Egypt's order reached the final negotiation stage, and after some calculations, it gave an offer of $18 million for a telex version of the Lightning fighter, so that each Lightning fighter would add $3 million to the original $15 million, and Egypt would need $2.7 billion to purchase a total of 150 aircraft.

But at this time, the good thing is that this time the lightning fighter is willing to sell to the Egyptian production line, the first 20 of the project by Embraer Airlines to provide all the parts for assembly in Egypt, the middle 30 began to gradually increase the proportion of Egyptian local production, the last 100 lightning fighters are produced in accordance with the requirements of Egyptian localization 50%, after the synthesis, the entire project Egypt only needs 2.5 billion US dollars to complete the procurement of the fleet.

For the time being, it seems that it is only saving 200 million US dollars, and the later production line wear and tear, maintenance may be more than this little money, but people have to look at the long-term, after 50% of Egypt's domestic parts, it can be much more convenient to repair in the future, although some key components still need to be imported, but after the whole life cycle cost of the lightning fighter is counted, this will greatly save a sum of money.

"Then, this project will be roughly determined in accordance with the provisions of this contract, after signing the project order, as long as the first funds arrive, we can immediately start the necessary mechanical processing equipment, tooling frame procurement and production work, we now have two production lines of lightning fighters in production, so Egypt does not have to worry about whether this will be a problem."

The ability to quickly complete the negotiation of multi-party contracts mainly lies in the high efficiency of AVIC Southwest and Northrop here, and the joint efforts of both parties.

After receiving Yang Hui's instructions on the issue of fly-by-wire flight control, Xie Lianfa got in touch with Northrop, and in the end it was decided that Northrop would provide the fly-by-wire flight control system, and AVIC Southwest would receive a profit commission of $1 million for each flight control system.

In the entire Egyptian project, not only the flight control is in charge of Northrop, but even in the new production line project, the required machining equipment is also handled by Northrop, and it is purchased from the United States and then transported to Egypt for installation.

The reason why so many concessions can be made is because Northrop promised that they will exert their influence in the US Congress, guarantee that the United States will not point fingers in Egypt's Lightning fighter procurement case, and acquiesce in Egypt's military equipment procurement plan this time, and will use Northrop's channels to help sell Lightning fighters in the future, which also includes European orders that Lightning did not dare to think of at first.

As for whether Northrop's promise to work hard to sell the Lightning fighter in European countries is reliable, and whether European countries will have concerns about the origin of this aircraft, it is really unclear for a while.

But one thing can definitely be guaranteed, for example, such as the high-end goods such as the fly-by-wire version of the lightning fighter, if it is produced by the Pakistani aviation industry, at least the proportion of components provided by the Republic of China is at least the proportion of this aircraft, after all, even the turbofan 10A engine has been determined to be assembled and produced in the engine joint venture factory in Brazil before this, so there is no doubt how many other parts Embraer can produce.

At that time, if the telex version of the Lightning is replaced with an advanced European and American medium-thrust turbofan engine of similar size, it is not clear that the Lightning fighter produced by Embraer will not need to be provided by the Republic of China in the future.

It is one thing not to need to provide parts, but Embraer is only authorized to produce, and AVIC Southwest still has a share in the profit of the production license, plus AVIC Southwest already holds 35% of Embraer's shares, and then Embraer will have to share a large part of the hard-earned money from AVIC Southwest.

It can be said that even if the lightning fighter develops to the point that AVIC Southwest does not need to provide parts, AVIC Southwest can still make a lot of money in this project, the difference is only that the domestic orders for important parts will be reduced in the future, and the profit will not be too much.

Anyway, in the end, it is still the same sentence, with Northrop's help, perhaps the European light fighter market that has not been considered in the first place can also be opened to Lightning, although the high-end lightning fighters sold to European countries, AVIC Southwest will not make too much, but this is better than not making a penny before.

Moreover, if you can grab orders from Europe, then the original orders for F-16, Mirage, and JAS-39 will definitely be reduced, and striking the enemy is effectively strengthening itself, so why not do it! In addition, once lightning can enter the European service, the increase in fame will be even more immeasurable, and from then on, it will be able to swing the previous ** silk image, which can be regarded as having a lofty identity.

Not to mention, just after Egypt officially announced the purchase of 150 fly-by-wire lightning fighters, the sensation caused was not small at all.

First of all, the Brazilian and Thai navies, after hearing that the lightning fighter can be easily changed to fly-by-wire flight control, and can get a huge performance improvement, the discussion on whether to use fly-by-wire technology on the carrier-based version of the lightning fighter soon began, after all, this carrier-based fighter is not much, it must be manufactured with the best technology possible, and the use of fly-by-wire flight control is also a matter of course.

At the same time, European countries also have a variety of ideas, some Northern Europe, southern Europe began to think about the performance of this lightning fighter, is it possible to consider it, after all, the Soviet Union has collapsed at this time, the military pressure on the whole Europe has been greatly eased, considering a multi-role fighter is indeed a good choice, and the problem is that even if this aircraft uses fly-by-wire flight control, the performance seems to be somewhat insufficient!

Especially in terms of powertrains

About the ideas of these European countries, AVIC Southwest, Embraer, and Northrop naturally don't know, but at this time there are not a few months before the 92 Farnborough Air Show, and the Farnborough Air Show before 98 is held in the first week of September, and now it is only the beginning of July, maybe the air show two months later can be consulted by the way!

Also at the beginning of July 92, a major event related to the aviation industry of the two countries occurred on the east and west sides of the Pacific Ocean, first of all, the first engineering aircraft of the J-18 multi-purpose combat attack aircraft in the southwest hinterland of the Republic rolled off the assembly line, and finally it was quickly packed and trapped like a dumpling, loaded and driven to a key test area of the newly built Guiyang Aviation Industrial Park, and began an intensive static test, and the second engineering test aircraft also on the production line has 77% of the construction progress, It is expected to be rolled off the production line in October.

If there is no problem with the first static testing machine in the test, it may be able to catch up with the first flight in December at the end of the year, and if the aircraft is found to have structural design problems in the static test, the first flight will definitely have to be postponed to 93 years before it is possible.

But in any case, the Republic's DSI air intake version of the Super Hornet J-18 has finally rolled off the assembly line, and the entire design and manufacturing team involved in the project can finally see what this aircraft looks like.

In any case, the Pacific side has taken the lead in creating the red Super Hornet, although it has not been officially announced, but the approximate data of this aircraft is not so mysterious in the eyes of relevant people at home and abroad, and it is a lot of things that are disclosed compared to Project 10. (To be continued.) )