"The military wants to obtain a batch of such tanks?" Zheng Yucheng looked at Long Yaohua and Li Mingshan in surprise, "I heard it right?"

"No. At present, the development of the domestic third-generation tank project has just started, and the troops' equipment needs to be upgraded urgently. Even if the military expenditure is not high, we cannot always use old-fashioned equipment. We do not study the combat and defense of advanced weapons and equipment, right?" Long Yaohua nodded and said.

Li Mingshan looked at Zheng Yucheng and others, "Is there any difficulty? Even if we want it, we will pay."

"Chief, this is a project we cooperate with Pakistan..." Wang Guilin weighed and said carefully.

The military needs it, which will have a great impact on the future of the 359 tank.

For domestic equipment, for national defense and security, the combat capability of the 359 tank exported must be very different from that used in China.

This is true for any advanced heavy weapons export in the world.

Tanks and fighter jets exported by the United States and the Soviet Union all have some functional limitations, and at the same time they will reduce their performance configurations to prevent the enemy from obtaining their advanced weapons and equipment, thereby developing positive equipment based on performance.

"It is difficult to reduce the configuration of the 359 tank at present. Once it is reduced, the situation will cause a large number of orders to be lost. Without a finalization, Iraq ordered 11 vehicles for combat experiments..." Qi Zhiyuan also emphasized.

Xie Kai sat in the corner without saying anything.

On the opposite side, Mr. Zhu's eyes kept on Xie Kai.

"The military's orders do not affect your exports." Long Yaohua's eyes were sharp, and he looked at Zheng Yucheng and others, and he did not dare to look at him. "Of course, this is just a possibility. If your tank performance is not good during the test, you will definitely not get the military's order."

"Chief, do you know the manufacturing cost of the 359 tank?" Xie Kai asked, "What is the minimum price for each tank if the military wants to purchase?"

Xie Kai’s problem is a bit sharp.

The subtext is obvious, the military cannot afford this kind of tank.

"The things you have made in more than a year are all made of existing domestic technologies. How expensive can it be?" Li Mingshan looked at Xie Kai and answered easily.

In their opinion, the 359 tank developed at the 404 base will not be so expensive at all.

For the 59 tank, the chassis determines the space, so there is no big breakthrough, so it naturally limits too many things.

"Chief, I think the military should wait and wait until we reduce the cost before considering it. The domestic strategic focus is on economic construction, and the demand in this regard is not urgent." Xie Kai said.

Li Mingshan was a little unhappy, "Boy, do you think we are too poor and can't afford it?"

"Chief, I don't mean that. It's just that the cost of the 359 tank is really expensive at present. The performance is not mature enough, and many tests have not been completed." Xie Kai refused to comment.

Everyone knows that the military is poor.

So far, major disarmament is underway, and the number of domestic troops has been reduced from 4 million to 3 million, which is a huge task.

However, military expenditure has not increased, and even reduced a little due to disarmament.

The military expenditure in 1985 was only 19.1 billion, equivalent to US dollars, which is only about 6.5 billion US dollars!

It only accounts for 2% of the U.S. military expenditure.

A 359 tank, even if it is sold at the lowest price, must be sold at a price of more than 3 million.

The military's funds are not just used to buy equipment, but also include scientific research investment, supporting the troops of the navy, army and air force, equipment updates and upgrades, etc.

Xie Kai felt that the military could not afford it, which was natural.

Especially for armored troops, almost all weapons and equipment must be upgraded.

The 59 tanks that are mainly fighting almost account for a huge proportion. These are tanks from the 1950s in the world! They have been upgraded for several generations to date.

"I don't believe it anymore. No matter how expensive the 359 tank is, how expensive it can be!" Li Mingshan was full of dissatisfaction in his words, "If we don't have to use the equipment we developed, we can't afford it, what can we develop it?"

"Chief, I think President Zhu can explain." Xie Kai burned the fire on President Zhu.

There is no cheaper one for the third generation of tanks.

The thing that the boss made will be far more expensive than the 359 tank made from the 404 base.

How much does a 99 tank cost?

That's tens of millions per vehicle, and the domestic economy has increased many times, and because of the high price, it has to upgrade the 96 tanks and equipped with a small number of 99 tanks.

"A set of anti-stable image fire control system, plus computer fire control system, will it cost millions, right?" Mr. Zhu did not explain directly, but asked Zhang Deming.

The price of the stable-image fire control system is so high that Li Mingshan and others breathe heavily.

"The price of 125mm tank gun, bistable system, etc. is several times higher than that of Type 59, right?" Without waiting for an answer, Mr. Zhu continued to ask.

"New ammunition development, power systems, etc. are several times that of the 59 tank, right?"

"The production cost of Chobam's armor is also much higher than that of homogeneous armor, right?"

A series of questions made Long Yaohua and Li Mingshan stunned.

It's a price that's several times at any time!

Isn't this still alive?

"How much does it cost to one of you now?" Long Yaohua thought about the problem.

Instead of asking Zheng Yucheng and others how much it costs to sell one, they asked the cost of the 359 tank.

The 404 model car provided to Iraq is $2.5 million per vehicle; the 404 model car provided to Pakistan is $1.8 million per vehicle.

"1.8 million US dollars, cost price." Zhang Deming said helplessly. "Convert RMB, it is more than 5 million."

"What's the matter? Are you sure it's just a cost price? If you have 100 vehicles, it will cost us 500 million in military spending!" Li Mingshan's face was a little uneasy.

If it is really the price, the military cannot afford it.

404 cannot be supplied to the military at a cost price.

"Indeed, all the technical costs are quite high at present." Zhang Deming nodded affirmatively.

"Chief, this is the price that must be paid for adopting new technologies. When the technology is mature, the production process of various materials is mature and the production capacity is increased, the cost will be reduced a lot." Wang Guilin said.

Xie Kai glanced at Mr. Zhu, and then looked at Long Yaohua and Li Mingshan.

The wonderful expressions on the two of them are imaginable.

Mr. Zhu looked at Xie Kai with a wry smile. Building a domestic third-generation tank is not only technically difficult, but also how to reduce costs, but also what the R&D team must consider.

The 359 tank has a much worse technical level than the third-generation tank project that Mr. Zhu is responsible for, and it is just a medium-sized tank.

If calculated based on technical performance, the price of heavy tanks must be at least twice that of tanks 359.

The troops are even more useless.

"How much time will it take to reduce the cost?" Long Yaohua was silent for a while before starting to ask.

"Chief, this depends on our order situation. The more production quantity, the lower the cost. If you don't produce, the higher the R&D cost will be..." Xie Kai said. "At the same time, there are reaction armors and other unused. Once other technologies used to improve performance are used, the cost will be higher."

“…”

When he heard Xie Kai say that the cost would be higher, Long Yaohua and others had even more exciting things.

"How many intentional orders do Iraq have? How many vehicles will produce reduce the cost to what level?" Long Yaohua did not say that the exported tanks were reduced.

Before talking about this, they looked at the tank test site of the 404 Base Guard Regiment's 359 tank prototype, which was still undergoing service life tests, and then put forward the military's needs.

Just on the cost issue, it is unbearable for the military to bear.

How to continue talking?

I can only expect more foreign orders to reduce costs.

"I don't know yet. Everything has to be based on the combat experiments of the 11 prototype cars, and even the other party is likely to use it for actual combat and place an order according to the results." Expensive tanks are different from ordinary tanks.

The Type 69 main battle tank transformed from Type 59 has backward technology, poor firepower and even worse defense. Iraq has purchased a lot of it, and the quantity has made up for the losses in the Iraq-Iraq War.

They need tanks with more advanced performance to improve combat effectiveness.

The 359 tank became an option. If it could not surpass the t72, such a high price, coupled with the possible immaturity of the new technology, the Soviet t72 would be their best choice.

"Didn't the 404 be used domestically during the project development?" Li Mingshan asked.

He hoped to hear an answer that comforted him.

Hope to hear about other solutions.

"Chief, the military was not interested in this project before. In order to continue the project, we sought investment from abroad." Zheng Yucheng gave Li Mingshan enough face.

But the more Li Mingshan listened, the less uncomfortable he felt.

The military has no money!

The military is poor!

It’s not that the military is not interested, but that it is not that it is afraid to be interested.

Once you are interested, you have to pay.

"For domestic reasons, our purpose is to make the technology developed to fill the domestic gap and make up for the gap between China and abroad. As for whether it is affordable, it should not be our consideration. The m1 main battle tanks served in the United States, the German Leopard 2 main battle tanks, and even the Soviet T80 main battle tanks are sold internationally for more than five million US dollars..."

"Selling price and cost price are different! Otherwise, the Americans and the Soviets could afford so much equipment?" Li Mingshan accused Xie Kai without hesitation.

"Even if the cost price is too poor, our troops can't afford much, Chief!" Xie Kai said politely, "We are different from 617 and other units, and we raise our own project funds and develop technology. Chief, if these costs do not count, and even profits do not count, how can 404 develop? If this is true, can we continue to develop?"

"I think the leaders would not use this method of killing chickens and retrieving eggs, and fishing through the pond, right?" Xie Kai's words blocked Li Mingshan and others' desire to make 404 put aside profits in price and the technical cost of R&D.

Without profits and even the original investment costs cannot be recovered, how can we continue to develop new projects?

So far, Base 404 has several key projects.
Chapter completed!