#History#In August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. Kuwait fell in just one day, and Iraq's 100,000-strong army was about to approach Saudi Arabia. At the moment of emergency, Saudi Arabia removed the DF-3 missile and held large-scale military exercises. When Saddam saw that the momentum was wrong, he quickly left the girl.
What Saddam feared was the DF-3 missile. The DF-3 is a medium-range ballistic missile equipped with a conventional warhead with a range of more than 2,000 kilometers. That range is enough to cover Saudi Arabia's strongest rivals in the Middle East: Iran, Iraq and Israel. As soon as Saddam Hussein gets closer, Baghdad will be blown up.
What frightened Saddam Hussein the most was that Saudi Arabia also played a trick to make Saddam think that the missile might be equipped with a nuclear bomb. False and real, true and false, this is the art of war.
The deterrent power of the DF-3 can be seen. Such a powerful thing, its price is not cheap. In 1987, Saudi Arabia purchased 35 DF-3 missiles from the mainland for $3.5 billion.
$100 million, $3.5 billion, you heard it right? You know, at that time, the mainland's GDP was less than $300 billion, and its foreign exchange reserves were less than $2 billion. The deal was the largest single arms export at the time, and indeed to date.
Saudi Arabia has money, but money is not blown by the wind, why did it come to us to negotiate this business?
This topic is a long one.
Originally a British colony, Saudi Arabia did not become independent until 1932. 10 years after the founding of the state, Saudi Arabia discovered oil, and the reserves were huge, the Saudis were ecstatic, and the Americans were boiling.
The Saudis had limited mining capacity and did not know how to operate, so they leased the oil field to the Americans for 66 years and became a "charter public" to enjoy life. In the years that followed, the Saudis made money with peace of mind, completely ignoring the strife of the outside world.
Like Saudi Arabia, neighboring oil-finding countries such as Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have also become rich. Everyone is rich, is it not good to run for a well-off together?
That's nice, but don't forget, it's the Middle East.
When the countries of the Middle East became independent, Britain, France and the United States instigated the partition of Palestine and Israel, creating an Israel to fight the Arab countries. Due to the sharp ethnic and religious contradictions in the Middle East, four Middle East wars followed.
The war has exposed the "weakness" of the oil countries in the Middle East, especially the military strength is simply vulnerable, and the oil countries, including Saudi Arabia, are also feeling panic. In 1981, for example, Israel's air force crossed Saudi airspace and destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactors. Saudi Arabia's concerns are also justified.
In addition to the contradictions between the Arab world and the outside world, there are also divisions and disputes within the Arab world due to religious sects, economic interests, and territorial disputes. After entering the 80s of the 20th century, the situation in the Middle East got out of control, and later Iran and Iraq got on the hook.
The Iran-Iraq war is going on and on, and it is inevitable that the guns will be misfired, thus harming the common neighbor - Saudi Arabia. In 1984, the Iranian Air Force destroyed a number of Saudi oil tankers, F-4 fighters broke into the "Fahd Line" of Saudi Arabia's territorial airspace, and Iraq's heavily modified Scud missiles with a range of 600 kilometers also made Saudi Arabia feel uneasy.
If Saudi Arabia wants to protect itself or gain a sense of security, it must have its own strategic weapons.
At that time, only three countries, the United States, the Soviet Union and China, possessed ballistic missiles.
Saudi Arabia and the United States were relatively close, so they tentatively proposed to buy the "Lance" ballistic missile, which was rejected by the United States. The USSR was an enemy of the entire West, and it would not be appropriate to buy from there.
In desperation, the commander of the Saudi Air Defense Forces, Prince Sultan recommended China to the king. They recommended China because they saw our assistance to Pakistan during the Delhi Umbrella operation. In short, Saudi Arabia sees our sincerity and friendliness to our neighbors.
Since China and Saudi Arabia had not yet established diplomatic relations at that time, Saudi Arabia's move was cautious. The next thing is relatively confidential, so we won't say more.
However, there is a paragraph in the middle that is worth mentioning. It is said that after reading the "Dongfeng-3" missile, the next thing is to negotiate. Both sides are counting their hole cards.
Our personnel stretched out a finger, meaning 10 million US dollars a piece, and Prince Sultan who was in charge of procurement was happy in his heart, 100 million US dollars, so cheap, then we will try 35 first. In this way, there is still a lot of surplus of the original 10 billion US dollars.
The above is just a joke, real negotiations cannot be such a joke. However, due to the isolation of the West and the lack of communication, it is an indisputable fact that each side cannot figure out the other's hole cards.
Saudi Arabia is very satisfied with this purchase. After returning home, Saudi Arabia deployed its missiles in Sulayla, on the edge of the great desert in the south, more than 560 kilometers from Riyadh.
The DF-3 missile has no actual combat opportunity in Saudi Arabia and is more used for force deterrence. This is enough for Saudi Arabia, which can live its life with peace of mind. Our own national defense and security cannot be measured by a mere $3.5 billion.