Chapter 1373 Who will defend America?

at the same time.

In the conference briefing room on Capitol Hill, Admiral Lance Lord was typing rapidly on the keyboard in front of him. The blue light from the screen shone on the silver hair on his forehead, emitting a crystal reflection.

Inside the headset, the voice of Major General John Raymond, Director of the Reconnaissance Bureau, sounded hurried and nervous:

"Your Excellency Admiral, about 90 minutes ago, the DSP satellite captured an obvious trace of a solid rocket engine in the southwest of Hunan Province. After analysis, it was determined to be a model similar to but different from the Dongfeng 31..."

DSP is a dedicated satellite early warning system that can provide early detection of missile launches and nuclear explosions by detecting the combustion characteristics of solid propellants.

The telemetry results it provides are almost 100% accurate.

However, Lord was in the final stages of preparation for a hearing, which was a time of the greatest pressure and headache. Hearing this, he couldn't help but waved his hand with a headache:

"Isn't this similar to what we determined before? Besides, Colonel Kenton has already sent the briefing over, and I'm adding details to the report..."

As early as a few days ago, the Space Command had noticed the unusual movements of the 55th Base of the Second Artillery Corps of China through the Keyhole Satellite, and mobilized reconnaissance resources to conduct high-frequency monitoring of a mountainous area around Hecheng City.

Finally, with the help of the vehicle trajectory analysis system, it was inferred that a seemingly ordinary open space in the forest was likely to be a launch position that was about to be activated, and China was likely to test-fire one of the latest Dongfeng 31A ballistic missiles.

On the one hand, it is used to fill the delivery capability gap caused by the insufficient range of the DF-31 prototype, and on the other hand, it also plays a deterrent role at this time point.

Now that the inference has become a reality, it undoubtedly further confirms the conclusion that the admiral is going to throw out at this hearing -

The United States must increase its investment in research and development of missile early warning and interception systems in the next few years, otherwise it will not be able to maintain the current strategic balance.

In fact, Lord is very clear that given the scale and delivery capability of China's intercontinental ballistic missiles, it is still a long way from truly achieving effective deterrence.

But precisely because of this, it is an excellent weapon to intimidate the gentlemen in Congress.

However, Raymond on the other side of the screen was not so optimistic.

He raised his head and wiped the sweat from his forehead:

"But sir, according to the follow-up reconnaissance results, the mid-course correction parameters of the target's ballistic trajectory are abnormally smooth, and the thermal signal distribution during the terminal payload separation is more like a satellite fairing than a nuclear warhead. In addition, the measurement and control department has also confirmed that three new flying objects have appeared in low-Earth orbit. Judging from the altitude, they may not be able to maintain it for a long time. This should be an emergency launch test."

The corner of Lord's eye twitched slightly, and his gaze was fixed on another window.

Everything was normal on the synthetic aperture radar scan image of the Longyuan Western Target Range. There were no new craters, no abnormal electromagnetic activity, and even the abnormal thermal radiation from the camouflage net had disappeared.

China's Gobi Desert is as peaceful as if it had never been disturbed by missiles.

Of course, an intercontinental ballistic missile that uses a high trajectory to simulate a full range does not carry a real warhead, nor does it involve accuracy testing. It can simply mark out an uninhabited area and drop the missile there.

Therefore, satellite images alone cannot overturn the conclusion he wants to reach.

However, the conclusion drawn by Raymond was like a thorn in the decision-making chain.

If the Chinese had simply launched a solid rocket for quick replacement, then the hearing report at hand would undoubtedly make Lord a laughing stock on Capitol Hill.

The admiral himself will retire in half a year and does not care about his reputation, but if he can bring a second super-large contract to Lockheed Martin in addition to HTV2 in the last stage of his tenure, it will undoubtedly greatly improve the quality of his life in his later years.

Once money is involved, it's not so easy to let it go.

Therefore, in the face of a situation where political and economic demands are superimposed, all details are insignificant noise.

"Listen, Joe."

The communication line used by Lord is specially encrypted, and only a very few special departments can access it after obtaining authorization from the White House.

So after he made sure that there was no one around, he didn't mind being more explicit:

"The Congressional Armed Services Committee will hold a closed-door hearing in half an hour, asking us to confirm whether China is testing an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range sufficient to cover our homeland... Have we obtained any more direct evidence, such as images of the launch?"

Raymond didn't understand the hidden meaning of his superior's words, but still answered dutifully:

"Your Excellency, the Earth Eye 1 satellite in the sun-synchronous orbit happened to capture the image of the rocket during its ascent, but this satellite is not specifically used for reconnaissance, so due to the limited shooting angle, the imaging situation is not optimistic."

As he spoke, he had already brought up the black-and-white photo that only contained grayscale information on the screen.

Just as he said, the clarity was quite poor and all you could see was something flying.

If we hadn't known in advance that there was a rocket here, it would probably have been judged as a large airplane or airship at a lower altitude, or even simply ignored as a shadow.

"call--"

Lord was also a little confused at this time.

After all, although their Space Command controls most of the space-based reconnaissance resources, other units such as NASA also have Earth remote sensing and orbital surveillance capabilities.

In other words, the lawmakers participating in the hearing may have received similar reports.

If more convincing evidence is not produced, complications are bound to arise.

"Magnify the objects photographed by the satellite."

He suddenly gave an order.

"what?"

Raymond was shocked immediately.

Now the image has become blurry. If I zoom in further, I'm afraid I'll only be able to see some pixels...

But he still enlarged the picture as requested by the other party.

Lord pretended to look at the screen for a while, then said:

"Look, there are three silver spheres coming out of the second stage rocket, and the surface is covered with a honeycomb texture."

He made a firm judgment:

"I have to add relevant content to the report... This is a typical configuration of an 'orbital reentry vehicle'. The Soviet SS18's FOBS (partial orbital bombing system) used a similar design..."

After hearing this, Raymond was dumbfounded. He stammered for a long time but couldn't utter a complete sentence.

He suddenly felt that he was not a major general who had served for more than 20 years, but a rookie second lieutenant who had just graduated from military school less than 20 days ago.

What silver sphere?

What is honeycomb texture?

Why didn’t I see it?

And that partial orbital bombardment system, isn't it just a concept and never put into use?

When will it be equipped in SS18?

Raymond had a thousand questions running through his mind, but he was afraid that asking them would make him look stupid.

The Emperor's New Clothes belongs to that.

However, after hesitating for a long time, he still tentatively said:

"But the SS-18's payload is a thermonuclear warhead, and these..."

Raymond grabbed an analysis report:

"Both orbital mechanics simulations and radar detection results show that the object delivered by this rocket fully complies with the characteristics of a satellite in orbit and cannot be a weapon payload...even a simulated payload is impossible."

Lord shook his head helplessly, and finally made the subject clear:

"Do you think Congress allocates tens of billions of dollars to us every year to pursue the so-called 'truth'?"

He tapped the ballistic simulation curve on the screen:

"They need a 'possibility' that is enough to scare voters, not a rigorous technical report... On the one hand, Montana arsenal workers account for 12% of the total electorate, and lawmakers care about how many jobs the missile defense system can bring, not orbital mechanics or radar detection results..."

He still did not mention his plans after retirement, but instead evaded the question by describing the bigger picture.

"On the other hand, John, times have changed."

After softening his tone, Lord tapped the table again and added calmly:

"What protects America now is not the missiles in the silos, but the stock indexes on Wall Street."