For example, Libya purchased one An-124 from Russia and one from Russia before the war, but both of them broke down.
One of the aircraft flew back to Wukelan for maintenance, but due to unpaid maintenance fees, it was auctioned off by Ermao in the first half of the year. The aircraft from Oslo was also in a near-scrap condition due to a lack of maintenance.
But for concentrated fire defense, none of this matters!
Once the An-124 that Xia Yu purchased is officially operational, he will have to find a way to make a trip to Libya.
Let's see if we can spend a million or eight million to bring that zombie An-124 back as an organ donor, so that the two sides in the war don't get carried away and completely destroy this paralyzed bald eagle with a rocket.
Fewer than 60 were ever produced. Four or five of them crashed as early as the 1990s. The remaining ones, even if they couldn't fly, were very valuable.
Aside from the two former major heirs to the Sumatra estate, the only An-124 operated by third-party countries is the one owned by the UAE, which is in the best condition. The remaining countries are leasing it instead of buying it.
Today, Jihuo Defense is determined to break this curse; he's set his sights on buying an An-124.
"A lot of the paint has chipped off, but it looks better than my Il-76MF."
After boarding a mothballed An-124 and reviewing its data using the system, Xia Yu and Alexei said.
[Project: Ah-124]
Completeness: 98.9% (Ready for repair)
"Yes, during the storage period they will regularly power up these An-124s and perform maintenance, unlike Chkalov who only took care of one security detail later on, so I need more time to revive it."
Alexei stated that this is an An-124, one of which is equivalent to hundreds of old An-2s, and it is not feasible to simply mothball it without investing resources.
"Wow, this one it is. How long will it take you to bring it back to life?"
Xia Yu was quite curious about this question.
If he can fly a one-way trip without crashing, he only needs 3 working hours.
"Three days, three days is enough. It's not those two that had parts removed. All the An-124s here only need three days for initial maintenance before they can be started and flown to the Aviastar aircraft manufacturing plant in Ulyanovsk for upgrades and repairs."
Alexei said confidently.
Humans cannot compete with systems, so it's normal for efficiency to be 23 times lower.
However, buying a plane is one thing, and upgrading is another. Xia Yu just wants to get things going and doesn't intend to get rich overnight.
Avionics and such can be upgraded later when we have more money. These six An-124s in the graveyard are all early models that were mothballed at the end of the last century, with a maximum payload of only 120 tons.
Similarly, it's not too late to upgrade to the 150-ton An-124-100m-150 standard once we have the money to replace the engine.
This 120-ton weight can haul three Marder tanks or two main battle tanks. The BTR-82S, weighing less than 20 tons, can haul six tanks, meaning that on average, one tank is consumed per long-distance flight.
We can't engage in malicious competition based on the pricing standards set by Da Mao and Er Mao, can we?
"The most important thing is the price. After buying so many things, my budget is almost gone."
Xia Yu and Alexei pleaded poverty.
"No, no, Sherlock, we believe in your abilities. If you're really short on cash, we're open to installment payments."
Old A said with a smile.
Who said the Russians were stubborn? Aren't they quite shrewd? They've put Xia Yu on the spot.
"But if that's not enough, I have a 1+1 solution, I don't know if you'd be interested."
Alexei was good at selling goods.
Having been in the business for almost twenty years, he has sold countless pieces of equipment to Black people, Arabs, and even Americans. Even now, facing Xia Yu, who is at a higher level, he still wants to seize the opportunity to clear out his inventory.
"Do you mean 'buy one get one free'?"
Xia Yu asked uncertainly.
"That's right, it's buy one get one free. The reason these An-124s were mothballed back then wasn't because every single one was in bad condition, but because too many were built and there wasn't enough demand. The decision to mothball them was made to save costs. So, apart from organ donors, the price of these few in good condition won't be cheap."
Alexei began to explain the specifics.
"But Volga-Dnepr Airlines' 10 An-124s have been operating at full capacity with global orders for years, so even with mid-life extensions, they only have less than 30% of their full lifespan remaining."
According to the aircraft hourly costs published by the US military, the older the aircraft, the higher the operating costs, making it uneconomical even if it can still be used.
The commercially operated An-124s in Russia suffer greater wear and tear than those in military operation. After more than a decade of flying, they are like old hens to be culled in an egg factory or aging dairy cows to be culled by a dairy farmer.
The problem is that they only recently resumed production of the Il-76 series, and there's still no clear direction for the An-124, so they can only make do with the old aircraft for now.
For aircraft with less than 15% of their remaining flight life, if you don't want them to be scrapped, you have to get rid of them quickly, and of course, the price isn't high.
"A friend told me inside information that the Central Pledged Assets Bureau is preparing to sell several of their company's most worn-out An-124s, depending on the situation, to downsize the fleet or supplement its ranks from mothballed aircraft,"
"If you don't mind that an An-124 has only 5,000 hours of remaining service life, I can help you get the lowest price to offset the high price of storing the An-124."
Alexei finally got to the heart of the matter.
The design life of the An-124 was only required to be 16,000 hours, but the life of the mass-produced aircraft can be extended to 45,000 hours in the mid-term.
The one that was offered as a buy-one-get-one-free deal was a single-class transport aircraft with only a fraction of its lifespan remaining. 5,000 hours is not bad for a fighter jet, but it is far too little for a transport plane.
The good news is that the price is so cheap that it's practically a bonus. After flying a few hundred or a thousand sorties and retiring, it can become an organ donor for another mothballed aircraft, so Alexei ensures that Xia Yu won't lose money.
The small arms dealer who only relied on personal connections to do business had no idea how powerful the cheater was. The An-124 that Xia Yu "gifted" would definitely have served more than 10,000 hours beyond its service life by now!
Moreover, once the aircraft completes its 15,000 flight hours and becomes an organ donor, the partially decommissioned An-124 at Libya can be resurrected and become part of the company's business, along with the stored aircraft.
So what's the price of 1+1?
Xia Yu was intrigued and stopped mentioning his difficulties, directly asking Alexei for a quote.
"A total of $100 million!"
Alexei said, extending his index finger. For just 100 million dollars, one could own a basic An-124 and a high-capacity An-124-100m-150.
The basic model still needs to go to Ulyanovsk for a comprehensive overhaul. The An-124-100m-150, which is almost completely exhausted, is still ready for combat.
Regardless of Schrödinger's remaining lifespan, the maximum payload of 150 tons can carry three Leclerc UAEs or T-80Us, enough to deploy a tank platoon in one go, and two sorties would be enough to deploy the main force of the concentrated fire defense ground forces.
However, this is just a collaboration between sister companies. The main purpose of the An-124s that Xia Yu bought is commercial transportation.
Large cargoes that are deep inland and cannot be transported long distances by trucks or merchant ships can be easily handled with the assistance of the An-124 fleet.
When the Russians strategically shrink and have to withdraw from the Sahel region in the future, they won't need to go to great lengths to find Russia or Russia. They can use a fast-delivery service to arrive as soon as possible, and based on their many previous collaborations, they will be given a 20% discount.
Whether it's a VBCI infantry fighting vehicle or a romantic Gallic soldier, we'll pack them all up and send them back to France.
Similarly, Xia Yu can also take on all the guaranteed orders from his hometown, including satellites, high-speed train locomotives, and large wind turbine blades.
"100 million it is, deal!"
Xia Yu made the decision immediately.
He believes that the $100 million spent today will help the company earn billions in revenue in the future.
Seeing Xia Yu's straightforwardness, Alexei naturally didn't want to be left behind.
“This one won’t do. They told me that the An-124 is the best in condition of the four, so we’ll take that one.”
Old A pointed to a vulture in the far corner and said.
"Okay, I'll take yours, that's the one!"
Xia Yu readily agreed. In truth, it didn't matter which one it was, but he had to accept his friend's kindness.
So far, the company has acquired one Il-76MF aircraft for its own use and two An-124s for commercial operation through a newly established company. The air equipment for the trip to Oslo has been mostly purchased.
The rest depends on Xia Yu's fate and connections.
Strategic transport aircraft are doing well; both the Il-76 and An-124 have export records.
The situation becomes more sensitive when it comes to fighter jets. For example, Xia Yu really wants to collect a heavy carrier-based aircraft, the Su-33, but he definitely won't be able to buy it this year.
It will probably be about five or six years, when all the Su-33s have been retired.
Russia's only remaining aircraft carrier, the Kuznetsov, was sailing to the Middle East to fight the Aztecs just two years ago, but due to the aging and disrepairing arresting gear system, it lost a Su-33 in the Mediterranean.
Last year, there was still a chance to salvage it, but it seems that it was salvaged by the Northern Fleet's oceanographic research ship, the Yantar.
This is much better than it was more than a decade ago. Back then, a Su-33 also crashed, and Russia, which had no deep-sea salvage capability, could only use depth charges to blow the sunken plane to pieces.
Such losses are unacceptable. The Kuznetsov has returned to its home port for "reflection," and the Su-33s are gradually being retired, but news of their takeoffs and training can still be seen.
Even if Xia Yu asked Lao Yefu for help, he couldn't get all the active aircraft retired. And the MiG-29K was not as good as the catapult-launched MiG-29UBK that his hometown helped upgrade, so he kept quiet.
The aircraft that could be opened was a Yak-141 vertical/short takeoff and landing fighter that had never been mass-produced or put into service since the former Soviet Union era. It was the aircraft he had always longed for.
After the dismantling, the remaining prototypes were distributed to several museums, where they were simply left to be displayed in the open for public viewing.
If all he wanted was a runway aircraft, Xia Yu could have used the excuse of a museum exchange to lend out a Yak-141, and then disassemble and print two of them at a 1:1 scale.
This approach involves a significantly larger workload, and it's only worthwhile if used for personal purposes.
However, when the Sea Harrier is completely phased out in the future, and the company wants to equip the Endurance-class ships or new ships of the Asian branch with carrier-based aircraft, the Yak-141, which has not been officially approved, cannot be used.
So what he wanted was not just a prototype, but also the complete set of data from the Yakovlev Design Bureau.
According to reliable sources, taking advantage of the collapse of the alliance, the Americans also managed to obtain the technical documents of the Yak-141, laying a foundation for the construction of the F-35B.
Even the AV-8 used on amphibious assault ships is a copy of the Japanese Harrier. The US doesn't actually have much experience with subsonic vertical/short takeoff and landing fighters, let alone supersonic ones.
In fact, the F-35B's supersonic flight capability is still not very good. What's the point of flying at Mach 1.3 for 40 seconds or Mach 1.2 for 80 seconds? And it's also very difficult to obtain.
In comparison, the Yak-141 was the only option.
If we can successfully acquire the data on the Yakovlev Design Bureau's development of this project, our hometown will have a starting point for the development of vertical/short takeoff and landing fighter jets.
This is the second project that Xia Yu incubated with the help of his hometown. He provided some funding and collected relevant technical information, and researchers helped him to replicate and surpass the original.
Time is not tight; the entire cycle will last for more than a decade, but today is the first step of this second project.
"You want the complete data on the Yak-141?"
Upon returning from Bryansk Oblast, while enjoying a lavish meal and drinks with Alexei, Xia Yu revealed the final objective of his trip to the Osmium Federation.
"Yes, I've been fascinated by vertical/short takeoff and landing fighter jets since I was a child. The company's foundational battle during its growth period was won with the Harrier. I even bought a Yak-38 from you before, and it's finally airworthy today. But it's such a waste that the best Yak-141 is sitting in a museum."
Xia Yu downed the vodka in his glass in one gulp and spoke emotionally with Alexei.
"It's a real shame, but with aircraft carriers almost gone, what use are these carrier-based aircraft?"
Alexei also took a deep breath and said, as if venting his emotions.
Although his job involved selling relics from various periods of the Sulian Empire, Old A's underlying nature was still patriotic. Therefore, he could see the weakness beneath the strength of the Sulian Federation and envied Xia Yu, a Chinese.
Compared to those oligarchs who build yachts whenever they have money, this guy is actually willing to spend money to buy the data of a fighter jet and develop it himself. He can't compare to that in terms of vision.
“I can help you with this. Mr. Yevgeny can at most help you persuade that person, but only the people who were in charge back then know whether the information is complete or not.”
"When I sold a batch of Yak-130 trainer aircraft before, I got to know some friends from the Yakovlev Design Bureau. I'll go see them in a couple of days."
Alexei spoke very quickly.
He decided to help Xia Yu fulfill his wish to bring the Yak-141 back into the sky.
"Thank you so much, Alexei, I don't know what to say."
Hearing that Old A was willing to help, Xia Yu said excitedly.
This is a favor that only he can do. Old Yefu works in the catering industry and is gradually getting started as a private military contractor, but he has very little in-depth understanding of these military equipment.
He probably hadn't even heard of the Yak-141, so he could only ask that person to give him the green light; the details still had to be handled by an old hand like Alexei.
In addition to the materials, it would be best to also include a list of the project's original leaders and key technical personnel.
It's a way to earn money and make up for past regrets; I believe anyone who's still able to work would be willing to do it.
Of course, some people went to the United States more than 20 years ago and became members of the Skunk Club.
However, Xia Yu was certain that those who didn't leave back then would become his weasel companions.
"Let's have another drink!"
Alexei filled his and Xia Yu's glasses.
"cheers!"
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