Chapter 155: The Secret Behind Austria's Strength

Outside of Belgrade, a large military exercise was going on.

The Austrian military was displaying all the weapons used in the recent Balkan war.

However, the Mirage III fighter jet and two military helicopter models attracted the most attention.

The Mirage III blasted through the sky at twice the speed of sound, leaving the American experimental jet fighters far behind.

These American jets, acting as sparring partners, included the F-80 Shooting Star, F-84 Thunderjet, and F-86 Sabre - the first generation of fighter jets used by the U.S. military.

Although piston-engine fighter jets still made up the majority of the world's air power in the decade following World War II, the development of fighter jets had begun during the war itself. The German military's use of the Me 262, the first operational jet fighter, had shocked other major powers into prioritizing jet technology.

The first to catch up was Great Britain with its Gloster Meteor jet fighter, developed almost simultaneously with the Me 262.

The U.S. followed closely, developing the F-80, F-84, and F-86 between 1944 and 1946.

The F-86 in particular was still a prototype.

In their original timeline, these three planes were groundbreaking for their time.

But here they faced the pinnacle of second-generation fighter jets—the Mirage III.

Second-generation fighter jets focused heavily on speed and altitude, which is why later third-, fourth-, and even fifth-generation fighters sometimes had lower maximum speeds.

For example, the fifth-generation F-35 has a top speed of only 1.8 Mach-0.4 Mach slower than the Mirage III. This is because modern fighters prioritize versatility and beyond visual range combat over raw speed.

But in this era, speed was king.

Neither piston-engine fighters nor first-generation jets, which couldn't even reach the speed of sound, could hope to compete with the Mirage III.

On the ground, a U.S. military observer team led by Eisenhower watched the Mirage III's performance in amazement, while shaking their heads at the underwhelming capabilities of their own three jets.

It was clear that from that day forward, these once-iconic American jets would be confined to the history books.

Among the observers, Howard Stark and a few men in suits wore grim expressions, though two individuals managed a faint smile.

Howard Stark represented the Lockheed Corporation. His company, Global Aeronautics, had cross-shareholdings with Lockheed, making him a major stakeholder. The F-80 Shooting Star, currently the mainstay of the U.S. Air Force, was developed during the war with Stark's help for Lockheed.

Next to him were representatives of Republic Aviation, which developed the F-84 Thunderjet, and North American Aviation, which developed the F-86 Sabre.

As for the two people smiling, they were representatives of Boeing.

Why were they smiling? Because their major shareholder was Josh. Before the military exercise, thanks to Josh's influence, Boeing had already received production licenses for the Mirage III and two types of armed helicopters. The U.S. Department of Defense had practically confirmed that it would place large orders for the Mirage III, which naturally made them happy.

Besides the representatives of the aviation companies, spies from Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union were lurking nearby, looking rather unhappy.

To them, an Austria equipped with a small number of advanced weapons wasn't that threatening. But a fully armed USA with advanced weapons was something to fear.

If the U.S. was fully armed with the Mirage III fighter, even Soviet nuclear weapons wouldn't be enough to counter it—because at that time, nuclear bombs could only be delivered by bombers.

And of all the bombers, which could break through the Mirage III's defenses?

But Josh had already anticipated this. The Mirage III was not going to be sold to the Soviet Union.

The Americans weren't stupid—if a fighter so similar to theirs appeared in both the U.S. and Soviet inventories, it would be obvious that Austria was selling to both sides.

But if the Mirage III couldn't be sold, the MiG-21 could.

The Soviets were familiar with the MiG series, and Josh knew they wouldn't be suspicious of the differences in style and specifications between the two types of aircraft.

Of course, the price would not be cheap.

"Long time no see, dear Claire!" In a café in Belgrade, Ophelia greeted Claire Voyant, whom she hadn't seen in a long time.

"Tell me, what do you want from us in exchange for the technology of this new fighter jet?" Claire asked, her face looking a bit displeased.

As a senior Soviet agent, Claire had never met someone like Ophelia, who was so much difficult to deal with.

The worst part of it was that Claire had never been able to get the upper hand, despite several deals. This made the usually confident Claire very angry, especially since her country seemed to lose every time she dealt with the Austrians.

"Heh, you're always in such a hurry, dear. All right, our terms are quite simple—we want everything from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Albania!" Ophelia said with a smile, revealing her terms.

"What? You must be joking!" Claire's face immediately changed. The original terms given to her were to allow Austria and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to keep their current territorial holdings. But she never expected Austria to be so greedy, now demanding even Albania.

"Ah, Claire, you're being too hasty. Let me finish. If you give us Albania, we can help convince the U.S. to approve your partition of Greece. You see, both sides will benefit!" Ophelia said with a smile.

Upon hearing this, Claire immediately understood Austria's goal.

Austria's desire for Albania was the same as the Soviet Union's desire for Greece—they both wanted a clear route to the Mediterranean.

Although Austria already had access to the sea, it was through the narrow Adriatic. The passage to the Mediterranean was blocked by the Strait of Otranto between Italy and Albania, which was only 75 kilometers wide at its narrowest point.

During World War I, the Austro-Hungarian navy was defeated in the Adriatic when Italy occupied Albania, preventing Austria from using this vital route.

With this history in mind, neither Josh nor the Austrian leadership would make the same mistake again.

Italy is now an ally, so there's no chance of attacking it. But Albania, already independent and allied with the Soviet Union, is fair game. For this reason, Josh has recruited King Zog I, the exiled king of Albania, as he did with King Peter II of the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

As long as the Soviet Union gives its approval, Austria is willing to help Zog I regain his throne.

While complete control of Albania isn't guaranteed, control of the Otranto Strait region would be a major victory.

Therefore, giving up some interests in Greece is a small price to pay.

What? Greece is an ally too? Sorry, Greece is only an ally of Great Britain...

The reason why the Soviet Union and the Federal Republic previously promoted the Greek Civil War was actually quite similar to Austria's reasons—they both wanted to control the Aegean Sea, which was of great strategic importance to the Soviets.

During World War II, the Soviets had already made a deal with Turkey to secure passage through the Turkish Straits.

Now, the only thing preventing the Soviet Black Sea Fleet from entering the Mediterranean was the Aegean. In reality, however, the Aegean was not controlled by Greece or Turkey, but by Britain and France, since the Suez Canal was just south of it, under British and French control.

That is why Britain and France were so focused on Greece from the beginning. They were willing to sacrifice the interests of Yugoslavia, Albania, and other European allies to ensure that they kept control of Greece.

For Britain and France, the Suez Canal was too important-it was the lifeline to their colonial territories in Asia and Africa.

Greece, on the other hand, wasn't as important to the United States. Because of America's geographic position, the Suez Canal didn't have the same significance for them. In fact, many times the U.S. would have preferred to see the Suez Canal closed, as this would have meant that Britain and France would have lost control of Asia, leaving the U.S. to dominate the region.

Therefore, when Britain and France tried to maintain control of the Suez Canal during the Second Middle East War, the U.S. undermined them.

In the original timeline, the U.S. helped Greece during the Civil War primarily because the Soviet camp was about to control the Balkans, leaving Greece as the last holdout. The U.S. didn't want the Soviets to dominate the Balkans, so they intervened.

However, in this world, Austria's rapid rise neutralized the Balkan powers, making Greece less important to the U.S.

So both Josh and Austria were confident that they could convince the U.S. to stop interfering in Greece.

With this arrangement in place, the world now becomes one where only Britain and France are left disappointed.

Realizing this, Claire Voyant relayed Austria's terms to her superiors.

Only a week later, the Soviets responded.

The deal was done!

But there was one additional condition; Austria would return Belgrade to the Federal Republic and withdraw from the Serbian region.

Austria readily agreed. The Serbian region was of little value to them, and trading it for Albanian territory was a risk-free deal. After all, this move completely shattered the Federal Republic's ambitions to become the Balkan Superpower, as in the original timeline. In fact, even escaping Soviet control was now unlikely.

As for Albania's opinion? Who cared?

Meanwhile, as Austria was making secret deals with both the U.S. and the Soviet Union, a special piece of intelligence reached the desks of British and French intelligence.

This intelligence contained information as to why Austria possessed the advanced technology to develop the Mirage III.

The clues, both direct and indirect, pointed to a region in East Africa.

In that region was a small and unremarkable country—Wakanda!

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