Qi Yiming never expected that Dassault would have such an unbelievable plan - China and France would cooperate in the production of the Mirage 4000 heavy fighter.

In the ill-fated history of aviation in the world, there are many fighter jets that died in the middle of the journey, and many military fans are sighing when they mention it, and Dassault's Mirage 4000 is undoubtedly one of them. The Mirage 4000 is actually a heavy fighter based on the Mirage 2000 with an engine added, enlarged body, and fine-tuned design. Marcel, the head of Dassault at the time? Dassault stated that France paid for 2,000 and they raised their own money for 4,000, and the reason why he was so confident was that the French had always wanted to have a twin-engine heavy fighter of their own, and even flew American F-15 fighters for a time. Another good thing is that for some Middle Eastern countries that are unwilling to choose US and Russian fighters, the Mirage 4000 undoubtedly gives them a third way, with Saudi Arabia and Iraq as the main potential customers.

But neither the French themselves nor the oil tycoons of the Middle East chose this fighter in the end, in fact, it uses a lot of mature technology from the Mirage 2000, and most of the parts can even be shared, not to mention the convenience of customers who are used to using French aircraft. The design is excellent, the ideas are excellent, and the foundation of the Mirage 4000 is also very good, but no one buys it.

The fighter was briefly restarted in 1986 with the aim of selling it mainly to Saudi Arabia. Because at this time, the Iraqis were very short of money because of the anxious war, and it was impossible to order such an expensive new fighter plane from France, and the Saudis had just signed an Arl with the British. Billions of dollars have been spent on the Yamaha arms agreement, and there is also a Tornado as a supplement and replacement for the F-15, so there is no need to find this trouble for yourself. Later, the Americans found out that they had lost a large arms order and reopened the F-15 to Saudi Arabia, and there was nothing to do with the Mirage 4000.

So in the end, this good fighter ended up as an aviation museum ornament, and never had the opportunity to actually enter the battlefield and compete with the warhawks of other countries.

Although the story of the Phantom 4000 is sad and lamentable, Qi Yiming feels that this matter has nothing to do with his half a dime, and he can't imagine why Dassault would want to cooperate with him on this project.

After considering the wording, Qi Yiming still said quite cautiously: "Mr. Dassault, I believe you know that more than half a year ago, our company has signed a contract with Grumman International for the F-14 cooperation project, and we have obtained all 70 F-14 fighters from Iran, and after the modification we need is completed, Grumman will provide us with the next batch of 30 new F-14 fighters, and the second part of the contract also stipulates that if everything is correct, we will buy 50 Tomcats from Grumman again." Eventually, the total number of operations of our naval aviation will reach 150 aircraft, and at the same time our country will also get a Grumman production license for the production of our own version of the Tomcat. In addition, I believe you have also heard of China's J-10 fighter, which is very similar to the Phantom series, which is a medium-sized fighter with a delta wing and canard wings, and is the main model of my country's air force. Not to mention the Flying Leopard, which is a fight-bomber aircraft, and the J-8V Skua as a carrier-based aircraft of the Navy. The main types of aircraft in our country's air force have reached four, and it is impossible for us to purchase another type of fighter that is completely outside our system, both in terms of demand and economy. ”

At the beginning, Qi Yiming whimsically engaged in the Tomcat replacement and asked Grumman to buy the F-14, which was really optimistic about the Tomcat's super air combat capabilities and further room for improvement, but it does not mean that he is a big man who has money and nowhere to spend. In this era, the Celestial Empire was still a poor country, and although he had earned a lot of base income by repeatedly defeating the enemy, he had no reason to be a fortune boy.

Serge was not discouraged and explained to Qi Yiming: "Mr. Qi, we proposed such a cooperation after a lot of careful consideration. First of all, based on the deal with Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia needs a number of fighters, both air combat and ground capabilities, China's production of flying leopard is an eye-catching model, undoubtedly cost-effective and quite practical, the mode of combat is also very novel. But the Flying Leopard is not without its drawbacks, that is, after really entering the air dogfight, there is no advantage against any of the three generations of aircraft, I believe you yourself know this, and your opponent, the British, will also make a big fuss about it. ”

Qi Yiming nodded and said: "The Hurricane ADV is not a good air supremacy fighter, if I need it, I will also sell the J-8V fighter that we performed well in the South Korean conflict to Saudi Arabia, this is a fighter with superior air combat performance." ”

Serge still had a smile on his face, but shook his head and said: "The achievements of the Chinese counterparts are very amazing, and they have made so many dazzling fighters in silence, which makes people wonder if God has cast some magic on the Chinese." Yes, the J-8V can be an air superiority fighter, but in essence it is still a STOVL fighter, and it is still worse than the ordinary land-based version of the air superiority fighter in daily operation. ”

Qi Yiming sighed: "Any option must have its own advantages and disadvantages, we all know it, but I don't think that because there are some shortcomings, we should give up our mature options, and instead join the command of Dasuo Company to help you make money." ”

Ed Stein interjected at this time: "Mr. Qi, you have misunderstood, we don't want you to give up the project of the Flying Leopard's bid, but we want you to consider participating in the project of entering the Phantom 4000." ”

Qi Yiming was still quite puzzled, and turned his head to look at Serge.

"Well, let's put it this way, we want to not just go beyond this Saudi bid, but also work with the Chinese side in a broader area, because the Chinese side has very good skills, and we are quite impressed with the ability of the Chinese side to control costs, for example, you are only offering the FC-1 for $8 million for fly-away, and the price of the flying leopard is only $24 million, which is almost impossible for any other company in the world. It's not enough to be cheap, and the excellent performance of Chinese-made fighters has also been verified on the battlefield, so we have great expectations for the Chinese side. ”

Qi Yiming didn't believe this guy's statement, not long ago the French were working on a helicopter project with China, and they knew exactly what was going on in China. It's just that now with Qi Yiming's transformation, the domestic situation is completely different, and many companies have made a lot of progress. France doesn't have the full picture, but they think something very different must have happened in the country.

Dassault cannot be said to be incapable and level, but the repeated setbacks in the international market are not only due to political reasons, but also because of its own lack of aggressiveness in doing business. At the same time, the French are not skilled in negotiation, and they always can't suppress their greed, and want to call up the price, but in the end they lose the bamboo basket and the water is in vain.

In fact, Dassault has seen this problem for a long time, but he can't help but repeat it. Imagine that even if the price of selling fighters is not very high, but the business is done, there will always be profits in the end, and through the production and performance of contracts, the company itself is also improving, and all links are accumulating experience, which will eventually lead to the company to launch better products. However, Dassault is always on the verge of getting a kick in the door, and it is rare to be able to get a big order as rich in oil and water as Britain and the United States. It wasn't until the 21st century that I got the contract for 126 Rafale in India that I was proud of it, but even if the contract was in hand, it was full of waves, and there were a lot of mistakes, which shows that it is easy to make mistakes if you can't get a big contract.

Serge saw very clearly this time that if the project of the Mirage 4000 was broken, Dassault of France would no longer have a chance to make any achievements in the heavy aircraft project, and from then on Dassault could only be a supplier of aviation equipment in the second echelon of the world. The ambitious Serge never wants the aviation empire built by his father to end up slipping in his hands, so he plans to take a risk.

"We have learned that the engines used by our Chinese counterparts are extremely advanced, and it is said that Grumman is operating some of the turbofan engines that will be used in China's own F-14 for only $2 million. In addition, according to China's propaganda in the export market, FC-1 and other fighters use a lot of composite materials, and I recently noticed that some Italian companies and Swedish companies have ordered a batch of carbon fiber materials from a Chinese state-owned enterprise, and the price is extremely favorable. It can be seen that Chinese counterparts are very experienced in controlling costs and using excellent components, and we hope to use this ability of the Chinese side to reduce the ex-factory cost of our Mirage 4000, and finally make this fighter as competitive as the F-15. ”

Qi Yiming, this is considered to understand Serge? Dassault made some calculations, he said: "You mean, subcontract some parts and components to us for production, and then you are responsible for the final assembly of the fighter?" ”

Edstein nodded and said, "That's pretty much it." ”

In fact, in the field of civil aviation, the strategy of global outsourcing has been relatively popular, which is a trend in the development of aviation equipment. However, because the military field involves a lot of confidential issues, everyone has always been more conservative, unless it is an ally or quasi-ally with a relatively good relationship, similar to the relationship between Britain and the United States, or the relationship between China and Pakistan, will allocate outsourcing on military aircraft projects. Qi Yiming thought to himself, in fact, this strategy is really a good way for a company like Dassault that wants to fight against the tide and die without life.

Even if Qi Yiming is allowed to produce some materials here, and even the processing of some materials that are not particularly important, whether it is in terms of labor or various costs such as processing and materials, China can achieve at least one-third of the cost of the French. To put it mildly, the more Dassault outsources to China, the lower the price of the aircraft will be, which of course cannot be tolerated. If China has too many details about the manufacture of fighters, then this fighter will not be Dassault's.