Before preparing to negotiate with Rolls-Royce about the TF-41 engine, I first received news about the RB-199 engine, which was also from the statement of the chief engineer of the 123 factory, and this time Rolls-Royce paid more attention to the power selection of the J-7 modification, even more than the J-8 RB-199.

"Then this is good news, for the future purchase of RB-199 engines, this will be a very significant positive, you must know that the initial purchase price of this engine is not cheap, maybe we can take this opportunity to suppress the price. ”

The purchase price of new engines in Europe and the United States is usually not low, compared with the price of engines in the Republic and the Soviet Union, this is simply doubled and rising, but if you really want to calculate the cost of the whole life cycle, you will find that European and American engines are more cost-effective.

The reason is naturally so, but unfortunately the traditional customers of the republic are obviously poor, and the initial purchase of fighters is a large economic expenditure, at this time cheap is the king, after all, you can purchase a few more.

When the engine needs to be replaced in the middle of the aircraft's life, the financial pressure will be much smaller at that time, to put it bluntly, this is actually an economic problem, the early financial pressure of using European and American engines is greater, and the early pressure of Sino-Soviet engines is small.

To make an irresponsible analogy, buying a European and American engine is like buying a house in full, with high pressure in the early stage and easy in the later stage; while the engine of the Sino-Soviet system is a mortgage, with less pressure in the early stage and slightly greater pressure in the later stage; overall, the current is the former's full life cycle cost-effective.

If you can take the opportunity to reduce the price of Rolls-Royce's engine this time, it is not too much to ask, but it is a little bit to be able to suppress a little.

"Speaking of price reduction, don't be so troublesome, before I sent someone to Pakistan to sell the J-7 M, by the way also revealed the J-7 major reform plan, Pakistan is very interested, but they tend to use the United States F-404 engine, when the time comes, Pakistan and Rolls-Royce can talk face-to-face, in front of the real order, the price reduction is much easier. ”

Pakistan is really still on the road as before, as soon as I heard that the J-7 series is ready to be overhauled, I can't wait to run, it's still pretty good to think about it, only let Rolls-Royce compete head-on with the Americans, this price can be lowered, otherwise I really think it has to be RB-199.

"European and American companies on this urine, I see that not only the power system has to compete, but also the avionics can not directly designate the UK, it can be made public, there must be many companies that are greedy for this project, and only in this way can we stand in an advantageous position." ”

Although the last Sabre 2 project ultimately failed, Wang Zhengguo felt that it was also a very useful attempt, at least to let China see the competition rules of the European and American military industries, which was of great benefit to the growth of the 123 factory later, and it is still necessary to go through the process again.

Regarding this suggestion, Chief Engineer Tu was obviously also very moved: "That's right, in fact, Pakistan also has this opinion, they think it is more convenient to cooperate with the United States, but they learned that our domestic military also intends to destroy the seven major reforms, and when we think that the British cooperation is not bad, we put forward the method of external bidding, and then everything depends on the price." ”

The reason why the Pakistani Sabre-2 plan directly designated the United States company to cooperate was because the Sabre-2 at that time was only purchased by Pakistan, and of course it had to be done according to the wishes of others, and the British did not give military aid, so of course they did not consider it.

Now the military of the Republic intends to cooperate with the British, and the two sides are still evenly matched: "Do the British know about this? Also, as for the way of cooperation with the RB-199 engine, the other side really only sells the finished engine?"

"I haven't said it yet! As for the engine cooperation mode, I haven't talked about that level for the time being, let's take my time!" didn't seem to want to dwell too much on the RB-199 engine, and Chief Tu just waved his hand.

Wang Zhengguo still saw the clue, I'm afraid that Luo Luo is currently proud of his own value, in the absence of competitors, the talks in the past few days must be very difficult, I don't know how good the result can be if I go to send Luo Luo a hot face again.

After thinking about it, maybe we can communicate with Chief Tu first: "By the way, this time we plan to talk with Rolls-Royce about the resumption of the Spey project and cooperate in the development of high-thrust afterburner military turbofans based on the TF-41 engine.

He looked at Wang Zhengguo suspiciously: "If you want a high-thrust military turbofan, do you plan to supply it to the new J-Jelder?" If so, although I don't know much about the Spey project, I should be able to talk about it, after all, it is the Spey family, and Rolls-Royce's expectations for this engine are not too high, and it should not be a lion's mouth." ”

The reason why the RB-199 project is still open is because this engine is really good, and the republic's dependence on it is too great, so people naturally dare to sit on the ground and raise the price.

Chief Tu often runs abroad, and he knows a little about the aviation industry within the world, and he is not clear about Wang Zhengguo's motives for introducing the TF-41 and completing the localization, but this does not affect his suggestions.

I remembered what I heard during the previous European investigation: "If you are planning to have a second-generation high-thrust military turbofan like TF-41, there are many to choose from, didn't you just say that you want to introduce competition, then I will give you a suggestion: Sweden's RM-8B engine is still reluctant, try to talk to Sweden when contacting Rolls-Royce, maybe there will be unexpected results." ”

Well, this is another aero engine, and it has something to do with Sweden, which is interesting.

As for the RM-8B, in Wang Zhengguo's memory, this is also a masterpiece of a civilian turbofan engine directly equipped with an afterburner, but this engine meets a good owner, Sweden has always been stable and planned in the development of military fighters, so this engine and the Saab 37 fighter it is equipped with meet the requirements of the Swedish military.

As for whether Sweden is reliable, don't worry, as the first Western country to establish diplomatic relations with the republic, this guy established diplomatic relations with the republic as early as 1950, and it was not even slower than the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries in Eastern Europe at that time.

What is even more commendable is that military exchanges between the two countries have existed since the establishment of diplomatic relations, with the exchange of visits at the level of generals in the 60s and the establishment of the Sino-Swiss Science and Technology Cooperation Committee in 78, so the relationship between the two countries has always been good.

Economically, even less so, until 2016, the Republic was Sweden's largest trading partner in Asia, and relations between the two sides were definitely quite good.

In the late seventies, the army of the Republic went to Europe on a large scale to inspect advanced military fighters, and the famous Saab 37 was absolutely impossible to leave out.

Knowing the Saab 37, there is no reason not to know about the metamorphosis high-thrust military turbofan developed in the late sixties, which has been continuously improved later, and it is impossible to say that it is now barely used to press the TF-41 engine.

"Sweden makes sense, if I could take this opportunity to put some pressure on Rolls-Royce, I'd give it a try, and I think this old Nordic friend would welcome it. ”