Chapter 1435 It’s finally time to harvest… oh no, harvest season

Thanks to the poor efficiency of the British, Chang'an Street received the news of the major malfunction of the Courageous even faster than Downing Street.

And it's much faster.

So much so that, when Admiral Stanhope, thousands of miles away, was still kept in the dark, the news that "a British destroyer was stranded in the Indian Ocean and had to ask us for help" had already made its way around, and was finally told to Chang Haonan as a joke by Zheng Liangqun, who had just got off work.

"A British destroyer?"

The latter was originally playing with little Qihe on the sofa and did not pay much attention to Zheng Liangqun who came over to eat.

But this keyword still successfully attracted his attention:

"Which one?"

Chang Haonan hasn't had much time to pay attention to naval news recently, and at this time in 2009, the Royal Navy happens to be in a transitional stage of equipment replacement.

Since the service plan of the Type 45 is changed three times a year, the old Type 42s that were planned to be retired a long time ago have no choice but to sit up in the coffin, and even occasionally have to go out of the port to perform missions.

Apart from researchers who specialize in this field and some military fans, I am afraid that even some naval commanders and fighters may not be able to figure out who is serving in real time.

"The newest one, Type 45, seems to be called Courage or Bravery. It has been in service for less than half a year. It is said that it was originally planning to return with our fleet and visit us at the same time. Now the itinerary is probably going to change..."

Although Zheng Liangqun has long passed the age for flying suspension, he will still participate in the 0910 military parade as the commander of the air formation on the lead early warning aircraft. Therefore, he has been very busy recently and only heard a general idea from his naval colleagues who are also participating in the air formation.

However, when Chang Haonan heard that the problem was with Type 45, he was no longer sleepy.

When he was studying how to get Rolls-Royce to join him to develop the AE1500 engine together, he found during the communication that the other party's understanding of the intercooling and heat recovery cycle seemed to be somewhat biased. He roughly speculated that the power reliability problems that plagued the Type 45, Zumwalt and Queen Elizabeth classes in the previous life were not just the fault of the integrated power system.

It's just that the time has not come yet, so I haven't said it.

Although we don’t know why the problem seems to have broken out several years in advance, fortunately DDG1000 and six Type 45s are already on the slipway, and there is no turning back, so it does not affect the overall plan.

Of course, for the sake of rigor, we must first determine the cause of the other party's failure.

"What are the details?"

He paused with the toy in his hand.

Seeing this, Yao Mengna quickly picked up the child and went upstairs.

Zheng Liangqun obviously didn't expect that his casual words would attract such serious attention from the other party, and he immediately restrained his joking tone:

"I'm not sure about that... In fact, I'm afraid the British themselves are still confused."

He looked at his watch and said:

"It should be 5pm in the waters near the Gulf of Aden. I heard earlier that the Yingzhou is undergoing technical preparations. It is estimated that it will take 6- hours, which means around midnight here, to help the other side restore power... This is if everything goes well, otherwise it may be delayed further."

This answer made Chang Haonan a little confused.

Zheng Liangqun's previous description was so brief that he subconsciously thought that the whole matter had been settled and had now entered the stage of ridicule and sharp comments.

But now that doesn't seem to be the case.

"and many more……"

Chang Haonan reacted quickly:

"You mean to say that this is what is happening, and that the Courageous is still floating on the sea?"

Zheng Liangqun nodded:

"Our superiors received the notification two hours ago, and the Courageous' failure occurred about forty minutes to an hour ago at most... Considering that the ship is no longer able to restart its power system on its own, there is no way external assistance could arrive so quickly."

"Ouch!"

Chang Haonan sat up straight.

All his previous plans were based on hindsight, so they were quite complicated and lengthy.

But I never expected that this time I would happen to catch the incident right in the middle of it.

And there was also a Chinese warship nearby, which was almost like a live broadcast.

This leaves a lot of room for maneuver.

At this point, even if Zheng Liangqun was slow to react, he realized that Chang Haonan might have some thoughts about this, so he immediately replied:

"The rescue operation still needs the consent of the British side before it can be carried out. Considering their efficiency, this effort is probably just beginning... If you need, I can apply to my superiors to take you to the Navy Command Center, from where we can establish direct contact with the Xingzhou via satellite communications..."

……

An hour and a half later, it was 8 pm Beijing time.

Chang Haonan finally got through the video communication with the Xingzhou ship as he wished.

Thanks to the specially expanded second-generation relay communication satellite network, the People's Liberation Army can now set aside a communication line in the general data link to transmit encrypted real-time video across half the globe.

Although the clarity is no more than 720P, it can hardly be called "high quality" for Chang Haonan who has experienced the 4K era.

But it is sufficient for most tasks.

Now, on the two large screens, one is playing a busy scene inside the bridge of the Xingzhou, while the other is directly connected to the ship's camera, which shows the Brave still in a state of drifting without power.

A naval staff officer quickly came up to explain the situation:

"Captain Lin is assigning tasks in the back cabin. It will take a few minutes for him to return to the bridge. Academician Chang, you can take a look at the preliminary mission plan first."

"The helicopter deck..."

On the way here, Chang Haonan had already thought of taking the document from the other party and reading it from beginning to end as quickly as possible.

Immediately afterwards...

I turned back to the beginning and read it a second time.

Seeing Chang Haonan's increasingly solemn expression, a naval commander next to him suddenly felt a little uneasy:

"Although the British side first proposed this external power supply plan, the Yingzhou's engine department has already made the necessary supplements and has also consulted with the Navy Equipment Department and the South China Sea Fleet Equipment Department. There should be no problem, right?"

Leaders of his level certainly knew that although the person in front of him had not directly participated in the research and development of the destroyer's power system, the core engine of the QC300 gas turbine was made by him.

If something goes wrong during the rescue, it won't just be the Royal Navy's fault.

Seeing the cautious look of the boss in front of him, Chang Haonan quickly relaxed:

"Don't get me wrong... There's no technical problem. What I'm concerned about is sending people aboard..."

He was just about to say something else when Captain Lin Xi appeared on the big screen in the distance.

Behind him were three figures wearing uniforms that were obviously not those of the Chinese Navy.

Chang Haonan subconsciously thought that it was a liaison officer sent by the British army, so he forced himself to swallow the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

But then I realized that the three people all had Asian faces and their temperament did not look like that of foreign Chinese.

The staff officer just now quickly added:

"This is a special request from the British side. They said that our people must change into their uniforms when they board the ship to avoid misunderstandings among junior officers and sailors..."

This sentence made several people nearby laugh.

At the same time, Lin Xi was also informed of the general situation and said:

"Hello, Academician Chang. This is Lin Xi, the captain of the destroyer Yingzhou. We are trying to obtain the trajectory and pattern of the Courageous. We plan to start trying to approach the destroyer in half an hour. Do you have any instructions?"

The Xingzhou ship was at its busiest at the moment. As an ordinary naval commander who didn't know Chang Haonan, Lin Xi was suddenly pulled to the bridge for communication, and he couldn't help feeling a little unhappy.

The first sentence also has a slight implicit meaning, which is that we are now short on time and have a heavy task to accomplish, so if you have anything to say, please tell me as soon as possible and don't waste too much time.

Chang Haonan also got straight to the point:

"Captain Lin, I need to confirm whether you have the opportunity to enter the enemy's engine control room during the boarding process?"

Lin Xi nodded:

"Yes, we plan to send the ship's political commissar Comrade Li Wanbing, the chief engineer Comrade Li Qi and the marine engineer Comrade Yang Huailei to board the Courageous. They all have certain electromechanical professional knowledge and English communication skills..."

"That'll be easy."

Chang Haonan waved his hand excitedly:

"After assisting the Courageous in completing the system restart, I hope you can also confirm the working conditions of the gas turbine intercooler circuit at the last moment before the failure, especially the flow rate and humidity of the outlet cooling airflow... We already have a certain understanding of the basic design of the WR-21, and it is possible to infer the approximate cause of the failure through these two parameters."

Lin Xi, who was a little impatient just now, instantly realized that the person in front of him might not be simple. His attitude suddenly changed 180 degrees and he asked with concern:

"After the system restarts, we should only have a short time to confirm the situation, and we can't bring any storage devices or recording devices... Is there any way to quickly filter key data?"

Chang Haonan lowered his head and roughly recalled what Ren Bingda had reported before:

"The name of the indirect cooling circuit in the other party's system is most likely to start with IRD or IRC. As for the rest... it should be roughly distinguishable by the unit."