My Italy

1910 was much better than 1909, at least for the Italian military.

In the fiscal year 1910-1911, the Navy received 343 million lire in financial funding, which was 46 million lire higher than the 297 million lire in the previous year.

Although this is a lot of money, it seems that several super-dreadnoughts can be built in one go. But the money cannot be calculated like this. First of all, the navy needs to pay salaries. Last year, the navy spent 64 million lire just on salaries. Don't think it's expensive, you have to know that there are currently more than 80,000 people in the Navy, and the average annual salary per person is only more than 700 lire. Without relying on patriotic enthusiasm and nationalist education, any job they can find will start with at least 150 lire per month. After all, the navy is a technical service, and naval officers and soldiers need to know more or less technical skills.

Moreover, the salary of the Italian Navy is already very low among the major powers. After all, the Italian government's finances are not very wealthy, and if it wants to maintain the navy's shipbuilding, it can only find ways to spend on other expenses.

In fact, the major expenditure item in the navy is the maintenance cost of warships. It includes battleship maintenance, training, military uniforms, food reserves, etc. The cost increases with the increase in the number of battleships.

Taking the current Italian Dante dreadnought as an example, the annual maintenance cost to ensure its combat effectiveness is 2.16 million lire.

Last year, the Navy spent 79 million lire on the maintenance of warships alone. After all, the size of the Italian Navy currently ranks fourth in the world, second only to Britain, Germany and the United States.

In addition, the Navy also has ammunition procurement costs, shore facility and equipment construction costs, fuel costs, and new technology research and development costs.

And these costs are not cheap. Taking ammunition as an example, the current price of a 305mm artillery shell reaches 45,000 lire. The price of these one thousand main gun shells is almost as high as that of its warships.

The price is so expensive because 90% of its quality is armor-piercing body made of high-performance alloy. The process of manufacturing a shell weighing hundreds of kilograms is extremely complicated. Therefore, in general gunnery training, the main guns of battleships should be fired as little as possible to save the cost of shells.

This is why later generations of the Japanese Navy would tie a 150mm gun to the main gun of the Yamato to simulate main gun firing training. This was because the cost of firing the main gun once was too high.

Last year, the Italian Navy spent 37.1 million lire on ammunition procurement. Most of this is the cost of small and medium-caliber naval gun ammunition. (In the navy, naval guns with a caliber of 200 mm or more are considered large caliber)

In addition to the cost of purchasing ammunition, the purchase of fuel is also a big part. As long as the warship is started, it must use fuel, and anyone can calculate the fuel consumption of this kind of fuel that can produce thousands of horsepower.

Daily training patrols of warships are very expensive. Oil is okay. The Navy can use heavy oil refined from diesel and gasoline, and its price is several times lower than gasoline and diesel. Although the efficiency is much worse than the above two, it is more expensive than cheaper!

Who is so rich that they dare to use gasoline on warships? (Japanese Navy, please sit down)

Oil is okay, but the efficiency of coal is much lower, so in order to ensure the performance of warships, navies of various countries choose the best anthracite.

Last year, Italy's fuel purchase cost was 12.6 million lire, the lowest in three years.

In addition to these, the construction cost of land facilities is not low. The construction of land facilities is mainly the construction of military ports and docks, as well as various aspects of construction work such as various warehouses, oil storage tanks, dormitories, etc.

At present, the Italian Navy has 54 military ports, including 26 third-level military ports (auxiliary military ports, which can berth all kinds of warships under 5,000 tons and can carry out simple repair and maintenance work. 8 of them are restricted by conditions and can only be berthed. Warships below 3,000 tons)

There are 13 secondary military ports (secondary military ports, which can berth warships below 10,000 tons, except for overhaul)

There are 8 first-level military ports, (all current warships can be berthed, but due to the capacity of the port, they cannot accommodate them all, and all repairs and maintenance work can be carried out.)

6 special-grade military ports (can accommodate all main battleships and can serve as anchorages for the Italian Navy.)

The construction and defense of so many military ports is not easy at all. Not to mention that many ports are dual-use, both military and civilian, so there are more things to consider.

Last year, the Navy spent 21.4 million lire on land facilities and equipment.

More than half of these expenses are spent on defense. The construction of coastal defense facilities is very expensive. For example, the purchase price of a 305mm shore gun reaches 300,000 lire. This gun alone is not enough. You also need to build a fort to install it, and you also need to train officers and soldiers who can operate the gun. All of these require expenses.

Therefore, at present, apart from the main ports in Italy (including the provinces of Libya and Albania), the only 305mm shore guns in Italy are Massawa and Pontianak.

The main reason is that not only is this gun expensive, but the shells are also expensive, and the Italian Navy cannot afford to use it.

At present, 305 mm is the ceiling for Italy's specially built shore guns. It's not that it can't be manufactured, but it's inappropriate. It's too expensive and does not meet Italy's actual national strength.

In fact, not only Italy, but also the maximum caliber of coastal defense guns in various European countries basically stops at 305 mm. If there are any larger than this caliber, they are basically dismantled from warships and used as waste.

In addition, because the Navy is a technical service, it needs to pay great attention to the trends of various new technologies. In addition to paying attention, new technologies that are beneficial to warships also need to be studied. In this regard, the Italian Navy is very generous. Even if the funds were so tight last year, it did not neglect the research and development of new technologies. Last year, a total of 23.5 million lire was allocated for the development of various new technologies.

In addition, there are various small expenses, such as publicity, training and education, etc. These expenses add up to nearly 10 million lire. These expenses add up to 210 million lire, and these are essential expenses.

Therefore, last year, the navy could only spend nearly 90 million lire on shipbuilding. This price seems to be a lot, but do the warships still under construction in the dock need funding? More than 30 million lire was allocated for three of the Cavour-class super-dreadnoughts last year. In addition, other cruisers, destroyers, patrol boats, torpedo boats, submarines and special ships shared more than 30 million lire.

Although the remaining 20 million lire is enough to start the construction of a Milan-class battle cruiser, it is impossible for the Navy to build only one battle cruiser and not build other small and medium-sized battleships. In the end, the Navy gave up the construction work of the Milan class and used more than 20 million lire as the basis for two Verona-class cruisers No. 3 and No. 4, as well as six destroyers, 16 patrol boats, torpedo boats and other ships. Construction costs.

Among them, the Verona-class cruiser is an improved version of the Piedmont-class, which mainly improves its ocean-going capabilities. In addition, it also adds a twin-mounted 150mm main gun to its firepower. Of course, the displacement has also increased from the standard displacement of 5120 tons to 5800 tons. Since the power system has not changed, the speed has been reduced from 27 knots of the Piedmont class to 26.5 knots. However, officers and soldiers generally responded that the Verona class is more comfortable and has better wind and wave resistance than the Piedmont class.

Now that I have more money at my disposal, Milan-level battle patrols can be arranged.