The rise of great powers: starting from military industry

Liu Zhenbang looked at Liu Tao with evil eyes.

Once upon a time, China spent a lot of manpower, material resources, and financial resources, and its big brother in the north sent technicians to teach them. Finally, in 1959, it produced the first batch of Type 59 tanks, making China finally capable of producing medium tanks.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Type 59 tank makes countless Chinese people proud.

But now in Liu Tao's words, the Type 59 tank has been devalued as worthless.

Liu Zhenbang even wanted to hit him twice on the head.

But thinking about the Type 80 tank he saw today, he had to admit that Liu Tao had enough confidence to despise the Type 59 tank.

It is very simple. The effective range of the Type 59 tank is 700~1200 meters, while the Type 80 tank is only the export version with a maximum range of 4000m and the ability to penetrate 800mm thick enemy armor 2000 meters away.

This means that the Type 59 tank can still detect the Type 80 tank, but it is directly knocked out by the Type 80 tank.

As for all aspects, the Type 80 tank completely crushed the Type 59 tank.

Even when tanks fight in close combat and collide with each other, the Type 59 tank cannot hit the Type 80 tank.

"The armor of the Type 59 tank is too thin and its survivability is too poor. Let alone a tank battle, it can be easily destroyed when faced with anti-tank artillery or anti-tank missiles." Liu Tao shook his head.

During the Iran-Iraq War, nearly a thousand Type 59 tanks were destroyed, which also reflected that the survivability of the Type 59 tank on the battlefield has been unable to adapt to modern warfare.

Even a rookie war like the Iran-Iraq War was able to destroy nearly a thousand Type 59 tanks. It is unimaginable that in a modern war, thousands of tanks would be destroyed at once.

And often when a tank is destroyed, it means that all four members in the vehicle are basically killed.

"The mass production of the Type 80 main battle tank is the top priority. As long as the production capacity increases, the output will continue to increase." Liu Tao said, "As long as you have money, let alone a thousand third-generation main battle tanks. Even if there are two thousand or three thousand main battle tanks, it’s not a problem.”

"The export version sells for 1.5 million U.S. dollars, and the personal version is definitely more expensive. How can the army afford it?" Liu Zhenbang felt a little headache when he thought about the price.

"There's no way. The third-generation tanks have advanced performance and are naturally expensive. They can't be given to the troops in vain. Our factory also needs to develop." Liu Tao shrugged, and he was helpless about this. "Even if one costs 1 million, In RMB, 1,000 cars is 1 billion RMB, and 2,000 cars is 2 billion RMB. This is half sale and half free!”

When Liu Zhenbang heard the price, his teeth hurt.

It’s really expensive!

As for what Liu Tao said about half selling and half giving away, Liu Zhenbang had no doubts.

Everyone knows that the third-generation main battle tank is very expensive, and there is still no place to buy it.

At least China gritted its teeth and used its precious foreign exchange to buy third-generation main battle tanks from the big brother in the north or West Germany. Neither the T72 tank nor the Leopard 2 tank will be sold to China.

Even if China offers a price of US$2 million for one car, you can't buy it!

"The money saved by the troop streamlining plan is not enough to buy self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and third-generation tanks." Liu Zhenbang smiled bitterly.

This year's military expenditure is almost 17 billion yuan, which will support nearly 6 million people. We will disarm 1 million people, saving an average of 2.83 billion yuan in military expenditure a year.

All the money was given to Panshan Machinery Factory, which sold half of the money and gave it away half, which is equivalent to two thousand main battle tanks, or six to seven hundred self-propelled anti-aircraft guns.

Not to mention, the streamlining plan focuses on infantry, and the savings in military expenses will certainly not be that great.

"So, the more arms you export to make money, the more dollars you earn, the faster the country can develop its economy. When the economy improves, military spending will also increase, so that the troops can have money to upgrade to better weapons and equipment." Liu Tao said : "Self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and third-generation tanks are expensive, but they pale in comparison to ships."

Warships, whether they are surface ships or underwater submarines, are notoriously expensive, costing hundreds of millions of dollars or even more than a billion dollars!

His self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and third-generation tanks can be bought by the troops with RMB, but overseas warships and troops are difficult to buy with US dollars.

Regardless of whether Europe, the United States, and the Soviet Union are willing to sell it, the price is so high, and the troops do not have that many dollars.

Liu Zhenbang's mouth twitched.

Among the weapons and equipment of the three armed forces, the army's weapons and equipment are overall the cheapest, followed by the air force, and the most expensive is the navy's weapons and equipment!

That high price will give anyone a toothache!

"The country focuses on economic construction. This decision is right. War between big countries cannot be fought. Peace and development are the themes of the times. Too high a proportion of military expenditure is not conducive to economic construction." Liu Tao said, "That's why I have always We strongly promote the arms trade and rely on the arms trade to make money for the development and construction of arms factories.”

China's military expenditure accounted for about 6.51% of GDP from 1967 to 1977, and soared to 17.37% in 1978!

And this is only military expenditure, which is used for the troops, and it is a large amount of money for third-line construction. The investment in third-line construction is much greater than the total military expenditure during that period.

Add these two items together, and the cost of preparing for war is terrifying!

But there was no way, the whole world situation at that time was like that, a war could break out between the two camps at any time, like a powder keg, ignited and exploded at any time, and the S3 season started immediately.

If you don’t make preparations, you will really lose your country and your species!

And even if the investment is so large, large areas of the country will still fall, just like the Anti-Japanese War.

The most unfavorable situation faced at that time was that the steel torrent of Big Brother from the north was rolling southward, and Yingjiang and a group of allies landed on the coast. The United States and the Soviet Union faced such regional-level difficulties.

Perhaps for other countries, surrender is nothing.

But the people of that era had backbone and were prepared to carry out long-term guerrilla warfare relying on third-line construction.

No matter how bad you are, you can survive the Anti-Japanese War! ?

Now the decision-makers have made new decisions in response to changes in the international situation. Peace and development are the themes of the times, and the country's focus has shifted to economic construction.

Streamlining the troops is only one aspect!

On the other hand, it is to reduce investment in military factories and military projects.

It is precisely for this reason that many third-tier factories are in trouble. Even if reforms are carried out and third-tier factories are classified as local industrial bureaus, many of them will eventually go bankrupt. Many military-industrial scientific research projects were forced to be cancelled.

It was against this background that the Yun-10 project was sadly discontinued, which has become an eternal pain in the hearts of the Chinese people.

It was not until the birth of the Y-20 and the emergence of domestically produced large aircraft that the regrets and pain in the hearts of the Chinese people were cured!

Liu Tao constantly tried his best to export arms, even helping other factories to obtain orders, hoping to maintain the survival and development of the arms factory by earning foreign exchange.

If the military industry is not strong, there is no way to talk about a strong military!

The military factory specializes in making swords, spears and shields for warriors!

Without sharp swords, spears and strong shields, how can we have a strong army?

China also suffered losses in this regard and suffered great humiliation, and only then did it make up its mind to vigorously develop its military industry again.