56: Sky-high military trade orders target the world's military factories!

After the Ilek Ministry of Defense submitted its purchase requirements, Peng Lin began to prepare a quote for them.

First, the largest part of this military procurement order was the Z-8 coaxial counter-rotating dual-rotor heavy transport helicopter.

The USA's Chinook cost approximately 4 million US dollars to build and was sold to allies for 6 million US dollars.

As for the sale price to the Middle Eastern country of Iran, it was 8 million US dollars, which also came with a series of oil export agreements.

Although Dragon Country's labor wages were low, limited by its relatively weak domestic industrial base, its manufacturing cost was even higher than that of the Chinook.

Therefore, Peng Lin set the international sale price of the Z-8 at 8 million US dollars.

200 Z-8s would be worth 1.6 billion US dollars, with an overall profit margin of about 60%.

Next, a fully organized combined arms brigade included 150 Mengshi vehicles, 200 Lynx vehicles, 300 Sniper Grenade Launchers, and 3,000 individual cloud-bomb launchers.

The selling prices of the Mengshi and Lynx varied between 60,000-100,000 US dollars and 30,000-50,000 US dollars, respectively, depending on the weapon modules.

These selling prices also maintained a profit margin of around 60%.

The Sniper Grenade Launcher was priced at 20,000 US dollars each, and due to its absolute technological advantage in the international arms market,

its profit margin was higher, exceeding 100%.

The individual cloud-bomb launcher also represented a precipitous technological lead; the launcher tube was priced at 10,000 US dollars each, and the cloud-bomb itself at 2,000 US dollars per round.

This was the weapon system with the highest profit margin, exceeding 500%.

Even the price of a single cloud-bomb could cover the entire cost.

Due to the special fiberglass material, the individual cloud-bomb launcher tube was not only very lightweight but also incredibly cheap compared to steel.

When the Dragon Country army used it in actual warfare, it was generally treated as a disposable item.

However, when sold internationally, due to its monopolistic technological position, its light weight was already a huge advantage.

Naturally, there was no need to emphasize its cheapness.

Therefore, Peng Lin set the price of the launcher tube at 10,000 US dollars each.

But even so, Saddam and his Ministry of Defense officers were still fascinated by this weapon system.

They insisted on equipping at least one for every soldier in the combined arms brigade.

Overall, the selling price of the equipment for one fully organized combined arms brigade, plus a certain amount of ammunition, totaled 80 million US dollars.

In other words, this military procurement order directly reached an astonishing 2 billion US dollars.

And this did not include the subsequent maintenance contracts and technical upgrades for the Z-8, Mengshi, and Lynx.

Nor did it include ammunition and consumables for the Sniper Grenade Launcher, individual cloud-bomb launcher, vehicle-mounted rapid-fire mortar, box-type multi-barrel rocket launcher, and suicide drones.

Arms trade is not a one-time business; the seller also needs to provide a series of logistical and consumable support afterwards.

These are where the big profits lie.

When Peng Lin presented the 2 billion US dollar quote, the Dragon Country officers were directly stunned.

After all, the annual GDP of a direct-controlled municipality like Yanjing last year was only about 4 billion US dollars.

This was almost equivalent to the total production value created by all people in Yanjing not eating or drinking for half a year, which was comparable to the value of this arms trade.

It was only at this point that the numerous Dragon Country officers understood why the USA and the Soviet Union were so keen on arms trade.

Because this stuff was indeed the most profitable of all profits!

What shocked everyone even more was that after Peng Lin presented this quote, the Ilek Ministry of Defense agreed without the slightest hesitation.

This almost made everyone feel that they might have quoted too low a price.

However, Peng Lin was not bothered by this.

He wasn't trying to rip off some unsuspecting country; he wanted to open up the entire international arms market.

Now that Dragon Country was undergoing reform and opening up, besides a large labor force, it lacked funds and technology in every aspect.

In the current international environment, Western countries were even less likely to invest or transfer technology to build factories in Dragon Country.

Therefore, the only thing Peng Lin could do was to leverage his military industrial technological advantage and lead the country down the path of international arms trade.

If this path could be successfully taken, with the exorbitant profits from arms, it would definitely be able to quickly complete the initial primitive accumulation for reform and opening up and industrialization.

Moreover, in the arms industry, generally, the more you sell, the higher your country's international standing.

At the same time, the more you sell, the safer your country becomes.

After all, the weapons and equipment you sell are all produced by you, and subsequent maintenance, technical upgrades, and ammunition consumption are all in your hands.

The buyer can't possibly point the gun at you, can he?

Even if you are not afraid of the seller pointing the gun at you, the buyer is afraid that you have left a backdoor in the helicopters or fighter jets.

They will generally maintain stable and good relations with you.

Although the weapons and equipment sold by Peng Lin also carried the risk of being copied,

by the time other countries understood the technology and copied it three to five years later,

he would have already updated the technology and developed new weapon systems.

So, he was not worried about being copied.

Even the USA and the Soviet Union, which accounted for the absolute majority of the international arms trade market, mostly shared this view... Evening.

Dragon Country and the Ilek Ministry of Defense officially signed the arms trade order contract in the meeting room of the Jingxi Hotel.

The contract stipulated that Ilek must first pay a 30% advance payment of the total order amount, to be used by Dragon Country's weapon manufacturers to purchase raw materials and expand production lines.

As for the remaining 70% of the amount, it would be paid in installments according to the production progress and delivery schedule.

Neither party had any objections to this decision.

Although this amount was not small, as the world's second-largest oil exporter, Ilek's US dollar foreign exchange reserves were relatively abundant.

Since it was a secret visit, after the contract was signed, they simply attended a farewell dinner, and the Ilek Ministry of Defense delegation departed on a special plane.

And on the second day, Peng Lin received the 600 million US dollar deposit paid by the Ilek Ministry of Defense to the Changhe Weapons Industry General Factory.

“Now, relying solely on the three Changhe branch factories is far from enough to meet the order demand.”

“We must acquire or merge and reorganize other military factories on the verge of bankruptcy domestically.”

“After all, in addition to international arms trade orders, our own army is also preparing to fully reorganize and build its Class B divisions into light combined arms brigades.”

Peng Lin silently planned.

In an era where the per capita GDP was only 156 US dollars, 2 billion US dollars was already enough to support tens of millions of people.

Even if converted into military industrial orders, it could support hundreds of thousands of workers.

And these hundreds of thousands of workers represented hundreds of thousands of families and nearly a million people.

In addition, the demand from military industrial orders could also stimulate downstream industries such as domestic steel mills and infrastructure construction.

Peng Lin seemed to see a completely new path to industrialization.

In his previous life, during the reform and opening up, Dragon Country could only purchase one aircraft from the West with the profit from a city of a million people sewing hundreds of millions of clothes annually.

But now, taking advantage of the worldwide arms race,

Peng Lin was prepared to rely on advanced weapon systems to become the world's military factory, promoting domestic industrialization.

Although this was a somewhat distorted path, it was indeed a feasible method.

Moreover, military industry and industrial production are inherently inseparable.

Even if the global arms race ends in the future, Dragon Country could quickly transition from military to civilian production, becoming the world's factory once again.

Furthermore, the profits from international arms trade were so enormous that this was definitely a good path to spare the people much suffering and rapidly complete industrialization in the 20th century.

After his rebirth, Peng Lin was not short of money.

The dividends from the Changhe Weapons Industry General Factory meant he had endless money no matter what he invested in.

As for power, Peng Lin, at 23, was already a deputy department-level cadre and an officer roughly equivalent to a major general.

His future prospects were boundless.

Therefore, after all his material needs were met, he would always ponder in the dead of night what he could do for this country and nation to be worthy of his rebirth.

Perhaps, achieving a magnificent career and enabling this nation to stand at the pinnacle of world nations was Peng Lin's current spiritual pursuit.

“We must get the heavy combined arms brigade out as soon as possible!”

Peng Lin secretly made up his mind.

If his own military strength was not strong, how could he sell arms to other countries?

Moreover, all-terrain assault vehicles like the Mengshi and Lynx were too cheap to manufacture.

Correspondingly, the profits were much lower.

Only by developing the heavy combined arms brigade would there be valuable big-ticket items within it.

Thinking of this, Peng Lin began to check his research progress.

【Research Project Name: 155mm Truck-Mounted Howitzer】

【Task Progress: 15.6%】

【Research Project Name: Weishi 400mm Modular Rocket Launcher】

【Task Progress: 21.7%】

【Research Project Name: Type 99A Heavy Main Battle Tank】

【Task Progress: 3.8%】

These past few days, in his spare time, he had also been conducting research on several weapon systems within the system space.

Among them, the 155mm truck-mounted howitzer and the Weishi 400mm modular rocket launcher were relatively simpler.

Moreover, the Changhe factory had a certain foundation in research and development technology, so the progress was also relatively fast.

He believed that after he returned, it would not take long to research and produce them.

However, the Type 99A heavy tank, as a main battle tank that ranked among the best even in later generations and the core equipment of the heavy combined arms brigade, indeed had a relatively high research difficulty.

Even the military industrial research system gave it an A-level difficulty rating.

Peng Lin could only do his best to first research some simpler modular components.

When he encountered truly insurmountable technical problems, he would then use research points to purchase task progress and directly obtain results.

After all, developing A-level difficulty weapon systems was still too challenging.

He was also unsure if his research points would be sufficient.

The real research work would have to wait until he returned to the Changhe factory to begin.

But before leaving Yanjing, he needed to visit Zhu Lin first.

He had promised her before going to the front lines that he would propose to her after returning.

However, although the two were in a free love relationship, for a proposal, a “witness” was generally needed to act as a traditional “matchmaker.”

This “witness” would usually be the matchmaker who introduced the couple or a respected elder.

But Peng Lin didn't have many acquaintances in Yanjing.

After much thought, Peng Lin decided to bother General Xu Liyou, with whom he was quite familiar.

He would ask him to be his witness when he returned to Yanjing in a few days after the war ended!