What scrapped aircraft carriers can the United States have at this time, you can think of it with your heels, it must be a few Essex-class aircraft carriers built at the end of World War II. Compared with the majestic class made by the British, the Essex class can be said to be a meritorious ship, most of which participated in the Pacific War of World War II, and was also active in the Korean War, the Vietnam War and other battlefields after the war.

However, this still can't hide that they are not much different from the Majestic class, with an open hull and an old design, which is too much to use.

However, even if it was an aircraft carrier forty years ago, after some repairs by the Red Police Repair Plant, it would not be a problem to serve for more than ten years, not to mention that the cost of this was almost nothing for Qi Yiming.

However, Qi Yiming is still reluctant to take the initiative to pay money, although the price of 8 million US dollars is not much, it is basically selling at the price of scrap iron, but it is still the price of a dragon, and now there is a shortage of money everywhere, and this money is enough for him to invest in several potential enterprises and create a gross national product.

Liu Huaqing could also see Qi Yiming's hesitation, and instigated: "The combat power of the Hainan, this time everyone can see it, with such a platform, our navy has a relatively strong tactical fulcrum in the middle and near seas, so the idea of the navy is to put one ship in the south to control the South China Sea, and one in the north to control the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea." This is crucial for us to grasp the waters within the first island chain. Besides, it's also a cheap pick up for the Americans, and if you don't pick it up, we won't pick it up for nothing. ”

Qi Yiming didn't expect Liu Huaqing to be fascinated by replacing other people's scrapped aircraft carriers with amphibious assault ships, he felt that Liu Huaqing still mainly valued the ability of amphibious assault ships to carry more than a dozen fighters in air supremacy mode, to put it bluntly, this is still an aircraft carrier, and there is no essential difference from the invincible-class aircraft carriers developed by the British, they all use the capabilities of STOVL fighters themselves to fight without using catapults.

And because the design level is relatively high, the Skua is stronger than the Sea Harrier's air supremacy is not a little bit stronger, even if it is used as an ordinary fighter jet, there is no problem, and it will not be as incompetent in air combat as the Sea Harrier, mainly to do some scattered work of ground attack, whether it is to encounter the MiG-29 or F-16 without the power to fight.

"Did the Americans say which one they want to sell us?" Qi Yiming actually asked this question a lot, because the United States now has a total of three Essex-class aircraft carriers in its hands, and no matter which one of them has a serious aging hull.

"It's the CV-38 Shangri-La." Liu Huaqing replied.

Qi Yiming nodded and said with a smile: "This can be regarded as the return of things to their original owners, Shangri-La was originally our place name in China, and there is no need to change the name after we get it back." ”

The Shangri-La's name comes from the wonderland on earth in the once-popular Western novel "Lost Horizon", but the specific origin is to commemorate the historical event of Doolittle air raid on Tokyo during World War II. At that time, a reporter asked Roosevelt where the B-25 took off, and Roosevelt only replied with Shangri-La, which actually referred to China at that time.

Liu Huaqing also nodded and said, "I also think that this ship name is quite commemorative, and we can keep it." Many countries actually inherited the names of their ships from foreign countries, such as the USS Enterprise, which originated from a British ship captured during the Revolutionary War. We can save the name of the ship as well. ”

Qi Yiming didn't really have much idea about what this aircraft carrier was called, since Liu Huaqing also said that it was still called Shangri-La, it was not bad to keep this name. He was thinking about some other situations, since the navy wants this ship, it has to be taken, but 8 million US dollars is still quite painful, Qi Yiming paced around, slapped his face, and said whimsically: "Commander Liu, how about we let the Americans give us this ship for nothing?" ”

Liu Huaqing was a little stunned and said: "Although it is a ship that has been decommissioned, it is unlikely that the United States will give it to us in vain." ”

Qi Yiming said: "According to me, the Americans have a greater idea of testing our engineering capabilities this time, and we got the Melbourne a few months ago, and we will be able to send it to the battlefield in a few months, and the Americans must be greatly surprised by this." So they also want to verify this, and they will not hesitate to throw out one of their abandoned aircraft carriers for us to rebuild. ”

Liu Huaqing snorted and said: "I didn't expect this stubble, after you said this, I'm afraid that the Americans' minds are indeed like this, otherwise how could they be so relieved to give us ships and let us increase our strength, and the United States doesn't want to see us too strong." ”

"That's certain," Qi Yiming smiled slightly, and said, "But this is not something that the United States can say." Even if they don't help, we'll surpass them one day. Since the Americans are willing to try, let's try it, I don't care about letting them know that we have some amazing strength. The Essex-class aircraft carriers have all been decommissioned and mothballed, and there should be three, two of which are the Oriscany and the good guy Richard, when Reagan wanted to fully confront the Soviet Union a few years ago, he wanted to build a 600 fleet, and he wanted to repair the two aircraft carriers and reuse them to maintain the maritime superiority of the US Navy, but it is said that the condition of the two ships is very bad, and the cost of repair is very large, so the US Congress vetoed this proposal. ”

A hint of cunning flashed in Qi Yiming's eyes, "Since the Americans want to repair it but don't have so much money to repair it, we will help them do it well, the structural strength of the hull and the metal fatigue are impossible for me to be as careful as repairing our ship, but at least there is no problem with mixing it for another ten or eight years." The two ships are packaged and repaired at a price of 100 million US dollars, and by the way, they will give us the Shangri-La for nothing, and if necessary, our carrier-based aircraft J-8V can also be sold to them, Commander Liu, what do you think? ”

Liu Huaqing was already dumbfounded when he heard this, he didn't expect that Qi Yiming, this guy, would actually involve everything on the issue of making money from his own arms sales. And asking China to build warships for the Americans, and even sell fighter jets to them, sounds like a fantasy.

"The Americans will definitely think about it carefully, and it is a particularly cost-effective thing to exchange $100 million for two aircraft carriers that should have been scrapped for 10 years. And we sold them J-8V, the price of one is about 16 million US dollars, and an Essex-class modified version can carry at least 16-20 J-8Vs, which is basically no problem to deal with low- and medium-intensity conflicts. Even if they don't buy our planes, it doesn't matter if they still use the AV-8B, 100 million dollars is enough to do a lot for the Navy, and a Shangri-La that has been earned for nothing can become our new amphibious assault ship. ”

Liu Huaqing also had to be amazed by Qi Yiming's whimsy, but said quite worriedly: "But can the Americans agree to this?" Presumably, the Americans themselves would not believe it. 100 million US dollars to change two ships, it is estimated that the replacement of a set of shipboard radar and power plant is basically this number, not to mention that the flight deck of Essex is all wood, to take off and land STOVL fighters must be replaced with steel structure decks that prevent high temperature corrosion, and there are problems that need to be re-investigated, which is not a small amount of work. ”

Qi Yiming smiled and said, "It can give Americans the impression that we have abundant human resources and are very strong in doing such projects." However, if the United States wants to visit the modification process, it will never be allowed, haluha. ”

Liu Huaqing nodded and said, "Okay, I will report this matter to the Military Commission, Chairman Ping and them will discuss it, and then report it to the US side to see how they deal with it." ”

Qi Yiming himself also has the mentality that it doesn't matter whether this matter is successful or not, and this proposal is a joke. The Americans no longer feel that there is such a shortage of aircraft carriers, and a light aircraft carrier is of limited help to the US military, and it is definitely easy to have potential safety hazards for such a long time, and the US military, which attaches great importance to this point, will not so easily take over a warship that may go wrong at any time.

As for lifting the cards in his hand to show the Americans, Qi Yiming was not worried at all, and even Liu Huaqing and Ping Taizong were not very worried. Because they all know that Qi Yiming's current thing is not the best thing, these weapons and equipment skills are considered mainstream in the 80s, but they may not be the main weapons of the Chinese army in the future. Black technology and the like, it's not like you can cover it if you say you want to cover it, how to explain it when the time comes, it's lame, it's better to be strong and tell them that Lao Tzu has the superiority of socialism, that is, he is more capable than you.

For example, the AESA technology on the J-10, the electronic technology of the Hongqi-9 missile, and the advanced mechanical transmission technology of manufacturing the sickle mecha, these Qi Yiming will not be willing to show others. And to change an aircraft carrier from World War II, at best, install four gas turbines, half-new and not old carrier-based radars, and even weapons and equipment Qi Yiming will not be installed for the Americans, they can install Bofors 40mm or Phalanx and the like themselves if they want. Work such as refurbishing the hull is hard work, and a large part of the money is on labor costs, and the Americans can't do it, which doesn't mean that Qi Yiming can't do it. In addition, the steel deck resistant to high temperature corrosion is not a technology that the United States does not have, and the Tarawa-class and Wasp-class amphibious assault ships are all using it, but Qi Yiming can provide a cheaper option.

Contacts with the United States in the field of military equipment, and even with the United States in the rebellion in South Korea, are deeply considered. Now the number one enemy of the United States is still the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union is also destined to be unlucky, if China always maintains its independence from the United States, after the 90s, the United States must have a relatively large suspicion of China, even if China does not have ******** affect the image.

Now that China is committed to strengthening cooperation with the United States, promoting exchanges between the two militaries, and even not daring to act with the United States, this will create an illusion among Americans that China is willing to submit to the post-World War II order established by the United States, and is willing to follow in the footsteps of its "big brother" like the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and other NATO allies.

According to Qi Yiming's view, the United States is actually a donkey with a burst of pragmatism, and adopting the means of passive confrontation is easy to bring unnecessary trouble, but it changes its style of doing things in a timely manner and sits on the US hegemonist express, with the eldest brother charging in front to attract hatred, and the younger brother reaping the benefits in the back and waving the flag and shouting.

How many pounds is this thing worth?

One day, when the eldest brother reacted, he found that the little brother who was following behind him was eight feet tall, dancing with two big dads, trembling and wagging his tail and begging for mercy, I am afraid that it would be the eldest brother himself.