537 Fight Jets in Service (2/2)

Of course, this support wasn't without a cost; it would be exchanged for ownership rights of the mines in the guerrilla-controlled area or actual ores. Because of this, Jiang Chen ordered Barkary to register a shell company in Australia with the sole purpose of facilitating transactions between the ores and firearms. The ores of unknown origin were then transported to the factories in New Guinea to be further processed; a portion would be sold to international markets while the other portion would be ”sold” to Celestial Trade.

The flipping ore trick was the same as Turkey selling the IS crude oil, but Jiang Chen's method left no trace at all. With the support of the radar station located on New Moon Island, the transport vessel containing the ores seemed to have eyes and avoided all the patrol boats and vessels that blocked MLL Island. Regardless of how frustrated country F was, the supply shipments to the guerrillas were never tracked down.

What was worth mentioning was that the company providing firearms to the shell company was a UA firearms company. To avoid the transaction from being tracked by the FBA, all orders were conducted with gold.

Then there was Europe.

The refugee problem continued to heat up, forcing all of Europe to a crossroads. Regarding whether a full ban of refugees into Europe should be enacted, the EU countries had divergent opinions. Some of these opinions included Fran, Frankberg, and Bel which suffered the pain of terrorist attacks and Britain which threatened to leave EU as well as Gree which played the card ”If you don't buy my bonds, I'll open my door to refugees”…

It was hard to say whether it was distrust that caused the differences, or that the differences caused distrust. With the meddling of an invisible hand, visible cracks appeared in the previously united EU.

Negotiations between countries didn't result in anything material, but each country started a domestic wave of protests. A lot of extremists finally lost their rationality; people with nefarious intentions aggravated them to start attacking innocent refugees. They swore to seek revenge, to respond to terrorism with cruelty.

In a chaotic state, Frankberg's New Choice Party began its discreet rise to power, but the support of the CDU in power continued to plummet. The extreme right-wing party gained footing in Frankberg politics which made the situation even worse…

”War is never a good thing, but weapons are a great thing. Ivan, do you know what I mean?”

Standing at the fighter hanger on New Moon Island, Jiang Chen had his eyes narrowed and watched the Aurora-20 that just parked. He was speaking nonchalantly to Ivan beside him.

”Sorry, I don't really understand.” The veteran shook his head honestly.

”It is only when both sides think the opponent's weapon is strong enough to finish them that both sides will agree to sit down and talk.”

Ivan grinned. He had a personal experience mirroring Jiang Chen's words when he was a soldier in the Soviet era. But he still didn't understand why his boss suddenly mentioned these things.

But Jiang Chen didn't speak about this further. Instead, he looked at the pilot familiarizing himself with the equipment inside the cockpit.

The first Aurora-20 fighter jet had officially entered service, filling a gap in Celestial Trade's air force. Since it was the most advanced technology from the apocalypse, its strength was king among the fifth-generation fighter jets.

The initial flight of Aurora-20 was conducted by the pilot with the highest score on the training modules. The control equipment of Aurora-20 had a high degree of intelligence to it - takeoff, landing, cruise, and even air-to-ground attacks could be done by the program.

Just from this perspective alone, the semi-intelligent control mode allowed it to be classified among the ranks of quasi-sixth generation fighters.

And because of this reason, one and half month's of training was enough for pilots to maneuver the aircraft. Watching the aircraft engine igniting, completing a vertical takeoff and landing and runaway takeoff and landing, cruising around the border in addition to other missions, Jiang Chen personally awarded the pilot a medal. After the first flight ceremony, Jiang Chen toured the air force base and showed his face to the young men swearing allegiance to him then he returned to Coro Island.

There was a product launch conference waiting for him in the afternoon.

Before the start of the conference that was destined to make history, he needed some preparation.