Chapter 802: Arms Sale to Russia
Translator: _Min_ Editor: Caron_
Sure enough, Jiang Chen already anticipated that when Celestial Trade showed off the Hummingbird drone in the Xin Malaysia Joint Military Exercise, there would certainly be interest in the flexible support equipment.
The mobility and intelligence the drones offered would simply be nightmares for all soft targets.
Actually, not only Xin, but the Navy Seals and Alpha Special Forces had all equipped similar individual drones. However, those propeller drones obviously weren’t comparable to the Hummingbird’s aerodynamic engine.“The Hummingbird drones aren’t for sale,” Jiang Chen said without hesitation, “The sale is nonnegotiable. Future Military will only complete orders for Celestial trade. I’m afraid this answer will disappoint you.”
“I expected you to say that.” Natasha shrugged. “So I didn’t intend to ask about the Hummingbird drone.”
“What were you referring to then?” Jiang Chen looked at her.
“We’re very interested in the Beta-3 drone, that is, the drone logistics network you built in Xiangjiang,” said Natasha.
“Russia’s delivery market isn’t developed.”
“We also didn’t plan on using the Beta-3 for delivery,” Natasha said, staring at Jiang Chen. “The logistics needs aren’t just limited to deliveries. The Beta-3’s all-terrain transportation capabilities can be fully utilized on the frontlines such as for sending ammunition and supplies to deployed soldiers…”
After a moment of thought, Jiang Chen expressed his sincere feelings, “The person who came up with this idea is a genius.”To be honest, Jiang Chen sometimes felt puzzled. Every time he introduced an incredible piece of technology, there was always someone who took the hassle to dig deeper into its military value for him. Using the drone logistics network for providing front-line supplies was something he never considered.
But then again, using Beta-3 drones for supplies offered little significance to Celestial’s soldiers. Because of the existence of kinetic skeletons, each soldier could carry weights three to five times more than that of soldiers from other countries. With the penetration speed of Celestial Trade Soldiers, there was no need for replenishment.
“Give me a price,” Natasha said, smiling.
“The drone terminals could be mounted on infantry vehicles. The drones could be used to supply soldiers who are dispersed in combat. If necessary, they can also tie explosives and fly towards enemies… Nice, this method is indeed feasible.” Jiang Chen carefully thought about the possibility.
Beta-3 had a load capacity of about 2-3 kg. Through technical upgrading, at the expense of the range, it should be no problem to raise its load capacity to 5 kg. As for the large Beta drone control terminals deployed in the delivery network of Xiangjiang, it was technically feasible to reduce them to small-sized vehicle terminals that could control 10-20 drones!
“Half a million US Dollar for 20 drones and supporting vehicle-mounted drone terminals,” Jiang Chen said.
Natasha’s eyebrows raised and she coughed.
“This quote…is a bit too expensive. I remember that the cost of laying a drone logistics network in Xiangjiang was around than 200 million, and 50,000 drones were equipped. So the average drone was only 4,000 US Dollar. 500,000 US Dollar for 20 drones – why don’t you just go rob a bank?!”
“It’s half a million for 20 drones and the supporting terminals.” Jiang Chen emphasized the word “terminal” and watched Natasha quietly, then he said, “The price of the terminal is much higher than that of the drone itself. After all, it’s not just a random computer that can provide data processing services for drones.”
“Can you go any cheaper?”
Natasha pretended to be pitiful, but Jiang Chen insisted on his own price.
“No! We have to specifically design a portable Beta drone terminal for you. We can’t go any cheaper.” Jiang Chen shook his head again and again.
Of course, he could offer a lower price, but how would he earn money?
The cost of 20 drones and terminals was only 100,000 US Dollar, but since the equipment was intended to be exported in a monopoly, it would be a shame not to scam them.
After some bargaining, Jiang Chen eventually agreed to a 10% discount, setting the price of the devices at 450,000 US Dollar. The specific agreement would be brought by Natasha after work. Before going to work, she repeatedly pestered Jiang Chen not to change his mind.
Jiang Chen tried his hardest not to laugh. After she left, he finally burst out laughing.
Future Military was formed a month ago, yet they were already receiving international contracts.
450,000 US Dollar per set, excluding the costs, he would earn 350,000 US Dollar. Even if just one-tenth of the military vehicles in the Russian army were upgraded with the drone supply system, it would be a profit of 700 million US Dollar. How could Jiang Chen not be happy?
The arms business was really too profitable. Jiang Chen made up his mind and would contact the Liu family in Hua and ask them if they would be interested in this Beta drone supply system. Compared to the poor polar bears, they were the wealthy ones.
The international influence of Future Group now made it unnecessary for him to worry about the implications behind the arms business.
After confirming this matter, Jiang Chen helped Ayesha clean up the dishes then he went to Future Building.
After work, Natasha placed an arms purchase agreement in front of him. She smiled and watched him sign his own name. She received countless praise from her superior for helping the Russian Ministry of Defense save a lot of money.
Only the caring voice of her boss made her feel a little enraged as if she used sex to persuade Jiang Chen to provide a discount.
After signing the contract, Jiang Chen went to the office and dialed the Liu family’s number.
Liu Xiangguo immediately expressed great interest after he listened to Jiang Chen’s proposal. However, after all, he wasn’t a man of the military system and couldn’t make rushed decisions on matters like this. After stating that further discussion were necessary, the old fox hung up.
Drones brought him lots of good news the entire day.
However, at that time, the Ghost Agents brought him some bad news.
“The UA is currently developing a vehicle-mounted anti-drone device that’s currently being bid on by two arms companies. Raytheon’s design proposal is to eliminate drone targets through directed energy weapons, similar to a simplified version of the experimental laser anti-missile system. Lockheed Martin’s design proposal is to block communications between drones and terminals in the target area by targeting all-channel interference technology and setting up no-fly zones for drones,” Ayesha reported to Jiang Chen the intelligence collected by the Ghost Agents stationed in UA.
Jiang Chen wasn’t surprised.
After the birth of any weapon, people would inevitably think about how to counter such weapons.
Raytheon’s plan was costly, but it was undoubtedly more effective because anti-drone equipment in the apocalypse basically relied on faster and more accurate directed energy weapons, and regional EMP weapons didn’t exist in the modern world. As for the latter Lockheed Martin proposal, it used the common internationally-used method, but it wasn’t effective for Hummingbird and Beta series drones.
Although they relied on data processing and remote control from the terminal, the Hummingbird or Beta drones had built-in AI programs. Even in an offline setting, scheduled missions could be completed and they would return to their terminals.
Lockheed Martin’s full-channel interference technology was a flashbang at most. Although it could cause trouble for Celestial Trade, it couldn’t completely make drones lose their combat effectiveness.
[If you interfere with radio, can’t we just design anti-radio interference?]
Before the war in the apocalypse, anti-radio interference was the basic equipment for electronic warfare.
Personally, Jiang Chen still very much hoped that Lockheed Martin would win the bid.
So he thought: [Should I help them out?]
