Chapter 92

"Mr. Ahmed, welcome to your arrival—"

Hu Wenhai stood up to greet the Iraqi procurement team entering through the meeting room door. He suddenly paused, staring oddly at the interpreter who had pushed the door open.

"Oh, dear Chinese friends, hello!"

Ahmed was the head of the Iraqi procurement team responsible for China, who, despite having a large amount of procurement funds at his disposal, had never wasted a single penny. The entire Iraqi procurement team consisted of twelve people, who usually stayed in the reception house of the General Staff Department and had not even visited any of the famous tourist spots in the capital.

His only job was to ensure the timely and quality supply from China to provide sufficient military equipment for the Iraqi front lines.

With such a dedicated team leader, the other members of the procurement team also worked very hard, almost being chased by him without a moment's rest.

Fortunately, the domestic military industry had been struggling in recent years, and this sole major client was definitely to be served wholeheartedly. The quality and speed of the products could be guaranteed, and the cooperation between both sides was quite harmonious.

"I heard you have new products. Chinese equipment is both affordable and of good quality, and we in Iraq are very satisfied! This time, have you come up with any new imitations of foreign goods?"

Ahmed sat down comfortably across the conference table, with the interpreter who had opened the door sitting beside him, translating his words.

On the domestic side, seated at the head of the table was Director Zhao of the International Cooperation Department of the State Administration for Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense. He was only in his thirties, yet had already taken up the position of director, indicating a promising future.

However, Director Zhao first glanced at Hu Wenhai, confirming his slight nod before responding to Ahmed.

"Mr. Ahmed, given the increasing trade volume between China and Iraq over the past few years, we believe that the current trade method is actually detrimental to the interests of both sides."

"Detrimental to our interests? Why is that? Is China planning to raise the prices of your weapons?" Ahmed's expression turned serious upon hearing Director Zhao's words.

"Oh, no. Mr. Ahmed, you have misunderstood. Chinese weapons have always been known for their affordability and effectiveness, and we would never arbitrarily raise prices. If anything, we are very dissatisfied with the performance of our weapons on the battlefield, as we believe this will have a very negative impact on our product exports in the long run."

This was not just empty talk. In fact, after the end of the Iran-Iraq War, Chinese weapons had a bad reputation internationally. When people mentioned Chinese products, they immediately thought of low prices and poor quality, with no brand reputation to speak of.

"So, what do the Chinese friends plan to do? Export more advanced weapons to us? I'm sorry, but as far as I know, your country still lags behind the United States and the Soviet Union in advanced equipment."

Ahmed's words were not polite, causing the Chinese present to blush inwardly—though, of course, they were all seasoned veterans and did not show it on their faces.

"No, Mr. Ahmed, you may have some misunderstandings about our technical capabilities," Director Zhao said firmly. "While China is still behind in some military equipment, we do have some technologies that are at the forefront of the world, such as electronic manufacturing. We can now produce integrated circuits with a line width of 3 micrometers, a technology that, besides the United States, places Japan, Germany, and China as the world's second-best!"

Hu Wenhai, who had proposed this rhetoric, felt a bit embarrassed despite his experience, seeing Director Zhao speak so confidently and unhesitatingly.

China did indeed successfully develop the 3-micrometer line width integrated circuit photolithography technology in 1985, along with the necessary etching machines and CVD equipment. However, it was far from being the world's second-best.

The photolithography machines and other production equipment produced domestically at the time could only meet small-scale production and laboratory applications, mainly due to the lack of automatic control technology.

The domestically produced photolithography machines from the Shanghai Optical and Mechanical Factory required all operations to be performed manually. The efficiency of producing a single chip was less than one-tenth of that of fully automatic photolithography machines and heavily depended on the skill level of the operators.

Therefore, this 3-micrometer processing capability was only at the laboratory level, and it was still a long way from large-scale application.

However, from the perspective of line width, the most critical technical indicator for integrated circuits, Director Zhao's statement was not entirely incorrect. A 3-micrometer processing capability was indeed in the second tier globally, not far behind the Soviet Union.

"Oh, so the Chinese friends are hoping to sell electronic products to Iraq?" Ahmed's eyes widened with interest as he looked curiously at Director Zhao.

Director Zhao cleared his throat and said with a sense of satisfaction, "Mr. Ahmed, you are both right and wrong. We do have excellent products, but this time it's not just about selling you a batch of equipment."

"After research by our experts, we have decided to offer Iraq a solution for achieving victory in the war!"

"A solution?"

"Yes, a solution! This is a military solution specifically tailored for the Iraqi army to defeat Iran!"

"Cough, cough—" Director Zhao maintained his composure, glanced down, and pointed to Hu Wenhai, who was seated at the end of the table. "Comrade Hu, please introduce to Mr. Ahmed what we mean by a solution."

"Sure, Director Zhao." Hu Wenhai suppressed a laugh, had the curtains in the meeting room pulled shut, and turned on the slide projector on the conference table.

"Mr. Ahmed, I will now explain to you the military system upgrade solution that our experts have studied and recommend."

Hu Wenhai operated the slide projector, projecting an image of Iraq's air defense system onto the screen. He then asked straightforwardly, "Mr. Ahmed, as far as I know, Iraq has a complete Soviet-made air defense system, including 1,200 23mm to 100mm towed anti-aircraft guns, the famous ZSU-23-4 and ZSU-57-2 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, and sufficient SAM-7, SAM-3, and SAM-6 anti-aircraft missiles. However, they have hardly been effective against Iranian air attacks. Why do you think this is?"

Without waiting for Ahmed to respond, Hu Wenhai answered his own question, "According to our experts, the Iraqi air defense system relies on long-range interceptors and point defense by air defense units. To be frank, this completely separates the air force and air defense units, which should work together to achieve a 1+1>2 effect, but instead results in 2-1=0! Based on this, we solemnly recommend our latest networked air defense command system, which can perfectly solve the cooperation issues between the air force and air defense units, ensuring that incidents like the Iranians shooting down their own planes with missiles do not happen!"

...

"Hmm, the Chinese friends' 'solution' does sound very good. I must admit, it is indeed very suitable for our specific situation in Iraq."

After listening to Hu Wenhai's introduction, Ahmed nodded in agreement. "However, this deal is too complex and cannot be decided by me alone. If possible, I hope you can provide a detailed set of materials for this solution. I will send it back to Iraq for President Saddam to review personally."

"Of course, we have already prepared the relevant materials." Director Zhao waved his hand, and two stacks of materials, each about half a meter high, were placed on the conference table, with both Arabic and Chinese translations.

Ahmed casually picked up one of the volumes, flipped through it, and nodded in satisfaction. To cater to the Iraqi generals and Saddam, who had no concept of electronic warfare, the materials were made as simple and understandable as possible. Wherever possible, diagrams were used instead of text, and charts and curves were used instead of dry data. The materials also included bilingual Chinese-Arabic translations, detailed illustrations, and diagrams of each subsystem and type of equipment, with their specific functions and performance clearly explained.

This level of detail gave Ahmed the impression that these technologies and equipment were readily available to the Chinese. If this system did not have a promising future, would the Chinese have invested so much effort in developing it? Otherwise, if Iraq ultimately rejected the deal, wouldn't the initial research costs be wasted?

Therefore, it was inevitable that the Chinese had already decided to use this system themselves. From this perspective, Iraq should seriously consider adopting this system.

"Alright, since the Chinese friends are willing to share these technologies with Iraq, I must quickly hand over these materials to President Saddam for his final decision."

Ahmed stood up, waved to his subordinates to carry the materials, shook hands with Director Zhao, and hurriedly left the meeting room.

"Mr. Ahmed, please wait a moment!"

Ahmed had just walked out of the meeting room when he heard someone calling him. He stopped, vaguely remembering that this was the young Chinese man who had just explained the solution to him.

"Mr. Ahmed, if it is convenient, I hope to personally hand this manual to President Saddam." Hu Wenhai handed a thin booklet to Ahmed. This booklet was very different from the materials, appearing much rougher and written only in Arabic.

Ahmed opened the booklet, glanced at it curiously, and then closed it. He nodded solemnly, "Rest assured, I will personally hand it over to President Saddam!"

"Thank you!"

Hu Wenhai bid farewell to Ahmed again and suddenly leaned towards the interpreter to ask, "Comrade, may I ask if your surname is Zhang?"

...