Chapter 1369 Concentrate reconnaissance resources!

When the first ray of morning sun penetrates the night sky covering China.

The North American continent, on the other side of the earth, has just been shrouded in darkness.

The combat center three hundred meters underground in Cheyenne Mountain always exudes the unique metallic chill of precision instruments. General Lance Lord's fingertips tapped lightly on the desk in front of him, and the light blue halo from the display screen danced in his gray-blue pupils.

A dozen windows in front of me were simultaneously broadcasting satellite images of central China, and three of the screens were flashing red or yellow warning signs.

That's the point where they deliberately created a disruption in the GPS signal over the past three weeks.

"The ninth test result was still within the error range, indicating that the scheme of artificially creating frequency jitter to affect signal reception was quite successful."

Reconnaissance Director John Raymond pushed the still-steaming report in front of the commander, and a dense stream of data appeared on the screen:

"However, the international rescue team we sent over found through actual testing that the dual-end navigation equipment they received can switch to the Beidou port within one minute after the GPS signal has problems, and the impact on material transportation and engineering rescue operations is minimal. And this is just a general-level information code. The performance of the equipment in the hands of the Chinese army will only be better."

After a large-scale disaster, countries will traditionally send international rescue units to provide assistance.

But in addition to their main duties, they usually also undertake less sensitive intelligence gathering tasks, such as on-site inspections and damage assessments.

Regarding this situation, everyone is basically in a tacit understanding.

After all, they are really helping, and it is impossible to allow foreigners to enter particularly critical positions anyway. It will not look good for both sides if they really fall out.

Of course, it is inevitable that some countries will do things too outrageously, and they will still face a certain degree of counterattack.

However, Americans are very experienced in this area and usually handle it very accurately.

For example, this time, they were only responsible for conducting field tests on the functions of China's satellite network. Even if the other party knew that they were playing tricks, they couldn't say anything.

Admiral Lord nodded without comment, and did not seem particularly surprised by the result:

"What about navigation performance?"

After a long silence, he finally asked:

"When the GPS signal is cut off, how much impact will the positioning accuracy and response time have if the BeiDou system is used alone?"

Raymond was prepared for this:

"It's because we don't have access to the military code, so we can only speculate based on the civilian code."

Then he pulled up another report from the screen:

"The positioning accuracy of the navigation system was not greatly affected, but in the first 30 hours or so, the frequency of data updates was about 40% lower than before. It should be noted that this may also be due to multiple factors, such as the destruction of the ground station."

"After that, China should have concentrated some of its communication relay navigation resources. According to a report from five hours ago, the response time of Beidou RDSS and RNSS services has been shortened to 5.18 and 2.04 seconds respectively, both about a quarter shorter than three days ago..."

"..."

After finishing the report, Raymond looked at his old superior who was in deep thought and asked tentatively:

"Admiral, judging from the current results, the effect of restricting GPS signals is not obvious, and the other party should have noticed it a long time ago... If this information is leaked, it will probably be a big blow to our users' trust. Have you considered restoring normal working conditions?"

There was a hint of hesitation in Lance Lord's eyes.

The threat posed by the Beidou system in the commercial market is still small, and GLONASS can only maintain a completeness rate of about 60%, and is almost unable to cover mid- and low-latitude areas. However, the Galileo system has swept a large number of users in the Middle East in recent years, which has had a significant impact on the landscape of satellite positioning systems.

He did not answer the other party directly, but moved to a seemingly unrelated topic:

"Last week, Sikorsky convinced Congress to allow them to relax some export restrictions on UH60 helicopter parts..."

Raymond didn't quite understand why the other party suddenly brought up this matter, but he continued:

"That's true. It's probably because China is already equipped with a large number of Z-12 and Mi-17 series helicopters. Even if we continue to restrict the supply of UH60 parts, it will be meaningless. We might as well take this opportunity to do a favor and exchange for a part of the other party's general aviation market... You know, Mil, Kamov and Agusta have made a lot of money in China over the years. It's hard for Sikorsky not to be jealous."

"Um……"

Lord nodded, as if he had made some kind of decision.

However, before he could open his mouth to make a decision, the orange warning light sitting on the center dome suddenly began flashing.

Level 2 alarm.

This means there is some kind of emergency that deserves attention, but it does not yet have the potential to evolve into an actual conflict.

Lord looked up and saw on the three-dimensional orbital map that the silver light dot representing the KH-12 Keyhole satellite was passing over the roof of the world in southwestern China.

Then, the giant display screen switched to optical imaging of the Hecheng mountainous area in Hunan Province. It could be seen that in the valley shrouded in morning mist, a rather abrupt shadow appeared next to a seemingly ordinary mountain, and the marks left by wheel tracks on the nearby road surface were also abnormally deep.

"This is the picture taken by the Keyhole satellite fifteen minutes ago."

Colonel Davin Kenton, head of the Intelligence Analysis Department, tapped his boots on the floor in a rapid rhythm as he drew radial analysis lines on the electronic sand table:

"In addition, infrared reconnaissance results show that the temperature of the missile assembly workshop at the 55th base rose by about 4.5 degrees Celsius this morning local time... It should be said that their infrared camouflage work was done very well. It was only during a short time window when the vehicles entered and exited that they had to lower the protective measures, which happened to be noticed by our new satellite after the orbit adjustment."

Lord took a deep breath and quickly realized the seriousness of the situation:

"What are the radar results of the Lacrosse satellite?"

Colonel Kenton shook his head helplessly:

"Pay attention to this vegetation around Base 55."

As he answered, he magnified the image to a decimeter resolution. The dew condensed on the camouflage net showed an unnatural refractive index in the morning light:

"A large number of birch and catalpa trees are fake. There is an artificial electromagnetic structure composed of sub-wavelength metal resonant units on the surface of the leaves, which can decompose the incident radar waves into abnormal polarization states. The penetration of our synthetic aperture radar has been weakened by 55%, and the effect will not be better than optical and infrared reconnaissance."

Raymond suddenly thought of something, and then called up the monitoring records from three months ago:

"At the beginning of this year, the insulation construction progress of the 55th base was suddenly advanced, and even the strategic reserve of quick-setting concrete was used for this purpose."

He strode to the screen and pointed at the wheel tracks on the screen. Next to it was an analysis report on the relationship between track depth and vehicle mass:

"In addition, if these marks were left by a transport vehicle, then the single-axle load would be more than 31% higher than the HY4330 used by the Dongfeng 25, which is obviously unrealistic... Let's not talk about whether China can build a transport vehicle of this level. Even if it can, such an exaggerated ground pressure will make the passability a mess."

"That is to say, this Missile Brigade 814 should have concentrated on replacing a large number of new missiles, perhaps 8-10, and completed the transportation and transfer during our satellite reconnaissance window."

General Lord's eyes swept across the strategic situation map. The satellite constellation's coverage network over the Asia-Pacific region was slowly moving westward as the earth rotated.

He suddenly noticed the satellite transit schedule that the operations staff was adjusting:

"Have NROL-14, NROL-18, and Ruby 07 satellites change their orbits. I want to see a multi-spectral scan of the mountains northeast of Crane City before the next satellite communication window."

Kenton showed a hint of hesitation in his eyes, but he finally spoke:

"Sir, if the positions of these two satellites are adjusted, then there will be loopholes in our previous tracking and monitoring of several blocks in central Meng Province and western Longyuan Province..."

He was interrupted by Lord with a wave of his hand halfway through his words:

"This unit has been receiving new equipment at such a high frequency, and it is very likely that it will conduct a launch test in the near future. There will be nothing more important than an intercontinental ballistic missile test launch."

"But Colonel Kenton just mentioned that the radar spectrum scanning effect around the base is very poor, and the enemy's infrared camouflage is very effective."

Raymond also has some concerns about this:

"In the end, it is very likely that only the visible light part will obtain sufficient results, but the optical equipment will leave enough reconnaissance windows for the enemy at night and in bad weather..."

But Lord had clearly made up his mind:

"The parts with vegetation may be worse, but the area around their launch sites is relatively empty. If we can analyze the traces of vehicle activity in the past and in the next period of time, we can infer the launch location that the other party plans to use."

"As for the situation in Meng Province..."

He glanced at the map of China on the screen:

"Concentrate the remaining reconnaissance resources for this mission over the missile range in Longyuan Province. No matter where the tactical missile test is launched from, it will eventually hit here... Besides, they can't possibly cover the Gobi Desert with camouflage trees!"