Chapter 1004 Satellite Gazing Reconnaissance

"Kitty Hawk?"

Upon hearing this conclusion, the eyes of several naval officers in front of the big screen lit up almost at the same time.

The expressions on his face are even more fascinating.

In fact, just now, everyone has made some guesses about the nature of this goal.

It's just that no one dared to jump to conclusions because they were worried about being disappointed.

But now, with the news that the United States happened to release as circumstantial evidence, it is basically certain.

This sea area is not a busy international waterway. Suddenly, an object with a size of about 300 meters * 40 meters appeared, and the course and time period also matched.

There is almost no other possibility.

"Finally..."

The highest-ranking officer among the crowd let out a long sigh, then walked to the big screen, put his hands behind his back, looked up and stared at the small, distorted, light-colored shadow.

I don't know if it's due to psychological factors, but after hearing the news just now, looking at it with my naked eyes, it seems that the deck of an aircraft carrier has some sharp edges and corners...

"Finally I caught you..."

He muttered to himself in a low voice.

As the flagship of the Seventh Fleet for a long time, Kitty Hawk spent most of its service career active in various hot spots around China.

Because conventional-powered aircraft carriers do not need to undergo extremely long maintenance and replacement of nuclear fuel, their effective cruising time is much higher than that of their later nuclear-powered successors.

Especially after entering the 90s, it has always been a pioneer.

Although the Kitty Hawk did not appear in the most well-known incident in 96, it had confronted the then weak Chinese Navy and Air Force two years earlier in 1994.

That is to say, after entering the 21st century, due to its long service time and the fact that it went to the North Arabian Sea to participate in Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001, it has faded out of sight in the past two years.

But no matter what, the Kitty Hawk is definitely an old acquaintance for the Chinese Navy.

And it's the kind that's not easy to deal with -

In terms of deployment rate alone, aircraft carriers are certainly no match for land airports.

After multiple models of second-generation and a half, as well as third-generation aircraft have entered service, the quality of the Chinese Air Force's small-scale top combat power is not inferior to those of the F14 or F18.

But here's the thing.

As a mobile airport at sea, an aircraft carrier has unparalleled initiative.

As the defending party that lacks countermeasures, China often needs to infer the whereabouts of the opponent's fleet through public information, as it did just now.

Unless it is at a port, this assumption is inaccurate.

Moreover, if others really want to do something, they will often hide it or even deliberately provide false fleet navigation information.

In this case, only when the target is very close to the coastline can the opposite position be tracked by sea detection radar or reconnaissance aircraft.

However, due to the limitations of its principles, over-the-horizon radar generally has very poor accuracy.

It is difficult for reconnaissance aircraft to break through the air defense circle and intercept and rush to the opposite side.

This is why, even when the Navy was about to carry out a high-speed equipment replacement, it still squeezed out a portion of funds to support the Ocean No. 1 technical verification project.

However, today's experience can be described as full of ups and downs.

First of all, when Ocean No. 1 was turned on for the first time, it actually captured a valid target.

But before I could even feel happy, a basin of cold water was poured over my head.

Few would have imagined that, in certain circumstances, the imaging effects of ocean remote sensing could be so abstract.

The imagined scenario of a large number of remote sensing images being sent back by satellite groups, then analyzed by staff units, and finally forming a strike chain is obviously not that easy to implement.

On the other hand, the final results seem to prove that the onboard program's ability to identify target features is stronger than expected.

The staff unit is under a lot of pressure, but the staff unit is not that stressed…

"The effect of this satellite is almost equal to all our previous reconnaissance methods..."

Chen Dazhi from the General Armament Department came up behind Chang Haonan:

"Comrade Weiyong, and Xiao Chang, in your opinion, if we want to achieve uninterrupted continuous surveillance in the Pacific Ocean... at least in the waters surrounding our country in the western Pacific Ocean, how many satellites like Ocean No. 1 do we need to launch?"

Before taking office as deputy director of the General Armament Department, Chen Dazhi served as deputy director of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense for a period of time. Although he had been transferred before Chang Haonan became successful, he was still one of the first people to have contact with Chang Haonan.

The name has been retained out of habit.

This somewhat sudden question made it difficult for Zhang Weiyong and Chang Haonan to answer for a moment.

Obviously, the equipment department is very encouraged by what happened today.

So that I had some new ideas.

According to the original plan, after the successful technical verification of Ocean No. 5, the real ocean surveillance satellite will be completed and launched in 6- years.

But looking at the current situation, it seems that users are not willing to wait any longer...

The two looked at each other, and Zhang Weiyong, a satellite expert, was the first to give his opinion:

"Director Chen, if we want to truly achieve effective military reconnaissance and surveillance, relying solely on satellites like Ocean No. 1... I'm afraid it won't be possible."

"The sun-synchronous orbit satellite is a nearly circular orbit. The advantage is that a satellite can scan almost the entire surface of the earth in one day, and the time it scans the same point every day is the same. Specifically, the Ocean No. 9 will pass through my country's Kashgar tracking and control station at am every day."

“However, the height of the sun-synchronous orbit is not high, and due to the performance of the current onboard equipment, it is impossible to provide a particularly wide field of view, so the range of each shot is actually very limited... Such satellites are more suitable for universal monitoring of the world, rather than high-frequency revisits to a certain point..."

"In short, the difficulty of achieving 24-hour uninterrupted reconnaissance and surveillance of our country's periphery is the same as that of conducting 24-hour uninterrupted reconnaissance and surveillance of any point in the world..."

"What about geosynchronous orbit?"

Chen Dazhi still didn't give up. He studied missile technology in school. Although it was not completely relevant, he was not completely in the dark.

"The geosynchronous orbit can indeed ensure continuous surveillance of a relatively large area, but the orbit is too high and requires very advanced imaging equipment... There is almost no demand for this type of equipment except for military use, and the core components are monopolized by the Americans. Even if we have a good relationship with Europe now, it is difficult to get finished products."

"In addition, even if the equipment problem is solved, it will require a very large satellite to carry it, and it will also require a large energy supply, and the weight will increase accordingly... The current Dongfanghong-4 is not enough in any case. In addition, to launch a behemoth of more than ten or twenty tons into the geosynchronous orbit, a heavy rocket that is much larger than the Long March 3B is needed..."

"..."

Obviously, although China has developed rapidly in recent years, it is still not easy to catch up with this systemic backwardness.

Looking at Chen Dazhi, who had an expression that said "Master, please stop reciting", Luan Wenjie, who was in charge of the development of the entire aerospace industry, shook his head helplessly and said comfortingly:

"It's not that there is no good news. The 10-ton Dongfanghong-500 satellite platform and several new launch vehicles with a takeoff weight of 1000-20 tons have already begun to be demonstrated. It is estimated that the project will be approved soon. I can't say about 15 tons, but it shouldn't be a problem to launch a -ton object into geosynchronous orbit in the future..."

Chen Dazhi thought to himself that you are just kidding me. It is normal for a gap of more than ten years from the beginning of demonstration to the completion of research and development...

But when the words were on the tip of his tongue, he looked at Chang Haonan, who was standing beside him with his head down and keeping silent, and finally held them back.

"Actually... it may not be impossible."

At this moment, Chang Haonan suddenly spoke:

"At present, because Ocean No. 1 is a technology verification satellite, the shooting angle of the satellite-borne equipment is fixed and limited to directly below the satellite. If you want to adjust the shooting angle, you need to consume fuel to adjust the attitude of the satellite itself."

"But if we remove other functions from a dedicated ocean reconnaissance satellite and use the extra space and power supply to install a staring device... it's similar to a human neck... uh... or an owl's neck."

Chang Haonan felt that language alone might not be intuitive, so he asked a nearby staff member for a piece of paper and quickly drew a diagram:

"The shooting angle can be adjusted without the satellite itself moving, so the effective reconnaissance time provided by a satellite will be greatly increased, and the number of satellites required can be reduced to... probably a single-digit level."