The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 682 The End of the Iran-Iraq War (asking for monthly tickets)

When I woke up, the sun was already high in the sky.

The person next to me is no longer here.

He rubbed his eyes, got up from the bed, stretched, and unconsciously rubbed his waist with his fists.

After signing an order worth over 10 billion US dollars, he was so excited that he scored three goals, which was a rare achievement.

After washing up, I put on a clean pair of pajamas and looked at the bed and the floor. The torn clothes and stockings were gone, obviously they had been cleaned up in the morning.

Liu Tao was walking in the yard, thinking.

He has a lot of things to do next, including developing nuclear submarines, light aircraft carriers, carrier-based aircraft and armed helicopters.

Except for the armed helicopters, all others will be completed at the Yangcheng Shipyard.

After taking a short walk, it was already time for lunch.

After staying in Beijing for a few days, Liu Tao first returned to the Panshan Group headquarters to handle official business and arrange the group’s party committee meeting next month.

Then we set off for Yangcheng Shipyard.

Yangcheng Shipyard, Liu Tao’s exclusive office.

Liu Tao was thinking about nuclear submarines. Since it was a new type of nuclear submarine, all indicators had to reach world-class levels. This meant that it could not be based on China's existing nuclear submarines, because the Type 091 nuclear submarine had a surface displacement of 4500 tons and an underwater displacement of 5000 tons, while the Type 092 nuclear submarine had a surface displacement of 6500 tons and an underwater displacement of 8000 tons, both of which were too small.

Since we are going to develop nuclear submarines, we will not develop just one type of nuclear submarine, but two types of nuclear submarines.

One is an attack nuclear submarine and the other is a strategic nuclear submarine.

For attack nuclear submarines, the surface displacement should be between 7000 and 8000 tons, and the underwater displacement should be around 9000 tons; for strategic nuclear submarines, the surface displacement should be around 18000 tons, and the underwater displacement should be around 30000 tons.

Nuclear submarines are incredibly expensive.

Attack nuclear submarines are expensive, and strategic nuclear submarines are even more expensive.

For example, the United States' "Ohio-class" ballistic missile nuclear submarine has been under construction since 1974, and the average cost of each submarine is now more than 20 billion US dollars. The cost has become more outrageous as time goes by. The latest "Ohio-class" ballistic missile nuclear submarine is said to cost more than 30 billion US dollars.

The budget submitted by the US Navy last year envisioned building 29 Seawolf-class submarines to replace the early Los Angeles-class nuclear submarines, with a total estimated cost of US$336 billion, or an average of US$11.58 billion per submarine.

Likewise, Soviet nuclear submarines would not cost much less.

China wants a new type of nuclear submarine as a deterrent, which means they will not build many. At most, they will build one of each model. In order to serve as a deterrent, Liu Tao will pursue performance.

In the following period of time, Liu Tao immersed himself in the development of nuclear submarines.

Just when Liu Tao was concentrating on developing nuclear submarines, China's fourth Persian Gulf escort fleet set off again.

Not long after the fourth Persian Gulf escort fleet arrived in the Persian Gulf to start escort operations, after several rounds of negotiations between Iran and Iraq, the two sides finally signed a ceasefire agreement in Riyadh, ending the 10-year Iran-Iraq War.

The news quickly spread around the world.

International oil prices fell sharply, directly breaking through the price of $30 per barrel.

Since the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War, international oil prices have skyrocketed, maintaining at a high level of US$35 per barrel all year round. Due to some unexpected events, the price even exceeded US$50 per barrel or even approached the US$60 per barrel mark, but that did not last long. As the unexpected events ended, the price returned to the high level of US$35 per barrel.

During this period, the United States did take measures to save the market, including releasing oil reserves, increasing domestic oil production, and increasing oil imports from Latin America. The United States even forced Saudi Arabia and other major Middle Eastern oil-producing countries to significantly increase oil production to suppress oil prices and thus attack the Soviet economy. However, OPEC members did not agree to increase production. In addition, China's annual net oil exports continued to decline, and later it turned into a net oil importer.

In addition, other countries are concerned about oil security and have established strategic oil reserve strategies. As a result, despite the global economic downturn in recent years, oil prices have remained around $35 per barrel.

Now with the end of the Iran-Iraq War, oil tankers in the Persian Gulf have resumed safe passage, freight and insurance premiums have dropped sharply, and international crude oil prices have fallen sharply, only stopping at $25 per barrel.

It then fluctuated in the price range of US$25/barrel to US$26/barrel.

The end of the Iran-Iraq War is good news for other oil importing countries, because it means that the cost of importing the same amount of oil is lower, which can also reduce inflation. But it is not good news for other oil exporting countries, because it means that the money earned from exporting a barrel of oil has decreased.

In the luxurious palace in Baghdad, Iraq, Saddam looked unhappy.

The war lasted for ten years and a huge amount of money was invested, but in the end nothing was gained. The Iraqi army retreated to the pre-war border and failed to achieve the goal of expanding territory.

Iraq also failed to establish hegemony in the Persian Gulf region!

"Damn it! Damn Persians!" Saddam's face looked ugly.

He called a meeting of his confidants. After all, the two sides had signed a ceasefire agreement, so he had to withdraw his troops back to Iraq within the specified time.

"What do you think about us destroying the Persian oil wells?" said Saddam.

The areas now occupied by the Iraqi army are all fertile lands and are also the most oil-rich areas in Persia.

Saddam was very angry at this time and wanted to destroy these oil wells when retreating.

If you can't get it, the Persians can't get it either.

Once an oil well is destroyed, it is not easy to rebuild it.

Coupled with the damage the war had done to the Persians, it was likely that the Persians would not be able to recover for another fifty years.

Many people's faces changed.

They didn't expect that Saddam would actually want to do this, which was a huge crime that would go against the will of the world.

If Saddam really did this, it would mean a fight to the death with the Persians.

But Saddam possessed supreme power and prestige, and they were all Saddam's confidants, so what could they say?

Rashid hesitated, but ultimately said nothing.

To be honest, he was against doing so, because once he did so, the Persians would absolutely hate the Iraqis and the two sides would really fight to the death; moreover, from his personal interests, the oil dividends he had received over the years amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars.

But at this moment, seeing Saddam's determined expression, Rashid did not dare to say anything, for fear of being remembered by Saddam. He is now a national hero of Iraq and a famous general in the Arab world. It is not easy to get to this point.

But he knew that if Saddam really wanted to remove him from his post regardless of the consequences, he would have no way to resist and would not be able to cause any trouble at all.

Compared with Saddam, he has a huge gap in power, his skills are not even a little bit different, his prestige is incomparable, and his foundation is too shallow.

But this did not prevent Rashid from secretly informing his friends.

After the meeting, Rashid called his old friend via a private satellite phone and asked him to prepare well.

(End of this chapter)