Chapter 1004 Satellite Gazing Reconnaissance

"Kitty Hawk?"

Hearing this conclusion, the eyes of several naval officers in front of the big screen lit up almost at the same time.

The expressions on their faces were even more exciting.

In fact, just now, everyone had some guesses about the nature of this target.

It was just because they were worried about being disappointed, so no one dared to jump to conclusions.

But now, with the news released by the United States as circumstantial evidence, it is basically stable.

This sea area is not a busy international waterway. Suddenly, something with a size of about 300 meters * 40 meters appeared, and the course and time period can also match.

There is almost no other possibility.

"Finally..."

The highest-ranking officer among the crowd let out a long sigh, then walked to the big screen, put his hands behind his back, and looked up at the small piece of distorted light-colored shadow.

I don't know if it's due to psychological factors, after hearing the news just now, now looking at it with the naked eye, it seems to have some angular appearance of the deck of an aircraft carrier...

"Finally caught you..."

He murmured to himself in a low voice.

As the flagship of the Seventh Fleet for a long time, Kitty Hawk has been active in various hot spots around China for most of its service career.

Thanks to the fact that conventional-powered aircraft carriers do not need to undergo ultra-long maintenance and nuclear fuel replacement, their effective time in service is much higher than that of later nuclear-powered younger generations.

Especially since the 1990s, it has always been a pioneer.

Although Kitty Hawk did not appear in the most well-known incident in 1996, it had a confrontation with the then weak Chinese Navy and Air Force in 1994, two years earlier.

That is, after entering the 21st century, due to its long service time and its participation in Operation Enduring Freedom in the North Arabian Sea in 2001, it has faded out of sight in the past two years.

But in any case, Kitty Hawk is definitely an old acquaintance for the Chinese Navy.

And it is not easy to deal with -

In terms of dispatch rate alone, aircraft carriers certainly cannot compete with land airports.

After multiple models of second-generation and half and third-generation aircraft entered service, the quality of the Chinese Air Force's small-scale top combat power is not inferior to those of the F14 or F18.

But the problem is.

As a mobile airport at sea, the aircraft carrier has unparalleled initiative.

As a defender lacking countermeasures, China often needs to infer the whereabouts of the opponent's fleet through public information, as just now.

Unless it is docked at a port, this speculation is inaccurate.

Moreover, if others really want to do something, they often hide it or even deliberately provide false fleet navigation information.

In this case, only when the target is very close to the coastline can the position of the opposite side be tracked by sea detection radar or reconnaissance aircraft.

However, due to the principle of over-the-horizon radar, the accuracy is generally very sorry.

It is difficult for reconnaissance aircraft to break through the air defense circle and intercept and rush to the opposite side.

This is why the Navy squeezed out a part of the funds to support the technical verification project of Ocean No. 1 even when it was about to change its equipment at a high speed.

However, today's experience can be described as ups and downs.

First of all, the first time the Ocean No. 1 was turned on, it actually captured a valid target.

Before they could be happy, a bucket of cold water was poured over their heads -

Almost no one thought that under certain circumstances, the imaging effect of ocean remote sensing would be so abstract.

The imagined scenario of a large number of remote sensing images sent back by satellite groups, and then judged by the staff units to finally form a strike chain, is obviously not so easy to implement.

However, on the other hand, the final result seems to prove that the onboard program's ability to identify target features is stronger than expected.

The staff unit is under great pressure, but the staff unit is not that stressed...

"The effect of this satellite is almost equal to all our past reconnaissance methods..."

Chen Dazhi from the General Armament Department came behind Chang Haonan:

"Comrade Weiyong, and Xiao Chang, in your opinion, if you want to achieve uninterrupted continuous surveillance in the Pacific Ocean... at least in the waters around our country in the western Pacific Ocean, how many satellites like Ocean No. 1 do you need to launch?"

Before taking office as the deputy director of the General Armament Department, Chen Dazhi served as the deputy director of the National Defense Science and Technology Commission for a period of time. Although he was transferred before Chang Haonan became famous, he was still one of the first people to have contact with Chang Haonan.

The name has been retained habitually.

This somewhat sudden question made Zhang Weiyong and Chang Haonan a little difficult to answer for a while.

Obviously, what happened today inspired the equipment department.

So much so that there are some new ideas.

According to the original plan, after the successful technical verification of Ocean No. 1, the real ocean surveillance satellite will be developed and launched in 5-6 years.

But judging from the current situation, the user seems to be reluctant to wait...

The two looked at each other, and Zhang Weiyong, a satellite expert, was the first to give his opinion:

"Director Chen, if you want to truly achieve effective military reconnaissance and surveillance, it is probably impossible to rely only on satellites like Ocean No. 1."

"The sun-synchronous orbit satellite has an approximately circular orbit. The advantage is that a satellite can scan almost the entire earth's surface in one day, and it scans the same point at the same time every day. As for Haiyang-1, it will scan at 9 a.m. every day. By passing through my country’s Kashgar Measurement and Control Station.”

"But the height of the sun-synchronous orbit is not high, and due to the performance of the current satellite equipment, it cannot provide a particularly wide viewing angle, so the range of each shooting is actually very limited... Such satellites are more suitable for global coverage Sexual surveillance, rather than high-frequency revisiting of a certain point..."

"In short, achieving 24-hour uninterrupted reconnaissance and surveillance around our country is as difficult as conducting 24-hour uninterrupted reconnaissance and surveillance at any point in the world..."

“What about geosynchronous orbit?”

Chen Dazhi still refused to give up. He studied missile technology when he was in school. Although he was not exactly the same person, he was not blind.

"Geosynchronous orbit can indeed ensure continuous monitoring of a relatively large range, but the orbital height is too high and requires very advanced imaging equipment... This type of equipment has almost no demand other than military use, and the core components are used by the Americans. Monopoly, even if we have good relations with Europe now, it will be difficult to get finished products.”

"In addition, even if the equipment problem is really solved, it will still require a very large satellite to carry it, and it will also require a large energy supply, and the weight will also increase accordingly... The current Dongfanghong 4 is not enough in any case , in addition, to launch a behemoth of more than ten or twenty tons into geosynchronous orbit, a heavy-duty rocket much larger than the Changsanyi is needed..."

"..."

Obviously, although China has developed quite rapidly in recent years, facing this kind of systemic backwardness, it is still not something that can be easily recovered.

Looking at Chen Dazhi with an expression of "Master, please stop reading", Luan Wenjie, who is in charge of the development of the entire aerospace industry, shook his head helplessly and said comfortingly:

"It's not that there is no good news. Now the 10-ton Dongfanghong-5 satellite platform and several new launch vehicles with take-off weights in the 500-1,000 tons range have begun to be demonstrated. It is estimated that the project will be approved soon. The 20-ton I dare not say, but it shouldn’t be a big problem to put a 15-ton object into geosynchronous orbit in the future..."

Chen Da said frankly that you are coaxing children here. It is normal for more than ten years to pass from the beginning of demonstration to the completion of research and development...

But when the words came to his lips, he looked at Chang Haonan, who was standing beside him with his head bowed silently, and finally held back.

"Actually...it's not necessarily impossible."

At this moment, Chang Haonan suddenly spoke:

"The current Haiyang-1 is a technology verification satellite, so the shooting angle of the on-board equipment is fixed and is limited to just below the satellite. If you want to adjust the shooting angle, you need to spend fuel to adjust the attitude of the satellite itself."

"But if we remove other functions from a specialized ocean reconnaissance satellite, and use the extra space and power supply to install a set of gazing equipment... it will be similar to a human neck... er... or an owl's neck."

Chang Haonan felt that language alone might not be intuitive, so he asked a staff member next to him for a piece of paper and drew a schematic diagram with a few strokes:

"The shooting angle can be adjusted while the satellite itself is stationary. In this way, the effective reconnaissance time provided by one satellite will be greatly improved, and the number of satellites required can also be reduced to...probably single digits."