Chapter 1208 Hypersonic Competition

This contest that took place within the first island chain naturally caused a strong shock not only to China.

As the instigator, the United States also responded quickly after the entire operation.

At this time in 2005, although the US military, especially the top US military leaders, have shown some signs of military disarray, in terms of execution, it is still generally a very efficient army.

It took only about a week for Colonel Evan Robinson, who was responsible for the execution and specific command of normal operations, to submit a written report to Air Force Chief of Staff John Jumper, who had directly given him instructions.

After a slight polish and sublimation, the latter submitted a more comprehensive report to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Department of Defense which directly issued the order.

Just one day later, he received a call asking him to attend a meeting.

This is not surprising.

After all, the plan, which had been prepared for several months, failed to achieve all its goals in the end.

Even if some luck factors are involved, we still need to summarize the strengths and weaknesses of both sides so that we can be more targeted when planning actual combat missions.

But to his surprise, the call did not come from the Pentagon.

But the White House.

Obviously, what we are going to discuss this time cannot be as simple as a tactical issue.

Thinking of this, he immediately picked up the phone and called the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)...

……

The next morning.

Jiang Po hurried to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with all the materials he could think of.

When he entered the West Oval Office under the guidance of an aide, there were already several familiar faces sitting scattered around inside.

In addition to the regular team including the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, there are also a number of technical bureaucrats such as John Stone, chief engineer of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who generally do not appear often in the White House, and Barbara Wilson, chief technology officer of AFRL.

The latter is nominally under the jurisdiction of the civilian Secretary of the Air Force, and considering that Pete Teeter is just a temporary puppet, it can basically be assumed that it is directly managed by the Secretary of Defense.

But no matter what, the military is a business system after all, so Jiang Po, as the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, also has considerable influence on it.

Seeing that all the participants had arrived, the president, who was sitting behind the large desk, cleared his throat slightly:

"Everyone, I have read the entire report submitted by the Air Force yesterday. It seems that... China already has some means to counter stealth fighters. The situation is not optimistic for us, so we must now review some of our equipment development plans..."

He supported his arms on the table with his upper body slightly leaning forward, which was a very obvious offensive performance.

This kind of reaction was not surprising, but the other party's first sentence made Jiang Po, who had just sat firmly, feel at a loss -

This is not what was written in the report I submitted.

Although the F22 was indeed discovered halfway near the opponent's coastline and subsequently engaged in a close-range fight, it did not fall into a disadvantage when outnumbered.

More importantly, Colonel Robinson and Jiang Pei himself made it clear that if it was not a temporary test but a real air battle, their formation would be fully confident of achieving 4-6 victories and escaping unscathed before entering visual range.

Obviously, it doesn’t match the president’s description at all…

Jiang Po subconsciously turned his head to look at the Minister of Defense who was sitting on the sofa next to him.

But he found that the other party had a calm face at this time, as if he had expected this.

In an instant, he seemed to understand something...

It was at this point that the Minister of Defense intervened in the conversation:

"This shows that if we want to achieve the 'kick in the door' effect we had envisioned, it is not feasible to rely on a small number of stealth fighters alone... Even if we can achieve a very good exchange ratio in air combat, as long as the opponent is prepared in advance, the efficiency of subsequent strikes will be greatly reduced."

Although Jiang Po himself was not used to the other party's style of doing things and what he did, he still agreed with this statement based on the facts.

Including other people in the office, everyone nodded slightly in agreement.

"Then I think we should have two strategies to deal with it."

Seeing this, the Minister of Defense gently pushed his glasses:

"First, we need to increase investment in the JSF project and equip more fourth-generation fighters with lower costs and more comprehensive functions. This means changing the previous strategy of having the lead unit 'kick the door' and replacing old models such as the F15 and F16 with stealth aircraft, so that all air forces can gain the ability to kick the door."

"In this way, even if the enemy is already alert, the air defense capability will be overloaded due to facing too many attacking units in a short period of time, thus dispersing the defense capability in a single direction and point..."

Jiang Po showed a slightly surprised expression on his face.

What was said just now was so professional that it didn't seem like it came from the mouth of a civilian defense minister.

I'm afraid he had prepared the speech in advance.

However, he still clearly expressed his support.

Although JSF is a common project for the three armed forces, the one with the fastest progress and the largest number of equipment is expected to be the A model of their Air Force.

Since it has been confirmed that the F22 cannot continue to increase orders, it is always a good idea to speed up the mass production and service of the F35.

Next, the Minister of Defense continued:

"On the other hand, China's performance this time means that we may need to launch large-scale strikes against ground and sea targets without being able to completely eliminate the opponent's air defense system. Therefore, in addition to ensuring the safety of the aircraft carrier platform itself, in order to ensure that the first wave of strikes has a sufficient deterrent effect, we should also consider upgrading our aviation ammunition..."

This is what Jiang Po wrote in the report.

In the latter part, the interests of military officers and the civilian system are completely consistent:

So he took over the topic quite skillfully:

"That's right. The air-to-ground ammunition we currently use is mainly precision-guided bombs that need to be dropped from the air or have a certain glide capability, plus a small number of air-launched cruise missiles... But if these weapons face an opponent with a relatively complete air defense system, they are either not safe enough for the carrier aircraft or can be easily intercepted mid-air."

"So I propose that the hypersonic aircraft should be transferred from the verification project to the formal model as soon as possible... This is a weapon that no existing air defense system can effectively deal with!"

Having said this, he turned his head and looked at Barbara Wilson and Johnston.

"That's right, Your Excellency."

Stone nodded first:

"In the past two years, we and Boeing have conducted two flight tests on the X-43A hypersonic test aircraft, the result of the Hyper-X research and development project, and achieved maximum flight speeds of Mach 6.83 and Mach 9.78 respectively, successfully verifying the feasibility of using scramjet engines as a power source for hypersonic aircraft and the use of tungsten alloys and nickel alloys to produce large aircraft shells."

Then, Wilson next to him added:

"Our Air Force Research Laboratory is also working with Boeing to rapidly advance the development of the X51A hypersonic missile. At present, the scramjet test prototype has solved the problems of the copper heat sink structure and the variable width flow channel, and in June 2003, a full-state ground prototype that meets flight requirements was produced. Fuel cooling and supply were also achieved with open-loop and closed-loop fuel supply systems..."

"Compared to the X43A, which is mainly used for flight testing by NASA, the X51A can use JP-7 aviation fuel and does not need to consider the long-term storage of cryogenic propellants, so it is fully capable of weaponization applications."

"If the Chinese think that they can deal with our attack through some small moves in the field of air defense, then hypersonic weapons that are equivalent to or even better than the X51A will prove to them... and even the whole world that our air force is still capable of tearing through the defenses of any opponent!"