159: Crushing: The Dragon Country Equipment Buyer Show That Shocked the World!

Baghdad, the capital of Iraq.

Underground Command Center of the Ministry of Defense.

The heavy blast-proof door slowly closed, isolating all external noise.

Iraqi President Saddam, clad in a military green overcoat, strode into the command hall. His footsteps echoed on the steel floor, making the underground command center seem even quieter.

"Mr. President!"

The Minister of Defense and a group of high-ranking military officers immediately stood at attention and saluted, their eyes filled with both awe and anticipation.

Saddam did not respond, but walked directly to the central command console, his gaze sweeping like a hawk over the huge electronic sand table.

It clearly marked the deployment routes of the Iranian army and a military strength analysis map of the two forces confronting each other at the border.

"This war must force Iran to return all the territory it has occupied from us!"

"We in Baghdad want to be the leader of the entire Middle East. How can we allow our own national territory to be occupied by others?"

Saddam's voice was low and cold as he addressed the crowd.

The animosity between Iraq and Iran had a long history.

The Shatt al-Arab river, approximately 100 kilometers long, served as the boundary river between the two countries, with incredibly rich oil resources on both banks.

According to the agreement and regulations signed in 1937, each country took half of the Shatt al-Arab.

However, in 1975, under the mediation of Algeria, both sides signed a new treaty: Iraq voluntarily relinquished its sovereignty over the Shatt al-Arab, and Iran agreed to return four territorial regions of 300 square kilometers to Iraq!

But the Pahlavi dynasty, which ruled Iran at the time, backed by the USA, did not honor this promise!

Not only did it not return the four territorial regions of 300 square kilometers, but it even forcibly occupied sovereignty over the Shatt al-Arab!

Therefore, this time, taking advantage of the volatile international situation, Saddam decided to lead Iraq to reclaim sovereignty over the Shatt al-Arab and severely teach Iran a lesson!

"The Persians must pay for their greed!"

Saddam slammed his hand on the command console, making the miniature tank models on the sand table tremble slightly.

The fire of revenge burned in his eyes.

Saddam's reliance was the complete set of combined arms brigade equipment purchased from the Dragon Country military!

In the past two years, Iraq had not only spent heavily to hire officers from the Dragon Country's battle-tested "Valiant Lightweight Combined Arms Brigade" as instructors.

Moreover, it had sent a large number of young officers to military academies in the Dragon Country for training and study!

Now, this combined arms unit, personally built by him, already possessed powerful combat capabilities!

Even though the Dragon Country J-10E "Vigorous Dragon" fighter jets, which the Iraqi air force had just purchased last month, had not yet been delivered, Saddam simply couldn't wait that long!

After all, the international situation was fleeting!

Although Iran no longer had the backing of the USA, it was gradually getting closer to the Soviet Union!

If he didn't act now, Saddam had a premonition that Iraq would forever lose its sovereignty over the Shatt al-Arab, which was occupied by Iran!

"Not an inch of our territory can be lost!"

"For Iraq!"

"Now, let the war begin!"

Saddam's face was grim as he gave the order!

At this moment, the entire underground command hall of the Ministry of Defense was filled with a chilling atmosphere!

...On the outskirts of Khorramshahr city, on the northern bank of the Persian Gulf, amidst the morning mist, the Iranian army's M-60A1 tank formations rumbled forward like a steel torrent, their muzzles pointing menacingly at the Iraqi invasion route.

450 M-60A1s and 875 "Chieftain" tanks formed a wedge-shaped assault formation, their tracks kicking up clouds of dust as they rolled over the dunes.

Behind them, self-propelled artillery positions had completed coordinate calibration, and their gun elevations were uniformly adjusted to the optimal firing range.

F-14A "Tomcat" fighter formations skimmed at low altitude, the "Phoenix" missiles mounted under their wings gleaming coldly in the morning sun.

AH-1J "Cobra" attack helicopter formations hovered at treetop height, their rotors stirring up air currents that swirled sand into spirals.

Infantry fighting vehicles constructed a crossfire network behind pre-set anti-tank ditches, the machine gunners' fingers constantly gripping their triggers.

The entire battlefield was permeated with the oppressive feeling of traditional mechanized warfare.

Iran's nearly 300,000 armored troops stood ready, waiting only for Iraqi forces to enter range before unleashing a deadly strike.

However, inside the Iraqi army's command vehicle, the Beidou satellite terminal was flashing with a faint blue light.

Commanders of 5 light combined arms brigades, 1 heavy combined arms brigade, and 1 army aviation brigade shared battlefield intelligence through the "Sky Net" data link.

Every detail of the Iranian forces' deployment was marked in real-time on the electronic sand table by the Beidou high-precision positioning system.

The fuel supply points of the Iranian tank clusters, the coordinates of anti-aircraft missile positions, and the blind spots of artillery positions were all completely exposed!

...Around 6 AM, 12 of the Iraqi Army Aviation Brigade's newest Z-20 "Divine Eagle" helicopters crossed the Shatt al-Arab defense line, launching a sudden ultra-low-altitude raid.

With the electronic warfare pods under their fuselages operating at full power, the Iranian front-line radar screens instantly filled with static.

The F-14 fighter fire control systems collectively malfunctioned, and the surface-to-air missile positions became blind!

At the same time, 48 "Weishi" rocket launchers from the heavy combined arms brigade fired a salvo based on Beidou guidance parameters!

Steel launchers roared to the sky, 288 rockets tore through the air, their fiery trails like crimson meteor showers streaking across the heavens.

In this battle, the Iraqi army invested heavily!

Weishi rockets, with a range of over 400 kilometers and costing 1 million US dollars each, were unleashed in a torrent!

In less than a minute, Iraq's rocket artillery positions fired 300 million US dollars worth of rockets!

The barrage covered the sky, and the roaring sound was deafening!

After crossing the Shatt al-Arab, the submunitions of the Weishi rockets burst in mid-air a kilometer above the enemy positions, and thousands of tungsten alloy armor-piercing projectiles rained down like a deadly storm!

The exploding fireballs merged into a sea of fire that scorched the sky, and the shockwaves plowed the earth into scorched soil, leaving nothing alive for tens of kilometers around!

Iran's elite armored division troops were annihilated before they could even react!

At the same moment, the "Valiant" protected assault vehicle formations of the 5 light combined arms brigades used the cover of sand dunes for high-speed infiltration, their onboard 12.7mm heavy machine guns and Red Arrow-2 anti-tank missiles accurately firing under Beidou guidance.

Iranian infantry, before they could organize a defense line, were covered by a steel rain from the vehicle-mounted grenade launchers!

Even more deadly, the 120mm self-propelled mortar detachments of the light combined arms brigades, using coordinates relayed by the army aviation brigade's reconnaissance helicopters, carried out "over-the-ridge" indirect fire on the retreating Iranian infantry, with every shell seemingly having eyes, landing precisely into foxholes!

As soon as the two sides engaged, the Iranian forces began to show signs of collapse!

The Iranian military had originally planned to rely on 450 M-60A1 tanks and 875 "Chieftain" tanks to form a steel defense line, coordinated with F-14A fighter jets and AH-1J attack helicopters to create a three-dimensional defense system, attempting to suppress the Iraqi offensive with numerical superiority.

They firmly believed that with the firepower density and armor thickness of their American-made equipment, they could construct an insurmountable steel barrier on the outskirts of Khorramshahr and drag the war into a war of attrition!

However, they greatly underestimated the power of the Dragon Country's equipment, combined with the Beidou system's integrated combat capabilities!

The full-scale deployment and defense routes of their forces had already been relayed by Iraqi high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft to the front-line combat command system!

And facing the garrisons of Iran's elite armored divisions, the Iraqi forces showed no hesitation in spending ammunition money!

In the first round of the war, they unleashed a dense rocket barrage costing nearly 300 million US dollars!

As the remnants of Iran's 92nd Armored Brigade's "Chieftain" tanks attempted to retreat, 24 WZ-10 attack helicopters, armed with Tianyan air-to-air missiles, suddenly appeared from a sandstorm.

On the pilot's helmet display, Beidou navigation and electro-optical pod data overlaid to form attack paths. The 23mm autocannon pods shredded the fleeing tanks' engine compartments into honeycombs, and rocket pods unleashed salvos to cover anti-aircraft positions!

The few remaining AH-1J "Cobra" helicopters, just as they pulled up, were locked onto by the Tianyan air-to-air missiles of the Army Aviation Brigade's WZ-10s!

With absolute superiority established on the battlefield, the WZ-10 "Thunderbolt" began a comprehensive battlefield sweep using the Beidou system!

Steel rotors tore through the swirling sand. After resolving the last pockets of enemy resistance, three WZ-10 "Thunderbolt" helicopters flew in a wedge formation over the scorched earth of Khorramshahr.

Inside the cockpit, the pilot's helmet display flashed with the faint blue light of Beidou navigation!

The coordinates of the retreating Iranian armored cluster 20 kilometers away were being updated in real-time via the "Sky Net" data link!

At the same moment, the 79A main battle tank formations of the heavy combined arms brigade also crossed the Shatt al-Arab, outflanking the enemy!

The 125mm smoothbore gun of the 79A heavy main battle tank had a first-shot hit rate of over 90% at 2000 meters!

When Iranian soldiers discovered in horror that their artillery had been targeted by counter-battery radar and retaliated against as soon as it opened fire, the battle had completely devolved into a one-sided slaughter!

Ultimately, this war lasted less than 48 hours before ending quickly!

If the time spent by Iraqi forces pursuing the remnants of the enemy were excluded, it would have been even shorter!

This was absolutely a "blitzkrieg" that could be considered a textbook example of modern warfare!

Under the gaze of the entire world, this large-scale corps operation, with a total troop deployment of over 500,000 armored forces from both sides, was forcibly turned into a "buyer's show" for Dragon Country's equipment!