There are many considerations in the purchase of FC-1 fighters from China, and the actual need is because South Korea's air force has suffered heavy losses in the rebellion, and it is already somewhat weak in the face of the potential North Korean threat.

On the other hand, it is natural to hope that the geopolitics of Northeast Asia can reach a closer relationship with China, which has gradually begun to show its power advantage, in other words, to pay protection money. Many transactions in the international military market for buying equipment have strong political connotations, and they are usually a routine of taking sides. It is impossible for South Korea to stand in China's ranks, and China does not have its own contingent at present, but there is always nothing wrong with building good relations.

On the other hand, it is natural that South Korea wants to further isolate North Korea, and North Korea's biggest backer to survive so far is China. In contrast to the traditional socialist camp, North Korea has never been directly subordinate to the Soviet Union, but on the contrary, it has been a disciple of China. Taking the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War as an example, most Western countries in the world expressed regret and urged both sides to withdraw their troops. The Soviet Union and other socialist countries condemned China's support for Vietnam; Only the Red Coast and the DPRK supported the use of force against Vietnam from China's standpoint.

Most of the civilian supplies and military weapons that North Korea needs for a long time come from China, and if China can be pulled away from completely tilting towards North Korea, it will be a victory for South Korea.

Choi Yoon-so, the new foreign minister representing the ROK, also came to China at the end of February, accompanied by some high-ranking officers and technical personnel of the Air Force, but because the Air Force turned almost collectively to the left during the rebellion, a large number of Air Force officers and officers were swept to the end, and many pilots were sent directly to political prisons, so most of the Air Force personnel who could be sent to China were empty of sycophancy, but had no professional standards.

In fact, before the start of the Korean rebellion, AVIC was informed by Qi Yiming that it wanted to build an international version of the FC-1 fighter, and the project was generously handed over directly to Chengfei himself. Tu Jida and a group of leaders and technical personnel with excellent work ability and strong enterprising spirit also seriously discussed the issue of the international version of the modification.

Tu Jida and others believe that in essence, the technical and tactical needs of the international version of the modification do not exist at all, and the emergence of the international version is only a matter of politics. Although this kind of thing is very annoying for technicians, it is also unavoidable. After some reforms, military enterprises have gained more autonomy, and their subjective initiative has also been enhanced to a certain extent.

Therefore, from September, Chengfei opened a number of unimportant technical indicators, and began to issue project bids to a series of companies in the United States, such as Hughes, Texas Instruments, Grumman, Pratt & Whitney, GE, etc., because the 9527 project gave certain support in technical intelligence, so Chengfei was not as ignorant as when he cooperated with Sabre II/Super Seven, and their bidding had a strong direction from the beginning.

Chengfei is mainly responsible for the fuselage and final assembly work, and Hughes provided the APG-67 radar originally used for the F-20, and after a slight adjustment, the size is just enough to be stuffed into the small nose of the Thunder. The engine is as interchangeable as possible for the F404 or WS-13. Digital systems such as flight controllers can also be made in China or in the United States, and the weapon system is also compatible with Chinese weapons and American weapons.

In this way, Chengfei's main control of the Thunder Dragon project is retained to the greatest extent, and some key technical secrets will not be leaked, and at the same time, some subsystem products from the United States can be adopted to achieve organic unity with fighters. It is said that in the original history, the Thunder itself carried some American and European blood, and the radar used at one time was the French RC-400 radar.

Because the 1553B bus and other indicators were originally the United States' index technology, so such a modification is not difficult in nature, and the initial funding is also provided by Qi Yiming.

At least from the appearance of the FC-1 international version is no different from the purely domestic version, perhaps because of the change of an F404 engine, the appearance of the nozzle is a little different. Qi Yiming, who has a lot of experience in marketing, also suggested that Cheng Fei paint a South Korean Air Force logo on the fuselage when he came to see the South Stick to enhance the affinity.

Grumman's president of international affairs, Pelehaq, was also present to sell to the Koreans, but his expression was somewhat smiling compared to Cheng Fei's personnel. Because a few days ago, their main partner Qi Yiming moved out of the big mountain of Xiaolong and pressed down the mountain of F-14. Grumman hopes to export 50 more F-14s to China before opening the production license, but the Chinese do not accept such a threat, but Qi Yiming directly threatens that if Grumman ignores the original agreement and wants to tamper with it, then the part that has been allocated to Grumman in the international version of Thunder Dragon will not mind being assigned to Lockheed or LVT Walter to do.

Pelehaq, of course, understands that Chinese actually have a lot of choices, and there are so many that it is incredible. Grumman must look at the faces of the Chinese. China has already acquired 70 F-14s from Iran and is fully starting to upgrade them. If the contract is ruined because of a small problem, let alone 50 more, even the contract for 80 new fighters originally given to Grumman will also fail. The Chinese are also not short of replacement objects, first of all, not long ago Pelehaq has heard that the West Flying Company, a subsidiary of AVIC, has completed a comprehensive upgrade of the JH-7, and this overhauled fighter is not a fighter-bomber at all, but a heavy multi-purpose fighter. Even if Pelehaq is confident that the F-14 is definitely stronger than this heavy fighter converted from the second-generation half-base fighter-bomber, China has the all-round technology to build as much as it wants, and it will naturally abandon the F-14 project, which costs a lot of money and is not affordable.

In addition, Dassault has begun to contact Shenghua to outsource some parts of the Mirage 4000 to China, which is expected to reduce the cost of the fighter to about 30 million US dollars, which is still cheaper than the F-14.

In other words, McDonnell Douglas is now in a hurry like an ant on a hot pot, and some management has gone to China to lobby China not to accept Dassault's cooperation agreement, for fear that once the Mirage 4000 is really finalized, it will have a great impact on the F-15. Not only McDonnell Douglas is anxious, but Grumman is also anxious, but this matter does not use too much strength, and it is really not an easy thing for them to control China and Qi Yiming.

In the end, Grumman chose to compromise with Qi Yiming for more secure commercial interests, stabilized some of his interests in the international version of Thunder, and also ensured that the F-14 project proceeded according to the original plan.

Either way, the trick wasn't good at all, and Grumman was like a clown, which made Pelehaq look quite embarrassing in China.

"Mr. Tu, this time the South Koreans purchased fighters, in fact, it was just a formality, and the order for these 60 planes will fall on the head of FC-1 without accident, and I want to congratulate you." Pelehaq said to Tu Jida.

Tu Jida shook his head and said without arrogance: "General Dynamics' F-16 project is also involved in this round of procurement, although we have a certain advantage in price, but after all, the South Koreans have signed a contract with General Power to purchase F-16, and it is still very advantageous to maintain a model in logistics." ”

Pelehaq disagreed: "General Dynamics' F-16 asking price of 16 million, the actual price may be close to 18 million or 19 million, and the price of the FC-1 international version is only 11 million, to purchase 60 aircraft, the difference is more than 400 million US dollars, South Korea's situation is not particularly good, but it is imperative to consolidate the Air Force equipment, so our evaluators believe that the FC-1 with a price advantage is more likely to win this order." ”

Tu Jida also smiled and said: "At least in terms of combat power, FC-1 is still stronger than F-16A/B. "Although the international version of the new modification has been reduced in power, resulting in a reduction in the bomb load from four tons, it has not had much impact on the level of pure air combat. In the radar system, because the APG-67 still has a little advantage over the domestic KJL-7 radar, the avionics performance has been improved to a certain extent.

The part that the head of Cheng Fei did not say is also worth pondering, the international version of the FC-1 itself can be integrated with a series of guided land attack weapons such as Thunder, Thunderstone, and Feiteng, but for political considerations, in fact, their newly modified fighters do not have the ability to accurately strike on the ground, but retain a relatively complete anti-ship level, which can carry two C-705 anti-ship missiles to deal with enemy warships. For South Korea, this function is of little use against North Korea, which has a weak navy, but it can be used to deter the Japanese. Of course, there is also a certain threat to the PLA Navy, but the order of magnitude gap is too great, and the Thunder with C-705 will not pose much of a threat to the luxuriously equipped Navy.

Pelehak was very flattering to Tu Jida, and he said with emotion: "At least on this project in South Korea, our company has an income of 50 or 60 million, which is also good." ”

Tu Jida, as the general project contractor, seems to have a natural high status, he comforted Pelehak as if to his own worker: "It doesn't matter, although it is smaller than a project like F-14, but South Korea is just the beginning, if the international version of the Thunder performs well, the Pakistani side also wants to order a batch of international version of the Thunder for use, for the majority of the third generation of the country, the international version of the Thunder is also quite a tempting option, as long as we sell the quantity, your company's income will naturally be more." ”

What he said is true, but most of the revenue from the project must belong to them. Pelehaq naturally laughed and couldn't be debunked. And what makes him uneasy is that how many people with insufficient IQ can choose the international version of the Thunder is still a problem, there is almost no gap between the performance of the national Thunder Dragon and the international version of the Thunder Dragon, and there is a price difference of 3 million US dollars in the middle, even if the real Asian, African and Latin American countries want to buy it, they will definitely buy it cheaply, and the international version really pries away the market of the traditional arms exporting countries of the United States.