Chapter 781 Take Down the Tomcat

The F14 does have many flaws and weaknesses, but in October 1973, although the F15 prototype came out, the test flight has not been completed for a year, and the first aircraft has not even been delivered.

And the time period when the F16 has not even come out of the prototype.

The F14, which has been tested for more than 3 years, is not only the most advanced active fighter.

A person on active duty can do a lot of articles.

Now that the initial combat capability has been formed, mass production can be carried out in a short period of time to meet the urgent needs of large-scale demand, the fastest need to form combat effectiveness, and achieve air combat advantages.

After listening to Taylor's suggestion to talk to Grumman, Li Changheng silently thought about the advantages and disadvantages of F14.

The air combat capability is super strong, but it was eliminated in the end, and only 700 were produced, except for the change in the tactical thinking of the Americans and the high financial pressure.

The demand for fighters has changed from a single type to multi-purpose fighters for air, ground and sea.

It is also related to the speed of F14 replacement, and there are certain reasons for its extreme weakness.

Otherwise, not to mention how advanced the improved model is, after all, the design is too early, and the natural shortcomings cannot be corrected.

But with the new generation, it will never only produce 700.

Thinking of this, Li Changheng slandered Grumman's management in his heart as idiots.

I don't know what they thought, but in 1969, they signed a fixed-price sales plan with the US Navy.

When the economic crisis broke out in 1969, the U.S. economy began to decline in 1970, with annual inflation of 6% to 10%.

Let Grumman have to pay 4 to 6 million dollars for every F14 produced.

Moreover, the ex-factory price of 60 million U.S. dollars is easy to say without comparison.

But the F15 is only 45 million, which immediately makes the F14, which can only be used for air combat, seem uneconomical.

Seeing Li Changheng frowning in thought, Taylor and the others did not say anything for a long time, waiting in anticipation and anxiety for a long time.

Seeing Li Changheng go to the boss's chair and sit down, Taylor stepped forward and said, "Henry, I heard that the Yilang people have taken a fancy to F14.

And excluding weapons and ammunition, the unit price is 80 million US dollars a piece.

But Grumman couldn't even get the start-up capital of 200 million yuan for mass production. Otherwise, we bid 200 million yuan to share the production and sales rights of F14.

Or talk to Grumman and buy all the technology and ownership of F14 outright? "

Li Changheng thought about it carefully, picked up the phone, and said, "Except for Taylor and Francis Payne, everyone else is going out."

After only three of himself were left, he dialed the number to Admiral Raven Benner of the Navy.

The two had a good chat, but they hung up the phone without saying anything.

Then he called Bonaparte, who was in charge of military intelligence in the Death Squad, and explained that he wanted to know all the information about the F14 equipped with the US Navy.

After waiting for half an hour, the phone rang. After Li Changheng picked up the receiver and listened for a few minutes, he smiled.

I thought I needed to work on my own side, or make trouble secretly, but I didn't expect Grumman to lose millions of dollars for producing one.

In addition to large-scale production, tens of millions of dollars must be used to modify and purchase various equipment. After completing the first batch of 22 aircraft with the US Navy, there is no intention of mass production at all.

And even if the high-level public relations of the U.S. Navy, not to mention the small public relations fees, the energy and purpose are all focused on how to change the contract.

Since Grumman is so blind, the US Navy is of course unwilling to change the contract, let alone sign a new big contract.

After hanging up the phone, Li Changheng cursed with a sneer, "Grumman's people are all idiots."

Then Payne, the president of Boyin, said, "Go talk to Grumman, my bottom line is to get the exclusive production license of at least 100 F14s today.

As for the price, you can give them 1 million US dollars each.

If the patent and ownership is less than 200 million US dollars, then buy F14 directly. "

Both Taylor and Payne were experts, and they quickly understood, but they asked with an angry look on their faces, "How is this possible? We didn't spend 100 million dollars to develop the 747.

How could the research and development expenses of F14 need 200 million? "

"Can the current 200 million be compared with the 100 million in 60 years?"

Li Changheng rolled his eyes at Taylor and the two, "I heard that Grumman's President Brett Elman complained in private.

If someone is willing to pay 250 million US dollars to offset Grumman's research and development and the losses in the F14 project over the years, they are willing to sell the F14. "

Taylor and Payne suddenly showed inexplicable smiles on their faces.

If this project is proposed by others, Francis will definitely regard the other party as a lunatic.

But since Li Changheng is in the lead, no one in the entire Citigroup system will question his decision when oil prices are bound to soar.

Even Boyin's people are already expecting that the stock price will be the same as that of Citigroup and Mobil.

It will rise by 10% in one day, and it will rise by at least 50% or even double in the future.

"By the way," Li Changheng suddenly reminded, "After you win the F14, replace the damn engine, otherwise this fighter has too little room for improvement, and it will definitely be eliminated by multi-functional fighters in the future due to changes in the battlefield situation." .”

Taylor and Payne were taken aback for a moment, but they didn't ask questions. Instead, they planned to go back and understand the data of F14.

Moreover, among other things, Li Changheng was the strongest test pilot who landed on the moon.

Saying that he knows about fighter jets, the two of Taylor are not surprised at all.

The next day, Li Changheng read in the newspaper that Boyin had formally signed an agreement with Grumman to jointly develop the F14 fighter jet.

With Bo Yin joining in, Grumman was finally not being stupid this time.

Of course, it is also possible that Grumman's people realized that yesterday's negotiations were most likely led by Li Changheng.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for Bo Yin to make the request that the negotiation must be completed within one day.

For Grumman, it was obvious that the Vietnam War could no longer be fought, and the expenditure of the US military would inevitably decrease in the future.

This means that orders for fighter jets will decrease.

Since someone is willing to share the pressure on a losing deal, Grumman is of course willing to cooperate.

Then I hope that because of the partnership, I can make a lot of money following Li Changheng, just like Boyin and other companies.

Moreover, the relationship between Li Changheng and the US Navy is very good, and it has long been no top secret in the eyes of many people.

In addition, Boyin itself is a super arms dealer, together with Grumman's own network, with the joint efforts of the three parties, it becomes much easier to change the fixed price contract of F14.

On January 18th, it took only three days for the upper and lower houses of the United States to pass the increase in arms aid to Israel and provide a sum of 1 billion U.S. dollars in funds.

Even, as long as Yi Shilie is willing to think about the US military enterprises, he will place an order for new weapons and equipment.

The second batch of aid totaling US$10 billion will also be passed by the upper and lower houses of Congress in the shortest possible time.

As soon as the news came out, let’s not talk about how excited the people of Yishile were, and how angry the desert country was.

The major military-industrial groups in the United States instantly acted like ready-made hyenas, using various methods to lobby Yi Selieren.

It's a pity that the tanks and ground equipment are okay to say, and the fighter jets are chosen. In this time period of 1973, there are only F14 and F15.