After hearing the prices of the three types of missiles, Minister Thomas finally breathed a sigh of relief. He spoke to Hermann with considerable confidence. "Director Hermann, the Ministry of Defense plans to order 2,500 missiles from your institute over the next three years.
Of these, we'll order 1,200 air-to-air Test-3 missiles, 800 air-to-ground Test-3 missiles, and 500 Pigeon Missiles.
Based on the prices you provided, the Ministry of Defense will pay a deposit of 12 million Australian Dollars this year, followed by annual payments of 7 million Australian Dollars over the next two years. How does that sound?"
The decision to purchase 2,500 missiles was a figure Minister Thomas had arrived at after careful consideration. Once Australasia had these 2,500 missiles, its air force would be strengthened further, and there would be no need to worry about whether the island nation's navy might overtake Australasia.
During World War II, the island nation had once employed suicide attacks against US warships, having pilots fly their aircraft directly into US warships and aircraft carriers.
Such actions had indeed caused casualties among US warships within a short period, and overall, they had been somewhat effective.
Australasia's new generation of missiles, however, would be far more lethal than suicide attacks.
Even with only a one-third hit rate against warships, those 500 Pigeon Missiles would be enough to make the island nation's navy suffer.
Moreover, the missiles could focus on attacking the enemy's large warships, while Australasia's navy could surround and wipe out the smaller ones.
That way, the missiles could play a greater role. After all, larger warships had bigger hulls, which naturally meant a somewhat higher hit rate.
As for whether the island nation's warships could intercept missiles, they basically had no such capability—at least not within the next ten years.
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