What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 419 It was originally uninhabited.
two days ago.

The person who secretly contacted Zhao Hande was Salor. His first reaction upon learning that the country was trying to sell a Yamato to the Japanese was disbelief, but then he had to exclaim how wonderful it was.

When the news reached Johnson, he shared it with Rams, and the two began to study it:
In fact, it is quite difficult to get the Dongda to deploy its ships. The Huashan and Taishan look like battleships, but they are actually variant arsenal ships. Forcibly skipping sea trials and going into combat would be extremely risky, and persuading them would be very difficult.

Moreover, these two warships dug a large number of vertical launch wells to enhance their armament, and most likely removed a significant amount of armor.

However, the original Yamato is different. It's easy to add a bunch of missile launchers and radars by simply following the modification method of the Iowa-class. Sailors from other warships can easily take charge of it. Keeping the armor unchanged would actually better suit their requirements.

However, after discussing the matter with Rams, Johnson felt that it was inappropriate for the University of the East to sell the warships, and made a minor adjustment:
There's no need for C801 and HHQ7. The Empire can simply buy blank ship hulls from the University of Tokyo, without any modifications except for the main guns, then add a bunch of armaments like Harpoon, Sea Sparrow, and Phalanx, and then resell them to the Japanese.

Zhao Hande's asking price of $15 billion is actually not bad. The cost of building a Nimitz-class battleship is roughly $35 billion to $4 billion. The cost of a 70,000-ton battleship is not cheap, and with the various weapon systems and profits, this price is reasonable.

If we remove the weapons systems, with some effort we should be able to negotiate around $10 billion.

The Empire would bring this blank battleship back, install high-end American equipment, and sell it to Japan for at least $30 billion.

This transfer not only ensures control over the Japanese equipment system, but also allows for the verification of some battleship arsenal ship concepts, and ultimately, a hefty profit can be made.

Moreover, it is indeed more convenient to have Japanese characters assist in battle, and it is also much easier to command them.

Rams and Johnson immediately reached an agreement and approved Saliore's use of this multi-pronged approach to negotiate with the Japanese.

……

After receiving the news from Salor, Tomohiro Uchimura was deeply disturbed and immediately convened a meeting with his men, including Masao Iwaki, the captain of the Kongo.

Upon hearing Salor's plan, the latter immediately inquired:
"Why go through the US? We could buy the hull from Dongda and modify it ourselves."

Immediately, people laughed at him:
"Iwaki-kun, do you mean we can import weapons from the University of Tokyo?"

These words saddened the captains present; they had no choice but to bow their heads when they were under someone else's roof.

Tomohiro Uchimura sighed:

"We have to spend our money and still do the work for the old Americans. It's really a helpless situation."

"However, buying a battleship is indeed a suitable option."

Masao Iwaki moved forward a little:

"The Self-Defense Forces have always been restricted from having decent large ships. This is a great opportunity. Moreover, the combat power of battleships is extremely strong. One ship is no less than an aircraft carrier fleet. If we buy them, we can slowly upgrade them and use them for at least thirty or forty years."

After he finished speaking, he added:
"Even putting everything else aside, the purchase of a Yamato is what the people want."

Others also agreed, and there is currently a craze for arsenal ships at the University of Tokyo. Although Japan cannot build aircraft carriers, arsenal ships seem to be a good option, as they can be sold for both public and private purposes.

However, Tomohiro Uchimura hesitated and said:

"But Salor's asking price is very high; the upgraded and remodeled American version of Yamato will cost $40 billion."

"..."

The surroundings suddenly fell silent, with only the sound of breathing through clenched teeth.

$40 billion, that price could buy Nimitz.

Even Masao Iwaki, a fervent Yamato enthusiast, couldn't help but shut up.

Given the US's character, $40 billion is definitely just the beginning. With all sorts of miscellaneous expenses added, it might end up costing $50 billion!

"This price... is a bit too high."

"With that much money, the Kure Naval Arsenal could build a super-Yamato." "Shouldn't just buy it directly from the University of Tokyo for $10 billion?"

"..."

A group of people whispered among themselves, "It would be a miracle if this astronomical budget got approved."

But the purpose of arms sales is never pure, and they have no bargaining power.

After a long while, someone suddenly made a suggestion:

"Wait, if it's Yamato, maybe we can call on the public to donate. We can definitely raise a lot of money!"

……

Georgia
On an open ground at an air force base, the wreckage of several hangars is piled up at regular intervals.

After the task force docked, the Prism Building organized the collection and reconstruction of all the rattlesnake and gnat remains it had found.

On the third day of the work, the experts discovered a problem.

"Are there two types of mosquito gnats?"

When Wayne arrived, he saw a row of relatively intact aircraft wreckage on the site.

Another type is a meticulously restored model, where complete wooden parts are made based on the wreckage and then assembled to recreate the aircraft's complete structure.

During this process, experts select the more complete wreckage, and it is in this process that they discover some parts do not match.

Mark from Boeing led Wayne to a refurbished aircraft and first sat in the original pilot's seat.

It has to be said that this damned fly is simply not a human-driven machine. Wayne watched as the tall Mark sat on a cylindrical, fuel-tank-like thing without even a stool. With the hatch closed, he could only look down and see ahead through the narrow glass.

Mark explained to Wayne:
"Have you noticed that this cockpit doesn't seem to have been designed with the pilot in mind?"

Our previous assumption was that mosquito gnats were cheap products designed for suicide attacks, devoid of any humanitarian considerations. However, this is probably not the case, or their primary purpose.

Huai En nodded vigorously:
“If we did that, the boys’ mothers would beat me to a pulp with Thomson in their hands.”

"In fact, the Second Fleet was about the same; they didn't really lose many pilots."

Mark climbed out of the cramped cabin and led him to a pile of separate wreckage. Most of the wreckage was in disrepair, but Wayne noticed a lot of glass shards and crouched down to examine them closely.

At this moment, Mark picked up a tattered tin box that was burned beyond recognition and had a blackened mess inside:

"We've found this thing."

"what is that?"

"Automatic flight computer, we believe, is a computer that replaces the pilot in controlling the aircraft."

Mark pointed to the bulge on the metal box that was completely deformed, with only a small portion remaining. He pushed it, and it was still movable.

"The mechanism on this metal box could be connected to the control stick and throttle to achieve electronic control of the aircraft. However, due to its proximity to the fuel tank and the internal glue and explosives, it was almost completely destroyed after the collision. Only some circuit board and vacuum tube remnants were found, and the presence of a motor was confirmed by copper residue."

We counted the number of human remains found and found that they were far too few compared to the number of aircraft, and many of the remains did not contain human bodies, while the remains of the computer could not be found in aircraft that contained human bodies.

Clearly, this is a computer controller that replaces the pilot; these gnats were originally intended to be unmanned, and the pilot was added later.

(End of this chapter)