Black technology: a super empire spanning two worlds

Chapter 365 [A Two-Way Virtuous Cycle]

As a military equipment product, the profit margin of exoskeleton powered armor is not high. The profit margin stipulated in Military Product Document No. 18 is 5%, which is a legal document and cannot be violated.

In other words, the military placed a procurement order worth 500 billion yuan, and Lingjing Technology could obtain a profit of more than 23 billion yuan from the exoskeleton powered armor business. More than 20 billion yuan is naturally a large amount, but compared with the civilian-use Liuguang Xingyu humanoid robot, the gap is very large.

But precisely because the profit margin for military products is low, the civilian application of the Liuguang Xingyu simulation robot needs to be promoted even more.

Just like in the shipbuilding industry, shipyards don't actually make much money building warships, but the reason why the University of Tokyo's navy can keep producing ships is, from a macro perspective, that it's all thanks to the profits from civilian shipbuilding.

If the shipyards of Dongda University fail to develop in the civilian shipbuilding sector and do not receive civilian ship orders, they will face financial difficulties, insufficient production, layoffs, technological gaps, and ultimately decline, making it difficult to sustain naval construction.

In this regard, Goose is a mirror. Goose's military industry is becoming increasingly weak, which is due to the lack of a huge civilian market to support it.

The military-civilian integration development path of this major Eastern power has been proven to be absolutely correct. Relying on the profits from the huge civilian market to support the military industry, and after technological innovation and progress, some of the technologies are then applied to the civilian market, achieving a virtuous cycle in both directions.

If we don't take this route, relying solely on military orders will present us with a dilemma.

For a company to achieve sustainable development, maintain operations, and invest the necessary R&D funds in technological innovation, it must have sufficient profits to support it. A 5% profit margin is definitely not enough and may even lead to the emergence of military-industrial complexes. Amelika gave this a thumbs up.

Increasing product profit margins would lead to increased military spending, which the military budget couldn't handle, so Amelika gave it another thumbs up.

If companies don't get enough profits, they won't have the money to innovate technologically, and even survival will become a major problem. Even if a company manages to survive, it won't be able to invest more funds in developing new technologies and iterating new products.

Clearly, the great Eastern power has found a win-win solution: the military-civilian integration strategy.

The shipbuilding industry is a typical example. This year's data shows that Chinese shipbuilders account for an astonishing 70% of the global market share, and more than half of the world's top ten shipyards come from the great Eastern country.

Those shipyards used the profits from civilian ships to support the military industry, allowing them to produce warships at a rapid pace, even though they weren't very profitable, without putting pressure on the military budget due to the large-scale increase.

This macro-level logic applies to other fields as well, including Lingjing Technology's exoskeleton-powered armor.

While the profit margin of power armor is indeed not high, Lingjing Technology can leverage the derivative product of power armor, the Flowing Star Language Simulation Robot, to enter the civilian market and use the huge profits from the civilian market to support the development of armed power armor in the military industry.

As technology iterates and upgrades in the future, some downgraded versions of the technology can be used to support civilian applications, thus achieving a virtuous cycle in both directions.

Therefore, from a military perspective, it is unlikely that the Liuguang Xingyu simulation robot will be completely shut down.

Of course, there is an inherent difference between exoskeleton armor and shipbuilding. The technology was brought over by Xiao Yu from the Blue Star world, and the actual research and development cost is negligible, or even non-existent.

This is reflected in the civilian-use Flowing Star Language lifelike dolls, which utilize advanced technology at a low cost.

The personal consumer-grade Flowing Star Language lifelike robot is so cheap, yet it still has a net profit margin of 25%, which is already very high. The Flowing Star Language robot, which is a means of production, is priced at 18.3 yuan, and has a profit margin of more than ten times.

The biggest reason is that the core technologies all come from the Blue Star world. Lingjing Technology has no R&D costs, which is why it has huge profits to support it.

Although this situation is unique and a model that other companies cannot replicate, it essentially does not change the logic of relying on the huge civilian market to support the military industry and achieve a two-way positive cycle. The same logic applies to the J-36 Shenlong fighter jet and AVIC Linfei Company. This is also why AVIC Linfei Company is promoting the air-rail train project in the civilian sector. The air-rail train project itself is unprofitable, with the Linzhou municipal government covering the costs, but AVIC Linfei Company is making money by selling room temperature superconducting materials.

In addition to public infrastructure projects such as air-rail trains, we will definitely further develop other application scenarios in the civilian sector in the future.

By expanding the civilian market and scaling up operations, costs can be continuously reduced. In the future, when other cities build air-rail train projects, the costs will definitely be far lower than those in Linzhou City, which has borne huge sunk costs.

The path taken by this major Eastern power means that the "conversion rate" of military spending is very high, or in other words, the "cost-effectiveness" is very high, making it truly high quality at a low price.

If you compare it to old magnesium, the difference becomes even more striking.

If the great Eastern power spends every penny of its military expenditure wisely, then Amerika is definitely wasting a huge amount of its military expenditure on trivial matters.

Taking this year's data as an example, Afghanistan's military budget reached 8860 billion US dollars, while the Eastern power's military budget of more than 1.6 trillion RMB is equivalent to about 2000 billion US dollars, which is less than a quarter of Afghanistan's.

In reality, the quantity, quality, and technological sophistication of the equipment that Dongda University acquired after spending its military expenditures far surpassed those of Amerika.

In recent years, Amelika's exorbitant military procurements have repeatedly made headlines, with examples such as a coffee cup costing $700, a USB adapter costing $2800, a toilet seat costing $10,000, a bag of screws costing $90,000, and nine sheep costing a staggering $6 million.

Each one is more outrageous than the last; one can only say that Ah Mei's Commissioner Smith is truly ruthless.

With so many Smith specialists, plus the exchange rate factor, for the same amount of money, the equipment that Dongda can purchase will either completely outnumber Amei in quantity, or, if the quantity is the same, will definitely outnumber Amei in quality and technology.

You, Amei, pay a staggering $90,000 for a single bag of screws, which is equivalent to 600,000 to 700,000 RMB. In contrast, a bag of screws in the Eastern superpower costs at most a dozen RMB. For the same amount of money, you could purchase 50,000 to 60,000 bags of screws of the same specifications and quality.

Given how the US is spending money on trivial matters, even if the US military budget were doubled, it still wouldn't be able to compare to the US's current US$8000 billion military budget, let alone the US$2000 billion.

……

The year 2025 has begun.

At a secret military base in Northwest China, a convoy of more than 20 heavy trucks, escorted by armed helicopters, headed toward the base. Inside the cargo holds of the heavy trucks were 100 sets of full-coverage exoskeleton powered armor, hastily produced by Lingjing Technology.

The equipment was secretly airlifted from Linzhou City and landed at a field airfield in the area a few hours earlier for unloading. It was then transferred to the military base by more than 20 military heavy trucks.

Inside a military off-road vehicle at the front of the convoy, Lin Baiyu, dressed in work clothes, was accompanied by a technical team of more than ten people.

"Team Leader Lin, here are the materials you requested." Lin Baiyu's technical assistant handed him a prepared document. Lin Baiyu took the document and browsed through it as the vehicle drove smoothly, getting closer and closer to the base.

Lin Baiyu and his technical team will be staying at this military base for some time.

……

(End of this chapter)