Chapter 1053 New AWACS platform?
The thing that Chang Haonan was most worried about did not happen after all.
After all, this time, the Americans' pre-casting time was too long.
After the Flight Test Institute reported the emergency air situation that it had accidentally discovered, the final feedback it received was that the KJ-2000 should continue testing without disrupting the plan due to the activities of overseas aerial targets.
It is obvious that although there is no dedicated "hotline" across the Pacific at present, there is still some basic mechanism to prevent misjudgment between major powers.
In other words, the U.S. military’s large-scale operations in the heart of Central Asia should have been notified in advance to the top leaders of major neighboring countries.
However, the superiors never expected that the KJ-2000 could actually capture the low-altitude activities of large targets 500 kilometers away, so they did not notify the Flight Test Institute of the relevant information.
It was not until this time that Chang Haonan learned that Ocean No. 1 had captured the approximate location of the US fleet more than a dozen times in the past half month.
As many as seven aircraft carriers are involved.
Although due to insufficient number of networks, the timeliness of each positioning is basically at the level of 1-2 days, which is obviously not able to be used for the mid-course guidance he envisioned.
However, for the Chinese military, which could only rely on unreliable means such as public reports and AIS information monitoring in the past, being able to locate the enemy's approximate coordinates entirely by autonomous and controllable means is enough to make them ecstatic.
After all, even if the fleet ran at full speed, it could only travel about 1000 kilometers a day.
Today, the 1-2 day reconnaissance time limit can at least completely eliminate the possibility of the enemy using fake AIS signals to divert attention.
In short, with the advancement of technology and the improvement of China's international status, there is less and less need to rely on a single source of information to judge the direction of the situation.
As for what happened next, it was almost the same as the previous timeline...
3 month 17 day.
Although the United States failed to obtain permission from the Security Council due to two votes against and one abstention from the five permanent members, it still issued an ultimatum in the name of "investigating the abuse of chemical weapons."
At this point, even ordinary people can see it.
War is inevitable.
Sure enough, another three days passed.
3 month 20 day.
Operation "deterrence" officially begins.
In terms of scale, this is undoubtedly the largest military operation since the end of the Cold War.
But since the defenders gave up most resistance almost from the beginning, the entire process was more of a march than an attack.
Or march along the highway.
Militarily, it is totally unremarkable.
Even so, the two coalition forces in the north and south were still seriously out of touch, which was surprising...
However, military matters are military matters, and technology matters are technology matters.
Compared with Operation Desert Storm 12 years ago, and the relatively smaller Operation Allied Force and Operation Enduring Freedom, the US military in this war has indeed demonstrated commendable joint command capabilities.
Apart from anything else, during the deterrence operation, the proportion of precision-guided munitions used by the coalition air force was more than ten times that of Desert Storm, while the reaction time was shortened to one-tenth.
In addition, the frequency of accidentally hitting friendly forces is greatly reduced.
All this is largely due to the fact that there are as many as 50 early warning and command aircraft of various types, which fly nearly times a day to ensure the smooth flow of intelligence acquisition and command links across the entire battlefield.
Therefore, it has become an area of focus for Chang Haonan and others...
……
"Boss Chang, it seems that the 200 nodes we reserved in the command system... may not be enough to meet the needs of the three armed forces, let alone the needs of the Air Force..."
During lunch break one day, Guo Lin sighed as he flipped through the report in his hand.
"In terms of information warfare, we still have a lot of room for improvement, but we should not be scared by American propaganda."
Chang Haonan put down the cup in his hand, raised his head and replied:
"Firstly, as the level of communication hardware improves, the scale of the command network can be further expanded in the future. Secondly..."
He stood up and walked to the blackboard, and casually drew a few circles connected to each other:
"Don't forget that every node in our self-organizing network is an equal and decentralized node. In addition to the receiving and responding functions of ordinary terminals, it also has complete message forwarding capabilities."
"This node setting is mainly aimed at a more flexible, smaller and more sophisticated combat style in the future. It is believed that even combat units have certain reconnaissance, surveillance and intelligence collection capabilities. In other words, they are advanced nodes in the central communication network."
Having said that, he then drew more solid dots:
"If we really need to command hundreds, thousands, or even more units to fight at the same time, then we can let a node in the self-organizing network command more ordinary nodes through the traditional communication network. Even if we only calculate it at a ratio of 1:20, we can expand it to more than 4000..."
When Chang Haonan mentioned the number 4000, Guo Lin's hand holding the report trembled slightly:
"4000... If we put it on the ground, in a regiment-level battlefield, wouldn't it be possible to include every ordinary soldier in the command node?"
As a technician at the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, he usually faces a wide variety of clients, so his thinking is broader than that of his colleagues at the Aviation Industry Corporation of China who only have to stare at planes every day.
When Chang Haonan heard half of it, he suddenly couldn't help laughing.
Mainly, he remembered a joke he had heard during the PLA military reform in his previous life:
Synthetic spirit, synthetic soul, synthetic squad leader, synthetic man...
When the informationization level is delegated to the last level, won’t the only thing left be individual soldiers?
"Ahem - that's indeed the long-term goal."
Looking at Guo Lin who looked puzzled, Chang Haonan coughed twice and quickly returned to the topic:
"Moreover, the application of information technology is not necessarily limited to the battlefield. Just like the 4000 nodes mentioned earlier, even for a factory, as long as it is not a particularly complex type, it is enough to finely control each operation node."
"A factory like this... doesn't it mean that there is no need for people at all?"
Guo Lin widened his eyes slightly.
"That's the theory..."
Chang Haonan nodded.
Before his rebirth, black light factories were not particularly rare.
But for people in the early 21st century, it sounds a bit dreamy.
And if you imagine an empty factory that is still busy with production...
It seems a bit scary.
Therefore, Chang Haonan decided to return to reality first:
"Of course, these are all things at the communication principle level. Even if the construction is completed, if we really want to realize it, we still have to provide hardware-level guarantees."
"No matter how advanced the theory is, if there are no aircraft equipped with data links or communication satellites with sufficient bandwidth, it will be useless..."
However, Guo Lin seemed to be still immersed in his imagination about the unmanned factory and did not react immediately.
It was not until a few seconds later that he took a deep breath and nodded:
"Indeed... Just like the Americans this time, they actually dispatched more than 40 early warning aircraft to achieve such a command effect..."
As he spoke, he turned and looked at the KJ-2000 prototype that was undergoing routine maintenance in the final assembly workshop.
Although the mass-produced aircraft carrier platform will be domestically produced, the cost is still a bit too high for the People's Liberation Army, where all branches of the military are clamoring to be equipped.
Many times, quantity itself is also a kind of quality.
"Not all the troops sent out by the Americans are E3s. Half of them are smaller E2Cs..."
Chang Haonan sat back in his chair:
"Everyone's ideas are similar, all of which are high-low combinations. However, the scale of the US carrier-based aviation force is large enough, so the 'low' part can be handed over to the Navy's E2C, and the Air Force only needs to operate the strategic-level E3, which looks much simpler. However, we cannot have such a large number of carrier-based aircraft in a short period of time, so the Air Force needs to equip both high and low models at the same time..."
"..."
These words were meant to comfort Guo Lin.
Because even the relatively low-level KJ-200 has relatively few equipment in China.
Up to now, including the prototype that was later converted into a mass-produced aircraft, there are only one each for the Naval Aviation Force and the Air Force.
Moreover, after the initial surprise, the two services did not show much desire to purchase the equipment.
This is not just a matter of cost.
In fact, neither the user nor Chang Haonan, who made the overall design of the aircraft, was very satisfied with the KJ-200.
The main reason is that I am not satisfied with the carrier.
Although the Y-8 platform has made great improvements in security, there are really no other advantages except the localization rate.
For users, the speed is slow, the range is short, and the comfort is poor...
Moreover, as a planned "light" early warning aircraft, its 60-ton weight is actually not that light.
Even the scale of the ground support unit required to serve it is larger than that of the KJ-2000 which uses a passenger aircraft platform.
There is also one more crew member.
There is really no place to seek justice.
At that time, the issue was to solve the problem of whether or not there was a place, and after the roundabout project was set up, it gave China a sense of pride, so it became a popular item for a time.
As the KJ-2000 project progressed, the contrast quickly restored Mrs. Niu's essence.
For Chang Haonan, as the 14th Institute's verification of the principles of optically controlled phased array radar becomes more and more in-depth, he is more and more eager to find users in the international market to serve as guinea pigs.
Especially after this deterrent action, I am afraid that countries’ understanding and demand for early warning aircraft will be further enhanced.
It is definitely a market with great potential.
Although we considered learning from David's Falcon system and flexibly matching the carrier aircraft by only selling airborne equipment, this is obviously a last resort.
Earning more money from the platform is secondary.
The main reason is that the structures and aerodynamic characteristics of different aircraft are very different. If every order is customized, the production cost and delivery cycle will be greatly increased, which is not conducive to international market competition...
Chang Haonan rubbed his forehead in distress, ready to put this issue aside and take a lunch break.
However, it was at this moment.
A bold idea suddenly appeared in Chang Haonan's mind...
