Chapter 247: Components stuck? Not a problem!
Almost at the same time, across the ocean in Arlington County, Virginia.
The new Defense Secretary William Cohen, who has gradually straightened out his work, received another piece of news related to the previously shot down MiG-25.
Bad news.
This time, the intelligence came from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).
About twenty minutes ago, DIA Director Lieutenant General Therese Henrion knocked on the door of the Defense Minister's office in a hurry, and then handed a document with an encryption stamp to the latter.
The thing that Cohen has been most worried about has happened.
According to reliable intelligence, the Chinese side found the wreckage of the downed MiG-25, and then seized and transported the core part of it, the active and passive radar reconnaissance/jamming pod belonging to the CIA. Returned to China.
“About a month ago, General Shalikashvili assured me that considering the speed at which it was shot down, this plane, as well as all the equipment and pilots on the plane, would be shattered into pieces. It may be completely searched and recovered.”
Mr. Minister of Defense felt that his temples were pounding, and he took several deep breaths before calming down a little——
In the past few months since he took office, he has been wiping the butt of his predecessor as well as his colleagues. Almost every day he encounters all kinds of things that make people's blood pressure rise.
But this time the limit was exceeded.
Although Cohen had previously successfully dumped all the responsibility on the CIA for its incompetence through a subtle blame-shifting operation, if the relevant technology is really leaked, they will be the ones most likely to suffer. military.
No one wants to face an enemy that cannot be locked on during a dogfight.
And once there is a situation where he cannot deal with the enemy, he will be the one who gets scolded and questioned in the end.
This is why CIA acting director George Tenet is also sitting in Cohen's office at this time.
“Concerning this point, our analysis result is that considering that it should be impossible for China to overcome our radar jamming equipment, the final shot down of the MiG-25 may be a very short distance and a long duration. Fighting within visual range, with cannons or infrared-guided missiles completing the final attack. "
In this era where the demons are not yet correct, Henry can become the first female director in the history of DIA and install it. After working steadily for three years, my professional level is naturally excellent.
As for the questions that these ministers may ask, she has already prepared answers:
“So the Indian MiG-25 pilots can have sufficient time to reduce the flying altitude and speed. , when it was finally shot down, the aircraft was probably not at high altitude and high speed as previously speculated by General Shalikashvili.”
Henrion, who was born in the navy, is not specialized in this kind of air force knowledge, but she still asked experts in the field to give her a few lessons before coming here, which was enough for her to deal with the more layman civilian defense minister.
"Okay..."
Although he had the urge to blow the head off the Tenet dog in front of him, Cohen still endured it.
Now that things have happened, all he can do now is to try to stop the loss:
“Is there any way to save it? For example, let our insiders find a way to steal the remains of the pod. Come out?”
This question almost caused the blood pressure of the two intelligence chiefs on the opposite side to explode:
“First of all, Mr. Minister, our informant is not omnipotent. He can only confirm that the pod wreckage has entered the territory of China. But I don’t know where it is currently stored.”
Henry Ang explained to his whimsical boss with a look of helplessness:
“Secondly, the pod...”
She looked at Tenet, who was called over by Cohen and didn't speak for a long time because of some injustice.
The latter also took advantage of the situation and continued:
"The pod is nearly 10 meters long and weighs almost a ton. Even if it has been broken, it is a bit difficult for one person to steal it out."
“…”
Cohen actually realized that the idea was a bit outrageous just now, but now he is in control after all, so his momentum is not weak at all:
"Okay, then we assume that the Chinese have obtained a relatively complete pod, and then they should imitate a similar model?"
"Well... our CIA is willing to provide some remedial measures."
Tenet also knows that the trap his department has poked is a bit big. If the defense minister in front of him really insists on this matter and refuses to let go, I am afraid that his code as acting director will never be removed, so his attitude is quite good:
"CIA can provide the jamming signal pattern of the jammer and pay for you to carry out targeted upgrades. First, even if the Chinese imitate something exactly the same, it can ensure that our radar is almost unaffected. "It sounds good, but what if the Chinese change the interference signal pattern?"
Because of his past work experience, Cohen is very good at bargaining in negotiations. He pointed out the problem with Tenet's method almost to the point.
"In that case, the DRFM circuit on the jammer needs to be reconstructed. According to the judgment of our radio experts, the Chinese people should not have this capability within a few years. Their semiconductor and information industries have been in decline for about 10 years. It was destroyed by their own people before and has not recovered yet."
Of course Tenet cannot let Cohen continue to open his mouth. He has made a lot of concessions this time:
"In fact, it is almost impossible for the Chinese to copy it exactly. There are some semiconductor devices in that pod that only Texas Instruments can produce, and their export is completely prohibited. The Chinese have no way to find substitutes."
Having said that, Cohen also knew that he was unlikely to take advantage of anything more.
However, being able to get funds from the always stingy CIA to give the navy and air force planes a small upgrade is a good thing worth having two more drinks when he goes home at night.
"Okay, but our military still needs to think more long-term. Upgrading radars must still be done, and the funds must come from your CIA. Everyone knows that you have your own small treasury and can bypass Congress. "
"Deal."
Although he felt that the other party's request was still a bit outrageous, Tenet had no other choice at this time. After all, he still held the control in the hands of others.
Fortunately, the CIA's funding sources are extremely complex. Even the IRS cannot fully trace them. It is not impossible to extract hundreds of millions from them.
……
In fact, Tenet's confidence is not without reason.
In about a week that followed, Chang Haonan and Xu Yang led engineers from the 14th Institute to complete the entire analysis of the electronic warfare part of the captured pod.
According to the plan, the next step should be to build a prototype and test the effect.
However, the progress happened to be stuck at this step.
“The other parts are easy to say. Most components can be found in the civilian market. We only need to repackage them according to military regulations. For the rest, we can also use Russian or domestic products with poor performance. Substitution will not have any fatal impact.”
Xu Yang held the completed circuit design in his hand and said to Chang Haonan in a very annoyed tone:
“But, as we analyzed on the first day, this pod uses orthogonal dual channels. The core part of the amplitude quantization DRFM is an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with a very high sampling rate. I did a brief search and found that only Texas Instruments can produce it in the world, and there is no record of exporting it. "
“If we don’t use this high-speed ADC, the response speed of the entire pod to radar waves will become very slow, and even bugs will directly occur and must be restarted. Considering that anti-air missiles often fail to hit from lock to launch. By one minute, this is absolutely unacceptable. ”
Obviously, it feels uncomfortable to be unable to take the last step due to hardware reasons despite having completed all the previous processes.
“Can we consider not using orthogonal dual channels?”
Guo Lin next to him wanted to settle for the next best thing.
"In that case, the effect on broadband radar signals will be very bad, and it will almost only have laboratory value."
Xu Yang's answer is equivalent to a death sentence for this idea.
How could they spend so much effort just to create a technical verification device?
“Actually, it is not necessarily necessary to use a single high-frequency ADC.”
An idea gradually formed in Chang Haonan's mind, and after systematic verification, he found that it was feasible.
“Is there anything you can do?”
Xu Yang raised his head and his tone became excited again.
“At least it’s worth a try.”
Chang Haonan said, pulling a piece of paper from the side and spreading it on the table in front of him.
(End of this chapter)