Chapter 1237 Using anti-ship ballistic missiles as bait?

Chapter 1237 Using anti-ship ballistic missiles... as bait?

The feeling of emotion only flashed through the naval leader's mind.

What happened ten years ago can serve as motivation to move forward, but dwelling too much on the past does not make any sense for the present situation.

So he quickly turned his attention back to the curtain in front of him.

This picture taken from mid-air can clearly show the logic of the missile's target selection and its amazing hit accuracy.

But the specific damage effect cannot be seen.

The large black area should be caused by the burning of unburned fuel.

The scary cracks on the ground are due to the lack of ductility in the concrete surface.

This may be intuitive enough for traditional ballistic missiles.

But if used as an anti-ship weapon, the target is still somewhat unrepresentative.

Of course, even if we only consider it from the perspective of common sense, with a terminal speed of 7.5 Mach, plus the mass and charge of the warhead itself, anything that is hit cannot be intact.

Just as he was hesitating whether to ask, Chang Haonan seemed to understand the audience's thoughts and turned to the next page of the report on the projector stand with a smile on his face.

This time, it was still a bird's-eye view.

However, the perspective switched to the ground, which was filled with people wearing military coats or camouflage cotton jackets.

There were two searchlights clamped next to it, illuminating the scene in a deep pit as bright as day.

The chief responded quickly:

“Is this the situation inside the crater?”

In fact, the marks formed by tactical missiles hitting the ground are not much different in shape from those of ordinary artillery shells or bomb craters.

All those sitting in this conference room are military leaders, and everyone has seen this before.

It is usually a large inverted funnel-shaped pit.

For the Dongfeng 11 or Dongfeng 15 with half a ton of explosives, the depth is about 5-7 meters.

However, the warhead of this high-tech verification missile is not loaded with explosives, and its innate double-conical shape has a certain ability to penetrate the ground.

So the scene that was created was a bit unusual.

It is a structure like a deep well.

After all, it relies solely on kinetic energy, and its destructive power is actually not as good as a high-explosive warhead.

But its ability to penetrate the ground is truly amazing.

Even without measuring tools, one can tell that the depth is at least ten meters.

At this time in 2006, most military leaders were still from the Army, so they naturally began to compare their experiences with those of their youth.

At the same time, with the leader taking the lead, the others finally got the chance to ask questions.

"Even without the additional ground-penetrating improvements, a traditional military... or even a theater-level command would probably find it difficult to withstand the attack of such a weapon."

Although the chief who spoke this time is currently in charge of logistics, his past experience can definitely be described as a battle-hardened one.

Seeing the scene in front of me, my thoughts have begun to fly:

"I remember Comrade Haonan said before that this kind of weapon should be classified as a tactical weapon after it is put into service...Isn't that right?"

Chang Haonan heard the hidden meaning in this sentence, but he did not understand the military's organizational system and the possible interests behind it, so he was not sure how to answer for a moment.

Fortunately, Jing Zhiyuan, the head of the Second Artillery Corps, who had met him once before, immediately took up the conversation:

"Attempts to equip the army with short-range ballistic missiles have been made in previous years. Actual feedback has shown that even for tactical weapons, it is difficult for the army to provide sufficient intelligence and technical support. Therefore, at least at this stage, such weapons with a range of more than 300 kilometers are not yet suitable for dispersed deployment and use."

Now Chang Haonan also understood.

The idea of ​​the person mentioned above is probably to equip this double-cone high-speed artillery directly to the army's group artillery units, so that when it is really needed, the trouble of cross-service transfer can be avoided.

However, as a logistics officer who was not directly responsible for the matter, the most he could do was to throw out an idea.

After being rejected, I did not insist further.

After a few more questions that did not touch on the core issues, the senior leader who had not spoken for a long time suddenly spoke again.

But he was giving instructions to Jing Zhiyuan who was standing in the row behind him:

"It's difficult to completely eliminate this trace in a short period of time, so it will definitely be discovered by reconnaissance satellites. You need to coordinate with the range to ensure that no key information related to this test is leaked."

After saying that, he turned to Qiao Chenqing:

"In addition, I received a briefing at noon today saying that the test launch last night still caused some abnormal weather phenomena. Now many rumors are leaning towards UFOs. I have asked comrades from the civil aviation department to guide public opinion. You, the Air Force, must also cooperate accordingly and not cause too much discussion and panic..."

"..."

It must be said that leaders of this level are indeed meticulous.

In just a few minutes, a series of publicity, guidance and confidentiality work was deployed in an orderly manner.

Jing Zhiyuan, who was the first to receive the instructions, was obviously well prepared for this:

"Please rest assured, Commander. Before this test, I have already contacted the comrades at the official newspaper. They will broadcast a news report about the tactical missile unit conducting a combat readiness mobile launch exercise on New Year's Eve in the next few days, accompanied by some videos and pictures of the effect range. People who are knowledgeable outside will immediately understand our hint..."

"..."

It can be seen that although China does not have many weapons that can be called top-secret in this era.

But when it comes to keeping weapons experiments confidential, the superiors have already rehearsed it many times in their minds.

Even if Chang Haonan himself had not considered any follow-up countermeasures, their series of moves could basically cover up most of it.

However, this traditional approach is completely out of sync with the previous preparations...

"Chief."

Chang Haonan didn't let Jing Zhiyuan say more.

Instead, he seized an opportunity and quickly interrupted:

"Based on the specific circumstances of this time, only releasing the news of a tactical missile test launch may not only be insufficient to calm the outside world... but also may have the opposite effect, further increasing their interest in this test launch."

Logically speaking, the formal process of reporting on this test launch should have been completed just now.

But after hearing Chang Haonan's statement, all the bigwigs turned their attention back to the podium.

This is not the first day that we have known him.

Being able to say such things obviously means that he had been prepared for this.

"Tell me about it."

The leader sitting in the middle showed an interested expression:

"What's your plan?"

Chang Haonan quickly changed the page:

"This group of targets in the effects range is too targeted. Previously, they relied on the fact that it was in the Gobi Desert and was a new place, so foreign satellites would not pay too much attention to it, so they kept it secret. But now there is such a conspicuous crater. The enemy will soon deploy a special SAR satellite and see that this is actually a simulation of an aircraft carrier formation. It is unreasonable to use tactical missiles to attack such a formation."

"So my suggestion is to directly admit publicly that we have successfully tested a medium-range ballistic missile, but of course we don't need to elaborate on the specific nature of the missile..."

This sudden and even somewhat outrageous proposal left the dozen or so leaders below completely unable to react.

After a while, the chief's expression changed from shock to confusion:

"If what you said is true, then the other party will soon infer that we are developing a medium-range ballistic missile for anti-ship purposes?"

This test involves too many things, and each one is a trump card project that we have been looking forward to in the past.

Hypersonic weapons, anti-ship ballistic missiles, multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles…

It's a bit like the feeling of a poor person suddenly becoming rich.

Before the troops are actually equipped, no matter which one is leaked out, it will allow the opponent to prepare in advance, which is a pity.

But Chang Haonan is very open-minded:

"On the one hand, the research and development of the DF-21D will soon be on the fast track. The next step will be to strike simulated mobile targets on the ground or directly strike surface target ships. No matter which option is chosen, once the test is carried out, it will be made public. Even if it is publicly acknowledged now, it will only be one to two years early."

"On the other hand... publicly acknowledging the progress of anti-ship ballistic missile development is also a good bait."

"Using the entire project as bait..."

The leader narrowed his eyes slightly, and a gleam of brilliance flashed in his eyes:

"So how big a fish are you going to hoist?"

Chang Haonan no longer kept the secret:

"If successful, it could disrupt the entire U.S. anti-missile weapons development route."

This time, it's not just the chief himself.

Instead, the whole audience was in uproar!

After letting everyone digest the news for a while, Chang Haonan continued to explain:

"Anti-ship ballistic missiles will bring unprecedented air defense pressure to the U.S. military, especially the U.S. Navy. In this case, they will inevitably invest huge resources in anti-missile interception systems such as Sea-based Standard Missile 3 or THAAD that focus on medium-range missiles to minimize our regional denial capabilities."

"However, this type of missile, which relies on kinetic kill vehicles and pursues an extremely high effective firing altitude, has very poor maneuverability within the atmosphere. The theoretical minimum firing altitude is basically at the level of 80-100km, which is completely unable to cope with the two types of hypersonic weapons, air-breathing-scramjet and rocket-boosted-gliding, which are our next key research and development."

"In other words, the more they invest in anti-ship ballistic missiles at this stage, the less research and equipment resources they will have for intercepting hypersonic weapons in the future. As for the anti-ship problem..."

Having said that, he paused for a moment and glanced at the navy leader whose brows were almost knitted together:

"Whether air-breathing or gliding, both types of hypersonic weapons can be equipped with the same SAR radar seeker, and their attack concealment and penetration capabilities are even stronger, so there is no need to worry at all."