Chapter 196: Production Line

They were still getting headaches over those Egyptians. Setting aside the matter of establishing a production line in Egypt, the entire Republican aviation industry had never had any experience in setting up overseas production lines; at most, a major overhaul line was considered the absolute limit.

And now, before the Egyptian issue was even resolved, Pakistan popped up as well. Can an investor ever give you peace of mind?

Regardless of how these two matters unfolded, the basic rules of hospitality could not be neglected. They invited everyone into the inner conference room to sit down and discuss the issue properly.

"Madad, we have also made plans regarding the issue you mentioned, but we would like to hear your thoughts first. And Your Royal Highness Prince Sultan, you should consider this matter as well."

Since it had already come to this, they might as well listen to the opinions of both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan simultaneously. Herding two sheep at once saved both time and effort.

In truth, if Pakistan hadn't brought this up, the Saudi tycoon would have completely forgotten about it. Such matters were simply beneath the notice of a tycoon; though the main reason, most likely, was that the Saudi tycoon simply did not understand the intricate complications involved.

After much deliberation, the Saudi tycoon could not come up with a solution. In the end, he had no choice but to listen to the Pakistani side's opinion first—this was the most effortless approach.

"Madad, why don't you share your thoughts first? We in Saudi Arabia will refer to your proposal as much as possible."

Wealthy people were truly different. Just sitting there quietly and watching those penniless poor fellows haggle over every ounce was one of life's great pleasures.

Hearing that Saudi Arabia wanted to hear his opinion first came as an unexpected pleasant surprise to Madad. With Saudi Arabia's support, they might actually succeed in securing this production line. If so, that would naturally be for the best.

Explaining his thoughts in detail, Madad felt a bit sheepish about his own proposal: "Our idea is relatively simple. What Pakistan truly needs is a fighter jet, rather than a multi-role trainer with strong dogfighting capabilities."

Before he had even finished speaking, everyone present seemed to understand what Pakistan meant. Could it be that Pakistan intended to purchase the new Super-7, and that the Super K-8 trainer was about to be dropped? This was news that had just been announced; dropping it now would probably be a bit too embarrassing.

Even Prince Sultan looked at Madad in astonishment, indicating that he failed to comprehend Pakistan's idea: "Madad, do you mean you do not plan to procure the Super K-8, and instead intend to switch to purchasing the Super-7?"

Prince Sultan's words made Madad somewhat frantic. If you didn't hear clearly, don't go talking nonsense, he thought. When did we ever say we didn't want the Super K-8? A trainer aircraft was an absolute necessity.

"Of course we are going to procure the Super K-8; once an order is placed, it will not change. The only issue is that our subsequent tentative orders will be switched to the Super-7, and we might even increase our procurement of the Super-7. However, the precondition is that we must domestically produce the Super-7 within Pakistan. This is our solution for the Super-7."

Now that he had laid out the proposal, Madad no longer needed to worry too much about the rest; whether it succeeded or failed would depend on fate. Even if this side agreed to produce the Super-7 in Pakistan, Madad was still deeply worried about the domestic situation back home. Currently, the public clamor for the F-16 in Pakistan was extremely high, rising wave upon wave, with various factions raising funds to continue purchasing F-16s and carry out the Peace Gate II program.

Madad himself was somewhat pessimistic about whether the Super-7—which was vastly inferior to the F-16—could ultimately find a home in Pakistan. But at this moment, he still had to fight for it. After all, he was the person in charge of the Super K-8 program; even if the F-16 were imported, it would have nothing to do with him.

Straining his wits for the sake of Pakistan's defense industry, Madad desperately wanted to land the Super-7 in Pakistan. This handed Yang Hui a difficult problem, and likewise gave Prince Sultan a new direction for thought. The only one left with a darkened expression was Karam from Egypt. Pakistan really knew how to exploit every opening; they had just rushed in to steal the trophy.

Considering Pakistan's status as an investing nation in striving for the production line, Karam genuinely felt that the probability of Pakistan's success was too high, and Egypt would likely end up doing all the work for someone else's benefit. However, Karam was quite interested in the Super-7 fighter jet just mentioned. He just wondered what the actual situation was—could there be another fighter jet project alongside the trainer program?

Anyway, there was nothing Egypt needed to say right now, so he would just sit quietly and watch how this matter developed. Come to think of it, today's trip had been quite fruitful.

Yang Hui and Director Bai expressed that this issue was rather thorny. Importing the Super-7 production line was no small matter; the Super-7 was not the Super K-8.

Although certain designs utilized the achievements of the Super K-8, if Pakistan wanted to introduce the Super-7 relying merely on their 25% share in the Super K-8, wouldn't that make the Super-7 seem a bit too cheap?

One had to remember that back in the day, Pakistan directly invested 25% of the funds for the K-8, and only secured a partial share of component manufacturing. Now, trying to directly import the Super-7 production line—even Yang Hui himself felt Pakistan's expectations were a bit too simplistic.

"No, relying solely on a 25% investment share in the Super K-8 to acquire the Super-7 production line is definitely not enough. Perhaps you could introduce the Super-7 major overhaul line instead, which is also not bad. You already have the J-6 major overhaul line, so starting up the Super-7 overhaul line smoothly won't pose too many difficulties."

Hearing that a 25% share of the Super K-8 could only buy an overhaul line for the Super-7 left Madad somewhat conflicted. According to international precedents, this was indeed the case.

If Pakistan truly insisted on acquiring a production line now, they would likely have to fork over more money. This made Madad feel it would be even harder to convince the decision-makers back home. Could the Super-7 truly never fly to Pakistan?

Hold on a moment. Pakistan's 25% share was insufficient to entirely support the introduction of the Super-7, but with Saudi Arabia's support, there would be no problem at all. The only thing Saudi Arabia needed to consider was whether to choose Egypt or Pakistan.

This was truly a rather difficult choice. Both were Muslim nations, and both possessed a tiny foundation of aviation industry infrastructure. Of course, if one really calculated it, Egypt's foundation seemed slightly stronger, but right now Saudi Arabia clearly favored Pakistan much more.

Thus came Prince Sultan's remark: "If 25% is not enough, then what if we add our 50%? Is that enough?"

Hearing this, Yang Hui understood. This time, the production line for the Super-7 definitely could not be entirely established domestically. With Saudi Arabia's support, Pakistan getting the production line didn't seem entirely impossible, and presumably the domestic leadership would agree to this.

If the issues with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan could be resolved, then handing over the production line to them was fine. After all, it was merely an assembly line; expecting Pakistan to manufacture everything completely was genuinely impossible.

Avionics, radar, engines, and that not-so-advanced, castrated fly-by-wire system—these four major components were definitely impossible for Pakistan to produce, nor were they capable of manufacturing them. These were not mere mechanical fabrications; they were built entirely on the accumulation of comprehensive national power.

At this point, Yang Hui signaled Director Bai to speak. Neither Yang Hui nor Director Bai had the final say on these matters; they could only report back to the domestic leadership for a decision by the higher-ups.

Director Bai also understood the gravity of the situation. Without redundant pleasantries, he stated directly, "Gentlemen, our company currently has no objections to exporting the Super-7 production line. However, as everyone knows, the Super-7 is backed by the military, and any export requires state approval before it can be implemented. Once we return, we can directly report this matter upward. Please wait for further news."

Seeing how the situation had developed, Karam understood that Egypt's hope of introducing the production line was likely going down the drain. Egypt had hoped to secure the production line with Saudi Arabia's backing, but now that Saudi Arabia had gone off to support Pakistan, what more was there to say?

Dispirited, Karam prepared to leave, but Yang Hui was unwilling to let him just walk away like that. In reality, there were still many things left to discuss with Egypt, such as the new primary-intermediate trainer aircraft currently being developed jointly by Nanchang and Hongdu.