The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 661 Aircraft Purchase (asking for monthly ticket)

During this period, Saudi Arabia intends to strengthen its air force and prepares to introduce a batch of fighter jets.

Prince Sultan had previously been to the United States and Europe, but the results were not ideal.

The Americans demanded a price of $16 million per F3800 fighter and $15 million per F5000 fighter, and there were a lot of political and economic conditions attached. One of the conditions that Saudi Arabia could not accept was that the United States required Saudi Arabia to cooperate with the United States and significantly increase oil production, thereby suppressing oil prices and reducing international crude oil prices to below $25 per barrel, preferably as low as $20 per barrel.

As the world's largest oil importer, the United States needs an astonishing amount of oil every day. A significant reduction in international crude oil prices will be of great benefit to the United States, as it can significantly reduce inflation in the United States. Moreover, the lower the international crude oil price, the greater the impact on the Soviet Union's oil exports.

Once the oil price drops below $20, the profit of Soviet oil export will be very thin. If the oil price drops to $15, considering the Soviet oil production cost and transportation cost, Soviet oil export will probably lose money.

In addition, there are the costs of weapons and ammunition, maintenance, spare parts and training, all of which add up to a considerable amount of money.

As for some conditions, they also made Saudi Arabia very uncomfortable, such as having to cooperate with the United States on some issues and requiring American oil companies to win bids for some oil fields.

Prince Sultan went to Europe and wanted to discuss France's Mirage 2000 and Rafale fighter jets.

Mirage 2000 fighter, which is a multi-purpose fighter developed by Dassault Aviation of France in the 1s after the famous Mirage III and Mirage F80 fighters, and began to serve in the French Air Force in 2000.

The Mirage 2000 is not as advanced as the fighter jets of the United States and the Soviet Union, but it is also a third-generation fighter jet. However, French fighter jets have always been expensive. The quoted price of the Mirage 2000 fighter jet exceeds 4000 million US dollars per unit.

The Rafale fighter is a twin-engine, delta-wing, highly maneuverable, multi-purpose fighter developed by France's Dassault Aviation. It is also a third-generation fighter. The French promote this fighter as the "most comprehensive" in the world, not only capable of both sea and air operations, but also with powerful air combat and ground and sea attack capabilities.

As for the price, the Rafale fighter is much more expensive than the Mirage 2000 fighter. In 1988, the French Defense Forces decided to purchase the Rafale fighter with a unit price of more than 8000 million US dollars per unit, making it the most expensive fighter in the world.

The high price, coupled with a host of conditions, frightened Prince Sultan.

This time he came to China mainly to personally witness Panshan Group's delivery of Type 054 frigates and Type 052 destroyers.

As for the matter of the plane, it was Liu Tao who brought it up when they met.

Prince Sultan was still skeptical. After all, the equipment of the Chinese Air Force was too ordinary. China's most advanced fighter jets, those hundreds of fighter jets, were all purchased from the United States.

But he didn't expect that Liu Tao would give him such a big surprise.

After weighing the pros and cons, Prince Sultan decided to take a gamble and purchase aircraft from China.

Afterwards, the two began negotiations. Since both of them were people who could make decisions, the purchase of the aircraft was agreed upon in a short time.

20架K8初教机、20架歼教7A高教机、30架‘雄鹰’高教机、50架歼10战斗机、50架歼11战斗机。

K8初教机价格200万美元/架，歼教7A高教机价格870万美元/架，‘雄鹰’高教机价格1500万美元/架，歼10战斗机价格2500万美元/架，歼11战斗机价格4000万美元/架。

It can be said that the price is extremely advantageous.

You have to know that this is just the bare metal price. The total contract value for the bare metal price alone is as high as US$39.14 billion.

Normally, the purchase of military aircraft includes five parts, namely the bare machine price (flight cost), weapon system, R&D sharing, training, infrastructure and maintenance costs, and performance rewards.

Liu Tao did not ask for R&D sharing and performance rewards, but even the weapon system and training, infrastructure and maintenance costs are not low. In terms of weapon systems, Saudi Arabia purchased rockets, "Thunder" series missiles, and cruise missiles, and the purchase cost was as high as US$8 million.

The cost of training, infrastructure and maintenance is as high as 20.6 billion US dollars, which includes an air force base with a temperature-controlled hangar, two years of training for more than pilots and technicians, spare parts including an additional engine, and all maintenance costs within five years.

And this order will be delivered before 1996.

The entire contract is worth $67.74 billion.

Although the K8 primary trainer aircraft belongs to Hongdu Aviation, even if this part is divested, Panshan Group will still make extremely lucrative profits.

After negotiating the order for military aircraft, Liu Tao and Prince Sultan went to Hong Kong. This time they did not travel by plane, but on a luxury yacht.

The two discussed other areas of cooperation, including exports of China Automobile Group and China Motorcycle Group to Saudi Arabia, the promotion of the Beidou navigation satellite system in the Middle East, and helping Saudi Arabia launch communication satellites, meteorological satellites and reconnaissance satellites.

Over the years, China Automobile Group and China Motorcycle Group have used Saudi Arabia as a springboard to enter the Middle East and established the first large-scale repair plant in the Middle East in Saudi Arabia. There is a China Automobile 4S store in every city in Saudi Arabia to provide services to customers.

The Beidou navigation satellite system has now established a global network and has achieved very high accuracy.

The entire Beidou navigation satellite system requires a huge investment, and the subsequent investment in updating the system is also huge. The operating cost is also very high, so it is natural that it needs to be promoted.

The Beidou navigation satellite system is divided into two parts: civilian and military. The military part is much more accurate than the civilian part. The civilian part is divided into free and paid parts. The functions and accuracy of the paid part are also much higher than the free part.

The global market is so big. If the Beidou navigation satellite system occupies a larger market share, the GPS navigation system will occupy a smaller market share.

Liu Tao has two weapons to deal with the GPS navigation system. One is that it is free and has higher accuracy than GPS, and the other is service and credibility.

If Americans shut down the GPS navigation system at will, they will only hand over the market to the Beidou navigation satellite system.

Liu Tao will definitely try his best to seize any market share he can.

Including mobile phones, ships, airplanes, tanks, armored vehicles, and missiles equipped with corresponding chips, for example, like the Soviet Union, the country has to rely on negotiating with the Soviet Union.

Liu Tao attaches great importance to the Beidou navigation satellite system. Firstly, it is a powerful tool, and secondly, it has a huge market.

The current market is naturally small, but as it is promoted, the market will grow rapidly.

It may seem like you are not making any money now, but you will be able to make money without doing anything in the future.

The most important thing is that if you hold this weapon in your own hands, you won't be strangled by others. No one would ever want to experience that feeling of being strangled.

Liu Tao chose Saudi Arabia with the intention of promoting a comprehensive strategic partnership between the two sides, achieving mutual win-win cooperation, common development and greater benefits.

The reason for choosing Saudi Arabia is that, firstly, Saudi Arabia has the largest oil reserves in the world and is also the largest oil exporter. Oil is the "blood of industry" and no country in the world can live without oil. China has changed from a net oil exporter to an oil importer and has to pay attention to oil. Secondly, Saudi Arabia is the largest country in the Middle East, with a land area of ​​225 million square kilometers and a population of 1600 million.

Of course, given Saudi Arabia’s situation, it doesn’t look like it can become a strong country that people can cooperate with with confidence.

(End of this chapter)