Qi Yiming has always thought that the business with the Saudis is very pleasant, and the so-called "people are stupid and make money quickly" basically refers to this goods. Qi Yiming originally sent a large number of military instructors to Saudi Arabia to guide them to fly, and then became familiar with the Leopard B and Thunder fighters.

It took a year to deliver 100 Leopard Bs, and it has been trained for a while now, but it may take some time to form combat effectiveness. As for the 200 Thunders that Prince Bandar took away from China, they are basically in a mothballed state, and the Saudi Air Force has no plans to organize the flight units of the Thunder, but the parts, engines, and the like continue to be purchased according to demand.

This makes Qi Yiming puzzled, but the Saudis take it for granted, their king Fatah has always been the vanguard of the struggle in the Arab world, and he has to help at every turn, he used to receive light weapons, at most tanks and armored vehicles, and later King Fatah found that the Chinese Thunder Dragon fighter was cheap enough, and he was determined to help other people's planes when needed in the future, showing his righteousness and wealth.

The Thunder is cheap, the flight cost is low, the training is easy, and one machine is multi-functional, in fact, the people who really know the way in the Saudi military think that Saudi Arabia does not have to pursue too heavy aircraft at all, and the Thunder Dragon is a very good aircraft. The few Thunder Dragons with a budget are responsible for the airspace patrol mission of the Saudi Air Force, and have also carried anti-ship missiles for anti-ship training.

There are fighter mafias and heavy factions in the US Air Force, and the Saudi Air Force has gradually formed the American faction and the Chinese faction, and when Saudi Arabia decided to purchase a new batch of fighters, there were two voices in the Saudi Air Force, one demanded the purchase of F-15, and the other demanded the purchase of Leopard B. The price of the two fighters is actually about the same, and the Saudis have also tried to compete in the air, and without using the PL-12, the exchange ratio of the two fighters is similar. In terms of ground attack capability, the F-15C can't catch up with the Leopard B, a heavy fighter based on the old fighter.

In fact, considering the follow-up maintenance and repair costs, the hidden cost of American-made fighters is higher, and the after-sales service is not as good as that of Chinese fighters, so those who do not understand military affairs financially think that it is better to buy Chinese fighters.

Naturally, if we consider it politically, buying US fighter planes is also a good political investment. In the same way, those who want to refute can also cite that China is also a major power with significant influence, and that Saudi Arabia is more affordable.

China and Saudi Arabia have already established diplomatic relations, and after the base was upgraded, Qi Yiming also stationed red police spies here specifically for military purchases, oil and other things, although Qi Yiming couldn't understand for a while that the Saudis just bought 300 fighters from him three years ago, why do they have to buy them again at this time, in short, it is a fool not to make money if they don't make money.

The design and flight test of the FC-9 Shadow Leopard has been carried out for most of the time, and it will not take long to obtain domestic certification, so Qi Yiming immediately passed the news of "the follow-up model of the Leopard B specially designed by China to serve Saudi Arabia" to his previous partner, Prince Sultan and his son. Sultan and his son took a commission of nearly $1 billion from Qi Yiming last time, and this time when they heard that there was a business to do, they hurriedly began to win allies in the DPRK and China, and suggested to King Fatah not to buy F-15 and FC-9.

"My brother, my king, I understand that the original intention of buying the F-15 this time is to strengthen relations with the United States, but our arms purchases from the United States are already very large. In recent years, we have bought helicopters, anti-tank missiles, early warning planes, and other weapons from them, and we have paid billions of dollars. In addition, there is not only one way to improve relations, but if we habitually hand over money to the Americans, they will see us clearly. "Prince Sultan is sincere.

King Fatah couldn't help but ask, "What do you think?" ”

"I am the Minister of Defense Aviation and the Director General of the Army, and I have an obligation to reflect to you the voice within the Army. The Warriors are wise enough to have made your decision to buy Chinese fighters, as they have been given the decisive weapon to encircle the Holy Land and defeat the enemy. The performance of Chinese fighters is obvious to all, and Chinese fighters have fought on many battlefields over the years, and their performance is absolutely amazing. Not only that, but China's service is more considerate and the price is more reasonable, and at the same time, China is also an influential country, which is worthy of our wooing. Sultan opened his mouth and came, not mentioning that there were people in the army who liked the F-15, but said it like Saudi soldiers were calling in unison, eager to fly Chinese fighters.

"Well, I see?"

"Of course, Your Majesty the King, you may have heard that the United States has taken a fancy to a Chinese fighter and is willing to spend a lot of money to buy it, and the final purchase volume may be thousands, which shows that the American man-made aircraft is actually inferior to the Chinese!"

King Fatah asked hesitantly: "But China has also bought American planes before." ”

Sultan continued: "That's the way China would rather pay money to form an alliance with the United States, uh, maybe China is inferior to the United States in carrier-based aircraft, but the United States is inferior to China in conventional fighters, that's for sure." ”

Sultan continued his demagoguery: "Your Majesty, the Chinese respect us and are willing to serve us, and the FC-9 they developed this time is a product specifically tailored to our needs, which can be seen." And their offer is also lower than that of the Americans, the unit price is only 25 million US dollars, just like the last time, buy planes and send missiles and other weapons, and there are a large number of military instructors who can teach us tactics and even fight for us. ”

Fatah nodded and said, "Indeed, the seriousness of the Chinese is very good, and the people they sent to build us a missile base can work in the desert for more than ten hours, without any entertainment, and repeatedly ask us if we are satisfied, much cuter than the Americans with their nostrils in the sky." ”

When Sultan saw this, he moved the king, and once again instigated him: "Your Majesty, the sources of our national defense weapons procurement need to be slowly balanced, and Europe, the United States, and China should be roughly equal, rain and dew. We use Chinese fighters, European helicopters, and American AWACS and transport planes.

From a practical point of view, fighter jets are the most urgent weapons, and their quality is directly related to national defense security, so we should try to choose better weapons. There are more than a hundred old aircraft such as the F-5E in service in our army, while the advanced FC-1 is only a few dozen in service, and many more are idle, which is the irrationality of resource allocation. The Leopard B is capable of air combat and can bomb the enemy's front, but the F-15C/D can only fight in the air, and it is not better than the Leopard B, and it is not as good as the improved and upgraded FC-9 in China, which is also an unreasonable allocation of resources.

Therefore, Your Majesty, I have the courage to suggest that those F-5, F-15, and other fighters in our military that are not very good and cannot be used should be resold to other countries, and even before selling American-made military planes, we can still buy a lot of Chinese military planes, and their combat effectiveness will be increased by several times. Although we Saudi Arabia are rich countries, we can't spend money indiscriminately, right? ”

This prince is reasonable, so that the king also agrees with it very much, but no one knows that he is secretly trying to make gray income through the trade zone with China, if he does it with the Americans, the United States is very closely watched, and the amount he gets will definitely be limited. But China is very arrogant and willing to pay more to buy him off. What's more, Sultan felt that what he said was not false, if China's weapons were not powerful, it could fight so many victories?

King Fatah nodded and said, "What you said is very good, it can be seen that you are very considerate of the country, and I am proud to have such a loyal and capable minister and brother as you." ”

Prince Sultan seemed to be very moved with the expression on his face as if he had died as a confidant.

King Fatah also took his hand with kindness and said, "This matter will be handed over to you, and I trust you." Since the American fighter is not good, then we don't want it, we haven't used the F-15 for a few years, since it is not easy to use, we will sell it, and it is estimated that it can be sold for some money, the F-5 is relatively old, whoever wants it will take it. The Air Force has 200 FC-1 Thunders, which are more than enough to replace the F-5, and they must be stronger, so it will be done. I'm afraid the money you made from selling these planes won't be enough to make up for our needs, and I'll give you another $4 billion to make good use of it, so that our Saudi Air Force can dominate the Middle East! ”

Sultan was overjoyed, but King Fatah thought about it and said: "We originally planned to sign a contract with Brazil last year to purchase their multiple launch rocket systems, but the army thought that the American and Chinese systems were more powerful, so the plan was delayed. You go to China this time and take a look, and if it is suitable, then buy it back, with a budget of 500 million US dollars. ”

Sultan was even more pleasantly surprised, and he hurriedly said: "The last deal with China included some self-propelled rocket artillery, and the army used it relatively well, and the price was not expensive, this time we will definitely be able to buy better rocket artillery." ”

In terms of rocket artillery systems, China's advantages are relatively large, not to mention the ****-level Guardian series in this era, WM-80, WM-120, A-100, AR-3, SR-5, these have become the generals under the improvement of the base, because the model is too complex, Qi Yiming will be in addition to the Guardian series of foreign trade rocket artillery unified as SR (Self-propelled-Rocket) series, The more sold tracked chassis self-propelled 273mm WM-80 is now SR-1, with an extended range of 120 km for SR-2, 122mm Dragon Tooth rocket launcher Type 89 for export model SR-3, 300mm self-propelled multiple rocket launcher A-100 for SR-4, and SR-5 for 122mm and 300mm rocket launchers of different calibers.

At present, the main users of China's export rocket artillery are the Nanyang Defense Forces, mainly SR-1 and SR-2, and Qi Yiming also plans to equip them with a certain amount of SR-5. In addition, it is rumored that South Korea is more interested in China's rocket artillery, but Qi Yiming is considering North Korea and does not plan to sell more advanced army equipment from South Korea for the time being.

It is said that Saudi Arabia got 108 WM-80s last time, and I personally felt the power of rocket artillery, so I wanted to buy a better one. Brazil's ASTROS-II is a relatively good design, a launch unit can shoot rockets of different calibers, Saudi Arabia is very interested, but because the price has not been negotiated, it has dragged on to this day, and it will be cheaper for China again.