the world is at stake

"See the container over there? It was imported from 'Holy Light' two days ago in the name of military supplies."

Robert laughed out loud, "The trade with 'Holy Light' has made our logistics bureau's procurement more efficient, and Lieutenant General Miller also appreciates this very much."

Zhou Qingfeng smiled, but curled his lips inwardly.

The original $1.38 million in military clothing and clothing has already been traded.Robert tasted the sweetness, and subsequently placed a military order of more than one billion dollars for 'Holy Light', and the delivery period will last until the end of the year.

Not only is the total military expenditure of the United States three or four times higher than that of China.The per capita military expenditure of each American soldier is nearly [-] times higher than that of Chinese soldiers.Such a huge expense will naturally create a large number of orders.

For example, the drinking water for the U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan is not obtained locally, but bottled water is obtained from Pakistan by air or land—the price of water is several times more expensive than gasoline.

However, the US military stationed in Afghanistan only has one base in Kandahar, which consumes more than 2000 million bottles of water every year.It is difficult to count the annual cost of drinking water for troops stationed overseas.

However, the management of bottled water factories in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is chaotic and the quality of personnel is poor.The U.S. military stationed in Afghanistan complains to the Defense Logistics Agency about the problem of drinking water every day - saying that the bottled water has a peculiar smell and cannot be tolerated.

People can't stop drinking water, and Robert was overwhelmed by similar reports, and it was impossible for him to go to Pakistan to supervise the bottled water factory, so he had to change suppliers.

Let 'Holy Light' do the job, just don't use Chinese signs.

The arms trade that ordinary people imagine is aircraft, cannons and rockets, but 'Holy Light' is also a defense supplier, but it is in the business of drinking water.

Receiving the demand to solve the "difficulty of drinking water" for old American soldiers, the country is really ridiculous. Who would have thought that such a thing would exist?But business is business, and it does not involve much national interest.

Domestic drinking water companies have long had excess production capacity, and 'Shengguang' originally planned to purchase from any well-known company.But...'National Security', in the name of secrecy, suggested that domestic military supplies units complete the task.

In the beginning, quartermaster units with numbers at the beginning were not very happy to serve 'private enterprises'.But after seeing the deposit and business contract given by 'Shengguang', the unit leaders held a meeting overnight to deeply review their own level of understanding is too low.

To contribute to the country, to serve brothers, to assist patriotic enterprises in developing overseas markets—we can do it.

Doing business with the US military's spending standards is really delicious.

The life of the military industrial units of the Turkish Communist Party is miserable, and the state stipulates that the order profit is only 5.00%.It is difficult to develop with this little money.Now the orders given by 'Holy Light' have increased the profits by more than ten times.

Once this kind of order is grabbed, you will never let it go.

The military personnel of the Turkish Communist Party have become a habit of careful calculation. After thinking about the needs of the Yankees, they found that the domestic production of bottled water is too expensive.After getting the deposit, they went to Pakistan to invest in the filling production line.

In order to save time, a complete set of equipment and raw materials were airlifted from China.Just build a factory in Gwadar Port, and get the factory buildings and equipment in one month.

Filling, sealing, capping, labeling.These equipments are worthless, and the deposit given by 'Shengguang' alone can buy more than a dozen production lines.

After less than two months of hard work, the drinking water industry for the US military in Afghanistan was officially opened.

'Made in Pakistan' began to meet the needs of American soldiers - and Pakistan was happy to pay taxes and more jobs.

The factory produced in the current month, and the monthly capacity utilization rate reached 120%, and the cost was recovered in two weeks.It's a factory with hundreds of people, and the domestic military supply department is sitting and collecting money, which is really beautiful.

After changing the supplier, both water supply capacity and quality are guaranteed.

The U.S. military stationed in Afghanistan also wrote a letter to the Ministry of Defense to praise Colonel Robert, praising his excellent work ability to make the soldiers on the front line drink satisfactory drinking water, and thanking him for his service to the American army.

So far, the US military logistics convoy has come to the factory in Gwadar to transport bottled drinking water on time.The country made a lot of money in silence, and didn't mention it at all.

But it didn't take long for domestic factories to find that it was too expensive to purchase beverage bottles all the way.They simply set up another blow molding production line to directly make plastic bottles locally.

This again saves some money, creates some jobs, and increases profit margins.

But that's not enough. The 'Gwadar Port Drinking Water Company' contacted the US military convoy to understand their needs and pain points.

There is no need for 'Holy Light' to mix in. The 'drinking water company' won the 'dirty and tiring' transportation contract by itself, pulled a convoy from China, and hired Pakistani drivers to help the Yankees run the transportation.

The U.S. transport team uses expensive military transport vehicles to travel the bad roads of Pakistan, and even uses transport planes to transport worthless water. The operating costs are surprisingly high.

The price of a bottle of ordinary 14ml mineral water can soar to 100 dollars, almost [-] yuan.

A batch of civilian trailer trucks have been set up in China to run the transportation... and they are desperately overloaded!

Heavy-duty trucks with a load limit of 32 tons can overload you to [-] tons. The police in Pakistan accept money according to the truck.

The effect is that although the Yankees did not save money, they saved trouble. Several domestic munitions factories engaged in logistics increased their profits by ten times in the same year, and the bonus at the end of the year was just an extra year of salary.

Several factories were originally guarding the domestic army orders, and they couldn't get enough to eat or starve to death.Now that they have joined the US military's supply chain, their morale is high, and they are eager to get more wool from the capitalist army.

Let alone drinking water later, as long as you give money, the US troops stationed in Afghanistan will transport everything they want.

You can choose any drink and take whatever you want.

Coke soda ice cream, chicken leg cake beef and lamb chops.Both gaming consoles and mobile base stations are available.The benefits that only officers could enjoy in the past can now be provided to ordinary soldiers.

Anyway, on the books, these have been verified by the Defense Logistics Agency, provided by high-quality defense suppliers, absolutely in line with the laws of the United States, and the Congressman can't fault it.

If anyone finds faults, it must be the fault of the fault-finding person.

Later, the scale of the business became so large that not only domestic munitions factories came here, but even serious logistics officers came to study.

Learn how to conduct large-scale material procurement and supply in foreign lands far away from the country. This experience was not available in PLA in the past.

What I am studying is the U.S. military, which has more than 400 bases around the world and has extremely rich experience in overseas dependents. This kind of learning opportunity in peacetime is even more rare.

We must know that when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, it was because of the logistics that pulled the hips and the soldiers could not drink clean drinking water, which caused a lot of injuries and even concentrated outbreaks of hepatitis.

Americans have money, but they don't spend it efficiently.With the same money, soil can do three to five times as much.The downside of the Turkish Communist Party is that it has been poor for too long.

Drinking water is only a domestic business with the help of "Holy Light", and other scattered things are gradually increasing.

So seeing the freight containers piled up at the Newport News Shipyard, Zhou Qingfeng was not surprised.At most, he asked, "Why are the goods piled up in the shipyard?"

Robert explained: "There are some formalities in the storage, and some procedures need to be transferred. The logistics of the shipyard is convenient, and it is controlled by the military, so it is not easy to be exposed.

There are more than 300 containers here, all of which are supplies for the Marine Corps.After completing the handover of procedures, all will be shipped out next week. "

Zhou Qingfeng nodded, probably understanding that it was to guard against the all-pervasive American media.

When the battery car entered the warehouse area, Robert lowered his voice, "Harden, the next shipment is mine. I want a good price."

good price?

That depends on what it is.

Chapter 32 Absolutely Not

'Newport News' is the most important military shipyard in the United States. It is the only shipyard in the United States that can build nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. It is also the two major nuclear submarine manufacturing bases and half of the destroyer manufacturing base in the United States.

From the satellite map, the shipyard covers a huge area and is divided into multiple construction docks and assembly sheds.It has multiple huge warehouses for staging spare parts.

Unlike closed combat readiness warehouses, spare parts warehouses in shipyards have regular inbound and outbound warehouses.The heavy-duty trailers and large-scale lifting equipment in the warehouse are frequently activated, and the internal layout is more like a mechanical workshop.

There are stipulated routes for entering and exiting the warehouse, and there are corresponding regulations for visiting. Otherwise, if you are accidentally knocked by the equipment for transportation and hoisting, you will be disabled or even killed.

Zhou Qingfeng and Robert came in through the side door of the warehouse wearing hard hats, looking up to see a huge ship's main shaft hanging in front of them.

"Oh, what is this?" Zhou Qingfeng really didn't know.

At any rate, Robert understood better, glanced at it, and said, "It's the propulsion shaft of the 'Virginia' class nuclear submarine. Now there is only one factory in the United States that can produce it. But that factory is full of difficulties."

When it comes to logistical equipment, Robert still has some professional information.

For example, 'Ingalls', the largest ship manufacturer in the United States, is in urgent need of a brand new [-]-ton floating dock, but no one in the United States can build this thing.

'Ingalls' is currently evaluating equipment suppliers around the world, and the first one to investigate is Chinese companies - because these things are now the best made in China, with the fastest delivery time and the cheapest.

"Really?" Zhou Qingfeng was a little surprised, "Can a Chinese company become an equipment supplier for the US Navy?"

Robert shook his head with a bitter smile, "That's the problem. Both Congress and the Pentagon are cautious. But they don't allocate funds to support the manufacturing industry in the United States, they just want to let factories work."

Talking about the main shaft of the nuclear submarine being hoisted, Robert felt bitter.

"The best talents in the United States are either in Silicon Valley in California, or in investment banks and exchanges in New York, or in law firms in Washington, DC, or even doctors.

Only these places can offer a salary of $50 a year.This has led to a large brain drain in the military industry, and no one is willing to work in positions with meager pay.

do you know?

Boeing is short of programmers and has already dumped software development for its newest airliner to India. The development progress of the flight control software of F-22 and F-35 is very slow, which is much lower than expected.

For manufacturing, it's even worse.Massive job losses have left high-level skilled workers with few successors.The large industrial groups in the past are shrinking, and factories cannot recruit qualified technicians.

In theory, workers at the Newport News shipyard must undergo multiple qualifications.But now, as long as they can pass the training and exams, even drug addicts and homeless people with criminal records can come.

Because it is impossible to recruit workers.

In addition to brain drain, the U.S. military industry is now facing many problems.The market is shrinking, competitiveness is poor, funds are insufficient, and equipment is aging.

It is true that US military enterprises manufacture the strongest equipment in the world, but many of the equipment they use are outdated and facing obsolescence.

For example, the company that produces the main shaft of submarines has seriously outdated equipment, and technical schools across the United States have long stopped training how to operate the old-fashioned equipment used by the company.

Now it can only rely on a group of elderly technicians to barely maintain the operation of the production line.But they are about to retire and die, and the situation can quickly deteriorate.

There are currently several naval projects that have been delayed or even interrupted for similar reasons, that is, key components cannot be delivered on time.

The Pentagon only sent a report to Congress, saying that 'China has destroyed the US military base'.But this will not solve any problems except triggering some meaningless political disputes. "

Robert made a complaint, and he sighed a lot as he spoke. It is hard to imagine that this profiteer colonel still has a side of worrying about the country and the people.

Zhou Qingfeng looked at the hoisted submarine main shaft again, shook his head and said, "You called me from Washington, D.C., and you didn't mean to ask me to build the propulsion main shaft for you, did you?"

Hahaha... Robert smiled and waved: "That's not true. Come, let me show you something special."

The two continued to drive slowly in the huge warehouse on the battery car, and they still couldn't see the end after running for two miles.

The warehouse is brightly lit, and surveillance probes can be seen everywhere.The motors of the hoisting equipment rumbled, plus the coordinated back and forth of the crew was busy.

The battery car is parked in front of a separate house with constant temperature and humidity, which should be the place to save data.After several security checks and closed doors, Robert brought Zhou Qingfeng to dozens of stacked large boxes.

Looking closer, each box looks like a shipping container, big and heavy.Don't know how it got in there either.

There is a lot of bold writing on the outside of the box, including US Naval Bureau of Ordnance, Naval Staff, Newport News Shipyard, and a time stamp of 196X.

"what is this?"

"It is the design and construction drawings of the 'Nimitz' aircraft carrier in the 60s. It includes original paper archives and later electronic storage media."

"Robert, don't you want to sell this thing?"

"Why not?" The profiteer colonel showed a philistine and greasy smile, hehehehe non-stop.

Zhou Qingfeng shook his head, "This is not something you can do alone."

"Of course, there are still many people who support me behind my back." Robert admitted directly, "There are more than 50 large data preservation boxes here. They are all core secrets from half a century ago.

But times have changed, and these things are a bit out of date.Members of Congress conducted a survey not long ago and found that there are many such paper materials in our warehouse.

You must know that the 'Nimitz' is about to be decommissioned, and no one will read these things again.Keeping them takes up a lot of space, but throwing them away is impossible.

Members of Congress have a sudden whim and want us to convert all these materials into electronic files for preservation.It also said that the benefit of this is to save hundreds of millions of dollars in storage and custody costs every year. "

"So you want to sell these things?" Zhou Qingfeng probably understood what Robert meant.

Warehouses with constant temperature and humidity are very expensive and are generally used to store high-value items.But now that the upper-level aircraft carrier is gradually approaching the end of its service, the value of its relevant information is greatly reduced.

In addition, the data cannot be destroyed all at once, after all, there may be queries one day.However, it is troublesome to check the information of dozens of large boxes, which is extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive.

Robert continued: "In the past few decades, the digitization of archives has been going on. But this process requires a lot of manpower, and there are some ironic things.

For example, some data are stored in old-fashioned hard disks, but the corresponding hard disks have long been eliminated, and the reading device cannot be found, so the data cannot be read out. "

The hard drive Robert is talking about is not the palm-sized one, but IBM's 'latest technology' from decades ago.A hard drive is as big as a two-door refrigerator, bulky and heavy, but its storage capacity is only tens of megabytes.

Open the huge safe box, there are more than a dozen of these antique hard drives inside, God knows if the information stored in it has expired?

Zhou Qingfeng shook his head at Robert and asked, "How do you plan to sell this thing?"

"One hundred million dollars." The profiteer colonel set a sky-high price.

Uncle Zhou showed an expression of 'you are crazy about money'.

Robert quickly explained: "Harden, I am not the only one who wants to share the money."

"Just now you said that this is your personal product, and change your mouth now?"

"These Nimitz-level design and construction materials are still of great value to the patrons behind you."

"No matter how valuable it is, the sky-high price of 50 million U.S. dollars. This is a design [-] years ago. When this thing was designed, Armstrong hadn't even landed on the moon. Who needs such backward technology now."

"No, no, you can't take it that way." Robert tried hard to convince Zhou Qingfeng, "The construction and use of an aircraft carrier are extremely complicated projects, and they are highly industrialized heavy equipment.

The United States has more than 70 fleet aircraft carriers and is the country with the most experience in using aircraft carriers in the world.These experiences can be concentrated in the design of the 'Nimitz' class. "

According to Robert's meaning, China may rebuild one, imitate one, and is building its own aircraft carrier.But compared with the United States, this is far from having much experience.

Anyone familiar with engineering knows a simple truth - practice makes perfect.

The reason why China is an 'infrastructure madman' is that the number of large-scale infrastructure projects built and maintained is extremely huge.There is a large and experienced design and construction team, which can cope with any situation.

But on aircraft carriers, China's experience in using them is probably not as good as that of India. Although the third brother has suffered a bit, he has owned aircraft carriers since the 60s.Maybe there is a lack of positive experience, but there are many negative lessons.

Aircraft carriers are currently the most complex military equipment, requiring all the industrial strength of a powerful country to participate in the design and construction.How to build this is not something that can be figured out just by looking at the shape of the US aircraft carrier.