Chapter 945: Decisive Battle (12)

"What a pity." Yannick smacked his lips with some regret. Since traveling through time, he has only seen Churchill, one of the three giants of World War II, who was in a state of being unable to speak because of a stroke. As for Roosevelt and Stalin, it is a pity that they have never met. I wonder if Roosevelt's physical condition can support the end of this war.

"Any news about Roosevelt recently?" The current situation in the United States is much worse than in the original time and space. It can be said that it has fallen into a desperate situation. If Roosevelt is still working hard for his country and worrying about the country and the people, it may affect his physical and mental health, and he may not even live to 1945.

He also wants to see the president being taken to Europe and tried in the European military court. Then he will be sent to accompany Churchill. Just thinking about that scene is interesting. At that time, the only one missing from the three giants of this time and space was Stalin, but Yannick felt that with Stalin's character, he would not become a prisoner even if he woke up. Maybe one day he will choose to commit suicide while he is awake, and order his men to burn his body and not leave it to the enemy.

Does this plot sound familiar?

Reinhard naturally didn't know why Yannick suddenly mentioned the former president, and shook his head. "There is nothing special. He is just recuperating at home. Does he need special attention?"

"That's not necessary." Yannick shook his head. There is no need to waste his intelligence power for an old man.

No longer thinking about these things, Yannick thought about how to deal with these excess weapons and equipment.

Arms business!

For a long time, arms trade has been the most profitable of all industries in the world. Not only is its profit huge (300% profit is too little), but it also generates long-term and continuous benefits, and is attached with political benefits. It is a very profitable and very complicated business. Historically, arms trade has always been on par with drug trade and smuggling trade, and is known as the world's three most profitable industries.

As for the reasons for the huge profits, the first reason for the huge profits in the arms trade is its high monopoly and high technology. In the future, only more than ten countries in the world can independently develop and build third-generation fighters, only two or three countries can independently produce fourth-generation and above fighters, only four or five countries can produce high-performance air defense missiles, only seven or eight countries can independently build third-generation main battle tanks, and six or seven countries can build regional air defense ships. And nuclear weapons, intercontinental ballistic missiles and other technologies are only in the hands of a few military powers.

Secondly, arms itself is an extremely monopolistic industry, and this monopoly is highly protected by the government because of its political and strategic significance. It has become a tool of the government. In today's market-oriented economy, the monopoly of arms trade has been further strengthened. This determines that countries without weapons research and development capabilities can only turn to these countries for their own national defense needs and political needs, and buy arms and weapons from these powers at high prices.

For example, the US sells an F-35 for more than 100 million US dollars (and it will be sold to allies at a much higher price), plus the supporting weapons, software, training, upgrades, etc., which are the huge expenses that the buyer will incur after being locked in. At least one aircraft will cost the price of three.

Russia, another major arms power, may be even less honest than the United States. In the Soviet era, there was a "high trick" of putting the MiG-21 in the shell of the MiG-23 and selling it to Egypt and Syria, which cheated these countries. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, monkey-version tanks were used to fill the numbers, and the broken aircraft carrier that had been overheated was used to fish. India was foolishly hung and slaughtered for many years.

In 1994, a boiler of a Russian aircraft carrier "Gorshkov" suddenly exploded, and it was eventually discontinued. In fact, this aircraft carrier has only been in service for 7 years. It has fallen apart like this, and Russia is unwilling to give it up, so it is thinking about whether it can raise some money to repair it and continue to serve. But Russia at that time had not yet emerged from the shadow of the collapse of the Soviet Union. After two years, it still had not raised the money, and finally decided to sell it. They found India and said that they would give the aircraft carrier to India "for free", but this "free" was conditional, limited to the aircraft carrier itself, and the aircraft carrier needed to be renovated and rebuilt, and also needed to be equipped with carrier-based aircraft. These costs needed to be borne by India, and the specific maintenance work was done by Russia, of which the maintenance cost was about 1 billion US dollars.

India thought that although the modification was a little expensive, the aircraft carrier was free, so it signed the contract with a ruthless heart. According to the contract, Russia's delivery time should be 2008. However, due to frequent accidents during the test process, it was not officially delivered to India until November 2013. So far, the maintenance cost of the aircraft carrier has risen from 700 million US dollars to 500 million US dollars. Russia not only threw away the hot potato and made a lot of money, but also gained experience in aircraft carrier maintenance and manufacturing. It can be said that it made a lot of money.

In this way, the arms dealers cheat you, not only because they need your purchases to share their scientific research costs, but also to rip you off. If you have enough willpower to withstand the pressure and not fall into his trap, he will arm your neighboring countries with high-tech equipment and keep you living under pressure until you can no longer bear it and seek to strengthen your military and update your equipment.

Different from ordinary market rules, arms trade is not necessarily a consensual one. In many cases, small countries are coerced by the comparison effect and fall into this scam one after another. This scam is run by arms dealers or other political entities, but the threat it brings is real, so even if you know that this is their way of forcing you to submit, you still have to pay because you have to pay for it. The country is responsible for your people.

Yannick had not bothered to think about this in the past. The weapons and equipment he produced were not enough to arm the army, so how could he still sell them. Even if buyers take the initiative to come to the door, they can only sell weapons that are about to be obsolete.

However, now that the overall situation is gradually settled, it seems that we can actively expand sales channels.

Yannick reached out and tapped South America on the map. "Reinhard, once the war is over, we will be left with a lot of weapons and equipment. If they are allowed to rust, mold, and take up space in vain, it will be a huge waste."

Reinhard was such a smart man, he immediately guessed what Yannick meant. "Your Highness, I will get it done as soon as possible."

Yannick sighed softly and sighed. "War is the main theme of human history, and the short-lived peace is so insignificant." He knew that they didn't even need to specifically instigate them, and wars of various sizes would still occur. This has always been the case from ancient times to the present. Humanity has never stopped fighting. It was in the past, it is now, and it will be in the future.