Speaking of Iraq, everyone is no stranger, and this is more or less an imperial graveyard on par with Afghanistan. Since the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, the construction of local military equipment has also begun to make its own decisions, except for some remaining US military equipment before, Iraq is naturally unwilling to rely on Western equipment. As for war-torn Iraq, which is also very rich in war, and it cannot be paid attention to casually, then China's equipment is a good choice at a good price. At the recent Baghdad defense exhibition, Iraqi officials went straight to the Chinese booth and bought the entire production line of Chinese weapons.
According to CCTV, China's military products participated in the recent Baghdad International Defense Exhibition in Iraq, which featured a large number of Chinese equipment, including air defense systems, armored vehicles, drones, and light weapons. You can see that the picture has the LOGO of Poly Group, such as Falcon LY-70, Yitian air defense system, etc., all of which are old acquaintances of foreign trade.
In addition, Iraqi officials also attach great importance to it, and went straight to the Chinese booth, and the director of the Iraqi Military Industrial Administration, when interviewed, said that more projects have been launched with the support of China's military industrial enterprises. Then these projects, in fact, were also shown at this air show, at Iraq's own stand, a completely new armored vehicle appeared, with a classic 6×6 layout, which can be installed with modular armor, and the turret uses a manned machine gun turret, armed with an S/LM5 three-barreled 12.7 mm heavy machine gun. Of course, everyone should see that this armored car is actually the VN22 wheeled combat vehicle of NORINCO, but the high-equipped unmanned turret has been replaced by a machine gun tower, after all, this thing is a little unaffordable in Iraq now.
And this combat vehicle is authorized by NORINCO to be produced by Iraq itself, in fact, the entire production line is packed home, and we provide parts and components, which are assembled locally in Iraq. In this way, it has its own industrial base, and in time it can also learn something real, which is not much more fragrant than Western equipment. After all, the United States has plagued Iraq for more than ten years, and apart from destruction and bloodshed, nothing good has been left.
In addition to armored vehicles, the Iraqis were also unceremonious about light weapons and continued to pack the entire production line. It can be seen that most of Iraq's locally produced pistols and submachine guns are also Chinese foreign trade products, such as the NP22A in the showcase, which is actually a domestic imitation of Sig Sauer's P226, NP34 is a copy of Sig Sauer's P228, and NP42 is a domestic 92-style 9MM foreign trade version. THERE IS ALSO A HIGH-GRADE GLASS WINDOW, GUESS WHAT, THE FOREIGN TRADE VERSION OF THE CS/LS7 SUBMACHINE GUN, WHICH IS COMPATIBLE WITH 9MM PISTOL CARTRIDGES ANYWAY. I believe that the Iraqis like it very much, otherwise they would not have put it on display in the window.
In fact, it is not difficult to see that after the withdrawal of the United States, Iraq does not have the most basic industrial system, and it is naturally unable to produce its own individual light weapons, so the most basic pistol submachine gun also needs to introduce foreign trade production lines to solve the demand problem. As mentioned above, Iraq will not rely on Western equipment, and the Western military-industrial system may not dare to come. Looking at the local tyrant with a headscarf, there is a lot of money, but the technology is more dish, this is probably the reason for the introduction of Chinese production, good quality and low price are on the one hand, and more importantly, it is fair to talk and do things, Iran and Saudi Arabia are trusted, what else is there to say, the production line has been brought to you.
Of course, some military fans will say that this friend belongs to a friend, and business belongs to business, and does Iraq have the strength to introduce so many production lines? In fact, there is no need to worry, Iraq's ore and oil and gas resources are also very rich, not to mention that there is a financier behind it, and it does not matter much for the time being. And with the restoration of Iraq's national strength, the demand for national defense will gradually increase, today is to buy some low-end wheeled combat vehicles and submachine guns, and in the future, to buy high-end drones, air defense systems are also handy. You must know that in the past, Iraq's level of wealth was comparable to that of Saudi Arabia, and as long as it is restored to two-thirds of the previous level, it will be an indispensable and large customer of domestic military industry and foreign trade, so it is very advantageous to cultivate relations from now on. In the future, if the West comes to grab business again, I am afraid it will not be so simple.