The military-industrial scientific research system of the academic master.

Chapter 1296: Breaking away from US dollar settlement (asking for a double monthly ticket)
As mentioned earlier, Saudi Arabia's visit this time covers a wide range of areas.

Although Rogge was very confident that the aerospace system he was in was the focus of the other party's big money sponsor.

But in fact……

The situation was not as simple as he thought.

Or, in other words, the situation was much simpler than he thought.

In the eyes of Saudis, the Chinese are too inefficient in spending money.

The manned space program has been going on for nearly 15 years, and three astronauts have been sent safely into orbit. We are about to carry out space walks and space laboratories.

The total amount spent was less than 200 billion yuan.

Converted based on the average currency value in recent years, it is only about 20 billion US dollars.

Can this be called money?
So their plan can be described in one sentence:

No feint attack, just main attack for me!

What’s the important point? Do you really think I only know how to sell oil?

We Arabs have been making money from betting on both the East and the West since our ancestors!

Well, if you want to place a bet, you can't catch the wolf without sacrificing the child.

What’s wrong with spending a few hundred billion?
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the protection fees paid to various countries in the name of military purchases alone are far more than this amount.

What's more, this money is for investment, not just consumption.

Even if we consider the worst-case scenario, we can still get something back.

So almost at the same time, in many different locations on the Chinese mainland, many accompanying representatives like Rogge felt that they were the chosen ones who were hit by the pie...

This naturally includes Chang Haonan’s other old employer, Aviation Industry Corporation of China.

Therefore, after he and Liu Yongquan talked about the next R&D plan of WS-10G and personally sent the latter downstairs, before he went back upstairs to the office, he received a call from Lin Zuoming, the general manager of the group, on his mobile phone.

Zhu Linyu was already at the age of retirement when the Aviation Power Group was established. He was only pulled in to take over the position for a few years because several other team members were not qualified enough.

He had retired completely a year ago and handed over the position of top leader to Comrade Lao Lin.

In fact, according to general principles, Chang Haonan should be promoted one position in the team, but among all the leadership positions, only the chief planner does not have to undertake tedious administrative work. In addition, his influence nowadays is no longer dependent on this position, so he has never moved.

"Academician Chang, Mr. Luo from the Aviation Industry Corporation of China just contacted me and said that there are some matters that need to be discussed together. When do you think is a convenient time?"

Lin Zuoming's rough voice came from the other side of the receiver.

It's an external call, or a mobile phone, so of course it's impossible to talk about specific things on it.

So Chang Haonan was just stunned for a moment, and then replied:
"I happen to have nothing to do today. I'm downstairs right now, so I'm available anytime."

"Okay, I'll contact him right away."

……

An hour later, the three of them sat down in a small meeting room next to Lin Zuoming's office.

Although it is not as grand as the large conference hall on the top floor, people who are familiar with the internal operating rules of the group know that in many cases, this is the place that truly has influence.

Lin Zuoming and Luo Hairong are leaders of brother units and have extremely close business ties with each other. They meet each other every day, and Chang Haonan has also met the latter once.

When Project No. 611 had not yet completed its maiden flight, Luo Hairong was the second-in-command of the Institute and was also the actual person in charge of daily work.

The two also exchanged views on publicity work for the aviation industry, and they became acquaintances.

So after meeting, after a brief greeting, Luo Hairong got down to business:
"Lao Lin, Academician Chang, you should know that a delegation from Saudi Arabia came yesterday, right?"

Lin Zuoming nodded.

As the head of the group, he naturally knew about this matter. However, as a company specializing in aircraft engines, Aviation Power had nothing to discuss with a country that did not even have a complete aviation industry, so it only symbolically sent a reception group to take representatives of the Saudi National Oil Company to the Dawn Factory to see if it could sell some industrial gas turbines.

Chang Haonan has been staying in Huairou Science City recently and is not clear about the ins and outs of this.

So Luo Hairong and Lin Zuoming took turns talking and took a few minutes to briefly introduce the Saudi delegation's visit to China.

To sum up, the tone is not high, but the inner meaning is profound.

Even Chang Haonan was a little shocked after hearing this. In the previous life, Saudi Arabia did not gradually start to make obvious moves towards China until after 2015.

Now it is almost ten years too early.

Although it is not yet clear exactly where the joint is that has undergone such a big change, there is no doubt that this can almost be regarded as an original stock.

Even without considering inflation, investing $1 billion today and investing $1 billion ten years from now have completely different meanings.

In addition to being shocked, I also had some concerns.

The dozens of Dongfeng 3 missiles back then were extremely special cases and will not be mentioned here.

After that, although there were some arms sales agreements between China and the GCC countries, they were generally small-scale and mainly focused on army equipment.

When it comes to arms trade with Gulf countries, the sensitivity increases from the army to the navy and then to the air force.

That's right, the Air Force is even more sensitive than the Navy.

The reason is that both the army and the navy need a large number of ordinary soldiers to form united and experienced grassroots units in order to exert sufficient combat effectiveness.

As an absolute monarchy, Saudi Arabia is inherently unable to complete the construction of grassroots military organizations.

Therefore, no matter how advanced the tanks or warships are, the combat effectiveness of the army and navy will be just a bunch of dregs.

But the Air Force is different.

Only a few hundred elite pilots and a few thousand properly trained ground crew members are needed to build a powerful air force.

If we add aircraft with advanced enough performance, it will be possible to accomplish something big in the West Asia region.

Therefore, Western countries have been restricting the size and capabilities of the GCC air forces.

For example, although both are F15s, the F15I sold to the Kingdom of David is much more advanced than the F15SA sold to Saudi Arabia and the F15QA sold to Qatar.

As for lower-level allies, such as the Pharaohs, the F16s they initially received did not even have complete beyond-visual-range combat capabilities.

Moreover, the training time and subjects of pilots from these countries will be restricted to ensure that their air forces cannot pose a threat to the Kingdom of David.

Previous arms sales to the UAE were, at least nominally, conducted by the French and the other party, and did not involve frontline combat aircraft, let alone personnel training.

If we were to buy the J-10E directly from China now, it would be quite difficult.

"So... Saudi Arabia is approaching our aviation system. What exactly are they planning to discuss?"

He asked in a rather cautious tone:

"If it's a particularly large-scale military purchase, I think the current conditions are not yet mature, right?"

"That's not the case. Neither Saudi Arabia nor we have any intention of completely breaking off relations with the United States. That's why I wanted to come to you to find a solution..."

Luo Hairong waved his hand, then said with a distressed look:
"The Saudi Air Force intends to purchase a batch of Y-9 transport aircraft from us, and is willing to place the next batch of Airbus A320 final assembly orders in Luzhou Aviation City... But compared with the orders from the oil and aerospace sectors, these are small and their influence is even more insignificant. I'm afraid it will be difficult to compete with them in this regard..."

Although the Aviation Industry Corporation of China and Aviation Power Corporation of China have been separated, they are closely related units under the same system after all, and they must stand together on such issues.

Lin Zuoming thought for a moment and quickly suggested:

"Rolls-Royce has agreed to cooperate with us. The content includes at least one project in which we will develop a 15-ton turbofan engine and the other in which we will develop a 40-ton turbofan engine. The first one is expected to be put into use around 2010. By then, you will also have to independently develop my country's first trunk airliner... Are you considering attracting investment in this project?"

This proposal is very feasible, but after thinking for a moment, Luo Hairong shook his head:
"The domestic trunk passenger aircraft has not even completed the demonstration process yet. It is too far-fetched to consider attracting investment. It cannot solve the current problem..."

"That……"

Lin Zuoming straightened his hair, his tone somewhat helpless:

“It seems that it is indeed not easy to operate…”

After a while, Chang Haonan suddenly raised his head:

"Why not change your thinking..."

The other two cast doubtful looks at him at the same time.

"We will continue to do the same business as before, but some of it will not be settled in U.S. dollars or through the SWIFT system... What do you think?"

(End of this chapter)