Weapons and Equipment Officially Arrive; Great Xia Only Regrets Insufficient Funds!

"Interested in the B-2 bomber??" Zheng Lixing was completely stunned.

What country in the world isn't interested in this thing? Who wouldn't want it? If there were any, it would only mean their strength was such that they didn't dare to utter the word 'interested'.

This was the world's only stealth strategic heavy bomber. Although its payload capacity was less than half that of the Tu-160 White Swan strategic bomber, the B-2 bomber was a stealth strategic bomber. For a bomber, this was as significant as maneuverability and speed were to a fighter jet.

After all, what was the point of a bomber having a payload of even a hundred tons if it could be taken down by a single missile once detected by radar?

Zhang Yuli naturally understood this and promptly replied.

[We are very interested in this technology.]

An opportunity to acquire the B-2 bomber was presented before them. For Zhang Yuli to hesitate for even a second would be a crime and blasphemy.

Soon, a reply email from the mysterious person came.

[Please await good news. You can settle the previous payment then as well.]

Looking at this message.

Zheng Lixing still found it unbelievable: "Old Zhang, this person said it's the Eagle Country's B-2 Spirit Bomber? Could he have made a mistake?"

"Did he mistake the B-1 bomber for the B-2?"

After all, this possibility might be higher. The B-1 bomber, commonly known as the Gunslinger strategic bomber, was also one of Eagle Country's most important strategic bomber forces. (Mainly the B-1B model; only 4 prototype A models were produced.)

Zhang Yuli's eyes shone: "No, I don't think he would make such a mistake."

Someone who could obtain things like the F-22 fighter jet design blueprints would definitely not be joking around.

Without absolute caution and care, he wouldn't have survived this long in Eagle Country.

After thinking for a moment, Zhang Yuli typed another line.

[Please be extremely careful. Even if we don't acquire the technology, we will still provide you with a certain reward.]

"I hope he'll be extra careful and not take any unnecessary risks," Zhang Yuli murmured to himself.

This was his greatest concern; the reward was completely insignificant.

No matter how tempting the B-2 bomber was, it couldn't compare to this mysterious person who could bring technology from Eagle Country.

Although he had no idea who this mysterious person was, the strategic value of the latter far surpassed that of the B-2 bomber. After all, Great Xia could eventually develop it through ten or twenty years of dedicated research, but the latter might not be encountered even once in a hundred years.

The mysterious person's current status was that of a true pillar of the nation.

Zheng Lixing, standing beside him, shook his head: "The B-2 bomber is good, but I'm afraid it'll be difficult to build."

"It's too expensive."

The B-2 strategic bomber, the only stealth strategic bomber, who wouldn't be mesmerized by it?

But the problem was its astronomical cost. The average price for each unit was a staggering 2.4 billion US dollars, which was nearly 18 billion Renminbi. How could they afford it?

"The main cost is in research and development. The actual unit cost should be around one billion US dollars."

Zhang Yuli shook his head and continued to speculate, "Moreover, so many years have passed. With current manufacturing processes, the cost can be further reduced."

Eagle Country only produced 21 B-2 bombers in total, and the research and development costs amounted to tens of billions of US dollars. Wasn't the average cost per unit sky-high? If it were mass-produced, the cost would significantly decrease.

Furthermore, with the development of modern technology, materials that were once expensive would now be much cheaper, and the cost could be further reduced.

Even so, Zheng Lixing still looked troubled: "No matter how much we save, we'll still need eight to nine hundred million US dollars to build one. That's still hard to bear."

Eight hundred million US dollars was a full 5.5 billion Renminbi.

This was even under the condition that the mysterious person could provide all the data, and they would only need to bear the cost of manufacturing the individual aircraft.

For comparison, the estimated unit cost for the J-20 project was only six to seven hundred million Renminbi, less than 100 million US dollars. 5.6 billion Renminbi would be enough to buy two full squadrons of aircraft.

Zheng Lixing's face looked somewhat dejected: "We still lack the money. Even if we truly had this technology, we could only gaze at the plums to quench our thirst."

This astronomical sum was something Great Xia currently couldn't afford.

Not to mention the J-20 project, the Varyag was still in the shipyard waiting to be converted into an aircraft carrier, and Project 072 (Y-20) was also progressing intensely.

Even many Type 051 vessels had not yet been retired, with service lives approaching thirty years. The development of new destroyers was also urgent. Which of these major projects could wait? Which was less urgent than a bomber?

Zhang Yuli sighed helplessly: "Sigh, I understand everything you're saying."

An $800 million B-2 bomber would require the construction of at least ten units to achieve its maximum combat effectiveness, totaling a staggering 8 billion US dollars.

How much was Great Xia's military budget this year? At most, it was a little over 400 billion Renminbi, equivalent to less than 70 billion US dollars.

To allocate over a tenth of that to building bombers? Even if the General Logistics Department emptied its coffers, it couldn't come up with that much money.

Even if the mysterious person truly sent them the technology for the B-2 bomber, they might not be able to start construction immediately.

Instead, it would be kept as technological reserve, to be integrated into Great Xia's next-generation stealth strategic bomber when suitable technology became available in the future.

Alternatively, they could only hope they stumbled upon a massive fortune.

One sentence could vividly interpret their inner feelings:

"If only our financial resources were not lacking."

Two days later.

Eagle Country, LLNL National Laboratory.

Time slowly moved towards Friday, with two days left until Lu Ze's next replication.

Over the past few days, Lu Ze had discovered something peculiar.

The Professor Michael Hasen he was following was even more laid-back than he was. He'd clock in at the laboratory at 9 AM, then immediately go home to rest. As for research projects, they were perpetually stuck in the "create folder" stage.

If Lu Ze hadn't known the inside story, he would have suspected Professor Hasen of being on the payroll at the LLNL Laboratory without doing any work.

Of course, as students, he and Lucy naturally followed their advisor's lead.

After all, as intern graduate students, they barely earned any money, so why work hard? The two of them always adhered to the principle of never arriving early if they could be late, and never working overtime if they could leave early.

At this moment, the two of them sat contentedly in their chairs, slowly enjoying the complimentary snacks.

Lucy popped a tart into her mouth and remembered something. "Lu Ze, the Ministry of Defense's latest batch of weapons and equipment has been brought back for inspection and upgrades."

Lu Ze put down his latte, his eyes revealing surprise. "That fast?"

Doesn't that mean he could replicate the equipment soon?