The development of the new warships was successful, and the military industry's production capacity was fully activated to construct them with the utmost speed, quality, and efficiency, gradually replacing the old vessels in active service.
However, a problem arose. The design service life of a space warship is a minimum of thirty years, with forty to fifty years being common, and seventy to eighty years not being unusual.
Did they not see that humanity's strongest warship was the Star Ark, which had been in service for an unknown number of years?
In short, the currently active Flame-class warships were all very new. If it weren't for the harsh interstellar environment, the immense pressure from the outside, and the possibility of Civilization A appearing within humanity's sight at any moment, the military would never have invested so heavily in building new ships.
It was known that high technology was usually associated with high prices, and the new warships were no exception. The cost price of a single warship was approximately equal to 4.5 Flame-class vessels.
Good heavens, they couldn't even build a few ships by selling everything they had!
Replacing old ships with new ones was a losing proposition, and the military, no matter how lacking in business acumen, would not do it. Moreover, the combat effectiveness of the new ships had increased significantly, rendering the retention of the old ships unnecessary.
More importantly, one new warship could perform the work of several older ones, reducing the number of crew and logistical personnel required, and even lowering supply needs. Regardless of whether one looked at it from a resource or economic perspective, it was an extremely profitable undertaking.
Preliminary calculations suggested that the military could completely reduce its fleet size to within five hundred vessels while maintaining its combat capabilities.
Therefore, the replacement of warships was imperative.
Some proposed that the Flame-class should undergo a comprehensive upgrade, as they were the main active warships that had rendered invaluable service to humanity since their deployment, and deserved some preferential treatment.
However, such a viewpoint was too short-sighted. Due to overall technological advancements, the cost of upgrading a warship was not significantly lower than building a new one. Why bother with the expenditure of time, effort, labor, and money?
The military's approach was to sell off all the old ships, yes, that's right, to sell them.
On the surface, the other小伙伴s on Blue Star were very suitable recipients, but no one thought this was a good idea.
They were all rivals. Having finally achieved total victory, selling off the obsolete old ships would be akin to handing a knife to their opponents, inevitably creating more competitors in the future.
Therefore, it was absolutely out of the question for the ships to be absorbed internally by Earth.
This left selling to other civilizations as the only option.
"Better to give to a friendly nation than to one's own vassals," hah, sometimes things in this world were truly bizarre.
With the advent of new technology, the equipment on the Flame-class no longer needed to be kept secret, and their sale would not be restricted due to technological issues.
This proposal was immediately met with extremely strong opposition, and the reason was simple: updating equipment required time. For the next few years, the Flame-class would remain the backbone of the fleet. Selling the warships before the fleet's refitting was complete would be tantamount to handing over their own secrets to aliens.
However, the military was in dire straits. Without selling warships, there would be no funds to build new ones, and the manufacturing and replacement of new ships would be greatly slowed. This was an outcome the military absolutely could not tolerate.
After a long period of disputes and discussions, the military finally made a resolute decision: sell!
They were already obsolete, so what good were they if not sold? To let them rust?
However, deciding who to sell them to required careful consideration. httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
The relationships needed to be close, the distance far, and the prices high. In essence, it was about balancing economic interests with ensuring humanity's safety.
All civilizations meeting these criteria were listed on a table, and even the Roer people were included.
But did the Roer people need human warships? Certainly not!
Furthermore, a portion of these civilizations had no need to purchase warships, while others lacked the financial capacity for external procurement, and still others were not of a suitable size.
This eliminated a large number of civilizations.
After much deliberation and drawing lines according to human standards, not a single target remained.
This was utterly preposterous!
The final conclusion reached by the military was that if they were unwilling to relax the conditions, they would not find suitable buyers.
Moreover, even if the conditions were met, there was no guarantee that the other party would be willing to buy. Even if the Flame-class was indeed more advanced than the buyer's current warships, and the buyer expressed an intention to purchase, the question of how many they could actually absorb remained a thorny issue.
There were over two thousand ships. In the entire New Bay Starfield, which civilization could consume so many warships at once?
Those with some strength had almost all received assistance from the Roer people during the Star Beast Wars and, much like humanity, were at saturation point with their warships.
After much deliberation, the military finally set its sights on those second-class civilizations that possessed a certain level of strength but were not yet capable of venturing beyond their star systems.
These civilizations were more numerous, had a pressing need to exit their star systems, mostly possessed financial capacity (and those without had resources), and most importantly, could be sold to at high prices!
This, wasn't this the most perfect leeks... no, scratch that, the most perfect potential customers!
There was nothing more to say. Since the decision was made, action was taken immediately. Hundreds of warships were assigned a new mission – to sell warships to the second-tier civilizations within known space!
While it sounds complicated, it was actually a very simple task.
All they had to do was fly the warships over the target planet, casually destroy a small asteroid or some other celestial body, then take the local inhabitants on a tour of space, and finally state that by paying certain amounts, they could own a warship of the same model. This would easily result in a successful sale.
Even if the price was a bit lower, it didn't matter. The key was to maintain control over logistics and maintenance.
This was something the Russians excelled at.
The military didn't need to waste any brainpower devising marketing plans; they could simply take those mature plans and easily hoodwink those unfamiliar alien natives.
However, before the official sale began, the Roer people approached them, proposing to adjust the acquisition price of the Flame-class, which baffled everyone.
Didn't the Roer people not need these warships?
But upon reflection, they understood. Human warships were products of Earth, naturally using the best available materials. Therefore, a large amount of precious elements were used on board.
These were metals or non-metals arranged after iron on the periodic table, and the higher the atomic mass, the more precious they were.
Precious elements were scarce in the universe. Many civilizations were unable to leave their home planets not due to technological limitations, but because they were constrained by elemental issues. They had to artificially produce sufficient heavy elements to have hope of flying out of their home system and leaping to become third-class civilizations.
The military finally understood where the problem lay. The selling price of the old ships naturally needed to be significantly increased. Additionally, for any equipment that needed replacement, parts were to be dismantled or swapped, retaining only the power and other immovable systems.
Even so, it was still described as being for the buyer's benefit, making it easier for them to upgrade and improve.
After a series of twists and turns, the Flame-class ships, which were initially thought to be unsellable, were all snapped up in just a few days. The Roer people alone ordered over a thousand ships, which finally resolved the military's urgent need. The update and replacement of new warships had finally set sail on the fast track!