Chapter 1471 America's Strategic Advantage

at the same time.

Arlington, Washington.

The access control system to the seventh-floor conference room in the Pentagon's E Wing had just undergone a silent upgrade, so when Lieutenant General Alexander Kiske's iris was scanned, the access log wouldn't even record the visit.

The air purification system in the conference room is running at three times its normal power, ensuring that no listening devices can pick up the sound vibrations of the conversation about to take place.

Three months ago, implementing such exaggerated security measures in the heart of the United States would have been seen as neurotic and become the laughing stock of all colleagues.

But now, no one will have such idea anymore.

At least not within the Department of Defense.

In the huge conference room, besides Kiske, there was only one other person sitting there.

Erti Prabhakar, head of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), who arrived here earlier.

Lieutenant General Alexander Kiske casually took out a small black gadget from the inside of his sleeve, and then placed the computer and documents he was carrying on the table.

"what is this?"

Ms. Prabhakar stared curiously for a moment and then asked.

The thing was about the size of a common lapel microphone, but her intuition told her it couldn't be that simple.

After all, no normal person would hide a microphone next to their wrist.

"RF signal detector, a third-generation product that meets NSA standard configuration. It can detect any radio equipment within 15 meters that is activated and transmitting signals..."

Kisik sorted the paper reports in his hand into categories and explained:

“It’s still in the trial stage, but it should become standard for sensitive trips in the future.”

After hearing this, Prabhakar showed a look of disbelief.

Although he didn't say it directly, his meaning was very clear:

It is true that we are investigating the traitor now, but we don’t have to be so cautious, right?

However, in fact, what Kiske was worried about was not some traitor, but that he experienced the horror of the "Prism" surveillance program for the first time during this operation.

There really is no secret left to hide.

Then, I began to think about a question from my own perspective:

The United States has a wide variety of intelligence agencies. What if other departments also use this kind of all-round surveillance against me? What about other colleagues in the Department of Defense?

So we have to take precautions in advance.

Of course, these considerations could not be said openly, so in the face of Prabhakar's doubts, he just made a routine statement:

"It's better to be safe than sorry. It's always better to be vigilant at times like this..."

At this time, there was another "beep" sound at the door of the conference room, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates pushed the door open, interrupting the chat between the two.

"Let's get started." Gates had just participated in a questioning session on Capitol Hill, and judging from his slightly depressed mood, the process was probably not very pleasant.

Facing a leader who was in a low-pressure state, Kiske quickly placed his encrypted PDA on the conference table, unlocked it with his fingerprint, and pulled out the threat assessment report that had been updated just three hours ago:

"First, there is news from the Netherlands. The dispersed nuclear fuel we provided to HFR through the European Nuclear Fuel Group has taken effect. According to the intelligence sent back from there, due to the additional introduction of zirconium, which is toxic to the fuel, the Chinese failed in their first attempt to start the reactor. The test should have come to a standstill at present."

This obviously good news finally made Gates look much better, but he immediately seemed to remember something:

"No, I remember when you applied for this project, you seemed to have said that it would not affect the normal startup of the reactor, so as to prevent the other party from discovering the flaw too early?"

Kiske couldn't help but swallow his saliva. This defense minister's sharpness and memory were really amazing. He was not as easily fooled as his predecessor:

"It really won't have an impact on conventional startup methods, but the Chinese should have taken this opportunity to test a new technology that allows the reactor to spontaneously produce neutrons, similar to what the Soviets used in space nuclear reactors. The critical parameters are relatively low, which led to the failure."

Hearing the keyword "new technology", Gates nodded slightly:

"In other words, it won't arouse suspicion?"

Kiske gave his usual affirmative but ambiguous answer:

"At least, they will definitely check whether there are any problems with their technical route and testing plan first. Considering that the only research nuclear reactor in China is being shut down for upgrades, there is no way to conduct control experiments. This process should last for quite a long time."

Having said that, he handed the file he had just found to the other party:

"In addition, according to the Department of Energy, there is currently no mathematical model in the world that can accurately describe the behavior of neutron production, so the final probability is that the reactor activity will be forcibly increased. In this way, when the other party actually tests the tritium breeding technology, they will still get data that conforms to theoretical principles but is completely wrong in engineering."

"Huh..." Gates flipped through the document and took a look. However, since he was not a professional technician, he did not comment further. He just let out a long sigh of relief. "The pressure on our heads can finally be reduced..."

Thanks to its unique configuration, China developed the hydrogen bomb very quickly. Less than three years after the first atomic bomb exploded, it detonated the first real practical hydrogen bomb.

But everything has a price.

The miniaturization design of special configurations is already more difficult, and the number of nuclear tests is seriously insufficient, with only 10 tests over 18 tons conducted. As a result, the quantity and quality of China's nuclear arsenal cannot match its comprehensive national strength.

This is also the United States’ greatest strategic advantage at present.

Now it seems that even if the other side already has intercontinental ballistic missiles or even hypersonic missiles, this advantage can still be maintained for a long time.

"Well, next thing."

Gates' voice became serious again:

"How is the safety review of the X51A project going?"

In the room for three people, the temperature seemed to suddenly drop by 10 degrees Celsius.

"Mr. Minister, with all due respect, the situation is much worse than we expected."

Kiske pushed a folder marked "Top Secret" across the table. The black leather cover made a slight friction sound on the long table in the conference room:

"During a week of public investigation, we received 87 reports, but 72 of them were about misuse of funds and workplace bullying, and the remaining 15 involved technical disputes, but they were not critical factors... Obviously, someone wanted to muddy the waters, so I ordered the investigation to be stopped and stated that no suspicious results were found, but secretly launched a monitoring plan for relevant personnel."

"Then, it was soon discovered that Dr. Shapur Collinger, the project director of X51A, was a major suspect."

This name made Gates, who was usually able to sit still, explode with anger: "Who?"

"Shapur Klinger, a senior engineer at Boeing, an expert in ultra-high-speed aerodynamics, and the general manager of the X51A project," Kiske repeated, and then continued, "During the monitoring process, we found that he had a highly suspicious conversation with Professor Karl-Heinz Brinkmann from the Aachen University of Technology in Germany. This is the monitoring record."

As he spoke, he tapped the screen of his PDA. A burst of static noise came from the microphone, followed by an obviously suppressed male voice: "Karl, has all the data from last time been confirmed to be destroyed?"

The voice with a heavy German accent replied: "Don't worry, I've double-checked it. Everything has been processed. There is no backup."

Then the first male voice came again: "The test serial numbers must also be erased, especially the July batch..."

"..."

After the recording ended, Kiske continued:

"So far, we have not found any direct relationship between Professor Brinkmann and China, but RWTH Aachen University has had in-depth cooperation with the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Mechanics, which is responsible for ultra-high-speed aerodynamics research. The two sides even jointly upgraded a high-enthalpy ultra-high-speed wind tunnel... Therefore, he may just be a middleman."

"Isn't it a duplicate name?"

Gates asked again, somewhat self-deceivingly.

Kisker resisted the urge to roll his eyes and shook his head slowly.

The former's breathing obviously stopped for a moment.

He thought there might be a "high-level" mole.

But I never thought it would be this high.

The insider has been promoted to the head of a confidential project. If this gets out, it would be more embarrassing than the Cambridge Five.