Chapter 1416 Assistance from the United States

Even without mentioning other competing businesses of the two sides, the grievances between Dassault and BAE Systems in the aviation sector alone are long-standing.

Going back further, the reason why the FOAS project was aborted was that both parties were hesitant and did not want to invest heavily, but in the end it was BAE that turned around and joined the JSF project, which dealt the final blow to the entire plan.

To take a closer look, although the Typhoon fighter jet was jointly developed by four countries, BAE was ultimately responsible for the overall research and development, and in arms sales, it was usually the British who were responsible for promotion.

The "two winds of Europe" are already fighting each other over several large orders from the Middle East and Central Europe, and it is inevitable that they are a little angry with each other.

Just now, we could still be nice to each other and maintain some dignity.

Now that we have a competitive relationship, we can’t take care of many things.

However, Edsteiner remained generally calm.

In the aviation industry cooperation between China and Europe, although Dassault is not the largest or the most in-depth, it is still an old partner that has gone through many projects.

You're a newcomer to BAE Systems, so it's impossible for you to be ranked ahead of me, right?

As for the other members of the visiting group.

They might have better relations with China, but Edsteiner couldn't think of anyone who needed to use a microwave darkroom right now.

Even if we prepare for relevant research right after returning, it will take at least half a year to implement it, right?

In a word, the advantage lies in me.

With such confidence, after the entire visit was over, he even took the opportunity of the break in the cooperation ceremony to leisurely go to the bathroom, and then prepared to find Liu Yongquan to discuss the testing service.

Then, I saw that the seat originally assigned to the latter was empty.

This instantly set off alarm bells in Ed Steiner's heart.

It was not until the next second that he noticed that Charles Culler was still in his seat, and then he breathed a sigh of relief again.

But they did not dare to delay any longer, and instead quickly found the staff member who was preparing the materials needed for the next stage of the celebration on the stage and asked about Liu Yongquan's whereabouts.

As a result, I received news that was like a bolt from the blue.

"Mr. Liu is currently meeting with Mr. Alberto Guterres of Airbus. If you want to see him, I can let you know after the meeting."

The staff member replied politely.

"Airbus?"

Edsteiner never expected that after guarding against the British and Italians for a long time, he would end up being stabbed in the back by his own people.

And the more critical question is -

You're a passenger plane builder, what are you doing here?

Fortunately, the meeting between Guterres and Liu Yongquan was not long, lasting probably less than 20 minutes.

But until the end of the trip, Edsteiner was still thinking about it.

It's not because of holding a grudge.

But anyone with a discerning eye can see that the reason Airbus took the initiative in this matter was definitely not to make its own passenger aircraft invisible.

In other words, this largest aerospace giant in Europe is probably no longer content to stay in the civilian field, but hopes to develop new main businesses...

……

After returning to China, Edelsteiner immediately found the new chairman of Dassault Group, Charles Scherer.

Serge Dassault is now 84 years old. Although he still holds a lot of shares in the company, he stopped being responsible for daily operations a few years ago. Instead, Scherer, who was the CEO at the time, took charge of the actual management.

Perhaps because several third-generation heirs of the Dassault family did not enter the field of aircraft design, after a minor stroke last year, he gave the position of chairman to the other party.

Scheller came from the engineering software department. When he first took over as CEO in the late 90s, he had some arguments with Mr. Serge over development concepts. He believed that the company's role should shift from providing products to providing "knowledge and services", and even had the upper hand in the board of directors for a time.

However, within two years, the Torch Group emerged as a strong force in the numerical computing industry, which hindered the market expansion of Dassault Software's division. Dassault Software was forced to choose a conservative route, that is, to cooperate with the former in order to maintain the business scale in its existing advantage areas such as 3D modeling.

Coupled with the subsequent revival of product business lines including the Rafale and Falcon Z series, Scheller immediately performed a flexible move and saved his CEO position by making a 180-degree turn.

Although he has taken over the baton from the head of the group, the interest structure within the group has already been formed. Even if he wants to regain his past concepts, he cannot ignore the aviation business, which is a cash cow that is right in front of him.

"Charles, I've already talked to the Chinese."

Edsteiner had already reported the general background of the whole incident via satellite communication, so he chose to get straight to the point after the meeting:

"They are willing to provide us with comprehensive electromagnetic field testing services with no restrictions on conditions and frequency, up to 10 times a month, and we can send up to three people to join the engineering team. However, the service content only includes test and analysis results, as well as necessary log files, and our people cannot directly participate in the operation and data processing process..."

Some harsh, but reasonable conditions.

Of course, it makes sense from today's perspective.

If it had been a dozen years ago, the Chinese people's request would have been seen as a rebellion against the Heavenly Gang. After all, it was Europe that took the initiative in cooperation back then.

But after several consecutive projects, even people like Ed Steiner have become accustomed to such scenes.

Not to mention Sheller, who had long been sanctioned by Torch Group.

"Compared to the Americans completely excluding all partners from the JSF project's comprehensive electromagnetic field testing, this is not an unacceptable condition..."

When he said this, he was surprised that he had no psychological fluctuations at all, and even felt that he had gained some advantage.

Start brainstorming and making a plan immediately.

Edsteiner took the opportunity to talk about the unusual actions of Airbus.

Scheller was not surprised by this:

"There have been rumors in the past two days that Airbus is going to set up a new defense and aerospace department. The Alberto Gutierrez you mentioned was hired from the German Aerospace Center. He is likely to be in charge of this matter..."

At this point, his tone suddenly became urgent:

"It is said that the first model FCAS in the Airbus Defense Plan is a stealth drone that can engage in air combat. So it seems that we have to speed up the progress of our Neuron project... However, Neuron is currently being developed by six countries in cooperation. If we want to get it to China for testing, we still need some desktop procedures..."

"So if the price is right, maybe we can consider trying out the tailless flying wing solution from the AVE plan... Firstly, the Neuron was also developed based on the AVE, so there are certain similarities between the two. Secondly, we can also test the waters of the Chinese. What do you think?"

Although Scheele is currently the person in charge of Dassault, he is far inferior to Edelsteiner in terms of qualifications and experience in aviation project management. What's more, the latter is a close confidant of Serge Dassault, and to some extent he is positioned as a "minister entrusted with the care of the young emperor."

So in this kind of matter, he still values ​​the other party's opinion very much.

And Edsteiner did not expect that Scherer would play a bigger game than himself and was directly preparing to bring the future flagship neuron project to the table.

After hesitating for a long time, he finally said:

“Wouldn’t that be a bit too radical?”

"I mean, the aviation department has always had a plan to develop a quasi-stealth model based on the Rafale fighter, and when I visited China this time, I noticed that they seemed to be making similar improvements to the J-10..."

In fact, before this trip, Edsteiner had tried to sound out the other party's attitude on this matter indirectly.

But Scheller's statement at the time was that he was not optimistic about the combat capability of this quasi-stealth model, and it might not be able to attract many customers.

If there is another blunder like the Mirage 4000 incident, where the prototype was tested and the military did not want it, it would undoubtedly be a major blow to the company's operations.

So Ed Steiner was quite cautious when making the proposal.

But Sheller's performance this time was completely different from last time:

"It would be better if you could come up with a mature solution for testing in a short period of time. After all, AVE is a concept from the last century..."

Ed Steiner, who had prepared a long speech, was stunned.

But soon, he found out the reason why the other party changed his attitude.

There was a report on top of the pile of documents on the corner of the table.

The title is [Boeing launches the latest model F15SE "Silent Eagle", designed to cooperate with the fourth-generation fighter to perform low-cost combat missions]

Since both the United States and China have made the same choice, this choice must be very reasonable, right?