Chapter 1201: The Final Battle at the Peak of Invisibility

After all, the gap in military rank between Jiang Zengjian and Ji Pingfeng is too big.

It is not difficult to see from the former that the pilot in front of him was somewhat restrained when answering his questions.

Therefore, after discussing a few key issues, he spoke a few words to comfort the other party and then found an excuse to leave the tarmac.

Near the exit, Yin Liqing, the political commissar of the Jinling Military Region Air Force, and Zhang Xinzhong, the chief of staff, who were working with him, had been waiting for quite a while.

Neither of them boarded the early warning aircraft, but they also learned the general situation of the past few hours on the ground.

"Commander, Commissar."

Zhang Xinzhong took the flight jacket that Jiang Zengjian had just taken off:

"The logistics department prepared a ceremony, but several comrades returned to the dormitory immediately after returning to the base, saying that they were going to write a flight summary. Take a look..."

The latter did not answer immediately, but just paced forward with his head down in thought.

Of course he knew what Zhang Xinzhong meant.

Logically speaking, after such a large-scale battle, no matter whether the result is good or bad, there should be a summary and statement to all participants after returning.

Either celebrate the success or draw lessons.

But today's situation is indeed a bit complicated.

For those pilots who have been fighting with the Air Self-Defense Force in the northern airspace, this is certainly a great day.

But people like Ji Pingfeng who have come face to face with the F22 probably feel more worried than happy.

Seeing that Jiang Zengjian was slow to respond, Yin Liqing winked at the chief of staff and then stepped forward quickly:

"Old Jiang, no matter what the specific situation is, comrades have successfully exposed the other side's provocative intentions today... So I think we should still hold the celebration banquet. After all, this is not just a matter of our unit or region. If it gets out, it will not be good for the morale of the entire army..."

"Also, although we did expose some problems during the whole process, these problems cannot be solved by our commanders or pilots. Even if we want to summarize, we should at least wait until after today to hold a seminar with some of the core members who participated in the battle and form a unified opinion before reporting to the superiors... These things still need to be sorted out one by one."

The old friend's advice brought Jiang Zengjian back from his thoughts.

He also immediately realized that perhaps because he had been under high pressure for most of the day, he was indeed a little too picky after returning.

"You are right, Lao Yin, you are right..."

Jiang Zengjian nodded, then turned and looked at Zhang Xinzhong who was following behind him:

"Tell the logistics department to prepare a celebration banquet. Everyone in the base except those on combat readiness duty should attend. Let the comrades who participated in the battle today be happy!"

Although he said that, his frown showed no sign of relaxing.

The conversation he had just had with Ji Pingfeng was still echoing in his mind.

"We must develop our own fourth-generation aircraft!"

Jiang Zengjian narrowed his eyes slightly and secretly made a decision in his heart...

Perhaps it was because both sides demonstrated some unexpected capabilities to their opponents. In short, all those who knew about this fierce confrontation beyond the coastline kept a low profile.

Even the two joint exercises that "happened" to overlap in time a few days later temporarily added the segment of "inviting military attachés from various countries to visit on-site", which made the expected tension seem less intense.

However, let’s not talk about the surface.

The stimulation received by both sides this time was real.

Especially China.

The pressure on national defense has just eased a little, but before we can catch our breath, we are once again facing the pressure of being left behind by a powerful enemy in terms of main combat equipment.

Coupled with the harsh yet sincere report submitted by Jiang Zengjian afterwards, the senior leaders almost immediately realized the criticality of the situation.

Especially the last sentence of the report -

"We must develop our own fourth-generation aircraft!"

To be fair, it is not too late for China to start the preliminary research and preparation work for the fourth-generation fighter jets.

Since the mid-to-late 90s, several host design units have begun to consider the technical development direction of the next generation of fighter jets, and have come up with several less than mature overall designs.

After the two domestically-produced third-generation aircraft, the J-10 and J-11, were put into service, the main attention has been focused in this direction.

However, after all, it involves a lot of new disciplines and technologies. In addition, the air force has not yet fully mastered the third-generation aircraft. In fact, it is not very clear what kind of aircraft it needs as the next generation of main combat equipment.

Is it a direct replica of an F22?

Or take a more unique technical route?

You know, in the past half century, the Chinese army has been in the dilemma of "using whatever is available".

Now that I have suddenly become the Party A and can take the initiative to make requests, I am a little uncomfortable with it.

Therefore, over the past two years, the fourth-generation fighter jets have been in the program demonstration stage.

The original expectation was to allow the Air Force to adapt to modern air combat forms for a few more years before officially selecting and launching the project around 2007-2008.

But after this incident, the original schedule seems a little insufficient...

……

July 7, a week after the standoff ended.

In a conference room on the top floor of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China headquarters, Song Jiaxiang, the newly appointed general manager of the group, was reading a document from the highest decision-making level with a serious face:

“…We now require the Aviation Industry Corporation of China to quickly organize its forces to conduct a feasibility study on the development of a domestically produced fourth-generation fighter and to produce a relevant written report…”

Sitting in the main seat next to him was Zhang Hongbiao, the deputy director of the Construction Committee, who personally delivered the document.

After Song Jiaxiang sat down, he raised his head slightly and glanced steadily at the other group leaders sitting at the conference table:

"Comrades."

Zhang Hongbiao slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air:

"I believe everyone has heard about the confrontation that took place in the east last week."

"Although we succeeded in preventing the adversary's provocative attempt, according to the report from the Air Force, if it had been a real air battle, the exchange between the two sides would probably not have been pretty."

Although those sitting here had already read the relevant materials, they still felt a sinking feeling in their hearts when they heard Zhang Hongbiao bluntly state this conclusion.

Almost at this moment, everyone's thoughts were pulled back to ten years ago.

The era when the only available weapons were the J-6 and J-7 to deal with the F-14 and F-18.

After quickly setting the main theme of the meeting, Zhang Hongbiao softened his tone:

"Of course, this is not entirely a bad thing for us..."

"Although the total combat lasted less than half a day, the Air Force not only obtained a small amount of F22 target characteristics, but more importantly, it gained a more intuitive and specific understanding of the performance of the next generation fighter in all aspects. So what's next..."

Having said this, he did not continue.

Obviously, he was going to leave the rest to others.

Song Jiaxiang calmed down a bit and quickly followed up Zhang Hongbiao's speech:

"Director Zhang, we have carefully refined the contents of the report submitted by the Air Force, and roughly classified the main technical features and advantages of the F22..."

As he spoke, he took out a handwritten document from the briefcase beside him:

"The first is extremely low detectability, that is, stealth capability. Although most of the performance of the F22 is stronger than that of traditional third-generation aircraft, most of its advantages in actual combat are still based on stealth, and this is also a capability that traditional aircraft cannot have through simple upgrades and improvements. It is the most essential difference between fourth-generation fighters."

"But on the other hand, stealth capability is not absolute. Under certain circumstances, there is still a possibility of being detected by radar from a long distance. Considering my country's relatively weak foundation in electromagnetic research and completely different tactical needs from the United States, the next generation of fighter jets should at least ensure that when facing enemy airborne radars in the front hemisphere, the distance for being detected and locked is shortened by more than three quarters compared with existing models, while side and rear stealth can be considered as a secondary consideration as appropriate..."

"The second is the highly efficient and concealed situational awareness capability. In this confrontation, the F22 did not expose any electromagnetic signals throughout the entire process, but it was obviously able to grasp the deployment of most of our military units in real time, even including active radar stations. This shows that it not only has a new type of data link that is difficult to detect, but also has a certain detection capability that does not require sending signals or triggering airborne warning systems..."

"The third is the extremely strong power level and maneuverability. Although the normal combat strategy of the fourth-generation fighter jets will most likely not include giving up the stealth advantage and entering visual range combat, even in beyond-visual-range combat, better maneuverability is also conducive to seizing advantageous launch positions, increasing the no-escape zone of one's own missiles, and coordinating with stealth capabilities in offensive operations to minimize the reaction time of the opponent's air defense system..."

"..."

The speech was clear and logical.

It seemed like he had been prepared for today's situation.

The expression on Zhang Hongbiao's face gradually became more relaxed:

"So it seems that you have already done a lot of work in advance?"

Song Jiaxiang smiled:

"In fact, the various research units under the group have been arguing for a long time on many occasions about how to develop the fourth-generation fighter jets. Many of the things I just said were also based on their past opinions."

"It's just that all this time, these arguments have been floating in the air, each saying that they are right, and no one can come up with a conclusive answer to convince others... So this is a good opportunity to unify the development ideas for the next generation of fighter jets, and it will also make it easier to concentrate on research and development in the next step."

Zhang Hongbiao nodded, obviously quite satisfied with this statement:

"So your plan is..."

Song Jiaxiang put down the manuscript in his hand and took a deep breath:

"Before the end of August, we will hold a group-wide exchange seminar... Of course, we will also invite comrades from brother units such as the Electronic Technology Group and the Aviation Power Group to participate as representatives!"