The Rise Of Australasia

As April 1929 approached, preparations were underway for several kingdoms to be established in the United States region.

The British had implemented military control over New York, which barely suppressed the continuous protests occurring there.

Of course, military control couldn't last too long, which meant that the establishment of several kingdoms had to be carried out in a short time.

Compared to the rush of the British, those in Australasia weren't in much of a hurry. While they needed to keep up the pace, watching the British face various problems provided a form of entertainment.

Arthur was quite busy during this time, constantly imparting the knowledge he had grasped to the two youngsters.

How much they could learn depended on the youngsters' efforts, as some things could only be understood through personal realization—speaking more about it wouldn't be very useful.

On an ordinary Sunday, there was exciting news from the missile development project group that invigorated Arthur.

Several years had passed since the first test flight of the Test rocket, and the missile development project team had long since developed the latest model, the Test-2 missile, based on the fundamental Test-1 rocket.

This missile came in two versions, one for ground launch and the other for bomber deployment.

First, let's talk about the standard ground-launched version, which is a more advanced missile resulting from comprehensive modifications to the Test-1 rocket.

In terms of missile power, there is an extremely advanced air jet engine serving as the foundation for the missile's propulsion.

The ground-launched missile is 8.7 meters long and weighs 7.9 tons, capable of carrying nearly a ton of explosives.

Given the missile's power system, the ground-launched version can achieve a maximum flight altitude of 17.5 kilometers and a range of up to 240 kilometers, allowing it to strike targets in marine, terrestrial, and aerial domains from a distance.

However, due to the underdeveloped technology, this missile doesn't have much targeting ability, and the final explosion site might deviate by hundreds of meters to several kilometers from the intended target.

Yes, the deviation can be that outrageous.

If the weather is good and no accidents occur during the missile launch, the deviation might be within one kilometer.

But if any accidents happen, the deviation will basically exceed one kilometer.

This means that this version of the missile is more suited for striking ground troops, urban cities, and important areas—large targets—as the hit rate for small targets like aircraft and warships would be worrying.
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But this is an inevitable limitation. Indeed, technological constraints mean that current missiles lack high precision in hitting targets.

However, as more accurate control systems, gyroscopes, and various electronic technologies develop in the future, the effective hit rate of missiles will surely improve.

What Arthur is most looking forward to is the development of nuclear weapons. If it was possible to pair the existing missiles with nuclear warheads, then a deviation of a few kilometers would be within an acceptable range.

After all, the effective strike range of nuclear weapons is at least tens of kilometers, so such a deviation falls well within the attack area. The only question would be the extent of the damage.

Compared to the ground-launched version, the bomber-deployed version is smaller and its power has also been greatly reduced.

The bomber-deployable version, called the Test-2A, has been downsized to 3.7 meters long and weighs approximately 2.2 tons.

Accordingly, the amount of explosives the missile can carry has been reduced to 220 kilograms.

Due to its smaller size, this type of missile can effectively attack aircraft in the air.

With a flight speed exceeding 450 kilometers per hour, this missile is much faster than an airplane, creating the opportunity for more precise hits.

If the hit rate of the ground version of the missile depends on the weather and other factors, the hit rate of the bomber-launched missile mainly relies on the skills of the pilot operating the airplane.

If the pilot aims accurately, hitting airborne aircraft and airships shouldn't be an issue. But poor targeting could mean the missile could end up anywhere, even exploding amidst a crowd of people.

Arthur was very interested in both versions of the missile.

To personally experience the power and hit rate of both missiles, Arthur decided to conduct a test launch and assessment of the two missiles in the mountainous areas of Australasia.

Each type of missile aimed at a different simulated target, but the number of missiles involved in the test was the same for each type.

After communicating with the missile research project team, they decided to manufacture 100 of each type of missile for the test.

The ground-launched missiles aimed at a simulated ground army and enemy industrial area, while the bomber-launched missiles targeted aircraft in the air and enemy warships.

As the production of the missiles required some time, the missile test was scheduled for June, and the location was set in the Great Desert of Western Australia.

Anyway, there are no satellites now, so by selecting a sparsely populated area, we can ensure that foreign spies are unlikely to find out.

Of course, missile transportation still has to be carried out quietly, for no one knows how many spies are among the population of over 30 million in Australasia, and the slightest exposure could lead to unexpected incidents.

Fortunately, a large number of missiles had already been manufactured during earlier testing, so it only took a little over a month to make up for the shortfall.

After a little more than a month of emergency construction and preparation, on June 11th, 1929, Western Australia's desert officially began testing two types of missiles.

The first tests were of the ground missiles. This simulation target was a large industrial area of the enemy 210 kilometers away, and one of the enemy's divisions 140 kilometers away.

Fifty missiles were launched in each of the two strikes, and they were quickly launched by the launchers. The power systems of the missiles also activated swiftly and headed towards their predetermined targets.

Although it was already known that the missiles might have a low hit rate, the actual test results still disappointed Arthur somewhat.

Of the 50 missiles launched at the industrial area and the enemy troops, less than 20 actually hit the targets.

Considering that both the simulated large industrial area and the area where the enemy troops were stationed were quite large, this also means that the missile accuracy might be even more severe than anticipated.

A total of 100 missiles hit just 17 targets, with 21 landing within three kilometers of the target, and the rest all falling outside of the three-kilometer range.

There were even about ten missiles that landed in the desert more than ten kilometers away from the target, and had it not been for soldiers tracking along the missile's trajectory for a long time, these missiles might have been buried in the desert.

Although the destructive power of the missiles was still impressive, a 17% hit rate meant that to effectively destroy the enemy's industrial area and ground troops, a large number of missiles would have to be deployed.

In other words, if the quality is inadequate, rely on quantity: launch hundreds of missiles in each bombing run, and dozens of them are bound to hit the target.

The downside to this approach is the financial pressure. After all, the missiles contain air jet engines, plus gunpowder and various other components, making the cost of each missile close to 12,000 Australian dollars.

To have at least a hundred missiles hit the enemy's targets, at least 600 missiles would have to be fired, which means a cost of 7.2 million Australian dollars.

However, if one thinks about it, being able to destroy the enemy's industrial base or massively harming the enemy's ground troops means that even a cost of several million Australian dollars is not a problem.

It can only be said that war is indeed too expensive, whether the wars of now or of a hundred years later, they all represent a huge financial burden for countries.

Although the current war does not involve a massive use of high-tech weapons, the fund needed for the war is also substantial.

The military expenditures of the powers during World War I were calculated in hundreds of billions of US dollars, and even with their vast colonies, Britain and France could only sustain it for a few years.

Now that tanks and airplanes have become one of the mainstream weapons for various countries, the next large-scale war will consume even more funds, making war a last resort for countries without colonies and backup markets.

Although the hit rate of the missiles is somewhat disappointing, after all, they constitute a superweapon capable of effective strikes nearly 240 kilometers away, which would remain absolutely cutting-edge even up to World War II.

Just imagine, while other countries' cannon can only reach a range of a few kilometers, Australasia's effective range is already about a hundred times theirs.

This vast disparity in range has already predetermined a fundamentally different level of casualties and performance between the two militaries in war.

Calming his thoughts, Arthur then turned his attention to the upcoming tests of missiles carried by bombers.

This smaller type of missile was much cheaper to produce than the larger ground-based missiles. The average cost of each small missile was less than 7,000 Australian dollars, a price that definitely justified the large-scale production of missiles.

The targets for the small missiles, simulating enemy airplanes and warships, were also launched in quantities of 50 each.

Because the targets were smaller, the actual hit rate of the missiles was even lower, around 11%.

This was still due to the simulated targets not moving and the preparedness of the pilots.

If placed on a real battlefield, the hit rate of 11% would at least be halved, indicating that relying on missiles to destroy enemy warships and airplanes would be very difficult.

On the flip side, if such small missiles could destroy an enemy warship, even if a larger number of missiles were needed, it would be worth it.

A single main battleship's cost runs into the millions of Australian dollars, which is nearly equivalent to 1,000 missiles.

This doesn't even account for the cost of training navy soldiers and the daily maintenance of the warships.

If 1,000 small missiles could take out one enemy main battleship, then strategically speaking, it was undoubtedly worth it.

After all, manufacturing missiles is much simpler than building warships, which can be used immediately once produced.

The construction of a single main battleship takes at least nearly two years, so the investment in time for both parties is completely disproportionate, and in war, time is the most important factor.