Spark

"THAAD will land, and the situation may change a lot?"

"The situation is not good. The three aircraft carrier formations of the United States may have arrived in the waters near the East Pacific Ocean. What do you intend to do?"

"US$4.6 billion! The largest arms sales order in the past ten years, the target may include F-16 and M1A2 tanks!"

"Statement: If THAAD lands, we will take all necessary measures to ensure sovereignty and territorial integrity."

After the news that THAAD was going to land was released, public opinion arose.

All kinds of credible or uncredible news are flying all over the sky, and there are even rumors that the Second Artillery has begun to deliver short- and medium-range ballistic missiles to the region.

Of course, the source of this news cannot be an official leak. Obviously, this is a smoke bomb deliberately released by the opponent.

But what is difficult is that the Second Artillery is indeed carrying out some railway dispatches, and these dispatches have inevitably fallen into a "semi-open" state.

As a result, public opinion became more and more tense, and the atmosphere of war gradually permeated.

In such an atmosphere, everyone is looking forward to a definitive response.

But for the official, what kind of attitude to show is also a difficult question.

In the office, Li Xiang looked at Chen Nian opposite, and said a little helplessly:

"Lao Mei really doesn't want to lose face. The same method is not enough to be played once, but it needs to be played twice or three times."

"But the point is, it's still so useful every time."

"One trick is popular all over the world. Our own anti-missile system has also matured. When the time comes, we will also sell it to South America and Cuba. It is so disgusting and disgusting to them."

"Different."

Chen Nian shook his head and replied:

"The reason why they can threaten us with THAAD is because this system was originally prepared for the 'final battle', for a nuclear war."

"Being able to deploy THAAD around us, they can intercept strategic missiles in the early stage of launching, greatly reducing our nuclear strike and nuclear counterattack capabilities."

"Essentially speaking, this is an 'insurance measure', and its purpose is to reduce the probability of a nuclear war."

"And the premise of 'no nuclear war' is that they are confident that they can outperform anyone on a conventional battlefield."

"If we want to learn from them, we must first ask ourselves if we have the strength."

Hearing this, Li Xiang sighed:

"That can't make them sick like this every time, right? The current public opinion is really a mess."

"You may not have much perception—even within the public opinion department, some comrades feel that timely concessions and moderately lowering public expectations can reduce the popularity of public opinion and better cooperate with our strategy."

"But in fact, the logic of public opinion is completely opposite."

"This is not working to earn money. If the boss tells you that the bonus will be gone next month, you just wait obediently."

"What's really going on is that if we back down, the people will get even more angry."

"Why do you say we can't beat it? Are we unable to beat it or you can't beat it? If you can't beat it, just change people until you can beat it!"

"At that time, the pressure we face will only be greater"

"I know that too."

Chen Nian nodded heavily.

In fact, he, who has personally experienced almost the same situation, is more aware of the danger than Li Xiang.

It's not just a matter of public opinion. In this era when the Internet is not yet developed enough, people's emotions actually lack a "flood reservoir" that can bear their pressure.

Once developed to the limit, what follows is the transition from virtual to reality.

Whether it was the car smashing incident that year or the boycott of THAAD in South Korea, it is actually a microcosm of this trend.

If it weren't for the fact that the relationship between China and the United States hadn't reached the final stage, and if the country involved hadn't taken the initiative to make concessions, then it is very likely that under the intensifying pressure of public opinion, the official will make a compromise decision.

There are always people who say that the lower classes of Huaxia have no voice channels, and people who always say that the so-called "assembly power" cannot be used at all, but in fact, looking at the history of Huaxia after the founding of the People's Republic of China, in fact, every similar incident, as long as it reaches a certain scale , will definitely attract attention.

This is completely different from the situation in which Western-style democracy takes to the streets at every turn, but cannot shake the decision-making power held by capital at all.

It is precisely because of its rare occurrence and great influence that officials are so cautious about it.

Thinking of this, Chen Nian was silent for a moment, then continued:

"In the final analysis, the purpose of the news released by the other party is to 'put pressure', not to 'land'."

"From what I know of Congress, there's no way they would approve a contract like this."

"So, the focus of our response is not after landing, but in the process of their continuous speculation of this concept."

"To put it bluntly, we still need one or two pieces of news with sufficient weight to stabilize the morale of the army."

"According to the timeline they announced, the first batch of arms sales equipment will be in place within three months, that is, by the end of June."

"That is to say, during these three months, we must come up with new equipment that is strong enough to fight back against them."

"Can't the newly launched 055 work?"

Li Xiang asked subconsciously.

Chen Nian couldn't help laughing, and asked back:

"You are engaged in public opinion work yourself, don't you know if it's okay?"

"The public is blind. They don't know the difference between one 055 and two 055s. All they can see are 'new things'."

"...but the problem is, we can't come up with something new."

"It is impossible to complete the current projects in such a short period of time, and those that can be completed in a short period of time are not enough to form an effective suppression force"

"We can't make the 096 project public in advance, right? This is purely self-defeating martial arts."

"Who said it can't be done? Wuzhen-9."

Chen Nian had already prepared for this. This unmanned reconnaissance aircraft was not just to make up for the tactical flaws.

In fact, what Chen Nian really wanted to do was to make it a benchmark.

A benchmark for future sixth-generation machines.

It had to integrate all the most advanced technologies, with super functionality that absolutely does not exist in this world.

Its existence is to clearly tell the world that I can make a reconnaissance plane to this level, and in a short while, I can also make a fighter jet to this level.

And you will have no power to resist in front of me.

Doing this will not only be a major boost to Li Xiang's public opinion work, but will also greatly improve the deterrence of the United States.

Looking at Chen Nian's expression, Li Xiang couldn't help being a little curious.

he asked;

"So what exactly is your Wudetection-9 going to do?"

Chen Nian replied:

"It's very simple."

"I want them to do things that satellites can't."

"With several WX-9s taking turns on duty, they can monitor an aircraft carrier battle group 24/7."

In fact, the most practical way to monitor the aircraft carrier battle group 24/7, as Chen Nian said, is to use radar imaging satellites.

After all, this thing does not need to consider stealth, battery life, speed and other aspects that need to be considered by reconnaissance aircraft. After being equipped with a high-power radar imaging system, even clouds are no longer a problem.

But unfortunately, at this point in time in 2008, my country's aerospace technology is still a long time away from explosive development. The number of satellites in the sky can't be achieved by continuous monitoring, let alone intermittent tracking.

Chen Nian had seen a piece of data before.

If divided according to the timeline, during the period from 2001 to 2010, China had almost no way to monitor the aircraft carrier with satellites.

From 2010 to 2015, Huaxia could intermittently track the aircraft carrier, and the range accuracy could be within 500 kilometers.

From 2015 to 2018, after three years of development, the tracking accuracy can reach 200 kilometers.

To achieve all-weather tracking, it will be after 2020 when the official Beidou network is completed.

Obviously, Chen Nian couldn't wait that long.

Therefore, what he intends to adopt is a set of simple and crude methods.

Directly use high-altitude reconnaissance planes for uninterrupted tracking. From the moment the aircraft carrier is discovered, it will always hang over its head.

To do this, two issues become key.

High speed and high battery life.

The high speed is to ensure that the defense can be completed in time within the predetermined time, and the high battery life is to ensure the continuity of tracking.

Can one aircraft do both?

It's actually hard.

After all, the high battery life of the Rainbow-9 UAV is actually exchanged for its high-speed performance. It can fly at supersonic speeds, but it is far from Chen Nian's requirements for the so-called "high speed".

There is only one engine that can really meet the standard:

The turbo-based combined power cycle engine, also known as the legendary TBCC engine.

To put it simply, this kind of engine is an engine with three working modes: turbine, sub-combustion ramjet, and scramjet. The function of Detective-9 fits perfectly.

According to the report that Chen Nian had read before, in 2020, the Changan Aerospace Power Research Institute had released a combined power engine. Calculated from the time, they should have entered the research and development process for a while now.

At this time, it is the right time to ask them to intervene.

However, that engine is said to be an RBCC engine -- that is, rocket-based.

There is an essential difference between RBCC and TBCC. Whether it can meet Chen Nian's requirements depends on the specific communication.

Thinking of this, Chen Nian immediately dialed Chen Guo's phone number, and as soon as he opened his mouth, he asked directly:

"Professor Chen, help me find out who is currently in charge of the RBCC project of the Chang'an Aerospace Propulsion Institute."

"RBCC? You mean a rocket-based combined power engine?"

Chen Guo on the other end of the phone was a little puzzled. He had heard of this type of engine technology, and knew that there were many research topics in the world.

But even as the general manager of Xinghuo, he has not seen any information showing that there are specific projects in this area in China.

——

Of course, this is also related to the previous work direction of Xinghuo.

The focus of Xinghuo has always been in the field of military and civilian equipment. For the relatively special aerospace field, the investment has always been insufficient.

"Yes, the rocket-based combined power cycle engine, you can call the Chang'an Research Institute directly to ask, they should have their own internal records."

Hearing this, Chen Guo nodded subconsciously, and then couldn't help asking:

"Your information. Forget it, I won't ask, there is no risk of leaking, right?"

He is no stranger to Chen Nian frequently shaking out some top-secret information that he does not know, and he also knows that it is impossible to ask for specific results, so he just wants to confirm one thing, that is, this information was not provided to Chen Nian by anyone. of.

Compared with Chen Nian's mysterious and unpredictable source of information, it is obvious that the leak of a certain project will cause more harm.

"no."

Chen Nian replied concisely.

Of course, he was well aware of Chen Guo's thoughts.

"That's good. By the way, why are you looking for them? Are you going to build rockets? Or build space planes?"

"No, it's still Wuzhen-9's project, and I plan to put it on TBCC."

".The liquid rocket engine you mentioned is TBCC? Is it too difficult?"

Hearing Chen Guo's words, Chen Nian hesitated for a moment.

Compared with RBCC, TBCC is more technically difficult. It has extremely strict requirements on combustion chamber and precooler, and its requirements on process precision are even more exaggerated.

Hundreds of different finishing processes are designed for just one rocket ejection component.

But this does not mean that it is completely impossible to create TBCC.

The problem of materials has been solved long ago, not to mention the high-combustion ramjet technology, it was solved when the DF-17 was developed.

The biggest problem is nothing more than the precooler.

Chen Nian retrieved all the information he had learned about TBCC in his mind, and finally determined that although the technology of this type of engine is indeed not low, in general, it does not exceed the level of Huaxia's current technical foundation.

So he opened his mouth and answered:

"It sounds difficult, but it won't be a big problem."

"Understood—wait a minute, you're talking about looking for the RBCC team. Aren't TBCC and RBCC two different concepts?"

"That can't be helped. There is no TBCC in China now. It is already good to find an RBCC team. There are still many technical interoperability points. There is no problem in realizing the transformation in the short term."

After a pause, Chen Nian suddenly spoke again:

"By the way, you can help me contact the 31st Institute, the 31st Institute of Aerospace Science and Industry, and find Hu Zengping."

"What does he do?"

"He is the person in charge of Yunlong's dual-mode engine project, and I want their precooler technical team."

"You are really welcome to understand, I will arrange it."

With Chen Guo's confirmation, Chen Nian breathed a sigh of relief.

With the support of the two project teams of RBCC and Yunlong, the progress of the TBCC project should not be too slow.

Cooperating with Chengfei's overall design, it is not a problem to come up with the No-Detection-9 within three months