Babylonian Empire

Page 617

Under the feet are eight large wire-lined bulletproof tires, which are larger than ordinary off-road heavy trucks. There are four on each side, which almost completely block the sides. The area is small, and more importantly, it can reduce the resistance when floating on water. There are bulletproof glass, top hatch and periscope in front. When maneuvering at low intensity and on the road, the armor cover in front of the bulletproof glass can be opened. Drive like a truck, and once in a war zone, use your periscope and drive like a tank.The rear is square, and a relatively large hatch is opened to facilitate the accompanying infantry to get on and off the chariot at any time.On both sides of the rear, there are two propellers, which are convenient for sailing on water.The top turret is low, equipped with a 30mm dual-purpose cannon and a 12.7mm machine gun, and there is a SEG anti-tank missile launch track in front.

In later generations, when Qusay was carrying out missions, although the most commonly used means of transportation was helicopters, he also often took infantry fighting vehicles. He felt that the infantry fighting vehicles in front of him looked even more powerful.

"President Qusay, you are very welcome to visit our third design bureau. What you see now is the wheeled infantry fighting vehicle of our design bureau with an 8*8 chassis. In another workshop, there is also a 6*6 The wheeled infantry fighting vehicle." Fedun, who is the chief designer of this vehicle, is a middle-aged man in his 40s, and he pushed the glasses on his nose and said.

Chapter 727 Desert Leopard ([-])

"Our infantry fighting vehicle adopts an 8*8 drive form, with wide tires and reasonable spacing. Compared with the original off-road heavy truck, its off-road performance has been greatly improved, and it is equipped with a central air deflation system. You can adjust the tire pressure, and in wartime, even if there are four flat tires, you can drive 400 kilometers continuously and get out of danger." The chief designer of the third game was very excited to be able to explain to the president himself, and he went on to say: "We adopted the form of the right-mounted engine, using the largest [-]-horsepower engine of our civilian Mercedes-Benz OM series. The gearbox and drive shaft are exactly the same, except that the length of the half shaft has changed. In this way, we can maximize our convenience. Logistical maintenance has realized the common use of most parts, and these are also thanks to our experts from Germany.”

The German experts listened carefully to Fedun's words, and after the translation came, a rare smile appeared on their faces.

"Now, our car body is made of our domestically produced high-quality steel plate. It is a fully enclosed floating shell structure. The front and sides of the car body can prevent close-range shooting of 7.62mm armor-piercing bullets and shell fragments. It weighs [-] tons, and According to needs, two tons of additional external armor can be installed on the outside. Inside the car, the driver's cab is on the left side, with a periscope, and, according to the situation, it can be replaced with a night vision device, which is convenient for marching at night, and the rear can accommodate There are eight fighters on board, and there are shooting holes on the side, so you can fight on the car. There is a hatch at the rear, so you can get off the car quickly at any time, and support tanks in battle. At present, the cannon is installed on the top. Use anti-tank missiles at a long distance." The entire vehicle body is completely independently developed by them, and there are many innovations in many places, such as adding additional armor for protection.

"When our infantry fighting vehicle is fully tested, we will also form a complete vehicle series based on our tank, mainly including self-propelled mortars, self-propelled anti-tank guns, logistics support vehicles, and command vehicles. Control the car and maintain the rescue car, etc."

While listening to the introduction, Qusay was already eager to try. He walked down from the roof of the cockpit with great interest and sat on the driver's seat.

The seat is relatively comfortable, and it is the same airbag shock-absorbing seat as the luxury version of Mercedes-Benz heavy trucks. It can help members overcome the impact of vehicle bumps to the greatest extent, far exceeding the combination of steel wire and sponge, but the cost is also very high. A seat costs hundreds of dollars.

The steering wheel, accelerator, brake, and shift mechanism are all the same as the Mercedes-Benz heavy truck. The automatic transmission has not yet been adopted, and the Mercedes-Benz logo on the steering wheel is still there.

Watching President Qusay get in, although he knew that this president was also the one who drove 63 armored vehicles on the battlefield, but now he must not make any mistakes. Fortunately, the fuel tank of their infantry fighting vehicle is empty .

Several technicians also got into the car, and Fei Duen got in from behind.

Qusay really wanted to drive out to enjoy himself, but, seeing the appearance of several bodyguards, he knew it was better not to test drive this unshaped infantry fighting vehicle.

He glanced at it, but found that there was an obvious vacancy on the right side of the operating platform.

"What's there for?" Qusay asked.

"When we designed this car, we took into account the docking with our army's existing C3I system, where enough space and power have been reserved for future installation."

When Qusay heard this, he was even more happy. Under his leadership, these researchers in Iraq have broadened their horizons. Now, they actually thought that the C3I system will be fully blossomed. This work must be handed over to Joseph. manage.

After getting out of the car, Kusai began to look at the smaller 6*6 infantry fighting vehicle in another workshop.

"Most of the parts are common to this and that, except that this one was developed on a Mercedes-Benz 6*6 off-road chassis, has six tires, also has all-wheel drive, has inter-wheel and inter-axle differentials Speedlock..."

After listening to the introduction, Qusay suddenly asked again: "So, compared with the 8*8 model, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each?"

"Through our comparison, the off-road performance of the 8X8 is better. To deal with complex roads, the adaptability of the 8X8 is stronger, even comparable to the Type 63 with a tracked chassis. For example, it can climb a slope with a slope of 70%, and the side slope can reach 35." %, it can climb over a vertical wall height of six meters and a trench with a width of two meters. However, the 8X8 infantry fighting vehicle is large and will increase the probability of being shot. Moreover, the small size of the 6X6 will facilitate our use of aircraft for transportation. Therefore, both have their own advantages and disadvantages. We plan to use the 6X6 chassis on the front-line reconnaissance vehicle and anti-tank missile launcher.”

After hearing these words, Qusay was even more satisfied.Although Iraq's own research and development of military products has just begun, it has already shown strong vitality.The Iraqi technicians, together with the German R&D team, are still very strong.

"President Qusay, our wheeled infantry fighting vehicle doesn't have a name yet," a researcher said boldly.

Kusailuo thought for a while: "How about the desert leopard? Our chariot will be a cheetah in the desert. It will be seen throughout the Middle East. I hope our team will continue to work hard and complete the testing of the entire chariot and Follow-up research and development. Equip troops as soon as possible. And we can also export to our Arab brother countries. Let our chariot gallop in every corner of our Middle East."

Qu Sai's inspection made all the staff in the design bureau full of energy.The tank, after half a year of testing, included complete tests in the cold regions of the Iranian plateau and in the extreme heat of the desert.In 85, a large number of troops began to be equipped.In addition to the armored units, the original pure infantry divisions also began to gradually change into mechanized infantry divisions.

After inspecting the wheeled infantry fighting vehicle developed by his own side, Qusay began to have full confidence in the future of Iraq's military industry.He wants to go to the T-72 production plant not far from here to take a look. There, the ace of the Iraqi Army, the T-72 main battle tank, is being produced. There are main battle tanks and wheeled infantry fighting vehicles. Armed helicopters, the main equipment of the army, even have an independent system.However, just as he was interested, he received a report from Baghdad that Amir Mahmoud, who went to Sweden to finally sign the agreement, had completed his mission and returned to Baghdad, wanting to report to him.

Amir Mahmoud, Hikmat's deputy, participated in several military purchases with Hikmat, such as the submarine he bought back in Argentina, and gradually showed his talent.And after the last civil strife in Baghdad, Qusay knew that he had to hold his own power. Some of those who were too old should be replaced, so he promoted Hikmat to be the deputy prime minister of Iraq. He is also the Minister of Finance, and Amir will serve as the general person in charge of Iraq's foreign military purchases and the deputy director of the Army's General Armament Department.

Qusay has employed more and more newcomers, who have assumed important positions in the Iraqi government. These people are the people he trusts the most.

After Hikmat's investigation and Qusay's decision, Amir finally confirmed all the agreements on the arms sales project with Sweden.

These projects include an investment of 300 million US dollars to jointly develop a new active sky flash air-to-air missile on behalf of the United Kingdom, and will establish a production line of this kind in Iraq.Purchased ten sets of ship-borne sea/air search radars developed by Sweden and installed them on their own missile boats, with a project value of 70 million US dollars.Introduce Sweden's RBS-3000 portable anti-aircraft missile production line with a project value of 5000 million US dollars, introduce Sweden's infrared night vision system production line with a project value of [-] million US dollars, participate in Sweden's AIP submarine power system and new early warning aircraft projects, and share technology. Iraq invested US$[-] million.

Among them, the active sky flash missile has half of the shares of Saudi Arabia, while the others are all funded by Iraq itself.Although Sweden did not make a lot of money exporting Mirage 4000 like France did, these cooperation projects have already made Sweden very satisfied.

Iraq is rich and powerful, and the ground is full of oil, so who cares about these little money!President Qusay must have thought so too.

However, after listening to Amir's report, Qusay found that the important assistant next to him, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Hikmat, seemed to be in a bad mood.Could it be that he is not interested in this matter without personally taking action?This is not possible, you are the deputy prime minister, but you have to be very attentive to these projects.

"Hikmat, you have a lot of credit for the successful introduction of these projects. The introduction of these equipment will allow Iraq to have more capabilities to independently produce weapons." Qusay said.

"Well, yes, President," Hikmat said, though he still seemed absent-minded when he said it.

"What, Deputy Prime Minister? Are you feeling unwell today?" Qusay asked.

"Oh, no, no." Hikmat said quickly, and he came back to his senses. He was indeed a little absent-minded just now, because he was thinking about other things.

It seems that we have to report to the president. Hikmat said: "President, our treasury has been empty recently. Can we postpone the payment to the other party for this cooperation with Sweden?"

Treasury already empty?Qusay was taken aback: "How is this possible? Hasn't our oil project been started all the time? In addition to the original oil fields, we also have oil fields in Khuzestan Province and Arab oil refineries. We also export to Pakistan's refitted fighter jets..." Qu Saiyue said, the more he saw his butler's face became more and more anxious, he couldn't help but stop his speech: "What? Did I say something wrong?"

Chapter 728 Is it militaristic?

Although Qusay knew that he was spending a lot of money now, he was still surprised when he heard Hikmat's words, did Iraq become poor?

This year is coming to an end. As the Minister of Finance of Iraq, Hikmat naturally wanted to thoroughly check the country's financial situation for this year. As a result, he was very disappointed to find that he, the Minister of Finance of Iraq, was really It can't be done.

"Your Excellency, I'd better give you a brief report now," Hikmat originally planned to prepare a detailed report, but now, I can only briefly talk about it for the time being, as a capable senior Iraqi leader , Hikmat's brain, has recorded all the data.

"In 84, the main money we spent during this year was divided into several parts. First, we purchased a large number of weapons from the Soviet Union, including Sam-11 missiles, OTP-23 missiles, and Mi-24 helicopter production lines. , R-73 missiles, Il-76 transport aircraft, etc., as well as the Soviet Union’s preliminary plan to export two nuclear reactors to us to ease our power shortage and respond to dissatisfaction with the United States. Although some of us only paid a deposit, we also It has already spent 30 billion US dollars. At the same time, you have signed a series of agreements with the eastern powers, especially ordered a large naval training ship and ten missile boats. We have established our own shipyard, and we have invested funds to support We have invested a billion dollars in these projects, and our domestic production line, the main fighter, has produced forty new F-20 fighters and Fifteen Mirage 4000s, including the production line of Mirage 4000, with a total cost of 13 billion U.S. dollars. We produced 72 new T-20 tanks and Red Bird series cruise missiles, costing 8000 million U.S. dollars for investment in special projects in our country (Nuclear weapons) is 25 million U.S. dollars, and the daily investment of our military, including the garrison in the Iranian region and the Golan Heights that has just ended, is 110 billion U.S. dollars, and our conflict with Israel this time, because of Saudi Arabia, We still spent about 40 million U.S. dollars on aid from Kuwait and other countries. In particular, our ballistic missiles are running low. Two heavy trucks, Mercedes-Benz and Steyr, have invested [-] million U.S. dollars. Our first five-year plan in China has begun the construction of basic industries. We have successively invested [-] billion U.S. dollars. We have established several The new universities and technical schools have invested nearly [-] million U.S. dollars, and the rest of the daily expenses are [-] million U.S. dollars in education, medical care, sanitation, transportation, agriculture, etc. Our preliminary estimate is that our expenditures are at [-] billion U.S. dollars More than U.S. dollars. If those projects that have paid deposits are paid in full, we estimate that we will need another two to four billion U.S. dollars," Hikmat said.

"And our income, so far, is still mainly oil, which accounts for 90.00% of our main fiscal revenue. Our military industry enterprises are expected to have enough production capacity to export some weapons next year, in exchange for us. Foreign exchange. In the first half of the year, our oil export performance was not bad, with a total income of about 70 billion U.S. dollars. oil fields, and based on the depreciation of the US dollar, the half-year revenue is 89 billion US dollars, which is an estimate without water injection), if this is still the case in the second half of the year, we can still achieve a balance of payments this year. However, in this period of our struggle with Israel Over the past few months, in order to oppose the support of Western countries for Israel and even the sanctions imposed on us in the later stage, we have implemented several consecutive gradual production cuts and embargoes, so that although international oil prices are skyrocketing, but because we Exporting too little, so our oil revenue has plummeted, so far, only $70 billion in revenue, and, due to the increase in our country's population, this year's insufficient food harvest, we have spent another $84 million on foreign Import food. Therefore, although our oil exports are returning to normal now, the gap between our income and expenditure this year is still getting bigger and bigger. If it weren't for our reserves, we might have already borrowed to the brim."

Qu Sai felt dizzy for a while, he had already thought of those four words, and he was aggressive.Now, Iraq's investment in national defense has far exceeded other expenditures. That is to say, Iraq is now clamoring for economic development, but it is developing its military and spares no effort to develop its military. However, no country like Iraq spends money like this, because Iraq's military development is not satisfied with importing from abroad. Iraq has been introducing production lines, producing by itself, gradually accumulating technology, and employing a large number of personnel. In this way, the cost has increased geometrically.

For example, if Iraq directly imports tanks without buying production lines or industrial workers, then the unit price of tanks will be even lower, because the investment in production lines is huge, not to mention that Iraq has improved some areas.

However, Qusay knows that Iraq must do this. If you want to make Iraq strong, you must invest in national defense to build Iraq into a military power, a real military power!There is precious wealth under the land, but there is no ability to match the wealth, which is very scary. The experience of Iraq in later generations has always reminded Qusay that there is only one choice for Iraq now: seize this opportunity and quickly Development, without delay!In the current initial stage, there must be a large amount of investment, and the benefits are not yet seen.This is like raising chickens. Now Iraq is raising a flock of newly hatched chicks. You have to keep investing, investing, and investing again. When these chickens grow up, they can lay eggs again and hatch chicks. The chicken farm has entered the stage of virtuous circle development.In a few years, the chickens raised in Iraq will lay countless golden eggs, allowing Iraq to obtain a steady stream of wealth!The export of Iraq's own arms industry alone is enough to give Iraq a good return. Now tightening its belt is for the sake of delicacies in the future.

In later generations, Iraq was heavily in debt during the Iran-Iraq War. Before the war, Iraq had foreign exchange reserves of more than 300 billion U.S. dollars, but after the war, it owed 700 billion U.S. dollars. But that is abnormal growth, and that is the real disregard of people's livelihood of militarism.Because Qusay passed through and took over all the power, so now, when 84 is about to pass, Iran has basically been pacified, and he has freed up his hands to devote himself to the development of the country. The first five-year plan, This year, 25 billion US dollars has been invested, which is considered a big deal.

Unexpectedly, the treasury of the wealthy Iraq is now empty, and there is no money for the hundreds of millions of dollars in projects with Sweden.

what to do?Do you want to borrow some more money from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait?Or should they continue to pull them to their own projects?This does not seem to be a perfect solution. If they all participate in various projects in Iraq, how can Iraq raise the prices of those weapons in the future?

Qusay was contemplating when he heard Trade Minister Mohammad say dissatisfiedly: Our current oil embargo has actually helped the British out of thin air, making their already deteriorating economy better. "British? I think of this American thug and accomplice. He has followed closely behind the United States all the time. Last time, after the United States announced sanctions against Iraq, the British carried out the most firmly and withdrew the already sold The experts of the Iraqi pre-warning aircraft project were recruited, and the Iraqi experts worked together with the help of technicians from the big eastern countries to work on the new pre-alarm aircraft. They also terminated the sky flash missile project and swallowed their early investment in vain. Iraq can be said to be completely disappointed with the United Kingdom.

After the major oil-producing countries in the Middle East announced production cuts and embargoes because the United States unfairly sanctioned Iraq, international oil prices once again soared triumphantly. Because the embargo lasted for too long, all oil-producing countries decreased Great income, such as Iraq, but the United Kingdom seems to have grasped the straw of life-saving, wishing that this crisis would last longer, because the United Kingdom also has an oil industry!

Between the northwestern part of the European continent and the island of Great Britain, there is a piece of sea that has not been paid much attention to. The climate here is very harsh. More than 2/3 of the year is cloudy and rainy, with strong winds and waves. Therefore, for a long time, unexpectedly No one has discovered that there are rich oil and gas resources here, and the submarine oil reserves rank third in the world after the Persian Gulf and the Maracaibo Gulf!

After the discovery of the Groningen gas field off the coast of the Netherlands in 1959, the gas field group was first discovered in the southern North Sea in 1965, the large Ekofisk oil field was discovered in the zhōngyāng graben area in the middle in 1969, and the Viking graben in the north was discovered in 1971 The Brent oil field and the rich oil and gas resources in the North Sea have begun to attract the attention of surrounding countries. Among them, Britain, a coastal country, occupies an area of ​​51 square kilometers.

The exploration of oil and gas in the North Sea in the UK began in the 60s, and oil production began in 1975. However, the harsh natural environment made the mining work here very difficult. Therefore, the mining work has been very slow until the British economy began to have problems, and the UK made up its mind to make great efforts. Mining, especially after the Falklands War, the recovery of the British economy is more dependent on the sea. After more than two years of hard work, finally this year, the output exceeded [-] million tons. Moreover, it happened to catch up with the increase in oil prices. The oil mined in the UK, It is enough to meet the needs of its own country, and there is no need to endure the high price of crude oil in the Persian Gulf. Moreover, Britain can also take advantage of this high price to earn a lot of foreign exchange for itself by exporting crude oil to Western European countries. It can be said that this time The Middle East crisis revived the British economy.

Chapter 729 Struggle with Oil Prices

The United Kingdom is desperately expanding the size of its North Sea oil fields, desperately exploiting the crude oil under the continental shelf, and exporting it to European countries. With oil revenue, the British domestic economy has begun to improve. The abnormal prosperity of the oil industry has long since caused other industries Rejuvenated and with unemployment starting to fall, Britain appears to have shaken off its economic doldrums.

"It seems that we need to increase oil production if we want to get out of the current revenue deficit," Qusay said.