Chapter 149: After making the rounds, the big dog household, fork over the cash!

Two pilots stood on the tarmac; according to previous practice, they should have reported to the leadership next, but…… there's no leadership here! Next……

While he was worrying, he saw a group of people walking over, among whom were two…… Eastern faces!

"Comrades, you've worked hard, I'm Qin Miao, here to welcome you." Qin Miao stepped forward: "Now, first let the staff here take you to get something to eat, rest, replenish your energy, and we'll have refueled the plane over here, so it can take off again. Coincidentally, our Saudi friend also wants to take this opportunity to inspect our aircraft."

The lead pilot Li Tian puffed out his chest: "Comrade Qin Miao, since our foreign friends want to tour our aircraft, we ought to give them an introduction……"

"You've flown this long, you're surely tired, probably feeling restless, so hurry up and go!" Qin Miao waved his hand.

The two exchanged a glance; indeed they needed to stretch their legs, but…… with Qin Miao here, he's an outsider—could he give a proper introduction? The engineers over at Chengfei are busy improving the aircraft, they don't even have time for sales……

"Then we…… go quickly and come back quickly."

"Okay."

Qin Miao looked at the others nearby: "Wudai, my friend, this aircraft is yours; look, your name has already been sprayed on the nose."

Wudai looked up and saw, sure enough, his name written in Arabic on the nose, with an eagle emblem in front; his face instantly lit up with excitement.

"Kuse, the aircraft next to you is yours, but…… before you understand how to operate it, you'd better not get on; if you accidentally hit a switch, it could be disastrous."

Seeing Kuse wanting to climb up the boarding ladder, Qin Miao hurried to stop him.

"Oh, then I'll just take a look from the boarding ladder."

Talar was somewhat surprised: "Wudai, Kuse, this MiG-21 belongs to the two of you?"

"Hmm. However, this isn't a MiG-21; it's the J-7 fighter jet produced by the East, and it's also the model our Iraqis are about to procure in large numbers."

Only now did Talar piece together the whole story; his expression was complex. "You should have said earlier! Knowing it's yours, I'd definitely have praised it a few times!"

"Everyone, don't just look at how similar this aircraft is to the MiG-21; actually, it differs greatly from Soviet aircraft. This is something we in the East improved using our own technology. Come, look here at the cockpit—we've replaced the Soviet's immature ejection device……"

Qin Miao began boasting again, but…… it was obvious these Saudis had seen advanced aircraft; compared to the F-15 next door, the J-7 simply wasn't impressive, and they were listening carefully only out of respect for the Easterners.

After introducing for about ten minutes, Qin Miao, seeing that everyone's patience hadn't yet run out, promptly changed the subject.

"Our aircraft's biggest selling point is its low cost and ability to withstand wartime consumption; the F-15 over there must surely not be cheap, right?"

"Yeah, when you add it up, each one exceeds forty million dollars." Mashahadani spoke.

In the mid-1970s, Israelis were the first to procure F-15 fighters, at a price of over twenty-four million dollars each—showing that these modern third-generation fighters are indeed not cheap. Next came the Jordanians, who purchased F-14s from the United States, at a price reaching thirty-eight million dollars each.

Seeing that both hostile neighbors had upgraded their equipment, the Saudis also grew anxious; after some negotiations, the United States finally agreed to export F-15s to the Saudis, project codename: Peace Sun.

Under Israeli interference, the deal's quantity was limited to sixty aircraft, with the Saudis able to purchase at most two more as replacements for attrition; for the Saudis, this purchase was already frustrating enough, so by the mid‑1980s they bought a batch of Fierce Wind aircraft as well—also a way to vent their dissatisfaction with the Americans.

January 1981—just two weeks ago—the first batch of F-15 fighters arrived and was deployed to this base; now, these aircraft are the Saudis' most advanced big toys.

"Really expensive! Do you know how much our aircraft costs?"

"How much?"

"The basic model only needs one million dollars; the later version with Western avionics upgraded also only needs 1.5 million! The money for one of your F-15s could buy thirty or forty of our aircraft—as for actual combat capability……"

Qin Miao weighed his words; having just countered Talar, it didn't matter—this old guy had just entered flight school, but to disparage the F-15 in front of base officers would not be a wise choice.

"Even if we use eight J-7s to exhaust the F-15's missiles, the remaining dozens could still go up and shoot down the F-15!" Wudai spoke.

Air combat is absolutely not a simple numbers comparison; the 1991 Gulf War gave the Iraqis a harsh lesson—despite calling themselves the world's fourth‑largest military power, under Western aviation tech supremacy they'd barely get airborne before being destroyed; air combat long ago ceased to be a one‑on‑one affair!

Later‑generation Indians should also deeply feel this: no matter how advanced the Rafale, if its weapons aren't a cohesive system, under a pure Eastern framework they'd still have to kneel.

At this moment, having Wudai say that was most appropriate.

Talar spoke again: "Wudai, you just don't get it—air combat isn't fought like that, and besides, if your eight J‑7s were shot down, that would mean eight pilots……"

"We're not afraid; war is brutal, we're not afraid of bayonets seeing blood! Even if some must sacrifice, as long as it enables others to win, it's worth it!"

Both being oil‑rich nations, the Saudis have lived comfortably for a long time, everyone fears death, whereas the Iraqis have been constantly at war; their soldiers are accustomed to sacrifice. To hunt down the male cat fighter, some Iraqi pilots could only fly outdated aircraft, charging forward as bait to create ambush opportunities for the later Mirage F1 fighters.

As for someone like Wudai, losing a few pilots is nothing at all.

"Wudai's right—war is brutal; to defeat the Jordanians, Iraqi pilots are willing to make sacrifices, but sadly their treasury is empty; even if they went up as cannon fodder, they'd likely have no aircraft to use. Friends, you're all Arab brothers—how can you just watch the Iraqis suffer like this?"

This topic finally led to the crux of the matter!

"That advanced F-15 fighter, you definitely won't transfer it to the Iraqis for combat—we understand that, and even if you were willing, the Americans wouldn't be—but…… could you provide some funds to buy a batch of J‑7s and send them to the Iraqis?"

Wudai and Kuse's eyes lit up—great! If we had Saudi financial backing, acquiring the aircraft would be no problem at all!

Mashahadani suddenly regretted it—why did he jump into this? He's just asking for trouble.