This $42 billion order has given China's arms dealers, or shipbuilding enterprises a taste of sweetness.

You know, of the $42 billion, profits account for at least half, and after deducting design fees and patent fees, shipyards that undertake construction work can earn at least $15 billion.

What is this concept?

If it is to build a civilian vessel, even if it is a high value-added LNG, that is, a liquefied natural gas carrier, the net profit per thousand deadweight tons is between 1.5 million and 2 million US dollars, that is, to build a 200,000 cubic meter VLNG, the shipyard's profit is only 30 million to 35 million US dollars.

It takes 500 VLNG to build $15 billion.

How many VLNG are there in total, or how many VLNG are needed in total?

On the busiest Middle East-to-Far East route, there are less than 100 VLNGs in total, and less than 300 VLNGs are in operation worldwide!

According to VLNG's average annual order, it will take about 30 years to complete the construction contract for 500 ships.

And what about the construction of those warships ordered by the Saudis?

Obviously, with the capacity of Huaxia Shipyard, it will be 5 years at most.

Even without taking into account the manpower invested, and the resources expended, the profit margin of building a warship is dozens of times that of a civilian ship.

Of course, if you count the labor cost, it is a hundred times.

In fact, from the unit cost, we can see how amazing the profit of the battleship is.

A 052E has a standard displacement of only 7,800 tons, and the shipyard sells it for $3 billion, and after deducting various expenses, the profit is about $1 billion, that is, each ton can bring about $130,000 in profits, while VLNG makes a profit of about $1,000 per ton.

That is, in terms of tonnage, the profit of a battleship is more than 100 times that of a civilian one.

Obviously, this is also the key to the desperate desire of European and American countries to export warships.

You know, countries like Britain, France and Germany, which have long stopped building civilian ships, have been exporting warships to other countries.

Even the United States has been reaping huge profits from the warship market in the form of technology exports.

Among other things, just one Aegis system costs hundreds of millions of dollars.

Of course, it's not just shipyards that have tasted the sweetness.

In that year, Saudi Arabia also signed a contract of intent with Huaxia to purchase 8 KJ-4000 large early warning aircraft and 12 KJ-900 medium early warning aircraft from Huaxia.

The total value of these 20 aircraft in the intent contract is as high as $8 billion.

Why is it so expensive?

Quite simply, AWACS aircraft are inherently expensive.

The KJ-4000 is actually a special export-type early warning aircraft, and the carrier aircraft is a Y-20 large transport aircraft developed by Huaxia itself, equipped with a large active phased array radar.

Not to mention Saudi Arabia, even if Pakistan purchases it, the unit price is as high as 600 million US dollars.

As for the KJ-900, in fact, the development work has not yet been completed.

Why?

As a carrier aircraft, the Y-30 medium-sized transport aircraft is still under development, but it has only completed its first flight, and it first needs to meet the needs of the Huaxia Air Force.

Optimistically, it would be good if the KJ-900 could make a test flight before 2025.

Like the KJ-4000, the KJ-900 is also equipped with a large active phased array radar, but it is limited by the carrier aircraft and has slightly worse air command capabilities.

Of course, only a contract of intent was signed back then.

It will not be until 2025 that Saudi Arabia will officially sign a procurement contract with Huaxia, and it will purchase 12 KJ-4000s, giving up the KJ-900 that has not been completed.

However, 8 KY-20 air tankers were added to the contract.

This kind of tanker is also developed from the Y-20, and is equipped with the S-20 engine developed by Huaxia itself, with a maximum fuel load of 180 tons.

A total of 20 aircraft, Saudi Arabia spent $12 billion.

So far, counting the ground weapons and fighter jets purchased from Huaxia before, as well as the investment in the JF-30 project, Saudi Arabia spent a total of hundreds of billions of dollars to purchase weapons and equipment from China in the years after the end of the Iraqi civil war, as well as the production line of weapons and equipment.

At the same time, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman were also importing large quantities of arms from China.

According to conservative estimates, by 2030, the arms imported from China by these four Gulf countries alone will be about $200 billion.

In other words, these four countries spend an average of $20 billion a year to buy arms from China.

As a result, China quickly became one of the world's largest arms exporters.

Of course, just one of them.

In fact, until 2030, China has not surpassed the United States in the field of arms exports.

Why?

Saudi Arabia and other countries are purchasing arms from China at the same time as they are also purchasing arms from the United States.

For example, after purchasing the JF-20, also known as the J-10D, from Huaxia, Saudi Arabia signed a contract with the United States to purchase 30 fighter jets, still F-15SA, mainly to supplement losses during the Iraqi civil war, in addition to spending billions of dollars to upgrade existing F-15SA.

Later, when purchasing the "Salman" main battle tank and cooperating with Pakistan to produce the "Khalid 2", Saudi Arabia spent $4 billion to find an American company to modernize and upgrade the M2A3 infantry fighting vehicle, and then ordered a batch of M109A8 self-propelled howitzers.

Later, Saudi Arabia spent about $3 billion to get the United States to upgrade the E-3.

In addition, Saudi Arabia has separately purchased a variety of anti-aircraft weapons, including THAAD, from the United States.

According to conservative estimates, in 2022, Saudi Arabia spent at least $18 billion on arms purchases from the United States.

The same is true of several other Gulf countries, which have given enough orders to US arms dealers on the pretext of replenishing combat losses and modernizing while purchasing arms from China.

Of course, the arms dealers in Europe did not pull it down.

Kuwait, for example, has procured dozens of EF2000 fighter jets, and Egypt, with the support of the Gulf states, has asked France to order more Rafale fighter jets.

It can be said that these Gulf countries still adopt a balanced diplomatic strategy, but they are more inclined to China.

Of course, if there is one country that has not been taken care of, it is Russia.

Because they supported Iran during the Iraqi civil war, and even provided Iran with advanced weapons and equipment, after the war, Saudi Arabia and other countries began to collectively boycott Russia.

Not buying arms from Russia is really nothing.

Let's not forget that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have never been users of Russian arms, and Russia does not expect to be able to sell high-quality and high-cost arms to Gulf countries.

After the end of the Iraqi civil war, the most important thing Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries did was actually to suppress oil prices by increasing production.

High oil prices have indeed brought huge returns to the Gulf countries.

However, at the same time, it has also hit the consumer market hard.

If you can't sell oil, how can you make money?

What's more, the cost of oil extraction in the Gulf countries is already extremely low, much lower than that of Russia and the United States, so they can still make a profit when oil prices are low.

The high price of oil has on the contrary boosted the competitiveness of competitors.

Then lowering oil prices becomes a weapon against opponents.