Chapter 1098 Global Hawk

"UFO?"

This news immediately made the entire command and control hall tense again.

In particular, the commander-in-chief of the manned space project immediately changed his expression.

The location mentioned in the report is really no joke.

The spacecraft recovery is the same as the rocket launch. In order to avoid danger, a range needs to be determined in advance as an air control area.

And because the landing trajectory is much steeper than the launch trajectory, this range will be much smaller than what was drawn during yesterday's launch.

Basically, it is a few hundred kilometers west of the landing area in central Mongolia Province.

After all, further west is foreign airspace, which is really not suitable to be included in the scope of aviation control.

Of course, under normal circumstances, it should be enough.

But considering that the Alliance TM10 spacecraft experienced a 400km shift during its landing just five months ago, if everyone says they are not worried, it must be a lie——

As the first manned space mission, it is best to eliminate any risk factors.

"What about the nature of the target?"

Shen Junrong, who had the second highest position at the scene, quickly asked.

Thanks to the remaining large sums of money left by the Air Force in the field of aviation in recent years, China has installed several batches of S300PMU1/2 air defense missiles in advance and transformed several anti-aircraft artillery regiments in key directions into surface-to-air missile brigades.

This unit under the Jincheng Military Region had just replaced its guns with cannons at the beginning of the year. Unexpectedly, it would come in handy.

"According to the report of the Earth Navigation Force, it is speculated that it is a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft belonging to the US military. It is slightly smaller than U2 or equivalent. However, the radar characteristics do not match any included models, and the target does not emit any electromagnetic signals. They are closely tracking the movement. …”

Upon hearing this judgment, the commander-in-chief breathed a sigh of relief.

Americans are indeed in trouble.

But known trouble is better than unknown threats.

While everyone was thinking about countermeasures, another correspondent hurried over:

"Report, Jincheng Military Region Air Traffic Control Department sent to ask, can the aviation force take off now to monitor or intercept the target?"

In normal times, China's airspace use is fully managed by the Air Force.

Basically, only others give way to military aircraft, there is no such thing as military aircraft giving way to others.

But the priority of Shenzhou 5 is too high, and the target is not far from the control area.

Taking off from several nearby airports, you basically have to pass through the control zone to reach the border.

Therefore, even the aviation force has to have some concerns...

Time passed by minute by minute.

At this time, there are only about three hours left before the spacecraft is recovered.

And the more times like this, the more calm you have to be.

"If it is really a reconnaissance plane, then the other party's purpose is probably to monitor our process of recovering the spacecraft..."

After a brief silence, Shen Junrong took the lead in guessing.

However, this statement is obviously not very tenable.

So someone quickly expressed different opinions:

"But the trajectory of the spacecraft's return is all public, and there is nothing worthy of special reconnaissance..."

"Besides, if they are really interested in this matter, then we should have discovered similar behavior during the previous missions, right?"

Clear and well-founded.

But this person couldn't bring up any more valuable points.

As a result, the speculations gradually began to become outrageous:

"Perhaps... our air defense equipment in the west was relatively backward and we didn't find the target?"

Regarding the space mission itself, Chang Haonan really had no chance to intervene.

But when it comes to this, he is no longer sleepy:

"impossible……"

Chang Haonan shook his head decisively:

"The Earth Guidance Force reported that the target is slightly smaller than U2, which means it is a big guy without stealth capabilities. If it has appeared around us before, then it is an old-fashioned equipment. At best, it cannot be accurately positioned, or it may be interfered with and unable to track stably. It’s impossible not to find even a trace…”

Regarding aircraft within the atmosphere, his judgment is still somewhat convincing.

Therefore, everyone's attention gathered.

The comrade commander-in-chief even motioned for him to continue.

Chang Haonan originally just said it casually, but at this time he was already riding a tiger, so he had no choice but to continue his analysis:

"Looking at the other party's trajectory...including the current time period, it doesn't look like it is conducting pure optical reconnaissance. And the Air Force said that the target did not emit any electromagnetic signals, which means that the synthetic aperture radar has not been activated..."

Suddenly he had a flash of inspiration:

"Looking at it this way... the Americans may have seen the program we just broadcast, so they want to monitor our communication signals?"

Shen Junrong had an expression on his face that said, "I'm afraid you're not kidding me."

"One of the two receiving stations you set up is in Beijing and the other is in Haojing. Even if the Americans have more advanced technology, it is impossible to receive satellite signals aimed at two thousand kilometers away in Central Asia, right?"

He has also seen the effective coverage of the Qingluan constellation.

In the process of maintaining communications, the westernmost point will not cross the central Tianshan Mountains.

"In fact, it really can't be..."

Chang Haonan replied:

"But the decision-making cycle of our entire plan is very short. As for the Americans, they may only have a few hours of analysis time, so the other party may think that the Shule Measurement and Control Station is playing a role, so this behavior now is very reasonable... …”

The commander-in-chief was obviously hesitant at this time.

The main reason is that the opponent's route is completely outside the country, and the air force cannot really intercept it even if it takes off.

"So... the opponent's reconnaissance will not yield any results?"

"If the target is the communication situation of the Qingluan constellation, then I can guarantee it."

Chang Haonan gave a firm answer.

After hearing this, the commander-in-chief lowered his head again and paced back and forth nearby:

"Let the ground-to-air missile force continue to monitor, and the air force... stand by for the time being!"

...

At the same time.

The west coast of the Persian Gulf.

Al Dhafra Air Force Base.

Colonel Ted Lynch flipped through the flight log with one hand and held the joystick with the other hand, carefully controlling the aircraft's route to gradually shift eastward.

It seems that his work is no different from other pilots.

However, he did not wear any flight equipment.

He was not even sitting in a cramped cockpit.

Instead, he faced a keyboard, six screens, and a table spacious enough to hold a coffee cup.

Obviously, this is a drone ground control station.

As an old pilot who retired from the RC135, Lynch did not transfer to a purely administrative position or teach at a flight school like most of his peers after he died, due to his rich experience in reconnaissance flights.

Instead, he became a UAV ground operator through selection.

Although he lost the excitement of being in the sky, he at least continued to stay in the ranks of pilots in another form.

And the model he was responsible for was the RQ4A "Global Hawk" that had just been put into service two years ago.

It was also one of the first nine aircraft in the block10 batch.

Strictly speaking, it can only be regarded as a prototype, and even each one is different.

It was forced to serve just because it was in a hurry to play a role-

Compared to the RC135, which is huge in size but has a range of only about 200 kilometers, the Global Hawk has an exaggerated range of 200 kilometers and a maximum air time of more than 40 hours.

And, thanks to the perfect satellite communication network, it can also fly to a location thousands of kilometers away from the control station.

Except for the fact that the payload is not comprehensive due to the take-off weight, it can almost take over most of the tasks of traditional reconnaissance aircraft.

However, at the beginning, these aircraft did not even have a perfect automatic flight system.

Fortunately, Lynch, who was born as a senior pilot, was not one of those newbies who could only drive automatic equipment. Instead, he preferred the feeling of being able to operate it by hand.

Even after the system upgrade, he still retained the habit of manual operation as much as possible.

For example, now.

According to the original plan, they only needed to circle 50-60 kilometers away from the border to receive the target's satellite signal.

But the equipment operator next to him said that except for a few known signals with obvious features, the aircraft had no valuable discoveries.

Therefore, he had to keep shifting the route eastward.

There was an S-band signal source working on the ground, which should be the 64N6 series radar, but as long as their aircraft did not cross the line, there would be no threat.

Of course, the control accuracy of the drone was slightly poor, so this behavior would definitely take some risks.

And his operation seemed to have received feedback.

Just when the Global Hawk entered the 14th reconnaissance cycle, the screen of the equipment operator next to him suddenly showed an S-band signal that had never been seen before.

It was in line with the frequency of general ground-to-space communications.

"Got it!"

The operator perked up and quickly operated the keyboard in front of him:

"Maintain the route... for at least five minutes!"