Chapter 39 Fan Heng's Mission

In the past few days in Guangzhou, Fan Heng seemed a little preoccupied.

One of the reasons was naturally caused by Fan Wubing, and the second reason was that he visited Tongfeng Company for a few days and felt something in his heart.

In recent years, the life of state-owned enterprises has been difficult!

Take the Pingyuan Machinery Factory where Fan Heng works as an example. It is a military enterprise, relatively speaking, it is better. The military orders can basically maintain the basic operation of the factory, but it is very difficult to expand it. After all, in the past Since a few years ago, the main tone of the country's foreign propaganda has been peaceful coexistence, so this issue of armaments cannot be too relaxed, so as not to give people facts.

Pingyuan Machinery Factory is an enterprise that provides shipborne weapons for the navy. Simply put, it specializes in the production of a torpedo.

Torpedoes are weapons used in sea battles. After launching, you can control the direction and depth of your navigation. When you encounter a ship, you can explode as soon as you touch it. It has the characteristics of fast sailing speed, long range, good concealment, high hit rate and great destructiveness, so it can be called "underwater missile".

The main targets of torpedo attacks are warships and submarines, and they can also be used to block ports and narrow waterways. The front part is the mine head, which is equipped with explosives and fuzes; the middle part is the mine body, which is equipped with navigation and control devices; the rear part is the fish tail, which is equipped with power devices such as engines and propellers, and the energy sources of the power system are gas and electricity respectively. wait. According to different needs, torpedoes are divided into three types: large, medium and small. Large torpedoes with a diameter of more than 533 mm; medium torpedoes with a diameter of 400 to 450 mm; small torpedoes with a diameter of 324 mm or less. Torpedoes are mainly carried by ships, but can also be carried by aircraft if necessary.

By the beginning of World War I, torpedoes were recognized as the primary weapon of ships after artillery. During the First World War, 11.53 million tons of transport ships were sunk by torpedoes, accounting for 89% of the total tonnage of transport ships sunk; 162 ships, accounting for 49% of the total number of ships sunk. During the Second World War, the total tonnage of transport ships sunk by torpedoes reached 13.66 million tons, accounting for 68% of the total tonnage of transport ships sunk; the number of ships reached 369, accounting for 38.5% of the total number of ships sunk.

Compared with missiles, the role of traditional torpedoes has great limitations. It is only suitable for attacking ships on the sea surface or shore-based fortifications, or for attacking submarines under the sea, unlike missiles that go above and below the surface of the water. Both can be applied, and its combat radius is much smaller than that of missiles. If it weren't for the particularity of deep-water combat and the low price, this thing would probably be in the phase-out stage.

Domestic torpedo weapons, due to historical reasons, are basically in line with the torpedoes developed by Soviet Russia, and their technical performance is only on the thermal power torpedoes of the early 20th century, which are commonly known as steam gas torpedoes.

In foreign countries, the development of torpedo technology can already be described as changing with each passing day.

In 1938, Germany was the first to equip submarines with non-track electric torpedoes, which overcome the disadvantages of thermal torpedoes that are easy to be found due to the exhaust gas forming tracks during navigation. In 1943, Germany developed a single-plane passive acoustic homing torpedo, which can automatically guide the torpedo by receiving the noise of the water and ships, improving the hit rate. At the end of World War II, Germany invented the wire-guided torpedo. The launching ship was guided by a wire connected to the tail of the torpedo, so it was not easy to be interfered.

In the mid-1950s, the United States manufactured a dual-plane active acoustic homing torpedo (also known as an anti-submarine torpedo), which can search in three-dimensional space in water and attack submerged submarines. In 1960, the United States first developed the "Asrock" rocket-assisted torpedo (also known as anti-submarine missile), which was carried by a rocket and flew to a predetermined point into the water to automatically search, track and attack submarines. After the 1970s, torpedoes used microcomputers, improved the function of the self-guiding device, and enhanced the ability to resist interference and identify targets. Its speed has increased to 90-100 km/h and the range has reached 46,000 meters. ,

Although the torpedo's status has declined due to the emergence of anti-ship missiles, it is still an important weapon for the navy. Especially on attack submarines, torpedoes are the main attack weapon.

In the past, Fan Heng was limited to his status level, and his work was only in charge of the final assembly of torpedo weapons. Now that his level has been improved, he has seen more internal information. After learning about the huge gap between domestic and foreign countries, The shock in my heart is indescribable.

How domestic military enterprises should survive and develop is a big issue, and it cannot be decided by a cadre at Fan Heng's level, but this does not affect him to use his own mind to think about this issue.

The torpedo technology of Pingyuan Machinery Factory naturally originated from the Soviet Union, and later developed part of it independently. Since Sino-Soviet relations have been in a state of hostility since the 1960s, technological progress has been very limited, and the gap with developed countries has become more and more wide. big. Since the beginning of this year, the relationship between China and the United States has gradually warmed up. After some technologies were lifted, the country is also developing electric torpedoes on its own. The effect is not bad, but compared with the latest torpedoes, it is obviously not on the same level.

At the beginning of this year, the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam broke out. The one-month continuous attack made Vietnam a lot more peaceful, and the battle on the sea also achieved certain results, especially the capture of a complete Soviet-made new torpedo. As if they had found a treasure, the military immediately brought the torpedo back to Tongfeng Company in Guangzhou for anatomical research in order to obtain key core technologies.

The investigation group headed by Fan Heng mainly came to Tongfeng Company to contact and absorb advanced experience. It is also a military enterprise under the Ministry of Machinery Industry. Naturally, there is nothing to entangle in the issue of confidentiality. The key is to look at the technical strength in that area. The more solid it is, the more abundant the results will be.

Although the matter of Fan Wubing caused some troubles to Fan Heng, but he took the lead in the work, and he brought the most top-notch technical force in the factory, so he couldn't let the colleagues of Tongfeng Company, who is a brother company, see it. joke.

Therefore, once Fan Heng entered the state, he couldn't take care of Fan Wubing's affairs.