Chapter 639 The threat of China’s domestic Su-27

Therese Henrion had never expected to get an ultra-long-endurance strategic reconnaissance aircraft like the RC135. This time she came here just for the EP3Es and P3Cs at Misawa Base.

However, although she has never read "Emperor's Model" in her life, she also understands that if you take the method from the top, you can only get it from the middle; if you take the method from the middle, you will inevitably end up with the bottom.

If the lion doesn't open his mouth at the beginning, it will be difficult to pull him back later.

But now that she got the desired result in just two sentences, she couldn't help but feel that it was a bit too simple.

So I was going to try to see if I could push my nose on my face:

"The Misawa base is too far away from the target sea area. If there are only two EP3Es, they can only cover about 5-6 hours of reconnaissance every day, which will definitely not meet the requirements."

"I know that the Persefind survey ship should have completed its preparations by now. Can you..."

Before he finished speaking, William Cohen's originally calm expression suddenly became sharp, directly interrupting Henrion's words:

"The White House has special arrangements for the Persefinder, and we can't just transfer it to you."

"If we strictly follow the regulations, I can't even transfer the intelligence unit of Misawa Base to you so easily. It's all because of the past relationship between us..."

Cohen is now considered a veteran in the workplace.

As a civil servant with a think tank background, it is impossible for him to be proficient in all business related to the defense system such as military, intelligence, finance, etc., so he inevitably has to rely on people who know the industry to do things.

These people themselves will also have relevant interest demands. Unless fundamental conflicts are involved, Cohen will usually cooperate by turning a blind eye.

This is also the most important factor that enabled him to gain complete control of the department in a short period of time without any foundation before taking office.

But sometimes, even if it is an alliance, it is impossible to allow the other party to take advantage of it.

Seeing that the defense minister's attitude suddenly became tougher, Henrion also knew that there was little room for change in this matter.

In fact, as the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, if she simply wanted a few reconnaissance aircraft to cooperate, she could apply through the normal administrative process. There was no need to risk her personal relationship with Cohen.

However, this matter is more complicated in detail——

A few months ago, a Maritime Self-Defense Force submarine lost an unmanned underwater vehicle that originally belonged to the U.S. Navy in an accident.

Originally, UUVs have a very high loss rate under normal use. If they are lost in the vast ocean, they are lost. They are all underwater anyway. If you really want to find them, it is like looking for a needle in a haystack in the physical sense. Meaningless.

It's just that this time the situation is special.

It was almost lost under the noses of others.

Moreover, the bait mode started before throwing it away, and it sailed in a straight line at high speed in extremely shallow waters.

Lending UUVs to Haizi was a private operation. The original intention was that the intelligence agency hoped to cooperate with Japan and get rid of its dependence on the White House and Congress to a certain extent.

The result was obviously a failure.

Of course, if things only happen here, it doesn't matter. The worst thing is that at the end of the year, you can make an account and say that you lost it.

Anyway, I did this kind of thing a lot in the past.

But before the end of the year, news came that the GPS system might be interfered with...

Since she already knows about this kind of thing, sooner or later the CIA and other counterparts will also know about it.

If at this juncture it was said that one of the UUVs was lost in one's own department, one would inevitably be caught and suppressed.

Therefore, she had to take the initiative in the investigation no matter what.

Never allow other departments the opportunity to intervene.

The efficiency of the normal process is too low, so it is definitely better to go directly to Cohen for private transactions.

As for the conclusion, it doesn't really matter.

Investigate it for a year or two, wait until the limelight of this matter has passed, and then just come up with some excuse that it was affected by the harsh climate environment or changes in the geomagnetic field.

So, thinking that the main purpose of the trip had been achieved anyway, she did not continue to pester her, but changed the subject:

"By the way, Minister Cohen, I remember you just said that a Chinese delegation is coming to visit next week?"

Since it's a transaction, when she gets something from the other party, she always has to pay something.

"Yes, the level is very high, and you will stay for more than a week."

Cohen nodded slightly helplessly:

"But there shouldn't be any content that involves practical significance. After all, we only had a tit-for-tat confrontation the year before last. This time... it's nothing more than talking nonsense about friendship and mutual trust..."

After complaining for a while, he quickly realized that the other party would not talk about this topic to him for no reason:

"Or do you have any news about this delegation?"

Henrion mentioned this just to set the stage, and immediately denied it:

"That's not there."

"However, there are some news involving China, but because there is currently a lack of cross-information verification, a systematic report has not yet been formed."

Hearing this, Cohen couldn't help but his eyes lit up.

For a senior intelligence chief like Henrion, in order to ensure that the pot does not stick to the pot and write it into the intelligence document to form the official content of the written record (such as the one she just brought over), the first thing to do is to prepare without making mistakes, but accordingly often The timeliness is very poor, or it is just nonsense.

On the contrary, although the content of this kind of oral information may not be true, it is often very useful.

Then he quickly made a gesture to let the other party continue.

"The Su-27 produced by China, which they call the J-11 fighter jet, has probably begun to be delivered to the troops in batches."

Cohen was a little shocked at first, and then he couldn't help but show an expression of satisfaction.

For him, the strength gap between the two armies will not change at all just because of a mere advanced fighter jet.

But this kind of news can be a reason to apply for more defense budget next year——

Now even China has begun to equip domestic third-generation fighter jets in batches. As a great superpower, wouldn’t it be okay if we also use the same third-generation fighter jets?

Therefore, we must increase money quickly and produce two fourth-generation fighter jets as soon as possible.

As a defense minister, your job is to collect, distribute and spend money.

"So, what about the quantity? How much is it?"

Cohen didn't care about the technical aspects of the military, but he needed a similar number to scare the senators.

"Our informants have been squatting near Shengjing Beiling Airport for several months and have discovered a total of 16 so far."

This made the Defense Minister feel a little disappointed.

Even if others don't understand military affairs, at least they understand mathematics.

16 aircraft, which is one percent of the total number of third-generation aircraft in the US military.

It seems difficult to render it a particularly big threat...

Henrion naturally knew what the other party was thinking at this time, so he continued after a short pause:

"The number so far is not large, but we have received news that the Chinese will soon be able to fully domestically produce this aircraft instead of buying parts from the Russians for assembly."

"By that time, there will be no limit to the speed at which they can produce aircraft, and we won't even be able to estimate the quantity..."

Obviously, she was not really aware of the crisis, but was simply passing on a message to the Defense Minister.

Across the desk, Cohen had already begun to think about how to make use of such news. He was from a think tank in the past and had a lot of resources in this area, so it was not difficult to operate.

However, he still symbolically continued to "care" about the specific content of the information:

"Other parts are easy to say, but I think it is impossible for the Chinese to produce their own engines in a short time, so just pay attention to the number of engines they bought from the Russians, and you can roughly calculate it, right?"

"That's still the case for now."

Henrion felt that revealing this news should be regarded as an exchange of equal value, but Cohen had no intention of ending the conversation, and she could not just say goodbye and leave, so she had to continue:

"But it's hard to say in the future. A lot of recent information shows that they may complete the localization of the power system within a few years."

"In a few years?"

The defense minister's expression was a little shocked, and he quickly thought of the only possibility that he thought could make sense:

"Are the Russians so poor that they even sold this technology?"

Although Cohen didn't understand technology, he at least had common sense.

China has almost no experience in turbofan engines, and it is impossible to solve the power problem in such a short period of time by itself.

So it can only be the Russians who transferred the technology along with the aircraft.

"We don't have very reliable intelligence on this matter yet."

Henry shook his head slightly:

"The Russians replaced a new head of the Federal Security Council in July, who also serves as the Secretary of the Federal Security Council and the First Deputy Director of the General Office. He has unified management of intelligence and is not easy to deal with. He has always been with us before. Several cooperating informants have also lost contact recently."

“However, judging from public information, China has signed several large orders with a Moscow company specializing in the import and export of high-tech products in the past two years, including hundreds of engines for civil aircraft and related technology transfers. "

"If this is speculated, then it seems...reasonable that they conduct military aircraft engine transactions in a non-public manner."