Chapter 73 Ivanov's Support
"Captain, this spare parts warehouse is too messy. I suggest that our regiment conduct a thorough cleanup and reclassify and register various items. What do you think?" Andrei said to Commander Ivanov.
"Captain, you don't have to worry about these little things. We can take care of them." Akim said quickly.
"No need." Andre looked at Akim meaningfully. "Our maintenance staff are usually too busy. We don't even have time to maintain the fighter planes. How can we spare time to organize the backup warehouse? I'd better ask my superior to send someone."
Ask the superior? Akim felt his body tremble. Andre's words were obvious. Captain Andre in front of him must have known everything here. He wanted to report it to the higher-ups!
What should I do? Akim slowly retreated, quietly left the warehouse, and quickly went to consult with the base commander Kozhidub!
"Found it!" At this moment, a shout came from the other side. In a large birch wood box, there was the backup aircraft gun pod!
"Okay, push it to the hangar and modify it now!" said Andre.
Watching several young maintenance men pushing the boxes away on a cart, Ivanov whispered to Andrei, "Andrei, do you know what you are doing?"
Andre nodded: "Yes, Captain, we are a combat regiment, and we will have combat missions at any time. I don't want there to be a time bomb in our regiment, I must clear it! We must not allow those who only care about their own interests to continue to stay with us!"
Andrei thought about the future. After Gorbachev came to power, the Soviet Union was in chaos. Some bold guys kept selling state property to enrich themselves at the expense of the public. This situation must not happen again!
What we are fighting is a war without the smoke of gunpowder, but it is more dangerous than fighting with the Americans. It is very difficult to turn the situation of the entire country around by one's own strength.
Fortunately, I am not fighting alone!
"Andrei, I support you!" Ivanov said, "It's time to clean up the mess! It's also my fault for always being permissive."
The relationship between the flying regiment and the base was very delicate. Ivanov often tolerated the base commander Kozhedub, including the other party's placement of some of his connections into the maintenance brigade, to which Ivanov agreed.
After Belenko's incident, Ivanov felt a little guilty because he also heard what was now classified as absolutely confidential. Before he was shot down, Belenko said that he was dissatisfied with the current situation at the base! Including Andrei's almost accident, it was all because of the maintenance problem!
Andrei now wants to reorganize the situation, and Ivanov supports him.
"Thank you, Captain." Andrei said, "We must now protect the warehouse, especially the records, to prevent any accidents. I will contact the KGB in Vladivostok to help investigate this matter thoroughly and bring to justice!"
Contact the KGB in Vladivostok! The KGB has great power and can intervene in the internal affairs of the army. Moreover, Andrei will certainly get Andropov's approval if he does this, because just before coming, Andrei received another call from Andropov, asking him to ask the KGB in Vladivostok for help if he has any problems!
And Major Shelov would not come to trouble him for the time being. What Andrei was most worried about was Akim. If he knew that his scandals were about to be exposed, would he do something desperate? For example, he would steal the records and burn them, so that there would be no record and it would be difficult to check.
Of course, if he really did that, it would mean spending the rest of his life in prison, and the KGB would be able to get to the bottom of everything.
These are all small matters. For Andrei, the biggest thing is, of course, to install the machine gun so that he can take off and shoot down the Blackbird again! The superiors have given a death order, so the 513th Regiment is under great pressure to let the Blackbird fly in the Soviet sky.
The UPK-23 gun pod was removed from the box. Using simple lifting equipment, Victor and several maintenance personnel hoisted the gun pod onto the wing mount on the inside of the MiG-25.
Although the wing pylon was specially designed for the MiG-25, it did not have a very special structure, and this time it was not for launching missiles, which required a detachment mechanism; it was sufficient to just fix the gun pod to the wing.
The installation did not take much effort. According to Andre's suggestion, there was a machine gun on each side, which could balance the load on both wings on the one hand and enhance firepower on the other.
Although it would be more appropriate to place it under the nose of the aircraft, where machine gun shells can easily pass through the supersonic shock cone in front, that would allow more smoke to enter the air inlet. Moreover, if it were to be placed under the nose of the aircraft, it would be a major operation, and the maintenance personnel under my command would certainly not be able to complete it.
"Captain Andre, we need to install a sight in front of the cockpit." After installing the machine gun, Victor said to Andre, "But this will block all forward vision."
Sights! It doesn't mean you can just attach a machine gun and take off to fight. If you want your fighter to hit the enemy, you must use the sights!
Therefore, the forward field of view in the cramped Soviet cockpit is very small, because the sight has to be installed in the front! On the MiG-25, the front is wider.
Because the MiG-25 was not originally intended to use machine guns, its only weapon was the R-40 missile, and it was only able to launch the R-60 at a later stage. Its way of fighting was to launch missiles from a distance and then fly away, so there was no sight at all!
Now, with the addition of a machine gun, the corresponding sights must be installed to completely block the forward direction.
"Okay." Andre said, but he frowned as he looked at the sight he took out of the box.
In later generations, Andrei, in addition to flying the J-7 trainer in the aviation school, also flew the J-11. Although it also came from the Su-27 and the technology was not fully mastered, China far surpassed Russia in avionics. They were equipped with advanced avionics equipment, and aiming and locking were mainly carried out using the HUD.
For example, for cannon attacks, the J-11 has an enhanced envelope cannon aiming system that integrates radar, fire control system, inertial reference system, and head-up display. On the HUD in front of the cockpit, there are cross lines representing the trajectory of the shells and two arcs forming a channel. The curvature of the arc changes with the flight movements of the fighter. When the target aircraft falls within the two arcs, it means that the target aircraft is on the same plane as itself, making it easy to pursue; when the wingspan of the target aircraft fills the width of the arc, it means that it has entered the range. At this time, if the cross lines are above the target aircraft, the pilot only needs to keep the aircraft's attitude stable and press a button, and the stream of shells will go straight to the target.