King Of War: Starting with Arms Dealer

Joe Ga deliberately leaked the news of the UAE's major procurement...

In fact, it's not just the UAE; Qatar has an even larger order.

Boss Joe wants to use these arms orders to motivate those arms companies to get involved and work hard.

Don't need you to fight, just bring your goods over for me to test. Only if the trial results are satisfactory, will you qualify for the final bidding.

The UAE's status is not crucial, so their political needs won't be too high.

A combat aircraft procurement order of $15 billion is enough to make companies like Dassault and Mikoyan go all out.

If you add Qatar's undefined upper limit arms purchase plan, not only will those selling fighter jets rush over, but even those selling ground army equipment will come running, calling 'Daddy'.

After all, arms are still commodities; they have political implications, but these implications depend on who and at what time.

For example, because England has a ban on exporting any military products to Argentina, America is currently lobbying England to open the 'Martin-Baker' ejection seats ban for Argentina, so they can export F-16s to Argentina.

Early NATO and Soviet Union standard confrontations are the politically charged confrontations.

However, with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the decline of Russia, they have reached the point where they can sell non-cutting-edge equipment and even provide instructors to conduct targeted training with weapon sales.

So Russian arms have always been quite popular in Africa...

Initially, you paid for the weapons, and I arranged instructors to help you train. Over time, people developed feelings, and if you were willing to pay more, instructors could fight for you.

Later it evolved directly into, pay enough money first, Wagner arrives first, weapons to follow.

Arms companies rely on their home countries. To sell weapons, they can do many things.

What's imagined as 'political connotations', excluding factors like great power struggles and geopolitical interests, is actually largely achieved through arms companies.

Central Africa in the early days was the most typical example. The Wagner team that Boss Joe recruited was the most important force supporting the Central African Capital Bangui.

This is not simple mercenary work, but a 'political interest' based on Russian deterrence.

Basically, it means ordinary warlords see you have Russia backing you, so they won't fight you.

This is the political interest exported by arms companies relying on their country's influence.

These things, frankly speaking, are really not worth mentioning...

Real major weapon sellers don't just sell simple weapons; they sell security and victory.

Otherwise, why would people spend money on you?

The Americans are actually the same, just that their products are much higher-end than Russia's.

So they classify their allies into levels and then export their high-end military products, unifying their allies' weapons standards to form a vast market.

The European Union and NATO aren't the same thing. They also cannot abandon their military industry, so they've always been somewhat resistant to this.

Thus, European Union countries banded together to design and manufacture many high-end military products, acting competitively against America.

However, America's military-industrial complex is a bit more powerful; if you don't buy my stuff it doesn't matter, I'll find someone to create a certain threat theory, and then by instigating tension, force Congress to increase the budget, taking profits from their own military spending until it's overflowing.

This is the legendary, I'm so ruthless I even hit myself!

Arms are commodities—tools for military-industrial interest groups to capture profits; their core implications are not high-end at all.

Once a film called 'King of War' made many people think they understood what an arms dealer is. They felt this profession was badass, even thinking a callous, cold-hearted demeanor was a standard for arms dealers.

But in reality, people like Yuri are just dirty workers, small roles. Because he doesn't create the demand in the big picture, nor decide victories...

He can't even control his own fate, just serving as a human transaction channel.

Sometimes there are unspeakable deals, where both parties need someone familiar with the transaction process to connect them, and finally, that person is pushed out to take the blame if anything goes wrong.

Real international arms deals, more often, are actually about the export of security.

America stirs regional disputes, creates regional chaos, regardless of the final goal, they've factually created a demand for security. Then the military-industrial complex enjoys the profits and grows to an uncontrollable extent.

Eric's trip to the Middle East is going very smoothly. Shah's super order totaling $120 billion not only makes Eric a super star in the eyes of the military-industrial complex but also stuns Big Mouth Tang.

That guy, having offended a bunch of people domestically, was learning to develop Shah's itinerary.

Wanting to go dance, won't play tricks!

Shah makes a move, then Qatar has to follow, although being kicked out of the GCC, their situation is a bit more complicated.

Boss Joe's reminder enlightened Al Sani, Qatar starts big-spending to create momentum for the World Cup.

A flood of publicity, combined with project plans hyped up by various professional media companies, draws the eyes of the world.

Not for the World Cup itself, but for attracting investment through super infrastructure projects, thus using foreign big capital as a protective umbrella.

Once Shah pays this protection fee, Eric just arrives in Qatar, and an $80 billion order is immediately handed to him.

Then Qatar was still not satisfied, they were looking to expand their procurement focus.

According to Joe Ga's understanding, Qatar is preparing to make advances in the army, air defense, and navy sectors. Besides the 80 billion for the Americans, they also have a military procurement budget of over 50 billion dollars.

Al Sani clearly told Boss Joe that he could manage a batch of these funds.

In the past, Boss Joe always thought that Middle Eastern tycoons spent money with no hesitation, but because of Eric's trip to the Middle East, he learned some of the inside stories about military procurement...

Things were not quite as he thought!

There are no fools in this world!

It's true that the oil tycoons' money comes out of the ground, but they aren't willing to squander it blindly either.

The combined arms orders from Shah and Qatar amount to 200 billion dollars, which has already exceeded America's production capacity.

Because this order does not include low-end weapons, not even fighter jets.

As America's early F-35 orders have been scheduled up to ten years later.

The needs of these two tycoons are basically focused on main battle tanks, high-precision missiles, air defense systems, and electronic radar systems, all of which are particularly expensive projects.

To fulfill this order, there are still very complex procedures involved.

And American arms groups, even in full operation, still need about 5 to 8 years to fully absorb it.

The money is not given in one go...

For such a large military procurement contract, discussing the details for three to five years is just too normal.

First, sign a letter of intent and issue a guarantee letter of about two billion in an international bank, and America's concern will immediately arrive.

The core interest of the so-called 'protection fee' is that as long as America's arms group accepts this contract, they have to act as an umbrella to ensure that the Shah Royal Family does not suffer an America-led color revolution...

The people paying cannot die, or who would fulfill this contract afterwards?

This is similar to Qatar using the World Cup plans to bring in big capital players.

If you want to make my money, you must ensure my safety without damaging your interests.

This is a typical right and security derived from purchasing power!

To maximize purchasing power, the money cannot be given out all at once.

Do not use money to test the bottom line of others, this is the truth in any place, any class of the world.

Because if breaking the contract can obtain more, then the spender will ultimately suffer double losses.

In this regard, Russia is absolutely a model of not acting in good faith, which is why their international credibility is so poor.

That's why Eric's big gain claims to be 200 billion, but Shah and Qatar initially paid only 2 billion, and even this amount needs to wait for the details to be arranged before it can be given out.

Once the arms groups align according to their capabilities and obtain approval from the trade department, they will finalize detailed contracts with the two parties, only then will the stage of paying the deposit truly begin.

The deposit for international arms transactions is far lower than the outside world imagines, 20% or even 5% is normal.

The reasons have been mentioned before, giving too much can easily lead to greed.

United Arab Emirates is a typical example, they ordered F-35s with a high premium, but the delivery date is indefinitely delayed, it's very likely the deal will fall through.

This kind of 'non-delivery' situation is extremely common globally...

Some are because the seller indeed wants to back out...

For example, sometimes the American trade department will step in, saying certain weapons cannot be sold to certain countries, and a detailed assessment is needed before deciding if they can be sold.

This delay could last a decade!

Others are because the buyer achieved their objective, using arms procurement to buy a safety period, and afterwards doesn't want to pay the balance to collect the goods.

The most typical is Romania tearing up the 'Whirlwind-class' frigate order with the French Naval Group.

Because initially France got paid to do the work, the threat and condemnation to Russia were in place, plus Russia's Black Sea fleet performed rather poorly, Romania felt it was not worth spending big money to maintain two missile frigates to guard against them, so they simply broke the contract.

This kind of 'buying and selling air', is sometimes extremely frustrating!

So in reality, business in the international arms market is very difficult, which is why the French Naval Group came to Boss Joe for cooperation, and the Mikoyan Design Bureau put in their full effort as a result.

But what Joe Boss never expected was, the development would exceed his estimation...

He originally only thought of bringing in big manufacturers from Europe, targeting arms companies similar to those in Italy and France.

The military industry in both these countries is quite developed, as long as part of the orders can be freed up, they can sponsor their goodies here while placing the fleet on the seas off Yemen.

But after Qiao Liang and Gami made a call each, Boss Joe realized he had underestimated the attractiveness of the orders!