Chapter 1346 Lockheed Marx or Boeing?
As Chang Haonan estimated, multiple key departments in China made such huge moves simultaneously, even if the internal channel leaks are not considered, it is impossible to completely hide them from the outside world.
Short after "Jadena Express" entered the formal development stage, all relevant parties basically caught some clues.
Considering that the United States had just conducted a breakthrough hypersonic vehicle test just a few months ago, this series of reactions was naturally seen as a targeted fightback.
It can also be explained why after the X51A's first flight, China did not provide feedback as soon as other countries did.
After all, they really have the goods in their hands.
Take out competitors at that time, it will be much more useful than publishing a few PPTs.
As for why China can suddenly make rapid progress in the hypersonic field...
On the one hand, over the years, countries have gradually adapted to the new players emerging in the high-tech industry.
On the other hand, until the JF14 wind tunnel was put into use, China did not miss the "Ground Test Award" selected by the American Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
This award is somewhat similar to the computing power rankings of supercomputers. The equipment owner or operator decides whether to participate. If it participates, a part of the basic performance data will be submitted.
Although no specific technical details are involved, the approximate performance level can still be inferred from this.
Therefore, countries have some understanding of the situation of the two old wind tunnels, JF8 and JF10, and are not completely mentally prepared.
At most, I didn’t expect that Huaxia could transform the research results of basic theories into projects so quickly.
And for most countries, it is more in line with their interests that the east and west Pacific sides are trapped in a certain degree of tit-for-tat, but maintaining a state of fighting without breaking.
Therefore, they are all focused on watching the fun.
But for another party, Amerika, the situation was not so relaxed and pleasant.
After the X51A test went wrong, they were able to use the mentality of having funerals to create a "partially successful" ruthless work. In addition to trying to evade the accountability bureau's project verification in this way, there is another The factor is that it is really not in a hurry -
Yes, the first flight did not meet expectations.
But at least it has made significant progress over the past, and looking around the world, there is no competitor that can be seen.
Who would have thought that in less than half a year, this competitor actually jumped out?
So, the situation that was originally balanced between the parties involved in the X51A project was quickly broken.
Soon people couldn't sit still...
Colorado.
Peterson Air Force Base.
In recent days, General Lance Lord, commander of the Air Force Space Command, has been a little anxious.
As the actual commander of the strategic forces of land-based and air-based in the United States, he certainly could not be satisfied with knowing that "China is developing a new weapon" is something that even the melon-eating masses have heard of.
So as early as last week, he had asked his space units to jointly carry out more specific intelligence collection and analysis.
However, a few days passed, and the whole thing was like a muddy bull rushing into the sea, without any response.
After the third attempt to concentrate on reading the last quarterly work report failed, Lord simply gave up completely, closed the folder and threw it aside, and then opened a copy on the computer called [ForceApplication and Launch from ContinentalUnited States] ] encrypted document.
"Military use and local launch" is referred to as FALCON according to the consistent letter nomenclature in the United States.
Although it sounds like a civil transport project, it actually involves a series of hypersonic verification aircraft that adopt different technical solutions.
In fact, it is not a brand new plan, and it has received some financial support from the Space Command as early as the early 21st century, and was selected to be responsible for the concept development by Lockheed Martin. However, after the X43A, led by NASA and Boeing, entered the fast lane, FALCON program received "restricted grants" treatment at a key hearing in 2005, and has basically reached a stagnation since then.
It was not until the beginning of the year that the X51A test was not as expected that someone would turn out the relevant documents and hand them over to Lord, hoping that he could lead his brothers to make another move.
Lord was quite active in this matter.
Although they are all air forces, the X51A is closer to a cruise missile and will inevitably be controlled by the aviation troops in the future. The HTV series of aircraft planned by FALCON needs to be launched by a ballistic missile, which is more in line with the space commander. positioning of the part.
He will retire in almost two years and always leave something to remember by future generations.
Of course, more importantly, Lord himself and Lockheed Martin have a closer relationship, who has promised to give a well-paid foreign relations specialist as a retirement position in the future.
However, human desires are always infinite.
If we can win a big project for Lockheed Martin before this, then this "specialist" may not be able to be promoted to "director"...
...
Just in Lockheed When De was already looking forward to his wonderful retirement life, a burst of hurried footsteps finally came from outside the door.
After knocking on the door, Brigadier General John Raymond walked into the office, holding the report that the former had been thinking about for several days under his armpit.
No mistakes, one poem, one post, one content, one in 6, one book, one bar, one read!
Lord raised his head, a flash of light flashed in his eyes, as if a new retirement position and an annual salary of $1.5 million were already waving to him, and the anxiety in his heart disappeared in an instant, and he even had leisure to make a joke: br>
"John, I thought you forgot about this."
But Raymond's expression was still serious, obviously unable to laugh:
" We have tried our best, but we can get very little information."
Lord's heart also tightened, but his face did not show it:
"You talk about it first."
The ideal situation at the moment is that he can obtain specific information about the progress of China's R&D, and then use the other party's threat and X51A's delay to talk about it, even if he can't do it. Instead, it will at least allow Congress to lift funding restrictions on the FALCON program.
Of course, his fundamental purpose is to gain greater benefits in the revolving door, so even if you give some discounts, it is not unacceptable.
Raymond opened the folder:
"First, the keyhole satellite observed a new situation in a missile range in northwest China. Originally, China was carrying out anti-ship ballistic missiles. The experiment and successfully hit a simulated target that may have the ability to move... According to the rules, they should collect relevant data from this experiment and restore the target area facilities to prepare for the next test shot, but now most of the personnel and equipment All activities have stopped, and some of them have been moved to another area about 6.5 kilometers away, but there is no new action yet. It is speculated that it is preparing to deploy a target specifically needed for the new weapon test launch..."
"Our intelligence personnel tried to analyze some clues from the periphery of the Chinese Engineering Corps, but the other party was confidential, only knowing that a second artillery and an engineering brigade belonging to the army had recently received a transfer order. , but he could not obtain further detailed information..."
He turned the document to the back page, and just as he was about to continue, he was interrupted by Lord:
"Raw materials What about the procurement situation? "
"Construction projects can be handed over to the engineering corps, but building materials cannot be produced by military factories... and even if it is produced by military factories, such a large-scale action should always be done. There are some traces."
Raymond shook his head:
"The intelligence department has also taken this into consideration, but it has indeed not found any part worth paying attention to... It can only be said that either they have found some new channels, or the amount of raw materials is not large, and it is enough to rely on the usual reserve part alone. And it will not affect combat readiness, so that the procurement can be spread into other orders, and unless there are directly related internal materials, there will be no trace left."
Lord directly ignored the previous possibility: "Mobilize the personnel and equipment of the two engineering brigades, but use very few engineering materials?"
Lord couldn't think of what kind of target this would be.
Most of the US missile weapon tests were completed on the sea/lake. They either directly fired a target ship or simply pierced into the water. They really had no experience in this area, so they had to signal Raymond to continue.
"In addition, China recently gathered a group of R&D personnel, speculating that it has restarted a medium- and short-range missile project that has been stagnant for a long time, which is likely to be prepared for their new hypersonic weapon project, or to take advantage of the opportunity to develop a new model by the way Old projects that were blocked before, you know, they are very good at doing this..."
Hearing this, Lord, who was originally lazy, instantly sat upright:
"Tell me in detail, How did you speculate? ”
(The end of this chapter)