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Fincantri Shipyard, Northern Italy. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ≦≧

As a historic shipbuilding enterprise in Italy, the shipyard located in Monfalcone, in the province of Gorizia, Italy, has a history of 200 years, witnessing the rolling waves of history and the strength of a country's navy.

Although it is not a holiday now, the atmosphere at the shipyard is lively as the morning sun shines on the beautiful Apennine Peninsula, because the Italian Government has finally agreed to hold a delivery ceremony for the first two of the four Heden-class frigates ordered by Iraq here, the Heden and the Gigar.

These four frigates can be regarded as having endured hardships.

The Heden-class frigate, which belongs to Italy's improved Seawolf-class, has a lot to do with former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

After President Saddam Hussein got the power of Iraq, his vision was also very broad, knowing that Iraqi oil was the main lifeline, and if he wanted not to be trapped in the Persian Gulf, Iraq needed to have a strong navy, not to mention, Saddam Hussein also had a lofty dream of dominating the entire Middle East. Therefore, in 81, a contract was signed with Italy, and an investment of 98 million US dollars was made to purchase four improved Seawolf-class warships from Italy, and the Iraqi side set it at Heden-class. If Iraq wants to be strong, it must not only have a few patrol boats and missile boats, but it must have frigates, even destroyers, and cruisers.

If Saddam Hussein's financial resources were sufficient, I am afraid that he would not even let go of aircraft carriers, but history played a joke on him, and after the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq would also become a poor egg. In later generations, these four frigates were detained by the Italian side because of the Iran-Iraq War and the Gulf War. The first two warships. It was Saddam Hussein who had already paid all the money, and Italy, with the help of the UN resolution, refused to pay it. At last. The Italian Navy generously kept it for its own use, which was called the Artiglier class alone. ≦≧

The Navy requires long-term accumulation to build a warship. It will also take a few years. Iraq ordered such a light frigate for nearly three years at the Fincantri shipyard in Italy, where the shipbuilding industry is already very developed.

The first ship, HMS Heden, was started in March '82, launched in July '83, and completed in September '84, and the second ship, HMS Gigar, started construction in September '82, was launched in November '83, and arrived in December '84. That is, a few days ago, it was built.

These warships are the only kind of belongings that President Saddam Hussein left to Qusay that can make Qusay look good. So. Qusay has always been very concerned about the situation of these warships, and it is fine. Italy is not lazy.

In the process of warship manufacturing, Iraq's own navy is also gradually reserving talents, Basra Naval Academy, is an important place for Iraq to train naval personnel, in August 84, the first batch of graduates of Iraq's Basra Naval Academy, came to Italy, ready to receive the first warship.

However, they did not expect that at this time, the Italian side would deliberately make things difficult for Iraq.

Because at this time, the conflict with Israel began in the Middle East, and the confrontation between the two sides gradually escalated.

Italy is not completely partial to Israel, especially since Israel took the lead in developing nuclear weapons and conducting underground nuclear tests.

However, Israel's development of nuclear weapons did not affect Italy's vital interests, while Iraq was different, and the subsequent Arab oil production cuts and embargoes caused world oil prices to rise, although not against Italy, which also suffered greatly. ≦≧ because Italy is short of domestic energy, 94% of solid energy is imported, and 88% of natural gas is imported; Ninety-three percent of its petroleum products are imported, and Italy has not offended Iraq, but its own economy has suffered serious problems because of the reduction in oil production that Iraq has taken the lead, and it is naturally very dissatisfied.

Moreover, there is another aspect, Iraq's arms imports are a very lucrative business, but the new Iraqi leader, the young man named Qusay, does not seem to be very satisfied with Italian arms, they buy American, Soviet, French, British weapons, and even Sweden recently, and it is said that they have invested in joint research and development in Swedish military enterprises. The new president of Iraq, who is generous, doesn't seem to buy much from Italy!

Except for the warships ordered by Saddam, Iraq has no other intention to purchase arms. The Iraqi side paid only part of the costs of the third warship of the same class, the Al-Quedishawa, which had already begun construction in December '83, and the Italian top brass was very unhappy.

It just so happened that subsequently, the United States, together with NATO, imposed an arms embargo on Iraq, and Italy finally decided that it was time to educate the Iraqis well! Seeing the Iraqis who came to receive them, the responsible staff of the shipyard in Italy arrogantly told the crews, you can't drive away from these two warships!

The reason is simple, because the ships were ordered by President Saddam Hussein before the Iran-Iraq war, and after the Iran-Iraq war, the United Nations adopted a resolution banning the supply of weapons to the warring parties. That is why Italy has firmly complied with United Nations resolutions and is not in a position to supply Iraq with these weapons.

This makes the Iraqi side very indignant, because now that the Iran-Iraq war has long ended, even the new Iranian government has become a friendly neighbor of Iraq, and these are no longer problems at all, but the United Nations has not canceled this resolution, but all countries in the world no longer take this resolution seriously. ≦≧ even when the Iran-Iraq war was in full swing, countries still provided weapons to both sides, and Italy was deliberately embarrassed.

The Italians also played a trick, not saying that they responded to the call of NATO, but the call of the United States, because in that case, they would not get a drop of crude oil from the Middle East. That's what Britain said and did, but Britain has its own oil fields, and it has a hard back, and people make a profit, and most of its country's crude oil depends on the Middle East and the Soviet Union.

The person in charge who came to receive it, Rear Admiral Abdul Wahid Thoma of the Iraqi Navy, had hoped to be the captain of Iraq's largest surface ship of displacement, but now, looking at the first ship that had been built, it was docked at the dock of the shipyard. And the second ship is also nearing completion. But he couldn't go up, and he was anxious.

Abdul's report was sent back home, to the command of the Navy. But it was temporarily detained. How to deal with the deliberate difficulties of the Italian side requires President Qusay to make a personal decision and only express protest. It doesn't work, more effective means have to be used, but President Qusay has no time to be distracted by these things. Because, at this time, President Qusai is in Amman directing the battle against Israel, and this kind of thing cannot disturb President Qusay.

Fortunately, after less than a month of waiting, calm has returned to the Middle East. Israel bowed its noble head, and the dispute between the Arab countries and Israel was resolved.

After Qusay returned to China, while processing the report. I saw the report from Abdul. Immediately realizing the seriousness of the problem, Amir, who had just returned to Iraq, was ordered to take over the matter. Focus on processing.

With the gradual development of Iraq's economy and the independent development of Iraq's national defense undertakings, Iraq has made great achievements in the air force and army projects, which can not only meet its own needs, but also export a small part of them. ≦≧

With the help of the big powers in the East, Iraq has set up a shipyard, starting with the construction of civilian ships and small missile boats, and gradually building up its own shipbuilding industry, and at the same time introducing sub-projects of foreign warships to train Iraq's own talents. The establishment of the Basra Naval Academy is to store a large number of qualified personnel needed by the future navy, and when a large number of warships are obtained from the Soviet Union, they can quickly form combat effectiveness.

At present, the main force in Iraq is still missile boats and submarines, and there are almost no ships with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons, so Qusay has always been very much looking forward to the property left to him by these fathers.

Looking at the current naval vessels, even in the special period of the 80s, these two warships can be regarded as relatively advanced.

The Heden-class frigate, from the Italian Navy's Wolf-class frigate, is a first-class corvette that Italy began to develop in the mid-70s. This class of ships is of moderate size, can maneuver at high speed, has all-weather surface alert capabilities, and can deal with various threats in the air, underwater and surface, so it can be said that it is an all-rounder at sea.

The Heden-class frigate is 13.2 meters long, 1.3 meters wide, 3.7 meters draft, with a standard displacement of 2,200 tons and a full load displacement of 2,500 tons: two LM2500 gas turbines with a power of 55,000 horsepower, and two GMTA 230-20M diesel engines with a power of 7,900 horsepower, the gas turbine is arranged in the main engine compartment and the diesel engine is arranged in the rear auxiliary engine room. In addition, two diesel generator sets are arranged in the front auxiliary engine room and the rear auxiliary engine room. The power provided by the main engine is propelled by reduction gears into two four-bladed adjustable-pitch propellers.

The armament of the Heden-class frigates is also very powerful. It used one 'Otto-Breeda' 127 mm naval gun; Two 'Dado' 40-mm anti-aircraft guns, one eight-mounted 'Albatross' M2 ship-to-air missile launcher firing 'Aspide' (Pit Viper) ship-to-air missile, four twin 'Ottomat' anti-ship missiles, two triple 324-mm torpedo tubes, firing 'Bald' A224S torpedoes and M46 torpedoes. ≦≧

Advanced weapons, excellent hull, mature design, so that the performance of the Heden-class frigate is very good, anti-aircraft, anti-submarine, anti-ship, everything. If you have to find a shortcoming, it is that putting so many weapons on a warship with a displacement of only more than two thousand tons looks a little cramped, and the living space of the crew is not very large.

Of course, the overcoming of these shortcomings is the need for larger hulls, that is, destroyers, cruisers, aircraft carriers... In the grand blueprint of Qusay, these are all to be realized, and the Heden-class frigate is a new beginning, and the Iraqi Navy will bid farewell to the history of missile boats with a displacement of only a few hundred tons!

A strong navy, without warships, without suitable warships, is absolutely not possible, the Iraqi Navy needs these few warships, needs more warships, the Iraqi Navy, there is no more time to wait!

Now, the first two ships are about to be built, and the latter two ships are also under construction, and although Iraq's funds are a little tight at present, Qusay has made a decision to take the lead in allocating part of the funds in next year's expenditure to pay the balance of the remaining warships.

And the first two ships. The Iraqi Navy needs to carry out the reception!

Italy figured out the excuse. What should I do if I don't let it go?

Hurtling his teeth, Kusai walked around the office a few times. I thought about all kinds of ways, but I didn't feel very satisfied, and finally. Thinking of the upcoming oil production reduction and price reduction action to bring down the British oil industry, an idea suddenly came to mind.

Since the Italians are playing yin with themselves, then they will also use their current actions to set a trap for the Italians and let them lift a stone to shoot themselves in the foot.

President Qusay then offered Amir a condition that Iraq would be willing to supply Italy with 50 million barrels of crude oil at a price of $41 per barrel, as long as the Italian government agreed to deliver the two warships to Iraq immediately. That's almost half a month's oil production in Iraq. And now, just after the end of the oil embargo, the international oil price is 51 US dollars per barrel. Before the oil embargo. The international oil price is $43 per barrel.

In this way, it is as if Iraq has suffered a great loss. According to this price, Iraq will have to earn $500 million less, and the money it has in hand will not be earned, all in order to be able to quickly bring these two warships back, and Iraq will have to be ruthless in order to be able to squeeze out oil and water.

After Iraq's friendly conditions were brought to Italy by the Minister of Armament, the Italian side was immediately overjoyed and immediately signed an agreement with Iraq, for fear that Iraq would change its tune, and although world oil prices would fall after the resumption of oil exports, they would not fall to $41 in any case, right? Italy's top officials are not very complacent, and for Iraq, this approach is long overdue.

However, the senior Italian officials did not know that just after the agreement was signed, the international oil price began to change greatly under the circumstances that no one expected, and they later regretted it a little, and the second half of the agreement could not be fulfilled. Iraq was very empathetic in re-entering into a new oil supply agreement with them.

But now, Italy is still very happy, after Amir signed an agreement with Italy on the export of oil, accompanied by the Italian Minister of Defense, together with the Fincantri shipyard, to attend the ceremony of the delivery of the warship.

The weather was very good, the blue sky was cloudless, the sea in the distance was magnificent, and the docks of the shipyard were crowded with people at this time, and reporters from various countries and employees of the shipyard were watching this grand handover ceremony.

Two warships, painted pale gray, stood quietly on the pier, colorful flags fluttering. Iraqi naval officers and men, dressed in white Iraqi naval uniforms, lined up in a column on one side of the warship, along the undulating side.

"Today, we are here to hold a handover ceremony for the two Heden-class frigates ordered by our friendly country, the Iraqi Navy, these two frigates are the crystallization of our Italy's most advanced warship industry, and are warships that adapt to future modern warfare, which fully bears witness to the fact that we have become close partners with Iraq in the military, economic, trade and other fields, and we in Italy will continue to develop friendly relations with Iraq and enhance the friendship between our two countries." This was stated by the Minister of Defense of Italy.

"We in Iraq, here, have received two frigates with a displacement of 2,500 tons, which is the legitimate expediency of our Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's own, whether on land, in the sky, or at sea, and at the same time, we will continue to contribute to the maintenance of peace in the Middle East." Amir, the Minister of Armament, who came to negotiate, said. "We are grateful to our friendly country, Italy, and we will continue to promote relations between the two sides."

At such a time, the remarks made by Iraq's minister in charge of arms purchases are very significant, and they reflect certain attitudes of the Iraqi Government, especially with regard to the dispute that has just ended, which is simply directed at Israel.

At the end of the speech, the two warships waiting held a solemn flag-raising ceremony, and on the main mast in the middle, the bright Iraqi national flag, accompanied by the sound of the national anthem, slowly raised.

In the sound of the national anthem, Abdul, who was in the command room on the bridge, suddenly became very emotional.

Because, he will personally witness the strength of the Iraqi Navy, and he has become the captain of the largest tonnage frigate in Iraq at present!

"Uhhhh

Facing the morning sun and the morning light, the Iraqi Navy began the process of sailing eastward with the operation of their newest warship, and on their warship, there are still a small number of Italian personnel, who will help the Iraqi Navy personnel to fully master the operation of this warship before returning to Italy. The warship that was set at this time will be the largest warship in Iraq after it enters service, and we in Iraq are confident that we will defend our Iraq