Selling oil across Libya

Chapter 66: No meat, only soup

Russia's own experience has shown that blindly pandering to the US, UK, and France will not get the so-called "international mainstream" to accept Libya.

The Transitional Council and the interim government have also demonstrated that democracy is not suitable for Libya.

It's certainly not suitable for Libya right now.

During his time in Tripoli, Jalil, after reviewing the situation, attributed the failures of the Transitional Council and the Interim Government to over-reliance on Britain and France, thereby neglecting American interests.

Jalil, reflecting deeply on his past mistakes, realized that if the provisional government had, like the Numidian Brigade, entrusted a portion of its oil resources to American oil companies when it partnered with international oil companies, it wouldn't have ended up in this predicament.

On the issue of foreign cooperation, Jalil, out of geopolitical considerations, tried his best to maintain relations with European countries, while ignoring countries outside the region such as the United States, Russia, and China.

The old man had long ago told Qin Rui what to do when faced with this situation.

Qin Rui adopted a strategy of befriending distant powers while attacking nearby ones, attempting to position Libya as a tough, unyielding, and unbreakable force—a veritable copper pea—right next to the EU.

Jalil's geopolitics is limited to the Mediterranean.

Stepping outside the Mediterranean reveals that a "rebellious" Libya is more in line with the interests of countries outside the region.

The wisdom left by our ancestors is truly immense, from which future generations have benefited immeasurably.

Libya's location dictates that it cannot completely break with the EU.

Therefore, Qin Rui deliberately left Italy as a backdoor to ensure that the EU could not form a united front on the issue of Libya.

The EU operates on a veto system, meaning that whatever you do requires the consent of all member states.

Without Italy's agreement, the EU cannot reach any collective decision regarding Libya.

On this basis, offending Britain and France was unavoidable.

It is impossible for Libya to maintain good relations with all countries.

As long as you maintain good relations with the two leaders.

It doesn't matter if I offend all three of the lower-ranking officials.

As long as Libya doesn't offend all the unpredictable people like the colonel did, it will have room to survive.

It's not easy to do that.

Numidian Brigade's purchase of 2000 shields has already raised concerns among relevant countries.

Payne, representing Lockheed Martin, marketed the Patriot III to the Numidian Brigade.

"I might consider the Standard 3, but forget about the Patriot 3."

Yuri won't be a sucker.

In Turkey's arms procurement, the Patriot III missile, during testing, performed poorly, with two shots hitting the target, one missing, and two going wide. This was far inferior to the Shield 2000, which hit the target five times out of five.

And yet Lockheed Martin still has the nerve to offer a price equivalent to twice the 2000 shield? They're practically treating Yuri like an idiot.

This doesn't even address the issue of identity verification.

The Shield 2000 sold by East Asia to the Numidian Brigade has no backdoors.

The meaning of "no backdoor" is that they can even shoot down East Asian planes.

Let's not even talk about whether the Patriot missile can shoot down US military aircraft.

We can't even shoot down NATO fighter jets.

Even if the Numidian Brigade had to pay protection money, it would be given to Thor.

"What use are Standard Missile 3s to you if you don't have a navy?"

Payne was outspoken.

The Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) is the core interceptor missile of the sea-based ballistic missile defense system and needs to be used in conjunction with the Aegis Combat System.

"Then a few F-16s would be fine too."

Yuri couldn't forget about fixed-wing fighter jets.

"Do we need F-16s to take down a few rebels?"

Payne had considerable confidence in the fighting capabilities of the Numidian Brigade.

"I won't sell this, I won't sell anywhere, but how about a few C-130s?"

Yuri retreated again.

Libya already had C130s, and this time Payne finally didn't refuse Yuri.

However, Payne quoted a price of $3 million per C-130.

Yuri chuckled, neither confirming nor denying.

At the beginning of the year, the United States sold 25 C-130 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia for a total price of $67 billion, or $2.68 million per jet.

Six aircraft were sold to India for a total of one billion, or 1.67 million per aircraft.

The C-130 used by the US military costs between $5000 million and $7000 million.

This is not treating Yuri like a fool.

They didn't treat Yuri like a human being at all.

While Yuri and Payne were negotiating, the battle in Benghazi was drawing to a close.

Although the provisional government fought desperately, the disparity in strength between the two sides was too great. Although the rebels also possessed anti-tank rockets and man-portable air defense missiles, they still suffered a crushing defeat in the face of the Numidian Brigade's relentless attacks.

This comes after the Numidian Brigade used drones to bomb Benghazi TV.

Half of the 100,000 troops in Benghazi fled overnight.

The other side even has high-tech equipment like drones.

Even if we have man-portable air defense missiles, what use are they?

Man-portable air defense missiles are very expensive, and the provisional government didn't have many. They also needed to be reserved to deal with the Numidian Brigade's armed helicopters, so they were simply unable to cope with precision-guided bombs launched by drones.

Numidian Brigade's use of drones has once again shocked the world.

On May 6, Anwar Gumaty, commander of the Peace Guard, was killed by a precision-guided bomb launched by a drone by the Numidian Brigade while fleeing Benghazi.

Since the outbreak of the fighting in Benghazi, the city has been under constant 24-hour surveillance by drones from the Numidian Brigade.

Anwar Gumaty's armored vehicle had just left Benghazi when it was spotted by a drone from the Numidian Brigade.

The Numidian Brigade's reconnaissance drones used sophisticated GPS to signal the attack drones, guiding them to fire precision-guided bombs at the armored vehicle carrying Anwar Gumaty.

The key point of the whole process is that both precision-guided bombs and advanced GPS systems come from the civilian market.

"President Qin, how did you manage to do that?"

Ding Jian was completely baffled.

It's one thing to use civilian products to assemble precision-guided bombs.

How is information transmission between reconnaissance drones and attack drones handled?

Ding Jian confirmed that the Numidian Brigade does not have an air command platform.

"Mr. Ding, the only thing I can say is that all of this is based on commercial products for the civilian market."

Qin Rui gave a brief demonstration of Numidia's research capabilities to Ding Jian.

Numidian forces' industrial capabilities are indeed still quite weak.

It's not bad, it's just smaller in scale.

Fully automated production lines are not something that just any country can do.

After the Numidian Brigade successfully developed fully automated production lines for 5.56mm bullets and 40mm grenades, theoretically, over time, the Numidian Brigade could monopolize the international market for 5.56mm bullets and 40mm grenades.

In addition to the 5.56mm ammunition, the Numidian Brigade has also launched a fully automated production line for 5.45mm ammunition to match the AK rifle family.

Qin Rui may not be targeting the high-end arms market, but at least in the ammunition sector, the Numidian Brigade can still get a share.

This is already quite restrained.

The Numidian Brigade's drones and precision-guided bombs have been combat-tested.

If Numidian Brigade brings its drones and precision-guided bombs to market, it will definitely secure orders.