Rule The Waves 3 - A Graphical Experiment - Complete

How should we make our savings? Choose as many as you like; Scrap the surviving Triomphante - the experiment was a failure. Scrap the aging fighter carriers. Reduce the complement of aircraft at our bases and prioritise Jets.

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Reallocations
Let us begin with the airbases.
- The smallest airbases, those which are used for anti-submarine patrols and other minor support, will be reduced to operating just twelve patrol aircraft and have their fighter complements removed. Those patrol squadrons will all be trained in night operations.
- The Mediterranean airbases, those which are vital for defence of choke points (and choking Italy), will generally receive a night capable patrol squadron and a night capable jet attack squadron for a total of just 24 aircraft per base. The only exception is the larger base at Cagliari that will also receive a small squadron of heavy jet fighters.
- Of the home bases, Toulon and La Rochelle will receive the same complement of 36 aircraft as Cagliari, twelve patrol aircraft, twelve attackers and twelve fighters. Nice and Cherbourg receive an additional twelve daytime light fighters for additional air cover and escort. Dunkerque and Brest are also equipped with a squadron each of Medium Bombers for extremely long range strike.
This, along with the scrapping of two Agamemnon-class small carriers and the last survivor of the Dixmunde-class reduces our total operational aircraft down to 239 jets, 308 multi-engined airframes and 394 single-engined airframes. We will thus be operating 941 aircraft rather than the 1,485 we had in our rosters before this major re-allocation.

We also send the Triomphante to the yards just fourteen years after she joined the fleet, now surplus to requirements compared to her older but cheaper to run cousins.

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Perseverance
We will continue, despite operating the smallest fleet by tonnage, the second-smallest number of aircraft and the second-smallest budget. Will will persevere and we will ensure that our overseas bases are safe despite these issues. Parliament continues to cut our budget until we are operating on an annual income of just 443 million francs per year.

Inevitably, the Minister of the Navy manages to smuggle a book into his quarters, this one detailing how amazing modern destroyers are. He wants twenty, and we will do our best to manage that with a minimum-minimum design. The Voltigeur-class of anti-submarine warfare picket ships are hardly worthy of the name destroyer, but they fulfil the ministers requirements while still being useful. They are almost reminiscent of the first destroyers of fifty years ago, small with just 1,300 tons under them and only a single (twin, dual purpose) 75mm gun forwards. A four-tube torpedo launcher amidships is primarily intended for anti-submarine attacks, used in concert with the rocket launcher, enhanced and towed sonar arrays and other elements and electronics aboard ship. They are remarkably simple vessels but, combined with enough scrimping and saving, we might be able to build twenty of them. We lay down twelve in March of 1965.

Italy and Austria-Hungary descend into violence, conflict wracking the Eastern Mediterranean. In the opening scraps, Austria loses a carrier, the Bohmen, and our air crews and sailors stand ready in case they come careening out of the Adriatic sea. Perhaps this will encourage the politicians to hand us enough money to finish our construction programs.

The government resigns after a series of protests across the Metropole and the socialist government is replaced by an even socialister government who plan to reduce spending even further.

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It is June of 1965. Our budget is as follows:

We must reduce our spending even further. Select one or more of the following to achieve such:
[ ] Scrap the all-forwards Super Cruisers, they have outlasted their use.
[ ] Scrap the Super Cruisers we have recently completely rebuilt.
[ ] Scrap the aging Large Carriers.
[ ] Scrap the angle-decked Large Carriers (except Joffre).
[ ] Reduce the submarine force to only boats built within the last decade.
[ ] Reduce the air wings to vital anti-submarine patrols.
[ ] Close the Damage Control school.
[ ] Close the Officers Academy.
[ ] Other - write in.

We must reduce our spending even further. Select one or more of the following to achieve such: Reduce the submarine force to only boats built within the last decade. Scrap the aging Large Carriers. Scrap the all-forwards Super Cruisers, they have outlasted their use. Scrap the Super Cruisers we have recently completely rebuilt.

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Euthanasia
The fleet receives an almost terminal sentence; the end of the Super Cruiser fleet, numerous large carriers and a quarter of the submarine force. Most simply go to the yards, but the Dunkerque-class Super Cruiser Marseille is expended for gunnery practice in the Bay of Biscay. The fleet is reduced to less than four hundred thousand tons, less than half of our nearest rival, and while many of our ships are modern and capable, they are also limited in number.

Even after these cuts, even after the frightful state of the fleet and the budget, the socialist party is still attempting to frustrate the safety of the Metropole and of the overseas territories. And yet, the naval secretary has been provided with another book. He now, shortly after the development of our destroyer fleet, seeks twenty new submarines for the fleet. We begin the process of laying down an entire swathe of new boats, fortunately replacing the recently scrapped group.

A delegation from our shipyards informs us that if we do not make additional orders they will have to curtail capacity. We suggest to the government that more budget would help us in this. The government, slaves to the socialists, are no use.

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The Mediterranean War
We are keeping an eye on the Italian and Austrian conflagration, not that we could do much here, but it seems Italy has decided the Austrians should no longer have a navy. Four carriers, two large and two small, a helicopter carrier, even a modern 20,000 ton Armoured Cruiser have all been lost for the Italian price of a single small carrier.

The Prime Minister protests that we have insufficient forces in Northern Europe to counter the German threat. We ask what he expects if his government refuses us any money. He suggests we find a way to make it happen. We suggest he pull a carrier force out of his- We leave his office before finishing the sentence, fortunately. Somehow over the next six months our budget recovers to six hundred million francs per year and we wonder if perhaps we got through to the damn fool in charge.

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The fleet is looking... drab:

But we have the budget for two construction programs, one big ticket and one smaller and more mission focused.
Select one big ticket item:
[ ] Small Fighter Carriers - ~20-30 aircraft
[ ] Helicopter Carriers - Flat deck aviation ships
[ ] Aviation Cruisers - Missiles and helicopters
[ ] Large Protected Cruisers - Overseas Flagships
[ ] Large Missile Destroyers - All-purpose killers
[ ] Write in
Select one cheaper mission program:
[ ] Minesweeper Replacement program
[ ] Missile Corvette program
[ ] Coastal Submarine program
[ ] Write in