Franz truly had no desire for the French's hodgepodge weapons, cobbled together with a dash of "I reckon" power. To build a real anti-aircraft gun, they still needed better materials and improved propellants.
As for the threat posed by airships, the airships of this era were actually nowhere near as formidable as people imagined. There would be no scenario where a single Kirov flattened an entire city.
At this point, airships had very limited bomb loads and destructive power. More fatal still was their accuracy—unless they carried out low-altitude bombing, directly hitting a target was extremely difficult.
Besides, there were plenty of means to strike opponents on land, so the army's airships were mainly used for reconnaissance, as well as crushing enemy morale and providing strategic deterrence.
For the navy, the greatest problem to overcome was the survival of its airship units. All manner of extreme weather and high winds could send an airship unit out never to return.
Thus, every effort of the navy was directed toward ensuring that airships could return safely.
However, there was another faction within the navy. They believed an exploding airship could unleash enough force to severely damage a battleship.
And so, these people began researching self-destructing airships. Given an airship's sheer size, even if it could not directly sink the target vessel, it could still cripple it badly.
Though it sounded somewhat inhumane, it was absolutely feasible in theory. As for the pilots, the navy increased death benefits for airship crew on one hand, while intensifying parachute research on the other.
Although airships were shining brilliantly on the battlefield at this time, Franz knew that airplanes were the future, so he had established a glider club very early on.
In truth, people had never abandoned the path of exploring modern aircraft since Leonardo