192: Chapter 192 The research institution suffered significant losses.

After Major General Maliki completed the distribution and deployment of weapons and equipment to the army divisions of Iraq, he remained uneasy about these assets, so he conducted regular inspections to prevent any loss of equipment.

At the beginning, as each army division started receiving the equipment, their enthusiasm for training was very high. However, after a period of time, incidents of weapons and equipment being scrapped due to training began to occur, the number gradually increased, and the types of scrapped equipment also grew.

Major General Maliki soon realized something was wrong and quickly led personnel to conduct spot checks, only to discover that some of the weapons and equipment that were nominally scrapped by certain army divisions had actually vanished into thin air.

This situation made Major General Maliki very angry, and he arrested a group of worms within the military. However, some of these worms arrogantly claimed that their actions were supported by the USA, and that the vanished weapons and equipment had been acquired by the USA and already shipped there. They threatened that if he dared to punish them, the USA would immediately take action against Major General Maliki.

Major General Maliki ignored them completely, swiftly trying and executing some of the worms in the military; in particular, he ordered those who had deliberately transferred the weapons and equipment to be hanged.

Although the USA might later discover that their assets within the Iraq military had disappeared—which could potentially be detrimental to Major General Maliki—he knew that if he did not curb this, who knew how much of the purchased weapons and equipment would continue to vanish?

Major General Maliki conducted focused inspections on the four divisions that had already undergone re-equipping and interviewed officers at all levels of each division, emphasizing that if such incidents occurred again, he would replace the officers of entire regiments and divisions, even going so far as to replace the entire command structure of a division if necessary.

Although he knew some officers would remain dismissive, harboring thoughts of loyalty to the USA and continuing to transfer weapons, as long as he kept applying pressure and clearing out these officers, he would eventually turn the re-equipped units around and prevent the Iraq military from becoming a vassal of the USA.

After the USA obtained the weapons and equipment from the Iraq military, it immediately analyzed whether they were the same models as those that had appeared on the battlefield in Syria, and soon discovered that they were indeed the same models.

In order to conduct a more comprehensive study, the USA used the military bases it controlled in Iraq to airlift all of them to the USA, and assigned each model of weapon and equipment to various research institutions for study.

Regarding the Iraq military's emphasis when providing the weapons and equipment—that these items were set with operational usage areas, would lock up and become unusable once outside these areas, and that dismantling them carried certain risks of triggering self-destruct procedures—

the USA naturally scoffed at this, believing it could ensure safety during dismantling and research. After all, the USA possessed the strongest technological capabilities in the world, and there was simply no difficulty in dismantling these weapons and equipment.

As one piece of equipment after another was sent to various research institutions for study, the US military was filled with joy, thinking that by finding the vulnerabilities in each weapon model and conducting targeted research to produce countermeasures, they could render these weapons non-threatening. However, an accident occurred.

At an anti-aircraft missile research base in Butler, in the eastern part of the USA, while dismantling a Tianlei Type V Anti-Aircraft Missile, because the missile was already locked, the personnel had to first crack the locking program. But before the cracking process could succeed, it triggered the missile's self-destruct sequence, and a sudden, massive explosion echoed throughout the research base.

The researchers could never have imagined that despite having taken all precautionary measures, they would still cause the anti-aircraft missile to explode. Even in death, they did not understand where the problem had occurred.

Suddenly, a massive crater appeared at the anti-aircraft missile research base, the research building where the Tianlei Type V Anti-Aircraft Missile was being dismantled was destroyed, and all the hundreds of personnel inside, including researchers and other support staff, were killed in the explosion.

The shockwave from the anti-aircraft missile explosion also affected surrounding buildings. Fortunately, this research building was isolated and there were not many buildings nearby, but it still caused nearly a hundred casualties elsewhere. The entire anti-aircraft missile research base was brought to a standstill.

This anti-aircraft missile research base was relatively unlucky. Some research institutions studying armored vehicles merely encountered various problems during dismantling, such as engine self-destruction, loss of weapon precision, or electrical system burnout. Although the unlocking was completed, the armored vehicles were ultimately scrapped.

Such situations were considered relatively better, as they did not cause any casualties. However, those researching weapons and equipment carrying missiles and bombs basically triggered detonation sequences during dismantling and unlocking, causing many researchers to lose their lives.

Upon seeing this situation, the US military immediately called a halt to the research on the acquired weapons and equipment. If they continued such blind dismantling, they feared that even more research institutions would suffer major losses. The US military could not afford such consequences.

According to reports from the research institutions afterward, all weapons and equipment were basically in a locked state after being transported to the USA, and to conduct further research, they had to be unlocked first. But as soon as they were unlocked or dismantled, the weapons and equipment either exploded or were scrapped, making it impossible to proceed with further research.

Even when they only studied the materials of these weapons, after a series of tests and comparisons, they discovered that they were all brand-new materials that did not match any of the material data they possessed. Moreover, these materials outperformed the corresponding materials they had in terms of performance.

Various research institutions in the USA were very eager to figure out the material composition, but in the end, they gained nothing and could only attribute it to the addition of some brand-new element. As for whether it was a metallic or non-metallic element, they were equally unable to determine.

Seeing that the research institutions had no results, the US military had a sudden idea to conduct research within Iraq. After all, in Iraq, these weapons and equipment were not in a locked state, so they should be able to be safely dismantled and studied, right?

However, the unexpected still happened. Although the unlocking step was skipped, major problems still occurred after dismantling. The research institutions dismantling the anti-aircraft missiles continued to experience explosions, and those dismantling the armored vehicles continued to have them rendered useless.

The US military was very angry. How could such a situation occur? Did it mean that after purchasing these weapons and equipment, they could only be used once? If a malfunction occurred, could they not be repaired? How could such equipment allow the purchasers to use it with peace of mind?

Although the US military was angry, they could only call a halt to the research; at the very least, they had to figure out the situation before proceeding. Otherwise, if too many researchers lost their lives, they would have a hard time explaining it.