Chapter 1209 Crossing the River by Feeling the Americans

After all, the development route of the fourth-generation fighter is a major event that will determine the main equipment of the aviation force in the next 20 years or even longer.

It is impossible for the opening meeting within the aviation industry to be the end of the matter.

The seminar will not make any decisions, but the final conclusions must be reported as an important basis for the final decision.

Including several brother units such as aviation power, electronic technology, and weapons industry, which only played supporting roles on the scene, they must also submit research status and feasibility reports related to their own tasks.

Although these things seem insignificant, the number of industries and units involved is extremely large.

It will take several months to implement the myriad of issues one by one.

It would be good to start the project establishment process before the end of the year.

However, Chang Haonan has been "planning for a long time" to develop the fourth-generation engine. The 80-item technical list submitted before has played the same role to a large extent.

So it only took about a month to help Liu Yongquan, Wan Zhonghui and other key technical personnel of the 606th Institute sort out the follow-up work content.

As he and Sun Cong said before, WS-10G, as an improved version of a mature model, can be completely left to the new generation of engineers who are gradually maturing to complete it on their own.

As for Chang Haonan himself, he did not go to Gaojing again as soon as Zhang Hongbiao worried.

Because the liquid rocket engine planned for the hypersonic verification missile will soon begin the first phase of ground test.

This time, the two opponents across the ocean coincidentally set their sights on the same place...

...

One month later.

Beijing, 101st Institute of the Sixth Academy of Aerospace.

Although the Sixth Academy itself is located in Gaojing, as a large unit with nearly 10,000 employees, its subordinate institutions are naturally spread all over the country.

Among them, 165th Institute, 101st Institute and 801st Institute are the only three places in China that can systematically conduct liquid rocket engine tests.

From a geographical point of view, the most convenient one is of course the 165th Institute located in Gaojing.

However, the new engine test area here is mainly for large thrust engine testing, and the relevant transformation preparations for the kerosene-liquid oxygen system have been completed, so it is difficult to conduct the tests required by Chang Haonan in a short time.

Fortunately, the liquid engine on the verification bomb is not large, so after troubleshooting and solving a batch of technical problems found during the subsystem test, it was directly loaded and transported to the Yungang Test Center.

Of course, these are all things that happened in the past month or so.

And today is the day when the first phase of testing is officially launched.

Quite coincidentally, the Pentagon also officially announced its hypersonic weapons research and development plan in the early morning of the same day in Beijing time...

So, as soon as Chang Haonan sat down, Chen Zhiwei, who had been waiting in the small conference room, pushed a newspaper on the table in front of him:

"Academician Chang, take a look at this."

While speaking, there was an irrepressible smile on his face.

"Huh?"

Chang Haonan lowered his head and saw a line of headlines printed in eye-catching black fonts at the top of the page:

"Shock the world! The US military will be equipped with a new type of ultra-high-speed cruise missile that can hit the world within an hour! 》

Before he could read too much, Chen Zhiwei couldn't wait to continue speaking:

"The slogan raised by the Americans this time actually coincides with the concept you proposed before!"

"Strike all over the world in one hour, what a loud statement!"

In addition to excitement, his tone was also quite regretful:

"It's a pity that we took into account the international influence and did not publicize it in the public media, otherwise the Americans would follow behind and eat our melons..."

"..."

Even with Chang Haonan's current concentration, he couldn't hold back when he heard this.

After all, the statement of hitting all over the world in one hour was indeed original to the Americans.

When he gave a report at the Xijiao Hotel at the end of last year, he used it a little to let the non-professional leaders below have an idea of ​​hypersonic weapons.

I originally thought that the content of such a high-level internal report would not spread to a large range.

Who would have thought that it might be because the effect was too good, resulting in the superiors quoting it as it was in the documents issued.

Anyway, some middle-level managers in the project team also saw this sentence...

"Ahem..."

Chang Haonan coughed to cover up his expression:

"We are still in the stage of keeping a low profile. It won't be wrong to be low-key, and there is no need to compete with the other party for these false names..."

"Besides, even if we really carry out public propaganda, the Americans will not suffer losses in terms of public opinion. At that time, they will definitely choose other statements, and the result will be the same."

As he spoke, he carefully looked at the content of the newspaper again--

Although the title is a bit like the XX Shock Department, the current title party has not developed to the lawless level of more than ten years later.

So the following text is still quite substantial, almost occupying the entire page.

And it also attached a high-definition color picture of X43A and X51A.

However, the latter has gotten rid of the identity of "technical verification aircraft" and has been officially named AGM180 cruise missile.

Including air-launched A type, surface ship-launched B type and submarine-launched C type.

The overall appearance is almost the same as that of X51A.

The length of the missile body is slightly lengthened to accommodate the additional warhead, and the weight of the flight body without boosters has also increased from 680kg to 800kg.

The basic AGM180A is expected to be ignited in 2006 and conduct its first flight test before the end of 2008.

"It seems that the Americans are getting a little impatient..."

Chang Haonan put down the newspaper in his hand.

It has been ten years since he was reborn, and many details of his previous life are a little vague in his memory.

But he can be sure that the first test of X51A was carried out two or three years after the Beijing Olympics.

Therefore, the Americans obviously deliberately advanced their research and development schedule.

"I guess it was the incident in July that made them feel a sense of crisis."

Chen Zhiwei also nodded in agreement:

"The US military has relied on its air superiority and has always used short-range guided missiles as its main ammunition. Although stealth aircraft have great advantages, they can still be discovered in advance by a complete air defense system, resulting in a reduction in the suddenness of the attack..."

"But if hypersonic weapons are used at a distance... such as 200 to 300 kilometers away, the preparation time left for our air defense system will be extremely compressed."

The large-scale sea and air confrontation two months ago was suppressed by both sides at the same time, but it was no secret to industry insiders on both sides of the Pacific.

Chang Haonan stared at the newspaper on the table for a while, then waved his hand in relief:

"Deterrence is two-way, just like the atomic bomb back then."

"In the overall context of the enemy being strong and us being weak, having more means of mutual deterrence is obviously more beneficial to us..."

Speaking of this, he suddenly remembered the brilliant poem "Ode to the Atomic Bomb" written by General Chen back then, and had to suppress his smile and hold back the rest of his words.

However, Chen Zhiwei was obviously not so optimistic:

"But the timetable publicly released by the other party is still much faster than ours..."

At this time in 2005, although the US military has cancelled a large number of equipment that began to be developed at the end of the Cold War, at least on the surface, the reasons given are all development route issues.

The development process of the models that have been retained, such as the F22 fighter and the Virginia nuclear submarine, is also relatively smooth.

So most people must still take Boeing's hypersonic weapons development plan seriously.

And it must be admitted that the development of the US hypersonic plan has been going smoothly so far.

While Chang Haonan was still considering using a rocket engine + a double-cone warhead to test a missile, Boeing's X43A, which uses a hydrogen-oxygen fuel scramjet engine, had already successfully flown twice.

"We should just follow our own pace and not be led by others..."

Chang Haonan replied:

"X51A was originally just a small project in charge of the Air Force Research Laboratory, and even the funds were pieced together... Now that it has obtained a formal household registration from the US military, it is natural to reflect it in the construction period. It is also normal to be ahead of schedule..."

He certainly knew that the subsequent development of hypersonic weapons in the United States was not going smoothly.

But it was neither convenient nor prepared to say it so early.

On the one hand, there was no way to explain it without evidence, and it was not guaranteed that others would have been stumbling on this timeline.

On the other hand, it also brought a sense of urgency to Chen Zhiwei and others.

After a short pause, he continued to add:

"In addition, letting the Americans explore the way ahead is also good for us to some extent..."

Chen Zhiwei's expression also relaxed a little:

"Yes, we can cross the river by feeling the stones..."

"..."

Taking advantage of this conversation, Chang Haonan also returned to the main topic:

"Let's not talk about the Americans first..."

"What's the current situation at the test center?"

Seeing that the other party was talking about business, Chen Zhiwei quickly restrained his expression and stood up:

"Everything is ready, the guide vehicle is below, and we can set off at any time!"