If Motorola really handed over most of the Iridium program satellite manufacturing orders to Hughes Space, it would be too big a blow to Lockheed, because the Iridium program developed by Motorola was the largest near-Earth space communication satellite program in the 90s.

To this end, Motorola plans to launch 66 communications satellites and 6 backup satellites into low Earth orbit in the next few years, with a total investment of a record $6.6 billion, of which 3.4 billion will be used for satellite research and development and manufacturing.

Although the more than $3 billion is just a small cake sprinkled with water compared with the US military satellite program, which often costs tens of billions or even tens of billions, the problem is that the US military, in addition to being a tyrant with a wallet, is also a master of playing balance, and the investment of 10 billion yuan should be distributed as much as possible to a few space companies in the United States with satellite manufacturing capabilities, not to mention that sometimes in order to demonstrate the generosity of the United States, a part of it will be allocated to British or European companies to participate in it.

The big cake is divided into countless small cakes, and Lockheed can't eat a few portions of it desperately, and at best it can get a list of more than two billion dollars, thank God.

Excluding some public relations expenses, the high cost of the US military's nervous appointment of suppliers, and the daily labor expenses, the profit margin is less than 40 percent, and just last year Lockheed Space Equipment Manufacturing Corporation undertook the production of a global mobile communications satellite system similar to that of the Iridium program.

The total investment of the project is $16 billion, and the production and development of satellites is about $8.9 billion, of which the Locke system will share 20 percent, about $1.8 billion, and will provide the US military with four geostationary orbit communications satellites with a mass of 1.25 tons.

After all the development and production tasks were completed, the satellite was launched into orbit and delivered by the US Air Force, and Lockheed's audit department came over to calculate it, and after removing the costs and expenses, the profit margin of the entire project was only 32.6 percent.

In other words, the $1.8 billion US military investment was smashed, and Lockheed only earned $586 million in the end.

Such a profit margin and amount may be regarded as doubling in other industries, but in aerospace, especially in low-earth orbit space equipment, the profit margin must be at least 50 percent, otherwise how can it reflect the height of outer space? Therefore, under normal circumstances, satellites can only be described as priceless, and a big country that is not strong cannot afford to play at all.

As a result, in such an industry where 50% of the profit margin is considered to be passing, and 60% is barely based on the industry, Lockheed actually only engaged in 32.6%, and it is a shame to say it.

But there is no way, who let the customer be the arrogant US military, dare to blow up, believe it or not, next time you will be reduced to 20% of the profit!

Since we don't dare to blow up our hair, what should we do? It is easy to do, and it will not be enough to turn the buyer's market into a seller's market; through acquisitions, mergers, and integration, a highly unified monopoly market will be formed.

As a result, a wave of mergers and acquisitions has gradually risen in the United States, and the two giants of Lockheed and Boeing are the initiators of this trend, but if you want to act as a tide-maker, you must have the ability to make the tide, in other words, you must have sufficient funds, as the so-called money can make the devil grind, and the United States is no exception.

But how to make money?

Of course, it is to maximize the profit of each order, at this time Motorola came to the door with the Iridium plan, Lockheed naturally could not let go of this opportunity, you must know that Motorola is not the US military, there are not so many cats and doorways, 3.4 billion US dollars in satellite research and development and manufacturing costs Lockheed can get at least 60% of the profits.

It stands to reason that such a frenzied profit margin is rich enough, but Lockheed, which wants to become the largest military industrial giant in the United States and even the entire world, is still not satisfied, after all, large-scale mergers and acquisitions require congressional consent, and those congressional lords who are full of fat brains and often have a twitching appetite is bigger than the other.

If you want to feed them, you have to increase the profit margin a little, and the US military's list is a fantasy, whether it is the main contractor or the subcontractor, all of them are related to the US military, and the prices of spare parts are higher than the other, and you can't bargain about the price, because you may pull out a former US admiral or a senior adviser who works in a key department of the Ministry of National Defense.

These people are also senior advisers or nominal directors of Lockheed.

So the flood washed the Dragon King Temple, and the two families became a family, which can be said to abound, all of them changed the law to earn money from the US military, and their own family members fought to death with a hairy meaning?

Therefore, every time Lockheed shouts the so-called slogan of cost control, it thunders and rains again and again, and the anticlimactic does not want it.

Autonomy is greatly limited.

The 72 satellites of the Iridium program are different, no matter how big Motorola's energy is, it is not as big as the US military, so naturally there is no so-called designated supplier, all of which require Lockheed itself to integrate the industrial chain of satellite R&D and manufacturing, and its autonomy is infinitely amplified.

Lockheed saw that if he didn't make a lot of money, it would be a thunderbolt, so he increased the profit margin to 70 percent and beat the Hughes Space Company's $4.2 billion reserve price with an overall offer of $3.4 billion, and successfully won all the communication satellite manufacturing contracts for Motorola's Iridium program.

Low quotation, high profit, and the performance of the satellite must meet the requirements of Motorola, and Lockheed is fighting hard in order to make money.

Conventional American suppliers naturally cannot meet Lockheed's requirements, because their products are too expensive, and they really need to use them, and Lockheed pays for a satellite 100 percent, so it must find another way to get some products with low price, good quality, and acceptable performance from other channels, so as to ensure the profit target expected by Lockheed in the Iridium program.

It is precisely because of these various reasons that there is a scene where Abraham Webb, vice president of Lockheed Space Equipment, calls Merlintz, a second-hand dealer.

After listening to the details, although there was no change on the surface, in his heart was 10,000 alpacas flying back and forth frantically, which was 25% to 45% lower than that of satellite accessories suppliers in Europe and the United States, which was even more embarrassing than embarrassing.

This price is not to mention Europe and the United States, even the Russian, which was tossed by the collapse of the Soviet Union, cannot be so low, after all, the things that can be installed on satellites are not high-precision, whether it is materials, processing or technology, they are the latest precision technology integration of human beings, and the cost of such things is there, and they can't be lowered if they want to.

What's more, even if it is lowered, won't he Merlinz earn it himself?

Let's take 5 to 10 points to do your own remuneration, so that Lockheed wants 30% to 55% of the satellite accessories compared with mainstream manufacturers in Europe and the United States.

Melintz has worked with manufacturers several times over the years, none of them can meet this requirement, just when Merlinz is at a loss, ready to refuse Weber's "kindness" if it doesn't work, then he remembered the new aircraft press conference of Tengfei Group some time ago, in addition to two training aircraft, Zhuang Jianye also introduced the grand plan of Tengfei Group's aerospace.

Now that Tengfei Group has started to build rockets, can they produce parts for satellites?

A seemingly ridiculous idea popped up in Merlintz's head, and he immediately called the Tengfei Group's agency in Thailand with the attitude of being a dead horse as a live horse doctor.