Shane Freak
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Chapter 541: The Spider
🕑 Added 2023-09-07 09:39:26 +0000 UTCTransformers Begin : Table of Content/Chapter List
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When Sun Cheng initially presented the Type 1 Exoskeleton for testing and applied for a defense military production license from the Equipment Department, he did indeed mention that he could keep the cost below 200,000 Xia Yuan.
However, that was just an intention. Military's performance requirements for Exoskeleton mechs were much higher than what Sun Cheng had initially anticipated.
By the time the perfected X-1 was ready, the standard military procurement price had been settled between both parties at 264,000 Xia Yuan per set, while the enhanced version was priced at 292,000 Xia Yuan.
There was certainly profit to be made at this price for Future Mechanical Technology Corporation, but the margins weren't exceptionally high. After all, the cost of purchasing various machines for the production workshop and recruiting technical personnel and workers had to be factored in.
Of course, Sun Cheng wasn't concerned about those profits. If he truly wanted to make money, he could have just had Base One and Base Three, which were already in the early stages of development, produce the Exoskeletons. The cost per unit could easily be brought down to below 100,000, resulting in several times the profit.
"General, we will continue to work on cost control! However, based on the current situation, even with further reductions, we can at most cut it by two to three percentage points."
Sun Cheng didn't hide the entire production process. For the production of defense military products, both domestic and foreign, specialized personnel were typically sent by military or supervisory departments to oversee quality but not to manage the details.
Future Mechanical Technology Corporation was no exception. Sun Cheng readily agreed to have Captain Sun Long, whom he had dealt with several times before, serve as the quality supervisor on behalf of the Equipment Department.
Since the construction of the workshop, Captain Sun Long had been involved in the entire process of Future Mechanical Technology's operations, from machine procurement and installation to raw material sourcing and staff recruitment. Equipment Department had already estimated the actual cost of the X-1 to be somewhere between twenty and thirty percentage points.
For military products, this level of profit margin was by no means extravagant. In the realm of defense military products, there were products with profit margins exceeding 100%.
Among them, some seemingly inconspicuous individual combat weapons and various rockets and missiles had the highest profit margins.
In the Transformers Universe, a missile sold by the United States Thunder God Corporation to the military had a gross profit margin of around 180%, and when sold to major oil-producing countries in the Middle East, the profit margin could even reach nearly three times that, indicating substantial profits.
The general just smiled and nodded. "Mr. Sun, we understand the challenges you face."
He then changed the subject. "What is the current production capacity of your corporation? How long will it take to fulfill the military orders?"
Future Mechanical Technology had received an order for 27,000 sets of X-1 Exoskeleton mechs from the Equipment Department, and there could be an additional 50,000 to 60,000 intended orders. Among them, the standard version was approximately 20,000 sets, while the enhanced version was about 7,000 sets. Including some emergency spare parts, the total procurement amount was 7.6 billion Xia Yuan, slightly higher than the cost of a naval destroyer.
Considering the complex surrounding environment of Xia Country and its annual defense budget of over a trillion Xia Yuan, the country had to split every penny to make ends meet.
So, from the beginning, Sun Cheng didn't actively lobby for more orders. What he wanted was just a defense military product production license and the opportunity to establish a closer relationship with the country.
After a quick calculation, he replied, "If the raw materials are sufficient, our two workshops can currently produce and assemble around 80 sets of Exoskeleton mechs per day. Once the third workshop is completed, our final production capacity can reach approximately 120 sets per day."
"Equipment Department requires us to deliver every two weeks, so by January next year, we can stably provide around 1,200 sets of Exoskeleton mechs every two weeks, and then increase to about 1,800 sets every two weeks afterward. We won't need a full year to complete all the orders."
Exoskeleton mechs were different from airplanes and warships, which required training and adaptation periods of over a year, even several years. After soldiers received them, they could become proficient in operating the X-1 Exoskeleton mechs in just one or two months, significantly boosting their combat capabilities.
Clearly, Future Mechanical Technology's production efficiency satisfied the general, and the conversation moved on.
Seeing that the general didn't bring up the X-1 Exoskeleton mechs again, Sun Cheng understood the situation.
The Equipment Department had sent people not just because the X-1 Exoskeleton mechs were officially in production but also for an important matter, which was to verify a new piece of equipment.
Sun Cheng made a beckoning gesture and, accompanied by the general and Captain Sun Long, walked toward an adjacent warehouse.
From the outside, this warehouse appeared entirely ordinary, no different from typical warehouses.
However, just like the surrounding area of Future Mechanical Technology's production workshops, it was equipped with various surveillance devices, both visible and hidden. It also had the high-level security provided by Future Technology and a squad of military soldiers on guard. The security level was extremely high.
The warehouse was currently being temporarily used to store the completed X-1 Exoskeleton mechs since there hadn't been any deliveries of finished products yet. Sun Cheng had temporarily requisitioned it to showcase a new product to the Equipment Department.
Once inside the warehouse, the group saw two peculiarly shaped "monsters" that hadn't been visited by Captain Sun Long for some time. Even the general, who came from the Equipment Department, had his eyes widen the moment he saw these two "monsters."
"Mr. Sun... are these the new products you mentioned?"
In the center of the vast warehouse, there were two peculiar metal "monsters."
One was small, measuring about 2.4 meters in length and only about 1 meter in height. Its body was flat and supported by six mechanical legs around its periphery.
The other was significantly larger, measuring about 4 meters in length, nearly twice the size of the smaller one, and about 1.5 meters in height. Its body was also flat and supported by eight mechanical legs.
Seeing these two metal "monsters" in the warehouse, the curiosity of the Equipment Department's personnel was piqued.
Sun Cheng led them to the front of the metal monsters and explained with a smile, "These two robotic monsters are temporarily named 'Special Terrain Transport Robots,' and we've given them the nickname 'Spiders.' They are designed specifically for transporting supplies in challenging terrains such as mountains, hills, and plateaus, where conventional vehicles struggle."
"The smaller 'Spider' is designed to carry a load of 0.8 to 1.2 tons and can theoretically move at speeds of 40 to 60 kilometers per hour in most mountainous, hilly, and plateau regions, covering distances of 80 to 100 kilometers!"
"The larger 'Spider' is designed to carry around 3 tons of cargo and can theoretically move at similar speeds in the same types of terrain, covering the same distances!"
These two Spiders had initially been conceived as a theoretical idea by a few robotics enthusiasts in the Intelligent Mechanics Laboratory, drawing inspiration from Boston Dynamics Corporation's BigDog series of robots.
As it was widely known, Xia Country had one of the most complex terrains in the world, with diverse landscapes within the country and challenging border regions with neighboring countries. This had created harsh living conditions for the border troops.
Hence, when researchers who were interested in military affairs learned that Future Mechanical Technology Corporation, a subsidiary of Future Technology Corporation, was producing Exoskeleton mechs for the military, they proposed the idea of utilizing the corporation's existing technology to design a transport robot that could freely navigate challenging terrains.
They hadn't held high expectations because, even though Boston Dynamics Corporation was renowned for having the most mature military robotics technology, the few military robots they produced had received very unsatisfactory feedback from the military during testing.
However, to their surprise, Sun Cheng possessed the technology for transport robots, and it was highly advanced.
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