Empire Conquest-Chapter 684 - 17: Strike First to Gain the Upper Hand_2
Among them, the "Compass" satellite navigation system is the most important.
The Air Force took the lead, with the Navy and Army participating in the next-generation reconnaissance, communication, intelligence, command, and strike systems. The most challenging and slowest to progress is the global navigation positioning system.
Beyond military purposes, the actual goal is to force the Newland Republic and the Tiaoman Empire to follow suit, putting economic pressure on the two rivals.
Moreover, it was about enhancing the role of technology in the arms race.
This is a war of economics and technology.
Last year, military expenditure of the Newland Republic exceeded 500 billion Newland Dollars, accounting for 40% of the federal budget, and as high as 8% in the national economy.
The defense spending of the Tiaoman Empire also reached 850 billion Gold Marks, accounting for 45% of the budget, and over 10% in the national economy.
During peacetime, this is absolutely an unbearable burden.
In Zhou Yongtao’s words, this would be the final round of the arms race before the third Global War because the superpower that could no longer sustain would definitely wage war.
Fundamentally, this was also key in the Tiaoman Empire inciting the Hussein Regime to wage war.
Thus, it wasn’t hard to understand why the grandees in both chambers were so eager and enthusiastic about deploying troops to Boss Bay to liberate Kuwait.
This also involves a very sensitive issue.
Right, it’s the inflation brought about by the tremendous deficit budget, or currency devaluation.
The Empire’s fiscal deficit had already exceeded 20% for six consecutive years, and the current debt ratio was equivalent to 240% of the government’s annual revenue.
To balance the budget, the Empire had been issuing currency for the past six years.
Had it not been for controlling the global trade settlement system, especially with major oil-producing nations settling in Gold Yuan, the financial system of the Empire would have collapsed long ago.
Of course, ultimately, it is severe inflation or, in other words, overcapacity.
That’s precisely the point!
To eliminate inflation and solve the issue of excess capacity, using up vast amounts of hoarded surplus materials, the only choice was a large-scale war.
To put it plainly, this was the root cause.
Not just the Empire faced this issue, but also the Tiaoman Empire and the Newland Republic.
In fact, this also proves from one aspect that the current situation simply cannot continue and ultimately a superpower must fall!
Only by sacrificing a superpower, can the global economy return to normal.
Does this scene seem familiar?
However, this is what worried Zhou Yongtao the most.
No need to mention the Tiaoman Empire, even if it wasn’t directly involved in the war, it would find ways to support the Hussein Regime and heavily back Syria to the west.
The key was actually the Newland Republic.
To be blunt, if arms dealers in the Newland Republic wanted to make a fortune from the war, they might encourage Boi Country to participate in warfare.
A secret agreement?
Clearly, that’s just a piece of paper!
As long as the Newland Authority agreed and with support from Newland arms dealers, the war-mongering factions in Boi Country would fire at the Liangxia Fleet at the first opportunity.
If it really came to that, a major war would be inevitable.
But then, what good is worrying?
As Lin Shiping said, the only thing the Imperial Authority could decide was to fight this battle with all its might, demonstrating the significant advancements brought by the second post-war military revolution, to make the rivals recognize the gap with the Liangxia Empire and thus deter any thoughts of escalating the scale of the war.
When Luo Youbin entered, it had been just over ten minutes.
"Has it started?"
Luo Youbin nodded and then said, "Just received news, our fighter jets in Kuwaiti airspace have shot down two invading Iraqi fighters."
"Did we suffer any losses?"
"No reports of combat losses."
At this moment, Zhou Yongtao finally exhaled.
"General Shi Shouliang will officially announce the no-fly zone at 10 AM local time."
"Let him do it, make sure to notify the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."
Luo Youbin nodded in agreement, then withdrew.
The establishment of the no-fly zone had already been decided and approved by Zhou Yongtao.
Delaying it for two hours was nothing unusual.
Of course, once Shi Shouliang as the Commander-in-chief of the Joint Forces announced the no-fly zone, the frontline combat operations would no longer concern Zhou Yongtao.
What he needed to do was actually to resolve Shi Shouliang’s concerns.
The primary mission was to get many allies to send troops to war and, as much as possible, persuade the interested countries to evolve the Joint Forces into genuinely combined forces.
Indeed, this was why Zhou Yongtao had Luo Youbin notify the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
...
King Khalid’s Military City, Alliance Headquarter.
Because it was a military base, only invited journalists could enter, and with military police maintaining order, the press hall was in good order.
Interestingly, what the journalists were most concerned about was not the upcoming combat operations, but the battle that had already ended.
About fifteen minutes earlier, Iraq’s Ministry of Defense had preemptively issued a statement, claiming that they successfully intercepted invading enemy aircraft at nine in the morning, shooting down seven of them.
To "prove" their claim, the spokesman from Iraq’s Ministry of Defense had produced several very blurry photos.
However, relevant professionals had already pointed out that the fighters shown in the photographs released by Iraq’s Ministry of Defense were actually the "Fighter-7" fighters exported to Saudi Arabia by the Liangxia Empire, which had already been retired to secondary lines and were not deployed to the Boss Bay area.
