The other side.

After the Singapore Airshow '98, Guillaume Le Maire, the leader of the French delegation, flew home alone without even waiting for all the exhibitor equipment to be packed.

Because of the encounter in the previous few days, he has completely lost the patience to wait.

Due to various coincidences, France, which had great expectations, gained very little in the arms sales market.

The cutting-edge Rafale fighter was not favored by any country because it was still in the prototype stage and the price was amazing.

The Mirage 2000, which once occupied an important position in the international arms sales market in the past, has been upgraded to the Mirage 2000-5 and has also conducted a joint flight show with the Singapore Air Force, but as a medium- and light third-generation aircraft with little size and potential, it has finally gone into decline.

Indonesia and Malaysia, two countries that have had relatively stable economies in the wake of the Asian financial crisis, have clearly favored the larger, heavier, and even cheaper Su-27 and Su-30.

And the rich Singapore Air Force, as a loyal ally of the United States, naturally prefers the F15 or F16.

In any case, it is impossible to set your sights on French planes.

The Thai military had shown some interest in the Mirage 2000-5, but it was clear that the economy that bore the brunt of the financial crisis was no longer enough to support its large army.

You know, when the economy was good a few years ago, the Thai army purchased nearly 60 F16A/B fighters, 4 new frigates, and even a light aircraft carrier in a very short period of time.

Now that he has suddenly returned to poverty, it is difficult to maintain the scale of the existing equipment, and naturally he cannot come up with the spare money to buy new ones.

As for several other Southeast Asian countries......

They didn't go back into poverty.

Because I've never been rich......

Therefore, these countries are generally more interested in the two improved MiG-21 fighters of the Chinese type, and they are obviously not the target customers of French equipment.

In short......

The French, pulled.

Of course, the French military industry is rich in heritage after all, and a single Waterloo at an air show will not have any impact on the overall arms sales pattern.

However, considering that the reputation of French equipment in the traditional market, that is, West Asia and North Africa, cannot be recovered in a short time, this failed effort to open up new markets is still a bit unpleasant.

People have no foresight, but they must have near-term worries.

Le Maire may not have heard this sentence.

But the truth must be understood.

So, his thinking is very clear -

The top priority at the moment is to build a few business orders with sufficient influence to stop the decline in both public opinion and the market.

The former is perhaps even more important.

And army and naval equipment was not the strong point of the French.

The task of making this business a whole naturally fell on the pride of France, that is, the aviation industry.

And in a short period of time, the only equipment they can come up with and meet the "influence is big enough" is Rafale fighters and NH90 helicopters.

The former is currently facing the problem that the development progress of the planned M88 engine has been blocked, although it borrows a lot of design from the F110 engine, but the actual reliability and life are very problematic.

Even the M88-2, which reduced its thrust by almost 15 percent, still suffers from reliability and failures.

For this reason, the first few Rafale prototypes had to be temporarily equipped with imported F404 engines to test other subsystems, and it was obvious that they could not be put into service smoothly in a short period of time.

It is impossible that the Chinese people also have any unique research on turbofan engines, right?

Le Maire looked at the two photographs in front of him and quickly put the unrealistic idea behind her.

In contrast, as Kurt Jean-Pierre said the other day -

Most of the problems faced by NH90 are not technical issues.

If it can really achieve the same quiet performance as the Huaxia improved Dolphin, it will definitely be a killer in the 10-ton helicopter market.

However, there are two huge obstacles in front of Lemaire.

One is the "close" allies who are eyeing the project, waiting for a piece of the pie.

The second is that the helicopter mute technology is at least currently mastered by the Huaxia people, and the NH90, at least on paper, is a military project.

So he needs to find a way to convince the Ministry of Defense and the president that these people who don't understand technology and are likely biased believe that they should cooperate with China on the helicopter program.

Relatively speaking, the first problem is relatively easy to solve.

Eurocopter itself dominates the whole project, as long as it does what Pierre said before, it can be tough.

Therefore, Le Maire, who had been thinking all the way on the plane, finally decided to start with the second question.

……

Once you've prioritized how to solve the problem, it's time to figure out how to solve it.

There is definitely no hope for a direct application, not only is it impossible to pass, but it is also possible to be labeled as a Chinese spy.

Although Le Maire is not afraid of this, the less trouble the better.

Therefore, when he returned to the office, he immediately found his secretary.

"Carolyn, help me collect the activities related to China in our country in recent months as soon as possible, and make a list for me."

In order to prepare for the Singapore Airshow, Le Maire has been away from France for nearly half a month, coupled with the painstaking preparatory work in the early stage, he has been a little out of touch with the status quo since he first returned.

The female secretary's eyes widened slightly:

"It's about Huaxia...... All? ”

Although the international influence of Kung Fu China at the end of the 90s could not be said to be particularly large, it was already a country with a population of 1.2 billion that has gradually opened up.

Even in terms of the face of the market, official and unofficial exchanges between countries and China are extremely frequent every year.

It's definitely not something that can be collected by one person casually.

At one point, Caroline began to wonder if she had offended the other party somewhere.

Although she is a government employee and is not actually entirely controlled by the people she serves, it is always unpleasant to be put in small shoes.

"Hmm...... It's related to the aviation business, or maybe we can influence it a little bit. ”

Le Maire thought for a moment, then narrowed it down a bit.

Caroline breathed a sigh of relief and nodded slightly:

"Okay, I'll give it to you as soon as possible."

It should be said that Caroline was very efficient, and that afternoon, a detailed summary of the contents was placed on Le Maire's desk.

The latter looked at the dozen or so pages in front of him, and was also a little stunned.

As vice president of the French Association of the Aerospace Industry, he didn't even know that there could be so many exchanges between the two sides.

"After the signing of the cooperation agreement last year, the number of unofficial exchanges between us and Huaxia has increased rapidly, and these are only the projects I can count."

Carolyn explains:

"However, most of them have no actual content, they are routine relationship maintenance activities, and I have bolded the relatively important items, so you can pay special attention to them."

Le Maire flipped through the document in front of him, and sure enough, he found that each page had a few bold items scattered around.

Not much.

After all, the two sides are still in the early stage of cooperation, although the temperature is heating up quickly, but mutual trust and understanding are not enough, and it belongs to the stage when there is more retreat business.

But this saved him a lot of room for entanglement.

"Groundbreaking Ceremony of Airbus Huaxia Assembly Base and Signing Ceremony of New Batch of Airbus Aircraft Orders......"

"Airbus A330AIT Test Aircraft First Flight Ceremony ......"

"CAAC/JAA Joint Icing Simulation Wind Tunnel Inauguration Ceremony ......"

"Joint Training ...... for Chinese and French Air Force Pilots"

"Airbus New Supplier Licensing ......"

“……”

After flipping through a few pages in a row, there are indeed a lot of meaningful contents, but they are related to his purpose this time...... I really didn't find it.

"...... of the French Naval Fleet's Visit to East and Southeast Asia"

When he saw this, Lemaire frowned:

"Why is this one marked in black, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with us."

"Because I have inquired through personal connections, the commander of this trip, Vice Admiral Laurie Warjoul, is your countryman, and I suspect that you may know him."

The position of secretary has a strong ability to communicate with each other in private.

Especially Carolyn, who is in her early 30s, has a rising career, has a good appearance and has some experience, can often have quite exaggerated connections.

Lemaire's eyes lit up, and he sat up straight.

"Although we didn't know each other very well, we did be classmates and have been in touch ever since."

"Do you have more details about this visit?"

"Yes, you wait."

Caroline lowered her head and flipped through a thick folder tucked under her arm for several pages of documents and reports to Lemaire.

"Visiting 14 countries, minus the journey, a total of 17 days of valid travel, of which 5 days are planned to stay in China alone?"

The latter looked at this schedule, and people were almost stupid.

"According to the information from the Navy Staff, the main purpose of this trip is actually to promote relations with Huaxia, but it is a big trip from afar, if you only go to one country, the purpose is a bit too obvious, and it is not easy to explain to the Congress, so another 13 destinations have been added."

Le Maire thought about it, and probably knew that this matter was a basket that the navy and the shipbuilding industry wanted to make up for themselves.

A few years ago, the Lafayette frigate procurement case ended up in troubled waters, and the two countries and three parties involved were not satisfied in the end.

More details are certainly not clear to him as a member of the Aerospace Industry Association.

However, considering that in the end, the French shipbuilding bureau was forced to decide to deliver only the hull with the power system, and also gave a lot of compensation to the Chinese side in some subsequent naval technical cooperation, so it did not cause any serious consequences.

Considering the overall situation of cooperation between the two sides now, the atmosphere of this trip should not be particularly tense.

So it's a good opportunity for Le Maire's plan.

Thinking of this, he turned to the back page of the information:

"Visiting Ships ......"

"The air defense destroyer Jean Barr, the patrol frigate Mud Yue, the integrated supply ship ...... the Deurance River"

(It's this Jean Bar, not that Jean Bal)

It can be seen that the size of the formation is not large, but the level is very high, and even a lieutenant general was sent to lead the team.

And, more importantly, it's exactly in line with Le Maire's next steps.

"Caroline, you can help me make an appointment with General Voljoul, the sooner the better."

"An official meeting? Or a private meeting? ”

Caroline packed up the finished materials on the table in front of Lemaire and hugged them back in her arms.

The latter took off his glasses and thought for a moment:

"Private meetings, on Fridays, after work, to book a booth in the backroom restaurant, where I know a lot of people in the Department of Defense like to talk about things."

(End of chapter)