Chapter 1291 Wherever Academician Chang’s Hand Reaches Out, the Achievements Will Flood In
Two weeks later, in the evening.
Northeastern Hebei Province, Changli shooting range.
In the darkening night, which was like splashing ink, a motorcade painted in military green drove slowly on a dirt road between grass and melting snow.
Unpaved roads that freeze and thaw repeatedly in early winter are muddy and difficult to navigate. Even ordinary off-road vehicles may inevitably get stuck.
Fortunately, almost all the vehicles here are crawler chassis, so apart from violent bumps, there are no insurmountable obstacles.
In an all-terrain vehicle at the front of the convoy, Yu Zhefeng, a radar engineer from the Electronic Technology Group, suppressed the turmoil in his stomach and asked Cheng Guangwei, the model chief engineer sitting next to him:
"Mr. Cheng, why don't you continue to use the Horqin shooting range this time? Why do you have to travel a long way to a place like this?"
On the one hand, it was out of complaint, and on the other hand, it was to divert attention so as not to actually vomit in the car.
According to his experience, at this time of year, the temperature in central Mongolia must have dropped below -10°C. Even if it snows, the ground is frozen hard, making it easier to drive than a mud pit.
Moreover, although Changli is one of the largest anti-aircraft weapon shooting ranges in China, it is affiliated with the Air Force after all, and all facilities are generally prepared for the testing of air defense weapons in key areas. In fact, it is not very suitable for their testing mission.
"There is no way. The Horqin shooting range was canceled this spring... The new Army anti-aircraft weapons test range is under construction in Qingtongxia. It is estimated that it will not be put into use until the middle of next year at the earliest, but our models can no longer wait..."
Cheng Guangwei's face turned a little pale, and he was obviously uncomfortable with the swing of the articulated tail cabin. After finishing half of the sentence, he paused for a few seconds before continuing to explain:
"Project 0910's restrictions on model progress are much stricter than those in 1999. If tactical equipment wants to catch up with this military parade, it must be equipped with troops in batches before the end of 2008. There is no room for delay."
As he spoke, he used the window on the tailgate of the vehicle to glance at a tracked artillery and artillery-in-one air defense system following behind.
It is said to be a combined missile and artillery system, but the launch tube on the missile carrier is actually empty.
In other words, one of the main purposes of this test is to verify whether the system needs these four anti-aircraft missiles.
Similar to the previous two military parades, the 60th National Day military parade three years later will also have a "0910 project" specifically to provide hardware and equipment support.
Although with the overall improvement of the level of weapons and equipment of the Chinese army, there are fewer and fewer "parade-specific models" in the true sense, but if a model can hitch a ride on this ride, it will undoubtedly be of great benefit to the entire R&D team. Huge benefits.
Of course, the ones who benefited the most were the project leaders, including the chief engineer and chief engineer.
It is precisely because of this concern that Cheng Guangwei has not mentioned this goal to too many people before.
Even Yu Zhefeng, who is responsible for subsystem design, heard about it for the first time.
However, for the latter, there is obviously another thing that is more shocking:
"The Horqin shooting range has been cancelled?"
Cheng Guangwei's painful expression added a bit of surprise:
"you do not know?"
Yu Zhefeng shook his head in confusion:
"I don't specialize in artillery. If it hadn't been for that chance ten years ago, I would probably still be working on long-range warning radars right now..."
Having said this, he did not continue.
In early 1999, he had just been promoted to deputy director of the research office and followed the air defense force of the Air Force to conduct an anti-stealth coverage firing test with anti-stealth weapons.
To this day, although the test itself is no longer a secret within the industry, the specific content is still top secret.
Since then, his focus has gradually shifted from early warning radars to short- and medium-range fire control radars, and he has participated in the development of several short-range air defense missiles or close-in defense systems.
Looking at Cheng Guangwei, who looked a little uncomfortable, Liu Xiyun, assistant to the chief engineer sitting next to him, quickly picked up the conversation:
"In the past two years, almost 40% of the Horqin Sandy Land has been planned as a soil improvement test area. In the past month, there was no trace of a person, but now there is a lot of traffic every day... No matter from the perspective of confidentiality or safety, no It is suitable to continue to be used as an anti-aircraft weapons shooting range..."
Yu Zhefeng was stunned after hearing this.
Of course, he still had an impression of this sand-to-soil project that had been heavily publicized before, and it was said that in the first half of this year, the country still relied on this technology to alleviate a round of market supply shortages artificially created by Westerners.
However, this is the first time that I can feel the impact of this project that seems to have nothing to do with me so intuitively.
He was just about to say something more, but the motorcade just staggered to a stop, finally allowing the few people in the carriage to breathe a sigh of relief.
With the lights of the cars behind and the last ray of the setting sun that was almost setting below the horizon, Yu Zhefeng saw the large yellow grass outside the car window, as well as several rammed earth anti-aircraft positions that were vaguely visible hidden among them.
"Get off, get off!"
Almost everyone felt a sense of relief the moment their feet touched the ground.
Soon, the originally silent intercom channel became active.
Although the conditions were difficult, the departments responsible for each test link quickly started the relevant work, and the prototype of the integrated missile and artillery system quickly followed the command and drove into the firing position.
One good thing about the field air defense system is that it has very low requirements for launch conditions.
If it is a key air defense system, then facing such a site with extremely poor maintenance, it may take engineering machinery several hours to complete the preparations before launching.
But this time, dozens of people took less than an hour to enter the test state.
"Fire control system started!"
Cheng Guangwei, who had recovered from motion sickness, picked up the intercom and ordered word by word.
As his voice fell, the flat search radar at the top of the air defense system slowly stood up, and then began to rotate at a speed of about 1.5 seconds per circle.
The drum-shaped fire control radar and optical sight in front of the turret also changed the pitch angle following the movement of the gun barrel and missile bracket, ready to further lock the target according to the capture results of the search radar.
A few seconds later, a slightly younger voice appeared on the intercom:
"The target aircraft is in the air!"
The target aircraft of this type of short-range air defense system basically does not have anything fancy. It is just a model aircraft with a corner reflector, and it uses a two-cylinder motorcycle engine as power.
Although it was dark and the target aircraft itself could not be seen for a while, the people on the ground could still clearly hear the piston working sound.
Almost at the same time as the previous voice ended, another command sounded:
"The radar system has captured the target!"
A moment later, the same person reported again:
"The optical system has captured the target!"
Then, the seat ring drive motor suddenly made a buzzing sound, pushing the turret to turn about 90° in half a second.
During this process, the two 35mm gun barrels were also adjusted to the direction of the target aircraft.
The next moment, two streams of orange-red tracer lines like fire shot out, almost straight to the inconspicuous target in the night sky.
With the deafening sound of the gun and the slowly rising muzzle smoke, the programmed ammunition that does not need manual binding is given an explosion delay of varying lengths by the fire control system through the electromagnetic coil at the moment of flying away from the muzzle. The shrapnel cloud formed by the explosion of more than a dozen shells almost at the same time accurately covers the target...
Before everyone reacted, the target drone had turned into a dazzling fireball and fell from the air under the action of inertia.
"Slant range 1km, target confirmed destroyed!"
Then, there were several rounds of repeated tests with almost the same plot.
The only difference is the distance and direction of the target drone.
"Slant range 3km..."
"Slant range 4km..."
"Slant range 5km..."
It is not difficult to see that compared with the previous generation of self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, although the new model has reduced two barrels, thanks to more accurate shooting accuracy and more intelligent fire control system, its combat effectiveness is far better than the former.
In addition, the larger caliber ammunition also makes the maximum slant range of the artillery system from less than 3km to more than 5km.
However, in the repeated "confirm destruction" commands, Assistant Chief Designer Liu Xiyun did not show much excitement.
Instead, he became more and more worried as the test slant distance increased.
Finally, after the last set of 5.5km tests, he came to Cheng Guangwei with a serious face:
"Mr. Cheng, looking at the current results... our combined missile and artillery air defense system may have to be changed to an anti-aircraft artillery system?"
The latter had just put down the walkie-talkie in his hand and was writing something on his notebook under the light of the car lights.
After hearing Liu Xiyun's sad voice, he looked up at the other party:
"For the time being, it should be like this..."
"The missiles in the original missile and artillery system are directly modified on the basis of Hongying 6, but the effective firing height and killing slant range of this missile are not as good as the 35mm anti-aircraft gun, so there is no need to increase the complexity of the system unnecessarily..."
After saying this, he also noticed the other party's face as if he had eaten bitter melon, so he smiled and comforted:
"Don't care too much about a name..."
"Besides, what's wrong with anti-aircraft guns? Wasn't it anti-aircraft guns that shot down B2 in the Balkans? Who dares to look down on the role of artillery air defense?"
Of course, that's what they said, but everyone knew that the main reason for this situation was that China did not have an anti-aircraft missile that was small enough and had a long enough range.
And the equipment in front of them is the key to the reform of the army's organization, and it really can't wait endlessly.
Therefore, Cheng Guangwei finally added: "In addition, we will also retain the complete missile control function in the system until..." Before he finished speaking, he saw the liaison officer who had been waiting in the car running over in a hurry: "Mr. Cheng, the institute just sent a message asking you and Assistant Liu to return to Beijing immediately." Cheng Guangwei instantly regained his serious expression: "So anxious?" Leaving the prototype vehicle and a large group of people at the shooting range and calling back only a few key personnel, it is obvious that there has been some major changes in the project. The other party nodded:
“Comrades from the Second Academy of Science and Technology said that they are testing a new technology that can increase the range of their Vanguard series missiles to at least 1.7 times that of their competitors!”