Chapter 1374: Flashes of Light in the Sky above Longyuan

Later in the day.

Western Longyuan, mass effect test range.

The morning mist on the Gobi Desert had not yet been dispersed by dawn, but Wang Hongrang's mine-proof boots had already crushed the last thin layer of frost at the entrance to the blockade line of the bomb drop zone.

He took a deep breath and moved closer to the electric heating device next to him to dispel the coldness that permeated the gaps between his joints.

The natural environment in the Northwest is so strange that even though it is already mid-June, frost weather with temperatures around single digits still occurs occasionally.

Once it enters the day, the temperature will quickly rise to over 30 degrees Celsius.

For those of them who may have to work for several hours or even longer, they can only choose to endure the cold temporarily.

After all, heat stroke can really kill people.

"Director, it's a pity that you didn't see the moment the warhead hit the ground."

Chief of Staff Ai Xiaofeng said beside him:

“I thought there was an earthquake…”

He was only in his early 30s. In 96, he was still studying at the Second Artillery Engineering College. He did not participate in the last few underground nuclear tests conducted by China.

The sound and light effects of any previous conventional weapons hitting the target were far less magnificent than this time's "Xuanniao".

After hearing this, Wang Hongrang gave a mysterious smile.

About three hours ago, when Xuanniao hit the target, he was indeed in the underground control room checking the working conditions of various sensors, and was not with the political commissar and other participants.

But these young people in front of them didn’t know that there was an optical periscope left there from more than ten years ago.

Not only does it not hinder observation of the situation, but the field of vision is wider than the platform on the top floor of the camp's headquarters building.

But after thinking for a moment, Wang Hongrang decided to keep the secret for the time being and not ruin the other person's good mood.

Wait until the right time to reveal the truth.

"It doesn't matter. Didn't we see that hypersonic verification missile before..."

He replied nonchalantly:

"Besides, we have kept the high-definition video footage of the entire process, so we'll have plenty of time to watch it later."

"Tsk tsk..."

Ai Xiaofeng was fooled:

"It's so different from the last time. It's probably hard to get a direct feeling from the video..."

"..."

"really."

Wang Hongrang thought silently in his heart.

Although he wanted to tease this little brother, he had to admit that what the other party said was correct.

Ai Xiaofeng wanted to say something else, but Wang Hongrang suddenly raised his wrist and looked at the Beidou timepiece with a military green dial.

The words 02:31 glow with a cold fluorescent light against the light blue background.

The latter's voice became serious:

"Enter the target area in fifteen minutes!"

For safety reasons, personnel need to wait until one hour after the bomb drop ends before they can begin operations.

Actually in the outline, this interval was even longer, but considering that the Xuanniao was not equipped with a warhead and the special confidentiality requirements of this test, the cooling time was compressed after evaluation.

As the order was given, Ai Xiaofeng also put away his smile and began to check the wearing of protective clothing and protective equipment with the other eleven people. The crisp sound of metal buckles echoed in the concrete protective corridor.

"Lao Wang, the vibration monitoring data is out. I'm transmitting it to you."

The voice of Political Commissar Qiu Yijun came from the bone conduction headset in the helmet, with the unique rustling sound of an electronic filter.

On the military-reinforced computer screen in front of him, a three-dimensional geological model was replaying the moment of the impact at a thousand times slower speed.

When the Xuanniao projectile penetrated the last thirty meters of concrete layer, the dark red heat flow stirred up Mach rings on the surface of the tungsten carbide nose cone.

In order to ensure a hit, the underground concrete fortifications were still selected as the target for the first launch, and the simulated nuclear bomb silo was moved for use in subsequent tests.

Wang Hongrang gently dragged the mouse to peel off the 500-meter geological fault around the simulated impact point layer by layer.

The high temperature generated by the leading edge of the cone during the impact caused the support beams of the simulated command post to twist like melted chocolate, which reminded him of the first time he saw a slow-motion replay of a tungsten alloy armor-piercing projectile penetrating ten layers of steel plates twenty years ago.

"My goodness! There are dense fracture zones in the local area around the penetration path of the bullet. The invasion surface shows a fracture phenomenon of interlaced radial cracks and circumferential cracks, which together with the crack zones on the invasion surface form a meter-sized fracture pit..."

Ai Xiaofeng's protective mask was covered with steam, but his voice was full of excitement:

"This is the first time I've seen a concrete target with a cracking rate of more than 50%."

Generally speaking, since concrete does not have strong elasticity, a cracking degree of about 15% is enough to consider the entire target destroyed.

As for the 50%…

Even the specific concept represented by this number requires careful consideration.

He couldn't wait to see what the target looked like now.

"The shock cone formed by the waverider configuration during the terminal dive increases the kinetic energy density at the end of the trajectory by 47%. Look at this—"

Wang Hongrang called up the damage map and saw that in the concrete layer represented by purple, the hideous spider-web-like cracks had spread to almost every corner.

And around the penetration path, a large number of compression-shear cracks appeared directly, as if the concrete in that space had never existed.

"The average vibration velocity amplitude of the sampling points on the upper surface of the structure reached 75.4m/s, and the sampling points on the lower surface also reached 21.9m/s. This is just the penetration process. If we consider the charge..."

At this point, Wang Hongrang hesitated:

"No, this destructive force is already similar to an explosion process. Even if explosives are taken into account, it will only cause greater damage to the interior of the structure."

Ai Xiaofeng then added:

"Or... you can target a target with greater depth."

The working process of a conventional bunker buster can be roughly divided into two steps: penetration and explosion. Simply put, it uses kinetic energy to penetrate to a certain depth before detonating the charge. It can cause damage to depths that cannot be reached directly through a principle similar to "shooting a cow from behind a mountain".

"Greater Depth..."

The 30-meter depth of the target at the No. 70 shooting range is made of real concrete, which is equivalent to at least 80- meters when converted into ordinary soil.

There are only a handful of goals in the world that are higher than this standard.

Considering the 2000 km range...

Wang Hongrang seemed to have some guesses.

As he was speaking, the red warning light above the entrance to the protective corridor suddenly turned green, and at the same time a warning tone began to sound from the loudspeaker.

This is the signal to allow the operation.

A group of twelve people opened the explosion-proof door and drove to the interior of target area No. 3.

Also because there is no detonation process, no large-sized cavity is produced in the underground part, and the safety factor on the surface is relatively high.

Even so, Wang Hongrang was still cautious in every step he took. It took him more than ten minutes to finally reach the impact point. He turned on the tactical flashlight fixed on the side of his helmet and leaned over to look down.

"What the hell……"

A lieutenant at the end of the team was the first to express his feelings.

Following the cold white beam of light, a conical breach with a diameter of several meters came into view for everyone, like a wound in the earth's crust pierced by the sword of God.

The ablation marks on the inner wall of the channel showed strange spiral patterns, which were the marks left by the projectile when it ionized the air into a plasma state when it came into contact with the air at a speed of 10 Mach.

"Incredible..."

Wang Hongrang squatted down and grabbed a handful of rock chips, feeling the slight tingling sensation at his fingertips.

For a moment, he even found it difficult to tell whether it was because of the sharp edges of the debris or the residual heat generated by the penetration process that had not yet dissipated.

"This is completely penetrated..."

"The reinforced concrete at the edge of the crater shows characteristics of molten vitrification, indicating that the instantaneous temperature was far in excess of 1500°C..."

Ai Xiaofeng made the judgment as he pressed the shutter button.

At times like this, no one can hold a notebook and write slowly, so everything is recorded through audio, and then summarized slowly after returning.

"Drip-drip-"

The radiation detector of the chemical defense team suddenly beeped, and everyone subconsciously took a half step back.

The leader of the third defense team, who was supposed to just be there to make a cameo appearance, quickly grabbed the monitor over his shoulder, but saw that the numbers on the readout screen did not turn into a striking red.

"It's not nuclear contamination, and this mission doesn't involve nuclear, biological or chemical elements."

He quickly swiped through the data page to calm everyone's concerns:

"It should be the decay signal of some low-radioactive isotope... I'm not sure about its specific function, but it's definitely safe."

Wang Hongrang's Adam's apple moved. This was not in the test briefing he received, but he couldn't care less about it now.

There would be plenty of time to study the situation underground later, but the most urgent task now was to disguise the hit trace as a conventional bunker-buster.

"Use the fastest speed to determine the stability of the surrounding strata, and then send the construction machinery in!"

He pressed the encrypted communication button on the side of his helmet:

"We have a four-hour window."

When the distant horizon began to turn pale, he finally heard the roar of the crawler excavator.

Three fast engineering vehicles covered in desert camouflage were slowly driving towards them across the saline-alkali land.

Ai Xiaofeng watched as the engineers began to spray silicate powder. These materials would form abnormal ridges around the crater, faking the traces of an ordinary bunker-buster penetrating and exploding.

Farther away, the antennas of the Electromagnetic Prism System are injecting jamming signals into the atmosphere’s ionosphere, ensuring that any synthetic aperture radar sees a carefully calculated illusion.

But they can’t work forever.

“Is it necessary to go to this extent?”

Ai Xiaofeng stroked the reinforced concrete fragments on the edge of the crater. Those hexagonal honeycomb structures that were supposed to be able to withstand the impact of a nuclear explosion now looked like wafers crushed by a child.

"The superiors still hope that the public appearance of this weapon can be somewhat unexpected, so as to deter the new White House leadership next year who may not be very friendly to us... and of course other people who are ready to make a move."

Wang Hongrang answered while checking the latest working status of the ground penetrating radar:

"As you know, the news about the ground test of the stealth fighter has been leaked through many channels. It is still too difficult to maintain strict confidentiality around the city."

The loud noise and vibration when the crawler roller started working almost made Ai Xiaofeng stumble.

He held onto the radar bracket next to him and saw that the thermal imaging camouflage net had covered half of the target area.

These smart fabrics, embedded with micro-thermocouples, are accurately reproducing the thermal residual signature of a routine bunker-buster test a few months earlier.

"In other words, this thing may be able to participate in next year's National Day parade?"

The first ray of sunlight finally shone on the edge of the crater, and Wang Hongrang finally took off his protective helmet.

The morning breeze with the smell of nitrate blew through the gray stubble of his ears. In the distance, engineers were using a laser sintering machine to forge projectile fragments.

"That's not something I can know..."