Chapter 1235 The Strongest Spear

Chapter 1235 The Strongest Spear

The impact of the 911/ incident on the North American continent was almost subversive.

Since then, "counter-terrorism" has become the top and most unquestionable political correctness in Washington.

Any claim related to this will almost certainly have a smooth sailing.

In order to avoid a similar incident from happening again, the White House quickly granted special permission to the intelligence agencies to launch targeted secret surveillance and wiretapping activities.

After all, most of the Internet and communication equipment in the early 21st century were highly dependent on the core technologies of American companies, so it was not difficult to do this.

It should be said that this decision may not be a bad one based on its original intention.

But everyone knows it.

For some things, as long as you don't take a one-size-fits-all approach, it's the same as not caring about them.

A useful method like monitoring quickly began to prosper and develop after the restrictions were removed.

It started domestically but soon spread to almost the entire world.

As for the purpose of monitoring, it almost immediately deviated from the real "anti-terrorism needs" and completely let itself go.

The Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, the Treasury Department, the Office of National Intelligence... have all launched their own surveillance plans under the cover of anti-terrorism.

Those who can be called immortals are as numerous as hemp.

The later famous "PRISM" project was one of them.

Against this backdrop, the U.S. military, as the most powerful department, naturally cannot remain indifferent.

Not only the intelligence agencies under the Ministry of National Defense, but even the four major military services quickly followed suit, relying on the foundation they laid during the Cold War to catch up and once occupied half of similar projects...

The "Ladies' Love" project mentioned by Admiral Lance Lord is a long-term monitoring mission authorized by the Air Force to be carried out in East Asia and Southeast Asia based on the intelligence station at Misawa Air Base.

Like all its peers, the initial mission was simply to obtain satellite communication signals over the Asia-Pacific region through an array of 33 antennas.

But surveillance soon expanded to include phone calls, faxes and Internet data.

The intelligence station, which was originally just a supplement to the base, was soon upgraded to the "Misawa Security Operations Center."

It became one of the highest-security units jointly supported by the Air Force Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.

Even in a department like the Air Force Space Command, not just anyone has access to relevant information.

That is why Admiral Lord acted so secretive just now.

Only after he walked back into the office did he signal Brigadier General John Raymond behind him to begin reporting the details:

"Tell me, what specific discoveries did Misawa have?"

Although the report itself was in the latter's hands, it was thick, at least dozens or even hundreds of pages.

Lord was not an intelligence officer, and if he slowly read the book by himself, it would take at least several hours to finish.

"Although China replaced its communication keys a few months ago, we are unable to decipher the specific content of its encrypted satellite communications for the time being. However, the 373rd Squadron discovered through retrospective monitoring that some satellite communication signals began to become unusually active starting at 6:1 last night local time in China, especially the two tactical communication satellites numbered FH-1 and FHA."

Raymond opened the folder, took out a page and placed it in front of Lord:

"It has been preliminarily determined that the communication range is within this area in the central and western part of China."

Lord put on his glasses and looked down, and found that there was a map of China on the paper.

An oval encompasses a total of six regions in the central and western regions.

Among them, Longyuan, Qin Province and Ning Province are marked as high probabilities, while the probabilities of the other three regions are relatively low.

After a pause, Raymond took out another page:

"This morning, local time, another high-orbit communications satellite numbered ST-1 conducted two rounds of high-intensity signal transmissions. Although the specific communication range cannot be determined for the time being due to the fixed position and broadcast mode of this satellite, according to the intelligence we obtained earlier, ST-1 is responsible for the strategic communications function within the Chinese military. Generally, this satellite is only used by the highest decision-making level or between first-level units in the theater of operations."

Combined with the news he just heard outside, Lord quickly filled in the whole picture of the whole incident in his mind:

"So, the situation is that they conducted a missile test last night, confirmed the test results this morning, and reported the results to the capital?"

He frowned slightly:

"But if that's all, there doesn't seem to be any need to make such a big fuss about it?"

"Of course more than that."

Raymond shook his head:

"The 373rd Squadron also used backdoor programs to analyze mobile phone communications in several key areas over the past period of time. Although most of the calls and text messages were from peripheral personnel and did not directly involve secrets, the combination of a large amount of information was still able to draw some useful conclusions."

"About a week ago, China transported a new type of medium-range ballistic missile to the central region of Qin Province. Judging from the units involved in this work, it is likely to be an improved model of the Dongfeng 21. After the missile was shipped, several research institutes involved in synthetic aperture radar in the aerospace system were unblocked, and some employees entered the Spring Festival holiday. In addition..."

"..."

In the 21st century, when information is highly developed, it is basically impossible to achieve 100% confidentiality at the source of anything.

But a lot of useful intelligence is often hidden in the vast amount of useless information.

Only after obtaining some clues can we quickly narrow the screening scope and carry out rational deduction in a targeted manner.

And this is the process Raymond is explaining:

"Combining these indirect signs with the relevant information we have obtained before, the target that looks like an aircraft carrier deck is not just a simple symbol."

At this point, he took a deep breath and then gave the final conclusion of the entire report:

"The Chinese side...probably launched a ballistic missile with anti-ship capabilities!"

In fact, as early as the late 90s, the US military learned through some special channels that China was likely developing a special weapon specifically targeting aircraft carriers to prevent the situation in early 1996 from happening again.

However, the good times did not last long. This special channel was soon uncovered, causing them to lose subsequent more detailed sources of intelligence.

As a result, there are many different opinions about the nature of this "special weapon".

At first, considering that the military branch associated with the special channel is the Second Artillery Force, it is natural to speculate that it is an anti-ship ballistic missile.

This made the navy quite nervous for a while.

However, the technical department soon came to the conclusion that using ballistic missiles to attack moving targets was indeed quite difficult, and that neither the United States nor the Soviet Union had similar weapons for reference, so the possibility of China completing the research and development of related weapons on its own was very low.

At the same time, some other subsequent signs also indicate that China has launched a research and development program for supersonic heavy anti-ship missiles, the technical route and performance parameters of which are similar to the P800 equipped by the Red Navy during the Cold War.

Using a ramjet engine, the terminal speed when choosing a high-altitude trajectory is about Mach 4, and the range is around 500-600 kilometers, which is basically equivalent to the combat radius of a carrier-based aircraft performing a ground strike mission. It can indeed provide a certain area denial capability.

This seems much more "reasonable".

More importantly, the Navy is more willing to believe in this possibility.

Discussions on anti-ship ballistic missiles were soon suspended, but they remained on the desk of the Air Force Space Command as a possibility.

Therefore, Lord, who had his eyelids half drooped just now, raised his head instantly.

The lenses of the glasses reflected slightly under the light of the gorgeous chandelier, but it still couldn't hide the sharp sight hidden behind it:

“This project actually exists?”

As soon as he finished speaking, he thought for a moment and spoke again:

"wrong……"

"First of all, are you sure it's a medium-range ballistic missile?"

Heavy cruise missiles like the P800 have some characteristics that are very similar to ballistic missiles when hitting high trajectories.

But in terms of the difficulty of interception, there is an essential difference.

Raymond nodded:

"There was a video on the Chinese Internet that was supposed to be of a missile launch. Although it was quickly deleted, the intelligence department still obtained the relevant content."

"According to analysis, before the visible flames disappeared, the speed of the flying object had reached at least Mach 3. If it was an ordinary supersonic cruise missile... or even a short-range tactical ballistic missile, it would be impossible to have such a speed at the beginning of the launch, unless..."

He hesitated.

"Unless what?"

Lord demanded.

The nature of this missile was very important to him.

If it is indeed a medium-range ballistic missile with a range of more than 1500 kilometers and a trajectory high point far away from the atmosphere, then the Air Force Space Command can use this as an excuse to increase its voice in the sea-based missile defense system.

The premise is that no oolong incidents should be caused.

Otherwise it would be embarrassing to go around in circles.

"Unless China's hypersonic technology is already at the same level as ours..."

Raymond himself laughed when he said this.

Lance Lord on the opposite side also laughed.

This is obviously impossible.

The atmosphere in the office became a lot more relaxed because of this.

"You just said they were hitting a fixed target?"

The admiral took out a cigar and then buried his whole body in the back of the boss chair.

"Yes."

Raymond's expression was also much softer than before:

"So currently it is speculated that the enemy may not be able to actually use ballistic missiles to attack moving targets, but is only testing the ability of the SAR seeker to screen characteristic signals and use the rudder to perform terminal calibration of the trajectory."

"In addition, the missile may have slowed down in the final stage, on the one hand to ensure the normal operation of the SAR seeker, and on the other hand to leave more reaction time and improve the accuracy of the hit."

"Still don't take it lightly."

Lord waved his hand and looked worried:

"Even if we can only attack fixed targets, if the enemy strikes first and strikes before the fleet leaves the port, it will still cause us great losses..."

In fact, Raymond knew very well that there was almost no possibility that China would take action against the US military first.

But this statement may arouse the superiors' Pearl Harbor PTSD and lay the foundation for subsequent exploitation of the issue.

So I nodded again and again:

"Although the reaction time for medium-range ballistic missiles is relatively long, if the navy is left to intercept them on its own, the success rate is probably still very low..."

Lord took a puff of his cigar with satisfaction and continued his high-sounding speech:

"Yeah... The navy is not capable enough, so we have to bear some of the pressure for them. This is really difficult..."

After they finished speaking, the two smiled at each other.

"You will work overtime tonight and write a complete analysis report on this matter, focusing on the threat of this new type of ballistic missile and the necessity of integrating the sea-based Standard Missile 3 and land-based missile interception systems."

Finally, Lord revealed his true intentions:

"As for the specific details... as long as you do not deviate from the conclusions of the intelligence analysis, you can use your own subjective opinion!"