Chapter 1053 New AWACS Platform?

What Chang Haonan was most worried about did not happen.

After all, this time, the American's forward swing was too long.

After the flight test institute reported the emergency air situation discovered accidentally, the final feedback received was to require the Air Police 2000 to continue testing without disrupting the plan due to the activities of overseas air targets.

It is obvious that although there is currently no dedicated "hotline" across the Pacific, there is still some basic mechanism to prevent miscalculation between major powers.

In other words, when the U.S. military conducts large-scale operations in the hinterland of Central Asia, the top leaders of major surrounding countries should have been notified in advance.

However, the superiors did not expect that the Air Police 2000 could capture the low-altitude activities of large targets 500 kilometers away, so they did not notify the flight test institute of the relevant information.

It was only at this time that Chang Haonan learned that Haiyang 1 had captured the approximate location of the US fleet more than a dozen times in the past half month.

There are as many as seven aircraft carriers involved.

Although due to the insufficient number of networks, the timeliness of each positioning is basically at the 1-2 day level, which obviously cannot be used for the mid-stage guidance he envisioned.

However, for the Chinese military, which in the past could only rely on unreliable means such as public reports and AIS information monitoring, it is enough to be ecstatic to be able to locate the approximate coordinates of the opponent completely by independent and controllable means.

After all, even if the fleet is free to run, it will only cover about 1,000 kilometers a day.

Today’s reconnaissance timeliness of 1-2 days can at least completely eliminate the possibility of the enemy using fake AIS signals to attack the east and west.

In short, with the advancement of technological means and the improvement of China's international status, there are fewer and fewer cases where it is necessary to rely on a single source of information to judge the direction of the situation.

As for what happened next, it was almost the same as the previous timeline...

March 17th.

Although it failed to obtain Security Council permission due to two votes against and one abstention among the five permanent members, the United States still issued an ultimatum in the name of "checking the abuse of chemical weapons."

By this time, even ordinary people can see it.

War is unavoidable.

Sure enough, it was three days later.

March 20th.

Operation "shock and awe" has officially begun.

In terms of scale, this is undoubtedly the largest military operation since the end of the Cold War.

However, since the defenders gave up most of their resistance almost from the beginning, the whole process was more like a march than an attack.

Still marching along the highway.

Completely lackluster militarily.

Even so, there is still a serious disconnect between the northern and southern coalition forces, which is surprising...

However, the military belongs to the military, and technology belongs to technology.

Compared with Operation Desert Storm 12 years ago, as well as the relatively small-scale Operation Allied Forces and Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S. military in this war has indeed demonstrated commendable joint command capabilities.

Not to mention anything else, during Operation Shock and Awe, the proportion of precision-guided munitions used by the coalition air force was ten times greater than that of Desert Storm, but the reaction time was shortened to one-tenth.

Moreover, the frequency of accidentally hitting friendly forces is also greatly reduced.

All this is largely due to the as many as 50 early warning and command aircraft of various types, with nearly a hundred flights per day, ensuring the smooth flow of intelligence acquisition and command links across the entire battlefield.

Therefore, it has also become an area of ​​focus for Chang Haonan and others...

…

"Mr. Chang, it seems that the 200 nodes we have reserved in the command system...not to mention meeting the needs of the three armed forces in the future, even to meet the needs of the Air Force, may not be enough..."

One day during his lunch break, Guo Lin sighed while flipping through the report in his hand.

"In terms of information warfare, we do still have a lot of room for improvement, but don't be scared by American propaganda."

Chang Haonan put down the cup in his hand, raised his head and replied:

"Firstly, with the improvement of communication hardware level, the scale of the command network can be further expanded in the future. Secondly..."

He stood up and came to the blackboard, and casually drew several connected circles:

"Don't forget, every node in our self-organizing network is a centerless node with equal status. In addition to the receiving and responding functions of ordinary terminals, it also has complete message forwarding capabilities."

"Such a node setting is mainly aimed at a more flexible, smaller and more sophisticated combat style in the future. It is believed that even combat units have certain reconnaissance, surveillance and intelligence collection capabilities. In other words, they themselves are advanced in a centralized communication network. node."

Having said this, he then drew more solid dots:

"If we really need to command hundreds, thousands, or even more units to fight at the same time, then we can completely let a node in the self-organizing network command more ordinary nodes through the traditional communication network, even if it is just according to 1: Calculated with a ratio of 20, it can also be expanded to more than 4,000..."

When Chang Haonan mentioned a number like 4,000, Guo Lin's hand holding the report trembled slightly:

"4000... If it were placed on the ground in a regiment-level battlefield, wouldn't every ordinary soldier be included in the command node?"

As a technician of the Electronics Technology Group, he usually faces a variety of clients, so his thinking is broader than that of his colleagues in the Aviation Industry who stare at airplanes every day.

And Chang Haonan couldn't help laughing when he heard half of it.

Mainly because he remembered a joke he had heard during the PLA military reform in his previous life -

Synthetic spirit, synthetic soul, synthetic squad leader, synthetic man...

When the information level is delegated to the end, can't we only have individual soldiers?

"Ahem - the long-term goal is indeed like this."

Looking at Guo Lin with a puzzled look on his face, Chang Haonan coughed twice and quickly returned to the topic:

"Moreover, the application of information technology is not necessarily limited to the battlefield. Just like the 4,000 nodes mentioned just now, even for a factory, as long as it is not a particularly complex type, it is enough to finely control each operation node."

"Such a factory... doesn't it need people at all?"

Guo Lin widened his eyes slightly.

"In theory, it is..."

Chang Haonan nodded.

Before he was reborn, a dark factory was not a particularly rare thing.

But for people in the early 21st century, it sounds a bit dreamy.

And if you imagine an empty factory building that is busy maintaining production...

It seems a bit scary.

Therefore, Chang Haonan decided to return to reality first:

"Of course, these are all things at the communication principle level. Even if the construction is completed, if you really want to realize it, you still have to provide hardware-level guarantees."

"No matter how advanced the theory is, if there is no aircraft equipped with data links or communication satellites with sufficient bandwidth, you can only scratch the surface..."

However, Guo Lin seemed to be immersed in the imagination of the unmanned factory just now, and did not respond immediately.

It was not until a few seconds later that he took a deep breath and nodded:

"Indeed... Just like the Americans this time, they actually dispatched more than 40 early warning aircraft to achieve such a command effect..."

He turned his head and looked at the KJ-2000 prototype that was undergoing routine maintenance in the general assembly workshop.

Although the mass-produced aircraft platform will be domestically produced, the cost is still a bit too high for the People's Liberation Army, where all military branches are clamoring for replacement.

Many times, quantity itself is also a kind of quality.

"Not all the aircraft dispatched by the Americans are E3, half of them are E2C of relatively small size..."

Chang Haonan sat back in his chair:

"Everyone's ideas are actually similar, all are high-low matching, but the scale of the US carrier-based aviation is large enough, so the "low" part can be handed over to the Navy's E2C, and the Air Force only needs to operate the strategic-level E3, which looks much simpler, and we can't have such a large-scale carrier-based aircraft in a short time, so the Air Force needs to equip both high and low models at the same time..."

"..."

This remark was somewhat comforting to Guo Lin.

Because even the relatively low-level KJ-200 has a relatively small number of equipment in China-

So far, including the prototype that was later converted into a mass-produced aircraft, there is only one each for the Navy Aviation and the Air Force Aviation.

Moreover, after the initial period of surprise, the subsequent purchase desire shown by the two services was not very strong

This is not just a cost issue.

In fact, neither the user, Party A, nor Chang Haonan, who made the overall design for the aircraft, was very satisfied with the KJ-200.

Mainly, they were not satisfied with the carrier aircraft.

Although the Y-8 Class III platform has made great improvements in safety, there are really no other advantages except the localization rate.

For users, it is slow, has a short range, and is not comfortable...

Moreover, as a planned "light" early warning aircraft, the 60-ton volume is actually not very light.

Even the scale of the ground support unit required to serve it is larger than that of the KJ-2000 using the passenger aircraft platform.

There is also one more crew member.

There is really no place to complain.

At that time, it was to solve the problem of whether there was a problem or not, and after the ring project was set up, it won a reputation for China, so it became a hot commodity for a while.

With the advancement of the KJ-2000 project, in contrast, it quickly recovered the essence of Mrs. Niu.

As for Chang Haonan, as the 14th Institute's principle verification of the optical phased array radar becomes more and more in-depth, he is more and more eager to find users in the international market to be guinea pigs.

Especially after this deterrent action, I am afraid that the understanding and demand of various countries for early warning aircraft will be further improved.

It is definitely a market with considerable potential.

Although I also considered learning from David's Falcon system and flexibly matching the carrier by only selling airborne equipment, this is obviously a last resort.

Earning more platform money is secondary.

The main reason is that the structure and aerodynamic characteristics of different carriers are very different. If each order is customized, the production cost and delivery cycle will be greatly increased, which is not conducive to competition in the international market...

Chang Haonan rubbed his forehead in some distress, ready to put this problem aside and take a lunch break for a while.

However, at this moment.

A bold idea suddenly appeared in Chang Haonan's mind...