the next ten years, the size of the navy will remain unchanged. The main task is to gradually replace the current main warships and arrange their retirement according to the construction time and other parameters, so as to maintain the current size of the navy to ensure the safety of our country's waters."
"Of course, considering that our country has newly acquired the colonies of Angola and Mozambique, and thus gained more coastlines and ports, the defense pressure on the navy is even greater. On this point, my opinion is to develop more small and medium-sized and multi-purpose ships to make up for the shortcomings of the East African navy in this regard."
The East African Navy has always been relatively backward in the development of small and medium-sized warships and multi-purpose ships, such as torpedo boats, supply ships, troop transports, etc.
Therefore, the arrangement for the navy during this disarmament actually decreased rather than increased, and did not achieve the purpose of "disarmament". Instead, it did strengthen the navy to a certain extent.
Of course, this is reasonable. After all, East Africa is now a true two-ocean country, or even a three-ocean country. The navy cannot be reduced at all, so increasing the budget is not excessive.
However, while maintaining the overall size of the navy, the East African Navy is still among the top ten in the world, so there is no need to expand too much, which is also in line with the current economic development level of East Africa.
Investing in naval construction without regard for cost like Japan did is actually a serious burden on the national economy. This is also an important reason why Japan is keen on war. If it does not plunder from other places, the Japanese economy will collapse on its own.
East Africa and the United States have a similar attitude on this point, that is, it is enough to be sufficient. Of course, East Africa has always been more active than the United States in military construction. After all, in Ernst's view, military development is a long-term need and cannot be stopped directly for short-term interests.
"As for the army, it should be reduced to pre-war levels. After resolving the issues of Angola and Mozambique, the pressure on our land defense has been greatly reduced, and the national border has been shortened by nearly 3,000 kilometers. At the same time, with the Portuguese out of the game, there will be fewer than 100,000 threatening troops deployed around us, and we no longer need to deploy large numbers of troops on the border in a tit-for-tat manner."
The incorporation of Angola and Mozambique has completely changed the national defense and security situation in East Africa. Instead, the north has become the focus of East Africa's future land defense.
However, the threat from northern East Africa was dwarfed by that from the South African region before the South African War, and the strongest force in the north was still the British, that is, their colony Egypt.
However, the Sahara Desert is a natural geographical barrier between Egypt and East Africa. Although South Sudan was a part of Egypt in history, the South Sudan region is actually in a completely semi-independent state and can break away from Egypt at any time.
Now East Africa only needs to deploy a few troops in the Gezira Plain to completely block Egypt's (Britain's) southward route. As for the detour through the Kordofan Plateau, it also faces the tropical rainforest area in the south, which is almost impossible to achieve without a guide and sufficient supplies. If an army can do it, it will be a "military miracle" worthy of being recorded in history.
As for other forces in the north, there is even less to worry about. The strongest one may be the Abyssinian Empire, which is too backward and has good relations with East Africa.
As for the Boer Republic in the south, after it was eliminated, East Africa completely controlled the north bank of the Orange River and completely got rid of its military and topographical disadvantages due to the terrain. Only a small number of troops were needed to defend against the military strength of the Cape Colony. After the South African War, the Cape Colony probably would not have such an idea.
"So the final number of the National Defense Army's ground forces should be maintained at around 200,000. Of course, the newly formed cavalry units can continue to be retained during the war, and each military region can cancel or mix some minor units as appropriate."
This means that the East African Army will have to cut almost half of its troops, but this is also within everyone's psychological expectations. After all, with the lessons learned from the South African War, there are basically no countries that dare to launch a direct war against East Africa.
(End of this chapter)
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