183: The huge benefits brought by war!

Within Iran.

The scorching sun baked the boundless sand sea, and the hot grains of sand trembled slightly in the heatwave.

The distant horizon warped and distorted in the hot air, with occasional clumps of withered camel thorn cowering in the wind.

Fine sand patterns accumulated in the shade of the dunes, like solidified ripple marks, subtly changing shape with each gust of wind.

The steel framework of the oilfield abruptly pierced this golden expanse, and rusty oil pipelines coiled across the sand like giant pythons.

The central drilling rig soared into the clouds, its mottled paint peeling to reveal dark red rust, and the pulley system at the top groaned shrilly in the wind.

A dozen silver-gray oil storage tanks were arranged in a matrix, their bodies reflecting the dazzling sunlight, with greenish-black oil stains at the welded seams.

However, at this moment, the Iraqi Air Force launched a surprise attack on this location.

A formation of 36 j-10e fighter jets flew at ultra-low altitude, skimming the ground, their wings almost brushing the tops of the dunes, the stirred-up sandstorm providing natural cover for the raid.

Six j-10e fighter jets, carrying KG-800 electronic warfare pods, spearheaded the attack, their airborne jamming systems operating at full power, precisely blocking the radar bands of Iran's border air defenses.

Using coordinate data shared by the Beidou Satellite, pilots marked 12 drilling platforms in Iran's Ahvaz oilfield and the storage tank farm of the Khuzestan refinery on their heads-up displays.

Anti-radiation missiles cleared the way first; en route, the fire control radars of Iran's air defense positions were destroyed into burning scrap metal as soon as they powered on.

At the same time, the fighter jets of the main attack formation suddenly climbed to an altitude of 5,000 meters.

The Lei Shi-500 glide-guided bombs, with their folded wings, mounted on the centerline of the fuselage, deployed under inertial and satellite composite guidance.

The pilot lightly touched the bomb release button; the moment the bombs detached from the pylon, their wings snapped open with a “click,” like a falcon’s retracted talons suddenly extending.

The bomb’s glide trajectory traced a green dashed line on the cockpit’s heads-up display, with a circular error probable of no more than 1.5 meters.

Minutes later, the first Lei Shi-500 glide-guided bomb penetrated the refinery’s central control room.

A delayed fuse allowed the warhead to burrow 3 meters underground before detonating with a roar, the shockwave lifting the reinforced concrete foundation hundreds of meters into the air.

Subsequently, the cluster warheads disintegrated in mid-air, and 2,000 pre-fragmented projectiles swept across the oil pipelines like the sickle of death, consecutive fireballs from sympathetic detonations surging along the pipelines, engulfing the oil storage tank farm in a sea of fire.

The derricks of the Ahvaz oilfield twisted and collapsed in the high heat, crude oil gushing from ruptured pipelines, forming burning black rivers on the ground.

Afterward, the j-10e fighter jets, having completed their bombing run, made a 9G sharp turn to disengage.

In the footage returned by the rearview camera in the pilot’s cockpit, the Iranian oilfield had already transformed into a twisted graveyard of steel.

Columns of thick smoke soared thousands of meters into the sky, casting shadows over ten kilometers long in the morning sun!

“Dragon Tooth hit, target evaporated.”

The pilot reported briefly via an encrypted channel.

This wave of attacks succeeded, meaning that 35% of Iran’s oil production capacity was wiped out at this moment.

Based on Iran’s daily oil production of 7 million barrels, this strike alone could directly cause their oil production to plummet by 2.45 million barrels!

Correspondingly, the oilfields jointly developed by Dragon Country and Iraq could rapidly increase production to fill this part of the market’s energy gap!

According to the current international market price of 60 US dollars per barrel of oil, this translates to 147 million US dollars in daily profit!

Even after the profit split, each country could obtain over 70 million US dollars in profit!

...Meanwhile.

The international situation had completely descended into chaos.

Because before the Soviet Union and the USA could condemn the actions of the Iraqi military, many Afro-Asian media outlets and newspapers internationally began reporting first on the devastating damage caused to Iraq’s oil industry by Iran’s “Iron Storm” operation!

Saddam was not stingy when it came to spending money where it mattered.

For international journalists invited to the Iraqi Presidential Palace for interviews, Saddam’s government not only extended very high courtesies.

Moreover, when these individuals left, they were all given a very substantial “travel expense”!

Thus, these international media reporters truthfully reported what they had seen in Iraq:

“Crude Oil Fires Consume Peace: Iranian Air Strikes Trigger Middle East Energy War”

“From Air Superiority to Oil Rights: The Strategic Game Behind Iraq’s 1.8 Million Barrel Production Evaporation”

“Civilian Suffering Under the Iron Storm: Why Is the International Community Collectively Silent?”

Upon seeing these reports from international media and news agencies, Iran was so enraged that he nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood!

Iraq and Saddam were using all of Iran's own terms!

Iran’s “Iron Storm” operation plan indeed aimed to demilitarize Iraq and strike the oil facilities aided by Dragon Country!

But the problem was, the Iranian Air Force didn’t succeed at all!

In fact, for this, the Iranian Air Force even lost two-thirds of its main fighter jets!

As for the video footage and tragic scenes that Saddam released to the International Community, they were all “camouflage positions” set up by the Iraqi Defense Forces to lure the Iranian Air Force into deeper bombing!

As for Iraq’s real oilfields and automobile factories, they had no opportunity to bomb them at all!

So now the Iranian government was utterly distraught!

Clearly, it was their oil facilities that were bombed, yet they were now burdened with international infamy!

This whole ordeal truly left the Persians somewhat bewildered!

And it wasn’t just Iran; politicians in the The White House and the The Kremlin were also somewhat dumbfounded after seeing Saddam’s audacious maneuver!

While the victory in the Iraqi air battle and the seizure of air superiority over the battlefield immensely shocked the Soviet Union and the USA, it did not render these two Superpowers helpless.

Because as long as Saddam and the Iraqi Defense Forces dared to intervene on the ground within Iran, the two world Superpowers could jointly act through the UN to impose both military and economic sanctions on Iraq.

At that time, Iraq would not only lose weapon aid but even its oil exports would be blocked.

But what the The White House and the The Kremlin had never expected was that Saddam was no longer the Middle Eastern hothead but had instead begun to play strategy!

To achieve the goal of bombing Iranian oilfields and destroying his potential for sustained warfare, Iraq and Saddam had actually preemptively raised the banner of justice and victimhood internationally!

This truly made the two world Superpowers feel like punching a sandbag-sized fist into cotton!

Furthermore, after a large number of Iranian oilfields were destroyed, both the The White House and the The Kremlin couldn't help but begin to waver in their decision to provide military aid to Iran!

Previously, the Soviet Union’s military aid to Iran, besides using Iran’s hand to remove Dragon Country’s interests in the Middle East, also valued the large oil output within Iran!

The The Kremlin was not a philanthropist, and naturally would not provide a large quantity of weapons aid to Tehran for free.

These weapons and a series of military aids would ultimately need to be paid for by Iran with oil!

But now, with Iranian oilfields destroyed, what would he use to purchase weapons?