Father of France

Chapter 248 Heading Towards the Right Path
"If an armed standoff really breaks out in Berlin, it won't concern us much," General Dracon said nonchalantly. The French-occupied zone was behind the British and American-occupied zone, and the French army was far from Berlin and not even in the occupied zone. There wasn't much they could do if a standoff actually occurred.

As for the air force, the mainstay of the French air force is still British and American fighter jets; French and German equipment have been sold to South Asia in exchange for gold.

“We can gain some benefits after the crisis, and persuade the government to value weaponry,” Koman said as he thought. “Especially the development of attack helicopters, which is the only potential weapon to deter the Soviet Union’s overwhelming tank formations, and is also very useful in overseas provinces.”

In the 21st century, many applications of armed helicopters have been squeezed out by drones. Whether they will continue to develop is not something that ordinary people can guess.

However, at this point in time, attack helicopters are a very promising weapon platform and an important means of containing the advance of Soviet tank armies. France was one of the first armies after the war to equip itself with attack helicopters on a large scale, because France found them to be extremely effective in Algeria. In open terrain, there was no more flexible platform than the attack helicopter for pursuing guerrillas.

Later, the US military in Vietnam and the Soviet military in Afghanistan had similar experiences in the war. However, when the US and Soviet forces were fighting, portable missiles were already widely deployed. Although the US and Soviet forces had powerful tools to contain guerrilla warfare, they also suffered heavy losses. In the Algerian War, the French army was almost a one-sided force.

Upon hearing this, Admiral Dragon smiled and gave Koeman some good news: "I understand that the turboshaft engine problem has been solved, which has greatly improved the stability of the helicopter. If you are interested, you can go and take a look."

“That’s great. If an armed standoff breaks out in Berlin, we can use that as a reason to persuade the government to equip us with large quantities of military equipment.” Koeman raised an eyebrow, his face relaxing as he said, “As long as we achieve the military’s objectives, a Berlin crisis won’t be a loss. We don’t even know how well our post-war military technology has recovered.”

"If the mandate period ends and the Israeli-Palestinian war breaks out, France can use this opportunity to extricate itself from the Berlin crisis. In any case, given the local conditions, it is a war that should not be overestimated in the military field, but has great political interests. We can strongly support Syria politically, but we don't need to invest too much military aid; just a token gesture will suffice."

This is a practice that even Macron in the 21st century would know to do, let alone the current French government. When making statements, he would say all sorts of harsh things, as if he couldn't wait to follow Napoleon's example and launch another Eastern Expedition.

But if the Ukrainians want aid, we can't give it to them. That's a lot of hard-earned money, and we can't give it to those Ukrainian peasants.

After much thought, considering several hot topics, it really is true that Chiang Kai-shek has little to do with France. Koeman even implied that the United States doesn't care about Chiang Kai-shek, but he himself didn't even think of Chiang Kai-shek. He really has no value for united front work.

Koeman suddenly became extremely interested in the current state of French military technology. He wondered if France could still shake up the old imperialist power. He had to ask his comrades to accompany him to find out.

“Since you came back, I’ve had significantly less time for my regular work.” Despite saying this, Martin emerged from the Paris Gendarmerie barracks with a broad smile, clearly wanting to look around. “Why didn’t you have your Ava with you?”

“She’s not French, so she can’t tour the weapons systems,” Coleman said, plopping down in Martin’s gendarme. “She’s going to meet with some architects to see what kind of university they’re building.”

"Oh!" Martin exclaimed noncommittally, starting the car without hesitation and heading towards the testing ground for the armed helicopters. "She's really obedient in promoting French education."

"You envy me." Koeman's words, uttered while looking straight ahead, silenced Martin's exclamation. Wherever Koeman's university was located, the tentacles of usury imperialism reached there.

The future helicopter designs fall into two categories: one is the Russian style, and the other is also Russian.

Sikorsky, an American company founded by immigrants from Tsarist Russia, shaped the basic configuration of American helicopters: a single main rotor and a tail rotor. Many Soviet helicopters, on the other hand, featured a twin-rotor configuration with a tail rotor.

Soviet helicopters had two counter-rotating rotors at the same location on top, which ensured the helicopter's stability and allowed it to continue flying even if the tail rotor was broken off. In contrast, a single-rotor helicopter would experience a significant decrease in stability and a much higher crash rate if its tail rotor malfunctioned.

This is similar to the difference between American submarines, which prefer monohulls, and Soviet submarines, which prefer catamarans; it reflects a difference in technological approaches.

In reality, the Soviet Union was not like the stereotype of prioritizing weapon performance over the lives of its soldiers. Soviet weapon systems, when technologically feasible, did value human life.

Along the way, Koeman asked his local comrade whether France's military development had returned to normal.

This is the basic duty of the military police. In terms of their nature, the military police in Western countries are roughly equivalent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Soviet-style countries, but their power is certainly not that great, only their scope of work.

Martin had a general understanding of the military projects and companies involved in the country, and informed Koeman that the Air Force had determined the development path for the jet fighter, and that Dassault had undertaken the obligation to develop the jet fighter. "The last time I heard that Dassault had also approved the nose intake layout."

"That's good, otherwise it would be too embarrassing for our country's air force to rely on Britain and the United States." Koman said with a wry smile, "Our situation is not much better than that of the defeated countries." "Indeed, the navy wants to lease British aircraft carriers, but who can blame them for having the capability?" Martin steadily stopped the car and walked with Koman, saying, "The navy doesn't want to give up the second ship of the Richelieu, but it's unclear whether battleships will still have room for use after the war."

Martin glanced at Koman and added, "Of course, in your eyes, battleships are still useful for dealing with colonies, but it's clear that the Navy also knows that aircraft carriers are the future development path."

“That’s not contradictory.” Koman gave a dismissive salute to the guards at the test site and continued on the issue, “To take into account the needs of underdeveloped regions, battleships are more suitable. As for the aircraft carrier issue, we’ll discuss it after we see the helicopter test flights.”

The helicopters parked at the Army Proving Ground are French modifications of Sikorsky helicopters that France heavily imported after Koeman went to the United States, with the US essentially giving them away for free.

It was the weapon he had brought back, which Koeman recognized at a glance. When Martin asked if he wanted to test drive it, he firmly refused, saying, "I've never had any trust in the sky."

“I knew it.” Martin grinned mischievously, not at all surprised. He had done it on purpose. Then he signaled to the test pilot that they could begin.

The turbine engine roared, and the rotor began to spin. In his past life, Koman had seen a movie—he'd forgotten the title—but he remembered the theme: people must rely on themselves. He wasn't sure if his memory was accurate, but it seemed there was a scene in the movie where helicopter rotors sliced ​​people in half, so he kept his distance.

"Power output is stable, propeller is normal," the test pilot reported to the control tower, his voice calm.

"Takeoff approved. May the wind carry you." The helicopter lifted off lightly without the slightest sway. It traced an incredible path through the sky, each movement clean and precise.

With Breguet technicians by his side, Koeman explained the modifications Sikorsky made to the helicopter and the information that the turboshaft engine had successfully passed testing. Once the reliability of the modified version was proven and the production license had been obtained, France could begin mass production of attack helicopters.

Just then, the test pilot pressed a button on the control stick, and rockets from the two honeycomb arrays shot out, accompanied by an explosion that kicked up a cloud of dust.

“Excellent, it’s perfect for the open terrain of the overseas provinces. I can’t wait to see the overseas provinces equipped with a large number of armed helicopters.” Koman said with satisfaction, seeing that everything seemed fine.

A dozen minutes later, with the tower's instruction that the mission was complete, the helicopter slowly landed on the helipad. As the ground crew gathered around, the test pilot finally let out a breath he had been holding.

"Judging from your expression, you're very satisfied," Martin said with a smile as he walked over from the other side. "I wonder how many orders the government will place."

"There will be opportunities." Koeman wasn't in a hurry; the military could indeed take the initiative to secure orders.

But if we wait until the Berlin Crisis breaks out before showcasing the use of armed helicopter groups to contain tank armies, wouldn't that avoid the suspicion of the military demanding more funding? The responsibility would fall on the Soviet Union, not the military.

After spending an hour at the test site, on the way back, Koeman returned to the same question, "Actually, it's the naval comrades who are having a harder time. Don't have too much hope for Britain's light aircraft carriers. The propeller planes alone are much larger than the planes from World War I. If the aircraft carrier platform is built too small and the old aircraft models are phased out, won't the aircraft carrier be scrapped?"

Koeman thought, surely it couldn't be smaller than the Richelieu-class battleships, could it? Could it be that building a battleship was less expensive than building an aircraft carrier? But considering the costs before the war, aircraft carriers should have been cheaper to build than battleships, and France certainly had the capability to build large warships of 40,000 tons.

"You have suggestions for the Navy?" Martin asked, amused, though as far as he knew, aircraft carriers weren't actually that expensive.

“What if I said yes?” Koeman gave Martin a knowing look. If it was about helping the French aircraft carrier get on track, it wouldn’t be that difficult. It wasn’t like building a steam catapult.

The three major inventions of aircraft carriers are steam catapults, angled flight decks, and optical auxiliary systems. The optical auxiliary system is the use of signal lights, and the angled flight deck is a design feature of aircraft carriers, neither of which posed a significant challenge for France.

Current aircraft carriers all have straight-through decks. The emergence of angled decks has greatly increased the deck area of ​​aircraft carriers, which is indeed a design that has an immediate effect.

The three major inventions of aircraft carriers were all made by the British and have nothing to do with the United States. The only influence the United States had on aircraft carriers was that it increased the tonnage of aircraft carriers to the 100,000-ton class.

(End of this chapter)