Chapter 1056 Dassault's Little Thoughts

Only then did Liu Yongquan realize that the brain waves of the two people were not on the same channel at all.

What Ed Steiner was talking about happened during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

At that time, both sides were engaged in a missile ship attack war, and both hoped to gain a war advantage by strangling the other party's oil exports.

But anyone who takes a look at the map will understand that in this struggle situation, the Persian state, which occupies almost the entire east coast of the Persian Gulf, has a huge advantage.

They only need to deploy land-based anti-ship missiles and even shore artillery on the coast, which is enough to block the choke point of the Strait of Hormuz.

The other side located in the deepest part of the bay needs to dispatch the air force to conduct a long-distance attack to achieve the same attack effect.

Even though they have the support of the entire Western world, war resources, especially anti-ship missile carrier aircraft, are still stretched thin.

Moreover, the main model used for ship attacks at that time was the Mirage F1. Each dispatch could only mount one Exocet missile on the belly of the aircraft. It often required a formation of two or even four aircraft to completely sink an oil tanker.

And such a large-scale attack is easy to be discovered, which in turn invites interception by the opponent...

In short, in order to improve strike efficiency and concealment, they experimentally converted a Falcon 50 business jet into an anti-ship missile carrier aircraft.

Not only does the bomb load double that of the Mirage F1, but the radar signal characteristics are also almost the same as a normal small passenger plane.

Even if the other party is suspicious, they may not dare to fire on a suspected "civilian target."

All in all, the plan seemed seamless.

As for the results...

It has indeed achieved brilliant results.

The problem is, it's too brilliant.

The first time the aircraft was dispatched, it launched two Exocet missiles at the USS Stark frigate that was escorting the Persian Gulf at the time, and both hit the target...

It can only be said that American warships are more reliable than British warships after all. In addition, the krypton gold damage control during World War II has not yet expired. After taking two Exocet shots, it persisted in sinking, but in the end, 37 people died. The Stark Also suffered heavy losses.

The whole process is full of all kinds of mistakes, which is indeed very effective.

Liu Yongquan bit his tongue one last time to control himself from laughing.

Really, I think of happy things.

However, looking at Liu Yongquan who was hiding his face and suppressing a smile, Ed Steiner couldn't stand it anymore and looked a little annoyed:

"What's so funny about this?"

There are differing opinions on whether the attack was intentional.

But there is no doubt that this incident gave the Falcon series business jets, which were still in their early stages of development, a good reputation.

However, it’s not necessarily a good reputation——

The entire modification process was carried out by Dassault.

The use of civilian aviation identities to cover military missions is a very sensitive topic in itself.

That was back in the 1980s, when everyone was generally wild.

It's the 21st century now. If you continue to play this way, you will probably be drowned in saliva.

Falcon 8Z’s reputation is no longer needed.

For Ed Steiner, this was, of course, an absolutely unacceptable result.

"Uh... no, you misunderstood."

Liu Yongquan gently pinched the side of his face to restore the stiff facial muscles to their original state:

"What my superior means is to use Falcon 8Z as a platform to develop a series of special aircraft, such as... early warning aircraft."

After a short pause, he continued to explain:

"You know, although this deterrence operation met with little resistance, it did cause some deterrence to many countries...especially those in the Gulf region."

“The coalition forces dispatched nearly 50 early warning aircraft to direct 2,000-3,000 combat sorties every day, shortening the detection-strike chain construction time from one and a half hours during Desert Storm to less than 20 minutes, and also significantly reduced the probability of accidental strikes. "

"So after this war, the international community, especially some relatively wealthy small and medium-sized countries, is likely to start a wave of buying early warning aircraft. If we can seize this opportunity, it is a market with great potential..."

"..."

Ed Steiner now realized that he had made a big mistake and scratched his head in embarrassment.

Fortunately, the other party's proposal was quite attractive and his attention was quickly attracted.

"Early warning aircraft..."

He looked at the Falcon 8Z parked less than ten meters away and subconsciously blurted out:

"Is it a little too small?"

Falcon 8Z is actually the Z9 plan in the original Falcon project. It was only renamed 8Z considering that the number 9 is unlucky in some cultures.

Although it is already the largest model in the model spectrum, it is still a business jet in the final analysis, not even a regional passenger jet.

The maximum takeoff weight of less than 40 tons seems a bit unsatisfactory among today's early warning aircraft.

But as soon as the words came out of his mouth, Ed Steiner himself realized something was wrong.

The Swedish Saab 340 has a take-off weight of only 15 tons, but it can still be transformed into an ASC-890 early warning aircraft.

Although the range is close to three digits and it only has air radar function, command and control need to go down to the ground station for operation.

But at least it shows that it is feasible.

And considering that the Falcon 8Z is twice the size of its counterpart, it may even retain complete functionality.

At this time, Liu Yongquan also gave a high-five:

"There is a market for young people!"

"Who would want to be in a decent country..."

He originally wanted to say, among all decent countries, who is willing to make external purchases? Everyone should also try to develop their own early warning aircraft.

Even the next-door Dai Ying has two generations of Gannet AEW3 and Shalkton AEW2 products that have reached new heights of ugliness.

But on second thought, this may be a bit too insulting to the law.

After all, the French really don’t even think about it.

So I finally changed my tune:

“In short, the biggest advantage of business jets is that while they are small in size, low in cost, and easy to service, they can also maintain a longer range and airtime than most large passenger jets, and even only need two aircraft to rotate. Being able to maintain 24-hour uninterrupted patrols is very attractive to many countries..."

And Ed Steiner happened to have this in mind.

For most countries, a detection range of four to five hundred kilometers and the processing capacity of hundreds or thousands of targets are not required. As long as they can deter neighboring countries with conflicts of interest, it is enough.

Therefore, strategic early warning aircraft that can easily reach 100 tons or even 200 tons are a serious waste of performance for these users.

On the contrary, the economical and practical ones will be more popular.

Moreover, the upgraded Rafale F2 will soon enter the delivery cycle, and many potential users have begun to include this model in their option lists again.

If at this time, Dassault can launch an early warning aircraft with adequate performance in all aspects...

Then it can obviously achieve the effect of 1+1>2.

In particular, the Mirage 2000 is originally the active equipment of many countries in the Middle East, and it can bring many advantages.

Moreover, the French Air Force itself no longer needs to worry about whether to spend huge sums of money to upgrade the E3F.

The money that the Yankee Lion opened his mouth was enough to buy several new airplanes.

"I……"

Ed Steiner blurted out ready to agree.

But at this moment, he suddenly had a different idea——

As a technical staff member of Dassault, Ed Steiner first came to Huaxia, just to ask the other party to help Snecma solve the reliability problem of the M88.

But this search doesn't matter, it seems to have opened Pandora's box, involving a lot of subsequent events.

In the end, the M88 and SeA650 almost became other people's aviation engines. Even the Falcon Z project inexplicably made the Chinese become the second largest participant.

Almost lost control.

Moreover, the core technologies are still in the hands of the other party.

This situation is obviously not good for Dassault.

And now, the Chinese have taken the initiative to propose an early warning aircraft based on the Falcon Z?

I'm afraid you don't have any good intentions?

You know, France has no experience in developing early warning aircraft.

You will definitely have to rely on others for onboard equipment.

Calculating this, in the entire early warning aircraft project, China's contribution accounts for 100% of the mission load and 30% of the platform...

Doesn’t the plane belong to someone else?

Furthermore, the Chinese's own early warning aircraft has only been in service for less than two years, and no one knows how good it is.

In comparison, Sweden, which I just remembered, seems to be a better partner.

At least they can equally share the project leadership.

Moreover, Ericsson's products have been equipped for many years, at least I have not heard of any fatal flaws.

Thinking of this, Ed Steiner immediately changed his mind:

"In this matter, I personally may not be able to give an immediate answer. I need to report the situation to the group headquarters, and the board of directors will make a decision after discussion..."

As a veteran who has been around the world for decades, he didn't say anything to death.

After all, Dassault has never had in-depth cooperation with Ericsson in the past, and it does not even know whether the other party has any intention to cooperate.

If something goes wrong in the middle, leave some room for maneuver now so that you can have a way out then...

However, Ed Steiner changed his mind temporarily after all, and this wave of acting is really a bit stiff.

Although Liu Yongquan on the opposite side did not fully guess what he was thinking, it was not difficult to see that the so-called board discussion was just a way to delay time.

Of course, we are all decent people, and we don’t say anything when we see through something.

He just secretly kept the situation in mind and prepared to go back and ask Mr. Chang if he had any countermeasures...