Chapter 1316 I Want a Ballistic Missile Nuclear Submarine

"As for submarines..."

Zheng Liangqun leaned his upper body against the back of the sofa and muttered as if talking to himself.

The Chief of Staff of a service is already a senior commander, so even though he comes from the Air Force, he is by no means completely unfamiliar with other services.

Especially the navy, which has coordinated and cooperated many times.

Although Zheng Liangqun did not directly participate in the embankment-building operation to deter the "Hailang 97" fleet, he, as a representative of pilots with actual combat experience, had many in-depth exchanges with naval units including aviation and surface ship forces.

Since then, he has never given up studying sea-air coordinated operations, and naturally became "the officer who understands the navy best in the Air Force."

A few minutes later, he spoke again:

"If we want to sail for a long time in the ocean and keep up with the speed of the fleet, conventional submarines are definitely not enough, even if they are sailing at snorkel depth all the time..."

"To be honest, the Navy does have plans to add a newly commissioned attack nuclear submarine to the fleet this time... But this is only for the purpose of ocean-going training. The surface ships will cover up the submarine's signal characteristics. After reaching the first island chain, both sides will carry out their respective tasks."

According to international practice, submarines should remain surfaced when passing through international waterways belonging to other countries to ensure that they "do not harm the peace, security and good order of the coastal state."

But conventions are conventions.

In actual operation, stealth is the lifeblood of a submarine, so unless it is necessary, or if you really want to express goodwill, you will definitely find a way to skirt this rule, or simply pass through by submarine.

In most cases, they would find a relatively large civilian ship and hide it under the enemy to sneak forward.

But civilian ships are non-cooperative targets after all. Their routes, speeds, drafts, and noise characteristics are all unknown. Not only are they quite passive in cooperation, but they are also prone to danger.

Therefore, using surface ships, which cannot hide their whereabouts anyway, as cover is often a safer option.

After some explanation, Zheng Liangqun gave the conclusion:

"To be honest, if you want to use a submarine to attract the other side's attention so that surface ships can approach the test area, then let alone the tactical feasibility, I'm afraid the navy is unlikely to agree... After all, it is the latest model. If it is forced out of the sea, it will not look good either in terms of face or technology. And if you want to use an old model..."

He didn't continue, just shook his head.

China's previous generation of attack nuclear submarines was the Type 09I, which can only be said to have barely solved the problem of whether or not it has a submarine. Even the last three relatively new ones basically do not have the ability to perform tactical missions.

"The submarine is not there to attract American attention, but it is essential to the mission."

Chang Haonan shook his head:

"I mean to use a dual-base radar. You should be familiar with the basic principle. We discovered the F22 last year and the B99 in the Balkans in 2. They all used this technology..."

He took a piece of paper from the side, drew a few simple symbols on it, and explained:

"Boeing's flight test control center is located in the mainland. The reason why they chose to conduct the test in the Pacific Ocean is not only a convention, but also probably to deter us. But no matter what, this means that their test data needs to be transmitted back through a specially modified air communication node aircraft. Considering the complex communication data of the missile-borne sensors, it is impossible to apply strong electromagnetic interference near the test area. Confidentiality can only be achieved through regional isolation."

"However, the multi-base radar does not have strict requirements on the distance of the transmitting end, so it does not matter if the surface ship unit's air defense destroyer is used as the external signal source, even if it is blocked far away from the test area. I have seen the danger warning area drawn in this test, and the width is not very large. With the performance of the 346 radar, if it works in a quasi-continuous wave mode with a low probability of intercept, it does not even need to approach the edge of the area."

"As the receiving end, the submarine can maintain a low-speed silent state for a long time. Even if our submarine makes a little more noise, there will be no anti-submarine aircraft around the test flight area, and there is no need to worry about the opponent's underwater monitoring array in the high seas and oceans... More importantly, no one would think of a submarine to perform this kind of mission, so there is basically no risk..."

Zheng Liangqun looked at the abstract but clear diagram on the paper and quickly understood what Chang Haonan meant.

"Actually, you don't have to worry too much about the noise problem of nuclear submarines..."

He touched his chin and a slightly ostentatious smile appeared on his face.

After all, there are not many opportunities to point out Chang Haonan’s mistakes in person and explain them to him.

But then he thought that the person he was showing off to didn't seem to have anything to do with him, so he quickly restrained his expression:

"Thanks to the progress in the mechanical industry and fluid dynamics over the years, the new generation of submarines has made great improvements in both mechanical noise and water fluid noise. Although the traditional hull and reactor design is still used for risk reduction, it will definitely not be the case that the noise can be heard across half the Pacific Ocean after sailing..."

Having said this, he couldn't help but smile.

"As long as the Chinese nuclear submarine is launched at the port, our fleet in Guam can hear the movement." This was an exaggerated description of the US military in the early years.

Of course, the performance of the Type 09I submarine is indeed difficult to satisfy.

"In short, we can't say much about the newer Seawolf and Virginia-class ships, but even if we consider it from the perspective of anticipating the enemy, they are at least comparable to the later Los Angeles-class ships... Just tell us how to deploy them and how to modify them."

Many modern submarines have radars installed in the form of masts on the top of the hull or in the form of conformal arrays around the hull, but neither in terms of size nor function, they are designed to perform air defense search missions like destroyers. Therefore, in order to realize Chang Haonan’s idea just now, additional modifications are necessary.

Install at least one antenna that can serve as the receiving end of a bistatic radar.

However, Chang Haonan's expression remained solemn:

"That's the problem..."

He leaned forward, slightly closing the distance between them.

"The receiving antenna needs to be aligned with the transmitting antenna, which means that the size in at least one direction must reach 4 meters. It is impossible to store it inside the submarine hull. As for putting it on the head the whole time, that is even more impossible. The radar antenna itself is fragile and can be easily damaged by underwater undercurrents or marine life. Moreover, such a large sail-like object will also destroy the navigation stability and endanger the safety of the submarine itself."

"In this case, an attack nuclear submarine may not be enough. We need to use a ballistic missile nuclear submarine and free up one of the missile launch tubes to accommodate the antenna and some radar back-end equipment. This way, we can maintain submerged navigation throughout the entire process. After reaching the mission area, we will surface to the periscope depth and raise the antenna out of the water. That's why we need to use surface ships to attract the enemy's attention..."

Zheng Liangqun took a deep breath, and apart from showing an expression that said "You really have the guts to do this", he didn't even know what to say for a moment.

In awe.jpg

But it's also a bit embarrassing...

It turns out that people were not thinking too much about the anti-submarine issue just now, but I didn't think enough because I didn't know the full picture.

Unless a ballistic missile nuclear submarine is extremely large, it will have to have a more or less raised turtleback structure in order to accommodate submarine-launched ballistic missiles, which will affect its hydroacoustic appearance and create more noise during navigation.

Seeing the other party's reaction, Chang Haonan asked tentatively:

"The 09IV is designed on the same platform as the 09III, so the progress should not be too far behind, right?"

Zheng Liangqun was stunned, then replied:

"There is indeed one new generation ballistic missile nuclear submarine currently... nominally it is undergoing testing, but in fact the parts related to the submarine itself are almost complete. It's just that because the Julang-2 submarine-launched missile is still under development, it is far from being combat-ready..."

"However, this thing is a treasure of the entire army and even the whole country. Whether it can be modified to perform this kind of routine mission... I'm afraid I have to report it separately, and the superiors will make the final decision."

This situation was exactly what Chang Haonan had expected.

He was also about 80% to 90% sure that his superiors would agree with this action plan.

"In addition, the angular velocity of ultra-high-speed targets in the atmosphere is very large for radar, so the residence time in an antenna beam is very short. The echo accumulation effect at the back end of general radar is very poor. The receiving station must have the ability to quickly detect the received signal."

In order to increase the success rate of persuasion, Chang Haonan added:

"Well, go to Huairou Science City to find Deputy Chief Engineer Xing Muchun and ask him to make a copy of the radar signal data from the previous hypersonic flight test and give it to you. Although the signal characteristics of the double cone we tested and the tangent cone waverider used by the X51A are very different, the Doppler dispersion in the 5-6 Mach speed range is similar, which can provide some reference for the back-end program design."

"In addition, based on the echo characteristics of high-speed and high-dynamic targets, the processing effect of the GPU terminal may be better than that of the CPU. You can ask Mr. Guo Lin from the Electronics Technology Group. He should know more about this..."

"..."

After some discussion, Zheng Liangqun finally made up his mind.

"Then let's do it this way. Try to get our superiors to agree to this plan!"

He put the note written by Chang Haonan into his pocket, then put on his cotton hat and prepared to leave.

"Now that you're here, why don't you go up and see Qi He?"

When sending Zheng Liangqun to the door, Chang Haonan noticed the several gift boxes at the door again, remembered the excuse of the other party's visit just now, and joked.

A hint of hesitation flashed across Zheng Liangqun's face:

"Forget it, the child is still too young, and it's not good for him to have too many contacts with outsiders."

He said half seriously and half to excuse himself:

"If this mission can be successfully carried out, it will be a hundred-day gift to little Qihe..."