The rise of great powers: starting from military industry

Guizhou Aircraft Group.

At this time, Liu Tao was looking at the ‘Sea Eagle’ fighter in front of him.

This ‘Sea Eagle’ fighter was Liu Tao’s specially developed carrier-based fighter for the ‘Type 001’ light aircraft carrier.

After this period of manufacturing, the prototype was finally manufactured.

Liu Tao put his hand on the prototype and looked at the virtual panel.

All aspects were qualified.

Then, Liu Tao explained to the test pilot ‘Lei Weiguo’.

The test pilot of the ‘Sea Eagle’ fighter was Lei Weiguo.

This ‘Sea Eagle’ fighter is a single-seat, single-engine light fighter equipped with a thrust-steering turbofan engine with a thrust of 101 kilonewtons. The aircraft is 13.89 meters long, 3.56 meters high, 7.70 meters wide, with a maximum vertical take-off weight of 8,360 kilograms, a maximum bomb load of 2,300 kilograms, a maximum flight speed of 1,100 kilometers per hour, and a take-off run distance of 0~365 meters.

According to the generation standard, the Seahawk fighter should be a second-generation and a half fighter, close to the third-generation fighter, but there is a gap with the third-generation fighter.

The gap here includes combat radius, speed, and ammunition load.

This is also the inherent defect of short-range/vertical take-off and landing carrier-based aircraft. Even if Liu Tao has improved the aerodynamic layout and avionics as much as possible, it is still unsatisfactory.

Moreover, there is limited room for improvement, and no matter how much improvement is made, it cannot reach the standard of the third-generation fighter.

At present, this prototype is for use by domestic aircraft carriers. The Seahawk fighter delivered to Thailand will be appropriately reduced in terms of aircraft engine performance and avionics system.

The export version of the Seahawk fighter will have about 70% of the performance of the self-use version, and after upgrading and transformation in the future, the performance gap between the two will be even greater.

Later, Liu Tao will also develop a two-seat model to be used as a trainer for the Seahawk fighter.

The Seahawk fighter is different from other fighters. After the J-10 and J-11 fighters, the importance of the Seahawk fighter has been greatly reduced, and no leaders participated in the off-line ceremony.

The test flight this time also seemed calm.

The ground crew carefully checked the Seahawk fighter. After confirming that it was correct, Lei Weiguo walked around the fighter and checked it. After finding no problems, he boarded the fighter through the boarding ladder.

This is in the same vein as the fighter developed by Liu Tao, and there are many common things.

Lei Weiguo has flown the J-7A advanced trainer, the Eagle advanced trainer, the J-10 fighter and the J-11 fighter. At this time, he entered the cockpit of the Seahawk fighter and felt a strong sense of familiarity.

After a little familiarity, Lei Weiguo made an "OK" gesture to the ground crew. The ground crew moved the boarding ladder away, and Lei Weiguo drove the Seahawk fighter for a test flight.

The Seahawk fighter did not take off vertically during its first flight, but chose a normal taxiing takeoff.

Liu Tao knew that this aircraft could actually take off vertically directly, and the powerful vertical downward force was enough to propel the aircraft to take off vertically.

But the test flight of a new fighter is like this, it must be carried out according to the steps, and the speed can be accelerated, but it cannot be omitted.

Watching the "Sea Eagle" fighter take off smoothly, Liu Tao had a smile on his face. About 20 minutes later, Lei Weiguo landed the "Sea Eagle" fighter.

With the successful completion of the first flight of the "Sea Eagle" fighter, it means that the "Sea Eagle" fighter has officially entered the test flight phase.

It is expected that the entire test flight phase will last for 1 to 2 years, and various test flights will be conducted.

Anyway, the test flight of the "Sea Eagle" fighter is not urgent, because this model is a carrier-based aircraft for light aircraft carriers. After the light aircraft carrier is built and a series of tests are carried out, it will be officially put into service before the carrier-based aircraft will be used.

This day.

Liu Tao welcomed the distinguished guest.

"Prince Fahd, aren't you busy with military construction? How do you have time to come to China?" Liu Tao personally entertained the distinguished guest.

As a major customer of Panshan Group, the two have been friends for ten years and can definitely be called honored guests.

Liu Tao was very curious. As far as he knew, Prince Fahd was responsible for the construction of the Kuwaiti Restoration Army, which had as many as 50,000 people. It can be said that there were many things to do.

Kuwait has a navy, but the army and air force of Kuwait need to be rebuilt.

Although the army and air force have mercenaries to help build, Prince Fahd still has a lot of things to do.

Because Prince Fahd is the head of the Kuwaiti army in the coalition, he has to attend the coalition meeting.

Although the coalition army has not yet fully arrived, the coalition headquarters has been established.

"Liu, my friend, we need your help this time in Kuwait!" Prince Fahd frowned.

Liu Tao asked curiously: "What do you need my help with!?"

"We have received reliable intelligence that the Iraqis will destroy various infrastructure and oil fields if they cannot continue to occupy our Kuwait," Prince Fahd said bitterly.

You know, Kuwait was completely transferred, leaving the Iraqis with an empty country.

But this also shows that, except for the border area, other places have not experienced war damage.

This is why Iraqis can still export up to 5.864 million barrels of oil every day, because a large part of it comes from Kuwait!

Once the Iraqis destroy Kuwait's infrastructure and oil fields, Kuwait will suffer great losses.

Even if the Iraqis were driven out and Kuwait successfully restored its independence, it would probably cost one or two hundred billion dollars just for post-war reconstruction.

Liu Tao frowned slightly.

He knew Saddam's character. If he was sure that he could not continue to occupy Kuwait, Saddam would definitely destroy their oil fields in order to prevent Kuwait from continuing to produce oil.

It would be in Iraq's interest if all the oil fields in Kuwait were destroyed.

The rise in international oil prices would seriously affect the Western economy.

When the Americans helped Israel and imposed an oil embargo on the United States, it caused a global financial crisis, which was called the "first oil crisis". The power balance between the United States and the Soviet Union reversed, and entered a situation where the Soviet Union attacked and the United States defended. This situation has not been fundamentally reversed even now.

Now that Iraq is under economic sanctions, oil cannot be shipped out, and Kuwaiti oil can no longer be mined, the West will have to relax sanctions on Iraq for economic development.

But Liu Tao knew that Saddam's calculations were wrong, because Europe and the United States did not relax economic sanctions on Iraq at all.

Moreover, Liu Tao knew that if Iraq did so, it would inevitably affect his interests.

Liu Tao could not help but look thoughtful, wondering how to resolve this disaster.

Here, we have to find a way to see how to dispel the Iraqi army's sabotage order in Kuwait.

"Prince Fahd, I am willing to help with this matter, but I can only say that I will try my best, because Saddam is a madman, he can do anything, and it is difficult to dissuade him." Liu Tao hesitated for a moment and smiled bitterly at Fahd.

"That bastard is indeed a madman!" Fahd said with deep conviction.