Only by possessing enough overseas military bases could the East African government allocate more warships and funding to the Third Fleet. The logic was simple: without sufficient military bases, no matter how many warships were assigned, there would be nowhere to dock or maintain them.
From that perspective, both the Indian Ocean Fleet and the Atlantic Fleet ought to envy the Pacific Fleet. Aside from warships, the one thing the Pacific Fleet lacked least was land for building overseas military bases.
Of course, reality was that because the Pacific Fleet was far from the East African mainland, its position in East Africa's maritime strategy was far inferior to that of the Indian Ocean Fleet and the Atlantic Fleet. This created the Pacific's awkward plight of "islands but no ships."
Commander Lomachi said, "Using Qatar as a springboard, we can petition the central government to expand the Third Fleet. With Qatar, together with Gwadar Port, the Third Fleet can double in size from its current foundation."
"More importantly, once we obtain the deep-water ports of Qatar and Gwadar, we will have the capacity to accommodate several battleships and escape the reality of ranking dead last among the fleets in the Indian Ocean."
Lieutenant General Plato was equally drawn to the picture Lomachi described. The main reason was that the Third Fleet's current condition was simply too miserable.
The Third Fleet's capital ships consisted only of cruisers; it did not possess a single battleship. It did not even have a battlecruiser or a pre-dreadnought. Even the Seventh Fleet, which was responsible for the Pacific Ocean, had its own battleships. The Third Fleet was the only East African Navy fleet without a battleship.
Judging by its designation, the Third Fleet's equipment was clearly unworthy of its number. In East Africa, generally speaking, the