Chapter 1005: Manufacturing Setbacks

Currently, Berengar sat in his office, surrounded by a pile of documents, as well as a group of his finest engineers from multiple fields of study. While Berengar had worked hard to create some truly astonishing weapons designs, the timeframe he had set for their manufacture had become a losing battle, and as a result, many of his Empire's most talented minds had come to propose alternative solutions.

Among these men was a man by the name of Eckart Roth, who had taken over as the Reich's lead naval weapons designer after the Italian shipwright Evio retired years ago. Eckart had a nervous expression on his face as he passed forward documents regarding the failures to create guided missile cruisers, and destroyers within the alotted time frame, there was even a hint of guilt in his voice as he admitted his wrongdoings to the man he respect most of all in this world.

"I'm sorry, my Kaiser, I have discussed the matter at length with Wernher and we both agree that the development of ship-based missile platforms is not possible to achieve within the next five to ten years. Though we could alter your designs of these ships to make use of more conventional weapons, it is our belief that we should improve our previous designs as a viable alternative.

As you can see, we have proposed multiple solutions to the current problem of our battleships, battlecruisers, and destroyers, reaching a point of obsolescence. With the expansion of our shipbuilding capabilities, and the labor force dedicated to this field. It is our belief that in no more than a year, we could have these new designs up and running as the proper escorts to your carriers. Especially when one considers that the hulls are already under partial construction, and can easily be modified to meet the requirements."

Berengar gazed upon these proposed designs and sighed heavily in defeat. Not because they were poor attempts at building appropriate vessels. Quite the contrary, these weapons were more modern than anything Japan was currently fielding.

Case in point being that these newest designs were essentially Bismarck-class battleships, Admiral Hipper-class cruisers, and Type 1945 destroyers. Which were some of the most modern warships Germany designed in the second world war of his past life.

No, what caused Berengar to become distressed was the fact that he had pushed for the advancement of arms, at a pace his Empire could not keep up with. In doing so, he had wasted everyone's precious time, energy, and resources. As a result, he sat back in silence for several moments with a gloomy expression on his face. When the man finally spoke, he astonished all of his engineers.

"I'm sorry... This is all my fault... It pains me to admit, but I got ahead of myself and pushed for modernization too quickly, failing to account for our current limitations. In doing so, I wasted so much of your time, resources, and energy. I will immediately approve the manufacture of these vessels and push our plans for the others back a few years. I hope you can all forgive me for this slight oversight..."

Nobody in the room was willing to accept that this was Berengar's fault. They would rather take the blame for failing to live up to the Kaiser's expectations, then to ever believe the man had made a mistake. Still, the look on Berengar's face proved that he was serious about apologizing, and thus the next man to speak up was an engineer at the Kufstein Royal Armory, who was quick to change the sour mood that permeated the air.

"My Kaiser, I believe I have some news that will cheer you up... With the armored vehicles designs that you have graced us with, my team has developed improvements, which will also ease the burden of manufacture.

As you can see, this here is a flak panzer, which uses the same chassis as the Panther Tank. We have increased the size of the guns over the older model, with an improved dual mounted 3.7 cm Flak 341, which is enclosed in a rotating turret. Have a look and see for yourself."

Berengar was stunned by this development. In truth, when he was designing his own version of the flak panzer, he had neglected the design of the Flakpanzer 341, which had never been more than a wooden mockup in his past life. However, without even having the basis of this prototype to work from, his engineers had created a functional concept that was similar in design. This led Berengar to immediately think about a variety of possibilities where he posed his next question without hesitation.

"Is it possible for you and your team to design a self-propelled artillery piece that makes use of the 15 cm sFH 18 field gun, while being based upon the Panther Chassis?"

The engineer simply smiled and nodded his head before responding to this question.

"Of course, we have actually already designed a prototype, though it does require a bit of lengthening of the chassis. Still, it is entirely doable and will save us considerable expense and time moving forward.

Luckily, as things are, there has not been a major focus of manufacture on the Flakpanzer and Hummels. We can easily scrap what few models exist in our armed forces and begin production of these improved variations immediately!

I would also like to add that in the same spirit of the Panther Chassis redesigns, we have altered the Marder IFV that you have made to the same effect. We Call it the Schützenpanzer Ausf. B "Marder" As you can see, this machine has the same capabilities as the current Marder, but is easier to manufacture, and requires the same production methods as all of these other vehicles, rather than a dedicated line of assembly.

It is our hope that with this new line of weapons, we will be able to cut the costs of manufacture, while also increasing rates of production. In doing so, we will create a much more efficient production line of these valuable machines of war."

To say these improvements impressed Berengar was as an understatement. These weapons would allow his Empire to use the same tooling, and parts to mass manufacture armored vehicles of every kind. This would allow the German arms manufacturing industry to out-compete their Japanese rivals by a wide margin.

In fact, he felt a bit ashamed for not doing this in the first place. After all, many of these designs existed in his past life, and the ones that didn't were easy to design. The Panther Chassis, especially with the improvements Berengar had made to its engine and suspension, was arguably the best platform for all of these armored vehicles that he could currently manufacture.

The fact that he had been so strict about using other designs that found his fancy honestly made the man feel foolish. Bias had blinded him and in the end, Berengar could only sigh once more in defeat, realizing that perhaps the men who worked beneath him had begun to outshine his own brilliance.

By pulling out his stamp, Berengar made sure that each and every one of the designs presented to him were approved for immediate manufacture. Though his military would not be entering the capabilities of the cold war within the next decade, it would at the very least be operating with peak second world war era technology by the time war broke out with Japan.