The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 778 Energy Security
Not only Saudi Arabia, Kuwait also wants to buy fuel-air bombs.

Seeing the fires in Iraq's oil fields, Kuwait could not help but remember that Saddam ordered the Iraqi army to destroy Kuwait's infrastructure and oil fields when they withdrew.

This makes Kuwait feel full of crisis.

If Kuwait had not been spared from massive destruction by finding someone, it would have had to invest at least $2000 billion in post-war reconstruction after the Gulf War.

Although Kuwait is rich, $2000 billion is still a very large sum.

The oil-producing countries really started to live a prosperous life, which can be traced back to the Fourth Middle East War in 1973. Saudi Arabia and other countries were dissatisfied with the United States' favoritism towards Israel, and united to impose an oil embargo on Europe and the United States, which caused oil prices to rise. From then on, the oil-producing countries began to live a better life.

If you count the time up to now, it has been less than 20 years.

Kuwait is filled with a sense of crisis due to the occupation by Iraq. If it does not invest money in military construction and does not have the ability to protect itself, it will sooner or later become someone else's.

So when Saudi Arabia advocated an Arab coalition, Kuwait was the most active in responding.

With the Arab coalition, security has been raised to a higher level.

Like Saudi Arabia, in order to improve the combat effectiveness of its army, Kuwait also used favorable conditions to attract a group of mercenaries to join Kuwait.

After seeing the fire-fighting power of fuel-air explosive bombs, Kuwait also wants to purchase a batch of fuel-air explosive bombs as a trump card.

Kuwait has a small land area, so it is unrealistic for it to have medium-range ballistic missiles. Just building a base would take up a considerable area, and coupled with the strike range, it would be difficult to do the same as Saudi Arabia.

But fuel-air bombs are different. Anyone who wants to invade Kuwait has to think twice.

Moreover, this thing is very effective in extinguishing fires.

There are so many oil fields in Kuwait, so fires are inevitable. With these fuel-air explosive bombs, the fires can be put out quickly.

Liu Tao also watched the news the next day and felt very proud of it.

After all, this is a great achievement accomplished by China. It is remarkable that the fires in two oil fields were put out so quickly.

At this rate, all oil field fires in Iraq can be extinguished in half a year at most.

Although it is difficult for the Iraqis to settle the contract payment in a short period of time, this comes at a price. The Iraqis need the price of five oil fields as interest.

Together with the three oil fields loaned out, this means that Panshan Group will have twelve oil fields in Iraq in the future. Once they are all put into production, these twelve oil fields will be able to produce a lot of oil every year.

The importance of oil is self-evident.

In the future, the overall oil price will continue to increase.

Now China National Petroleum Corporation has been building strategic reserve oil depots on a large scale. It is estimated that by the year 2000, China National Petroleum Corporation's strategic reserve oil depots will reach one billion barrels, or 1.3643 million tons of crude oil.

China's crude oil imports this year are expected to reach 2 million tons, or 12.3144 billion barrels. Although some of this oil is exported to Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, the United States and Europe, China's oil consumption is very fast.

Under this kind of market supply and demand relationship, it is impossible for crude oil prices to return to below $20.

In recent years, Panshan Group has actively developed overseas energy business. This is because China's oil consumption has grown rapidly. China's own oil production alone is not enough to meet China's oil consumption. China must have a stable oil import channel. Among them, the Middle East is naturally the first choice because the Middle East oil is of high quality, large supply, and price advantages.

Panshan Group invested in ports such as Gwadar Port, opened the Kra Canal, and developed shipping on the Mekong River and Chao Phraya River, largely out of considerations of energy security.

At Gwadar Port, oil and natural gas can be transported into the Western Regions through oil pipelines and natural gas pipelines, or they can be transported by land by train or oil tankers.

From Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia, it can be transported to the southwest.

Right now in the north, China is negotiating an oil pipeline project, but it may take several years to implement it.

The Soviets were calculating very much and their asking price was too high.

Liu Tao went to Southwest Associated University.

However, the new batch of college students have started their military training. If we were to say that this is the most lively time of the year in Kunming City, it would be this time.

Freshmen in primary schools, junior high schools, high schools, and universities will receive military training on the same day. The training lasts for one week in primary schools, two weeks in junior high schools, three weeks in high schools, and four weeks in colleges. The training will end on the eve of National Day and they will have the National Day holiday.

As a frontier province and a pilot area for military training, Yunnan Province attaches great importance to military training.

The military training of Southwest Associated University was directly carried out at school. In the early stage, it was military posture and formation training, and national defense construction ideological education was conducted at night. In the middle and late stages, it was a long-distance march to the military camp, where shooting training and battlefield simulation were carried out.

Every year the army would send meritorious officers and soldiers to Southwest Associated University for military training. Only those military medals could suppress the temper of these chosen ones.

After all, there were many instructors who came to conduct military training and were awarded first-class merit, and there was even one person who was awarded first-class merit many times.

Those military medals are enough to convince the proud chosen ones.

At the same time, when the troops are conducting military training, they are also recruiting students from schools. The troops will welcome any college students who are willing to join the army, and the preferential policies for college students to join the army are very generous. Once they enter the army, they will be treated as company-level soldiers, and after one or two years of training, they will become company commanders or company instructors, and they will be the cadres that the troops focus on training.

As the army is equipped with more and more advanced weapons and equipment, it also needs a group of highly educated people to join the army, and college students are undoubtedly the best choice.

Training in military academies alone is not enough; another supplement is for college students to join the army.

Liu Tao also strongly supports this. All walks of life in society need an influx of talents, and national defense construction also needs talents.

In fact, it is difficult for soldiers with only a junior high school education to be competent in many technical branches of the military. Soldiers with a higher education are needed.

For example, informationized combat forces require highly qualified computer professionals who are proficient in computers.

For example, test pilots now have higher and higher educational requirements. Because test pilots need to test fly aircraft, they need to explore the combat effectiveness of the aircraft as much as possible, and they often need to participate in aircraft improvement work. Without a relatively high level of education, it is difficult to master enough knowledge.

In the future, the military will certainly continue to increase the value of academic qualifications, thereby enhancing the professionalism, high technology, and informatization of the troops!

Of course, providing an average level of educational qualifications is not just done by the military, but also by all walks of life in society, including government agencies, state-owned enterprises, and private enterprises.

This is the development trend of the entire society. After all, everyone hopes that there will be more talents in their industry and thus be more competitive.

(End of this chapter)