In 1978, I was admitted to Harbin Institute of Technology

Chapter 267 Three missiles combined into two, and then the range increased by how much if the liquid fuel was replaced with solid fuel?
"Comrade Xie Wei is good! I thought this kid didn't know which unit he belonged to. He reported to the military leaders, prioritizing securing satellite systems, rockets, and missile projects for the ministry..."

After the secretary reported the latest information to Minister Zheng, he said happily.

Previously, Xie Wei had raised more than 3 million US dollars in foreign exchange by selling long-range rocket artillery and other equipment. This was a huge sum of money for the Seventh Ministry of Machinery Industry, which was extremely short of funds and projects.

However, apart from 5% being handed over to the ministry, the ministry could not touch the rest of that huge sum of money.

The entire Seventh Ministry of Machinery Industry is not as wealthy as Harbin Institute of Technology!
Many department leaders and heads of subordinate units are very dissatisfied.

But there was nothing that could be done. When Principal Li was asking for the policy, he not only made an agreement with the former Minister Song, but also got the ministry to issue an official document with its seal!

"That's just a suggestion. The specifics depend on the decisions made by the government and the military!"

Minister Zheng pressed his temples; he had a headache.

Harbin Institute of Technology's hundreds of millions of yuan in funding for equipment sales is something that other units within the ministry, and even other ministries of machinery industry, are envious of, given that everyone is short of projects and funding.

However, it's fine as it is now.

The pressure on the department will be much less.

After Minister Tan returned to the ministry, the General Staff held several discussion meetings, but no leader expressed support.

Everyone knows the strategic significance of the series of high-precision and cutting-edge weapons and equipment that are about to be discontinued.

The problem is, we don't have the money!
Poor foundation, no supporting facilities!
Continuing with this will not only fail to yield results, but will also crowd out the limited funding due to the existence of these projects.

“If those projects continue, our limited funds will not only be wasted on unproductive projects, but will actually be squandered! However, there is absolutely no need to shut them down outright. Various units have been working on these projects for so many years; we can use the current results to continue theoretical research and demonstration…”

When questioned by the military commander, Principal Li shared his thoughts.

Insufficient technical reserves, lack of experience, lack of funding, and too much research and development difficulty make it too wasteful to cancel the project directly.

The country has invested too much money in the past ten years or so.

"Moving into preliminary research or feasibility studies also requires a lot of funding!"

Minister Tan said with concern.

"Theoretical research and demonstration require much less funding... As long as the conditions are right, it can be launched at any time. Military spending is decreasing, so we must use our limited funds wisely!"

Since leaving the school, Principal Li has been working with a group of colleagues to learn about the specific situation of the entire national military industry system.

We have gained a relatively clear understanding of the technological foundation and supporting systems of the entire military industry.

Their investigation was also intended to provide superiors with detailed information to determine whether or not to continue numerous strategic projects.

"By the way, I heard your school launched a drone project before?"

"No! That's not true!"

Principal Li denied it without hesitation.

“When I went to the school before, Xie Wei suggested that we should first develop supporting equipment… He said that any advanced equipment is inseparable from automatic control, and the core of automatic control is the computer… Back then, you got high-purity indium antimonide from Deputy Director Lin of the Semiconductor Research Institute, and then the PL-4 hit the target twice in two tests. At that time, Xie Wei said that the Changkong-1 target drone was too slow and its performance was too outdated… I remember you even took the opportunity to ask the Air Force for some funding?”

Minister Tan stared directly at Li Rui.

"Uh~"

Li Rui felt embarrassed, but a smile quickly appeared on his face: "Minister Tan, you asked about drones, does that mean the military is preparing to allocate funds?"

"It's not impossible, but you need to explain the details of this project clearly..."

Seeing Li Rui's astonished expression, Minister Tan smiled and, without waiting for his reply, said something that surprised Li Rui even more:
"In addition, Iraq is preparing to place an order for an additional 90 long-range rocket launchers..."

"What?"

Principal Li was genuinely shocked this time. "Could it be that this kind of long-range rocket artillery really has a power beyond our imagination?"

Principal Li was not the only one who was surprised.

Even Yu Lihua and others who were still at school were surprised when they received the news.

General Abdullah will be back at the school soon.

"What's so shocking about this? The Iron Chancellor of Germany, Bismarck, once said: Military strength is always the foundation for safeguarding national interests, and truth lies only within the range of artillery!"

Xie Wei deeply agreed with this statement.

Initially, the international territorial sea was set at 3 nautical miles. Then, after the People's Republic of China set its territorial sea at 12 nautical miles in 58, it gradually became the internationally accepted territorial sea range.

Furthermore, in 82, China amended International Law, officially changing its territorial sea from 3 nautical miles to 12 nautical miles in international law.

Why 12 nautical miles?

This was because at that time, the range of China's cannons was just enough to cover 12 nautical miles.

This perfectly illustrates that truth exists only within the range of artillery fire.

"Rocket artillery is still artillery! In the absence of a large long-range force, an army with a long-range rocket artillery unit with a maximum range of 165 kilometers will have a much greater deterrent effect."

I wouldn't call it shocking.

It was truly an accident.

Iraq is not the kind of country with an inhumanly extravagant nature, and currently, apart from the 107mm and 40mm rocket launchers which are cost-effective and easy to operate and have become guerrilla warfare weapons, China's other rocket launchers are not really well-known.

With the addition of 90 more of the original 36 guns, there are now a total of 126 guns, forming 7 standard long-range artillery battalions!
Their firepower is absolutely formidable.

However, Xie Wei really couldn't understand it.
"That's true. For a country like Iraq, a range of 165 kilometers already has a certain strategic significance. Seven battalions firing in a single salvo, dropping thousands of 420-kilogram bombs on enemy positions—that's hundreds of tons of bombs, enough to cover several square kilometers!"

I wouldn't know unless I counted.

As Yulihua did the math, a glint of light appeared in his eyes. "If it were our unit..."

"Forget about it. Even if we provide the troops with 144 rockets at cost price, a single battalion firing salvo would cost 360 million! Can our troops afford that?"

Xie Wei's words instantly chilled You Lihua's restless heart.

It’s too expensive!

Those damn oil-selling bigwigs!

"However, this time they're asking for a price reduction..."

Zhang Mingqiu looked at Xie Wei's body and spoke.

He was unwilling to lower the price.

It's so rare to find such a good opportunity.

"???"

Xie Wei looked at Zhang Mingqiu, his face full of doubt.

"Iraq said the price was too high, and they hadn't seen its combat performance... so they proposed reducing the price to $240 million per launcher and $4.8 per rocket..."

This is a message relayed from above.

The Iraqis had already made their demands before they even arrived. "If we accept this price, we'll sign a new contract based on the previous order, and the rockets will be stockpiled at five times the original amount..."

Seeing Xie Wei frown, Liu Debao, fearing his objection, quickly added.

Not only him, but his superiors also hoped to sell it to the other party at this price.

Although the price of each launch system decreased from $280 million to $240 million, the total cost of 90 systems reached $2.16 million; the 3600 spare missiles, even at $4.8 each, amounted to $1.728 million.

Together, the two amounts to nearly $4 million.

Such a huge amount of foreign exchange!

"no!"

Xie Wei quickly weighed the options and stated directly that he could not accept the offer.

"Why? Xie Wei, this is nearly $4 million in total. Our country's foreign exchange reserves are only just over $15 billion, and $4 million of that comes from the sale of weapons and technology..."

Liu Debao's eye twitched several times.

As expected, Xie Wei objected.

If this order is secured, the country's foreign exchange reserves will increase by approximately 25%!

"Increasing production volume can further reduce R&D expenses, and mass production can also reduce production costs."

Yu Lihua didn't expect Xie Wei to refuse.

"Director You, you're right. In the last transaction, the launch system included a set of eight rockets. If we go by their current price, not only will the price of the launch system be reduced this time, but the price of each rocket will also be reduced from their initial offer of $48,000 to an actual price of $40,000 each!"

Who the hell said the big oil sellers are stupid?
Last time, they used this method to directly lower the price of $6 per coin to $5 per coin.

This time they came again and directly lowered the price from $5 to $4. The price they offered seems quite fair!

"what?"

Yulihua and the others clearly hadn't considered this.

After Xie Wei pointed it out, they also discovered the problem.

"Damn it, this is equivalent to cutting our original price of $6 to $4 per coin! That's so insidious! I didn't even think it had dropped that much..."

Liu Debao disregarded his status and swore.

"In any case, the country needs this foreign exchange, the university needs this huge amount of research funding, and the relevant manufacturers also need this huge order to upgrade their production lines..."

After a moment of silence, You Lihua, fearing that Xie Wei was too impetuous, directly refused.

That would make it impossible to report back to superiors.

"We will definitely sell, but lowering the price is no problem. The Iraqis think they have our weakness in mind, but in reality, they can't give up this deal either!"

Xie Wei said with a smile.

He had figured out why Saddam Hussein had urgently added five long-range rocket artillery battalions on the eve of the war with Khomenee—clearly, there had been a problem with the arms procurement negotiations with the Soviet Union!
A seven-long-range rocket artillery battalion. Saddam's most elite Republican Guard had also expanded to seven brigades before 1986. The other side was clearly preparing to equip each of the Republican Guard's brigades with a long-range rocket artillery battalion.

It's even quite possible that Saddam Hussein was preparing the equipment for the Tikrit Division, which he was determined to build as an even more elite force than the Republican Guard!
The Republican Guard members initially came from Tikrit. As the force expanded, especially towards the end of the Iran-Iraq War, it grew from one division with three brigades to six divisions with 28 brigades...

The Scud-A and Scud-B missiles that the Soviets sold to Saddam Hussein were both liquid-fueled missiles.

The YH-150 long-range rocket artillery that Xie Wei provided to Iraq consisted of solid-fuel rockets!
The Iraqi military engineers, capable of creating the miracle of "combining three missiles into two, doubling the range," might well have considered loading solid-fuel propellant from Chinese long-range rocket artillery into the 300-kilometer-range Scud-B missile...

Once the problem is solved, and after combining the three missiles into two, solid propellant is loaded, the range will likely exceed a thousand kilometers!
Given the current level of creativity among Iraq's military industry personnel, such a solution is not impossible!
Although liquid rocket engines and solid rocket engines are completely different, the two different types of rocket engines are not interchangeable.

However, the other party is the Iraqi military industry!
It's not impossible to scale up the engine of the YH-150 rocket and install it on a Scud rocket, replacing its liquid-fueled engine.

They didn't expect that Xie Wei thought it was worth reminding them.

By simply sawing off the outer shell of one missile and welding it onto two other missiles, without even conducting a wind tunnel test, Iraqi military industry giants transformed the Scud-B, with a range of 300 kg, to nearly 600 km. Although the explosive charge in the warhead was reduced from 860 kg to 190 km, and the accuracy was reduced from 300 m to 500 m.

At least these missiles can reach the vicinity of their destination.

It has a great deterrent effect!

This would give Iraqi forces strategic missiles with a range of thousands of kilometers!

Wouldn't that give us the long-term strategic deterrence that Saddam Hussein has been longing for?
Otherwise, there's no way to explain why Saddam Hussein would still invest heavily in adding 5 battalions without even seeing the combat performance of the 150mm long-range rocket artillery. How could that be?

Right now, Saddam Hussein's military engineers are researching mushroom bombs.

Next year, the Middle Eastern troublemakers will launch "Operation Babylon," bombing the nuclear reactor 20 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, destroying the $4 million nuclear facility. This will not only end the nuclear agreement between France and Iraq but also shatter Saddam Hussein's dream of using nuclear weapons.

"You accept the price of $2.4 million for the launch system and $48,000 for the rockets, but the launch system no longer includes eight rockets? These rockets still need to be purchased at $48,000 each?"

After Abdullah arrived, the two sides sat down together and began negotiations.

He never expected that after Xie Wei agreed to accept their proposed price, he would also put forward new conditions.

If things continue like this, how can we reduce the cost of rockets to $4?
"Yes, General. This is our greatest sincerity... Your increased orders have indeed reduced our R&D costs, and large-scale production will also reduce some production costs. The current price is already much lower than our cost..."

Xie Wei said seriously.

He did not point out that the other party took the opportunity to lower the price of the rockets to $4 each.

"This will increase our procurement costs by nearly $3500 million, which is outside our budget... So, the price of your rocket launcher system hasn't decreased at all!"

Abdullah was unhappy.

Each rocket artillery launcher system was reduced by $40, and 90 systems would reduce the cost by $3600 million. However, Xie Wei demanded extra money for the accompanying rockets!

The price is going to drop like crazy.

"The price of rockets has been reduced from $6 each to $4.8. Just on rockets alone, your side can save nearly $5200 million! General, the Soviet Union, the United States, and even Europe do indeed make high profits from arms exports internationally. They not only reduce the specifications but also increase the price, and even impose a whole host of additional conditions… even training requires payment. In our cooperation, none of these exist…"

Xie Wei's words silenced Abdullah.

What he said is true.

The export of advanced weapons and equipment internationally is always accompanied by a host of additional agreements, and even training, logistical support, and maintenance require payment.

These were all included as a bonus with the contract with Harbin Institute of Technology.

"Just because we've expressed our sincerity doesn't mean you can keep pushing for a lower price... Also, with so many rockets purchased, what if we replace the Scud-B's engines with the solid propellant and then put the fuel into the Scuds..."

"You~"

Abdullah was immediately alarmed!

They stared at Xie Wei in astonishment. Had their plan been leaked?
impossible.

This plan can be considered top secret.

The president wanted to purchase strategic missiles from the Soviet Union, but was refused. Unwilling to give up, the president worried that if he developed the mushroom bombs, he wouldn't have any missiles to deliver them, so he has now started a program to improve the Scud missile...

(End of this chapter)