.

The director and the General Staff’s Lieutenant General tried their best to comfort Xiao Qiang, fearing that this young genius who had suffered great setbacks since his debut would lose his fighting spirit from then on. But to be honest, I realized that the development plan of the Universal Aircraft Company may be just a paper talk, and the two of them were the ones who were most disappointed.

In 1983, the United States proposed a space-based laser weapon system based on the missile defense plan. The plan clearly proposed to deploy twenty-four superstar satellites in 1,300 kilometers of space. Each satellite will consist of a 30-megawatt chemical laser generator and a ten-meter reflector, and adopt a continuous illumination method. Within two to four seconds, it can destroy ballistic missiles within a range of 4,000 kilometers with the satellite as the center.

Although the Star Wars plan was proposed by Old President Reagan to use military competition to drag down the Soviet economy, in order to protect its own security, the United States is indeed moving in this direction and has not stopped for twenty years.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, all levels of laser satellite systems have been verified.

The "alpha" laser system required for satellites was developed from 1980s and conducted light emission tests in 1989s. By 1994, it had reached the level of megawatts required for actual combat. Since then, the reflector, which undertakes this development plan, has also expanded from four meters in 1989s to 11 meters in 1993.

By 1997, the United States conducted three million megawatt-level ground tests and integrated targeting systems, all meeting the expected design requirements.

A successful laser system can continuously launch two hundred to five hundred seconds, and each satellite can destroy an average of one hundred to two hundred ballistic missiles.

It can be said that the United States' satellite space-based laser system has actually been completed, and it is almost like launching into the sky.

When the research and development was really done, the Americans were not in a hurry. Because by the time their space-based laser system was developed and the Soviet Union had disintegrated, at this moment, there was no country that could directly threaten the existence of the United States.

The weight of each satellite is thirty-five tons, just launching a full set of satellite systems to the sky is a high cost.

Relatively speaking, the United States has promoted its anti-missile bases to the ground by promoting their Patriot missile system, which is more cost-effective.

Besides, the US economy has been on a downward trend over the years. He also felt a little difficult to send out his own pockets to launch dozens of laser satellites.

Therefore, on the one hand, the United States has strengthened the improvement of space-based laser systems and formulated an emergency space-based satellite launch plan. On the other hand, it only paid $1.27 billion to the development company to make a one-half-sized test satellite for actual space verification.

Of course, these actions of the United States cannot be hidden from the world's major powers such as China.

Although intelligence personnel from various countries cannot obtain specific technical details about the specific progress of the United States, they still know what the other party is doing and what level it has reached.

Britain, France, Germany and other countries were indifferent to this.

Although Europe has no longer needed the protection of the United States due to the collapse of the Soviet Union in recent years. At the same time, the frequent conflicts of interest between the two sides have gradually moved away from each other, Europe's main energy is also committed to the unification of the whole of Europe.

Europe has neither the ambition nor the ability to become the center of civilization in the world again.

Russia, because of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Yeltsin and other countries that had formerly joined the republic, dreamed of getting along with the West in a friendly manner. In addition, the domestic economic situation continued to be chaotic, even if there was a slight dissatisfaction, they were powerless.

Only China is secretly anxious about this.

China's strategic nuclear weapons are less than one-tenth of that of the United States and Russia. They rely on deterrence and make the other side give up the idea of ​​fighting a big war or a full-scale war.

However, after repeated confirmation by the intelligence department, the United States already has space anti-missile capabilities, but it has not been deployed yet.

Then, once the United States does deploy a space laser system, China will have no deterrent force, and Americans will be more unscrupulous and do whatever they want.

Now, he dares to take the blame for the sake of oil and start a war against a sovereign country. So, who can guarantee that there will be no major friction or even conflict between China and the United States in the future due to interests?

What should I do when I reach that time? Will I just retreat?

What should I do if I retreat to the point where I have no choice?

To this end, the military is determined to use the method of three arrows to respond to the United States’ countermeasures: strengthen the penetration capability and strike intensity of ballistic missiles to form nuclear deterrence; vigorously develop anti-satellite means, anti-satellite missiles and ground laser weapons to accelerate the development process; and deploy our anti-missile laser satellite network.

The military has proposed an ambitious plan for the near-Earth space laser system: to form China's space anti-missile system with dozens of giant laser satellites as the center; next to the anti-missile satellite, two or three escort satellites are arranged, and lasers or kinetic weapons are used to protect the anti-missile satellites from being destroyed by the enemy.

The plan is very good, but it was rejected as soon as it was reported. The reason is very simple: no money!

The total amount of the US anti-missile satellite system is 97 billion US dollars. Although the cost of launching a ground rocket in China is half that of the United States, if you want to build a strict space satellite system, the total expenditure will be as high as 50 billion US dollars!

Five billion US dollars, you can take it out even if you grit your teeth.

But China cannot waste its main money on this. At the critical moment when China is moving from weak to strong, there is too much place to invest. It is not daring and cannot use a large amount of money in the research and development of space-based weapons that is obviously not important at this stage.

China's military leaders are very clear-headed and strategic countermeasures can be achieved by relying on more advanced and quieter ocean-going nuclear submarines. The space-based laser system is a costly and long system project, which is difficult to achieve overnight.

I think this is very clear to the United States.

The reason why it insists on establishing a space-based weapon system is likely not just to deal with ground ballistic missiles, but also to dominate space by seizing the commanding heights of space.

In a peaceful era without competition, the United States can spend decades to gradually become practical, cheap, mass-produce, and become more and more advanced.

When other countries begin to march into space, the United States can use its powerful high-tech large-scale production capacity to ensure that it faces rapid layout of space competition and seizes commanding heights. In terms of quantity and quality, it completely overwhelms the other party. As long as its local area is not attacked, the United States can compete in space with any other country in a calm manner, maintain its space hegemony, and form an overwhelming advantage.

Or, use the space weapons arms race to drag the opponent down!

China has not yet had the ability to compete with the United States in space for at least decades.

But when we have economic and technical strength to compete with the other party, the space weapon platform that is already densely populated in space!

The military also understands that this is reality. However, no matter how

You cannot default to the occurrence of this reality.

Because, the United States, which has a space-based weapon platform, will become extremely powerful. It is so powerful that it is terrifying!

By that time, if there is hostility between China and the United States, let alone land-based missile systems, even our ocean-based nuclear submarines will lose their deterrence. As long as the ballistic missile probes and breaks through the atmosphere, it will be intercepted by the US space-based satellite system.

As long as the rockets launching satellites fly together, they will be shot to explode in the air by the US space-based laser weapons.

Just as countries with air superiority since World War II have ensured victory in the war. In decades, countries with space superiority will have the entire world.

If the United States does not break the space monopoly of the United States, all countries on earth will tremble in front of the United States' bayonet in the future.

This is why in addition to the experts from the National Defense Science and Technology Commission, there is also a lieutenant general from the assembly industry. When Director Zhou reported to the upper class yesterday, the assembly industry leaders immediately held an emergency meeting.

The leaders of the assembly unanimously agreed that if the Global Aircraft Plan has the possibility of realization, the military will do its best to support this plan. As long as the space plane is developed successfully, China will immediately become an equal position with the United States in space utilization.

Moreover, the sooner the aerospace plane is developed, the greater the advantage of China.

If the space plane can be made within ten years, then this position will be reversed and China will become an unrivaled space powerhouse. In turn, it will make the United States breathless, but China can make a plan calmly.

However, the results disappointed them.

It seems that Huanyu Company does have plans to develop aerospace planes and is also making technical reserves and efforts in this regard. However, their plans are obviously too advanced and lack the possibility of realization.

Although Director Zhou and General General of the General Staff do not have a good understanding of some technologies, they only need to think a little bit and understand that Huanyu's plan is still in very early stages of research. In order to reduce the weight of the aerospace plane, they actually planned to use ten chips to process all the data, and this idea is completely out of reality.

Modern ordinary fighter jets often have hundreds of chips to help process complex data.

The processors on the space shuttle are thousands of dedicated processors. Ten chips can replace so many processors. What chips are so powerful?

As for the engine, it made the experts who specially invited them laugh.

The combination engine is very bold and geometrically variable, but it also has more demanding requirements for materials and processing technology. The time was rushed at the report and everyone had no time to make accurate judgments. However, according to the experts, using laptop calculations, all existing materials could not withstand such high pressure and ultra-high flame temperature.

The experts who came to attend the presentation gave a preface to Universal's plan: paper airplanes.

That is, this is a space plane that stays on paper.

Director Zhou and the General Staff’s Lieutenant General were very disappointed, very disappointed. But they could not put the disappointment on their faces, and they also tried hard to comfort Xiao Qiang, hoping that Huanyu Company would continue to research and not give up on this project.

There is always a layer of guarantee for the development of Universal Corporation. Although the expert group is not optimistic about Universal Corporation's design, at least one R&D unit is added to engage in the development of aerospace planes. In addition to the national aerospace plane project team, there is another hope. Who said that more than ten years later, with the advancement of basic research and new materials, Universal Corporation cannot come up with a practical aerospace plane?

Not to mention anything else, at least in terms of design ideas, these experts should affirm the idea of ​​Universal Company, which is very innovative.

Besides, the country does not have to pay a penny for the research and development of Universal Company. If it fails, the country will not bear any losses.

On the contrary, if the plan is successful and the country can still enjoy the benefits, why not do such a good thing?

Both of them knew this very well, but they tacitly said nothing, just comforting Xiao Qiang, hoping that he would cheer up. They tried their best to tell him not to be intimidated by difficulties.

At the dining table, Director Zhou and the Lieutenant General were the ones who talked the most.

Director Zhou and the others persuaded each other for a long time, and then they all breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Xiao Qiang gradually recovering from normalcy.

So they stopped talking about this topic, but talked about various interesting stories, with the purpose of making Xiao Qiang happy.

The three of them talked and had lunch until after three o'clock in the afternoon. When they said goodbye, Director Zhou repeatedly invited Xiao Qiang to visit the air and air and air-sea joint simulation exercises to be held next week, and threatened that if they didn't go, they would not give him face, etc.

Of course, Xiao Qiang knew that they did this to prevent themselves from being depressed and thus gave up the space flight plan.

He also made a very reluctant look and agreed to Director Zhou's invitation.

Looking at the two people's cars driving out of the door of Huanyu Company, Xiao Qiang lowered his head and smiled, then returned to his expression as deep as water. He slowly walked into Huanyu Building.

The security team members on the upper and lower floors of the conference room were all withdrawn, and a guard post was set up at the entrance and exit of the floor where the conference room was located. Before Xiao Qiang could enter the conference room, he heard the discussion inside.

The expert group who came to listen to the report left, and the researchers of Huanyu Company who had just said nothing were immediately active. They were having a lively discussion on the overall development plan for the spacecraft according to their respective departments.

Xiao Qiang pushed the door and saw that Wang Gong was discussing seriously with members of the fuselage design team at the drawings.

When they saw the boss come in, they stopped talking.

Wang Gong asked anxiously: "Mr. Xiao, Director Zhou and others are gone? What do they mean? Did you say that our design is unrealistic, so we won't continue to develop it?"

Xiao Qiang looked for a chair with a straight face, sat down with expressionless face, and said lightly: "What do you think?"

The researchers in the room looked at his expression and felt something was wrong, and their hearts sank. A researcher said carefully: "Mr. Xiao, why don't we really plan to dismount? We are all ready, but we are just not going to test it out?"

Many people pursed their lips and their expressions were very serious.

The researchers in the room all came from the African base. They participated in the implementation of the utopian plan since they entered the base. Over the past decade, all their efforts have been devoted to this.

If the plan is really rejected, what is the point of their previous research?

As soon as the previous researcher finished speaking, another voice rang out: "They said they would get off the horse and get off the horse! We paid for the research for ourselves! If it really doesn't work, we will go back to Africa. In any case, the utopian plan must continue, and the aerospace plane must be successful!"

"Not bad! That's it! We have done so much work, we must not give up halfway!"

A word caused a lot of waves, and the sound of sound suddenly rose in the conference room, and they all said that the planes could not stop even if they were not allowed to stop.

If you conduct experiments in the desert, you must also develop them successfully.
To be continued...