Chapter 438 It's time to get a drone

After resolving the problem between Cao Tianwei and Ye Wengui and formulating a development route for the tram, Fang Xiang returned to Factory 132.

In fact, he was not really needed here.

The J-11 has now entered the mass production stage, although the output is relatively small and the Air Force has no intention of increasing orders for the time being.

An annual production of 48 aircraft is fully capable of meeting the current training and testing needs of the Air Force.

Because for the Air Force, the J-10 is the model they need most at present.

After all, as a superior substitute for the J-8, coupled with a combat radius of nearly kilometers, for the current air force, it can be described by an allegorical saying: a man plus two girls, guess the name of a minority.

Satisfy.

It is said that the current annual production of more than 10 J-10s is far from meeting the needs of the Air Force, but in fact, everyone knows that the J-II is coming soon.

The earliest J-10 prototype still used the mechanical radar and early electronic control of the J-7 and J-8.

Later, after purchasing a complete set of upgrade plans from Marconi, the finalized J-10 basically used this plan.

So far, more than 10 J-8s have been produced, and together with the successfully developed PL-, it can be said that they have initially formed combat effectiveness.

In theory, such a J-10 can be produced all the way to the 90s, gradually replacing the old Liuye and forming a high-low combination with the modified and upgraded J-7III.

Although the J-7III model has just begun to be finalized, it is on the eve of large-scale modification and production.

But as the old saying goes, plans cannot keep up with changes. Taking advantage of the implementation of the Peace Model Program and Fang Xiang's frequent urging, a large amount of American technology began to fall into China.

As the current domestic aviation leaders, Factory 112 and Factory 132 naturally have one for each company.

Fang Xiang originally wanted to take advantage of the stealth coating accidentally formulated by Wu Chang to quickly advance the F-35 and J-20 to the verification and prototype stage in advance. However, this work was completely interrupted by the acceptance and review of technical drawings.

Fortunately, the drawing review work has finally passed the preliminary review with the joint efforts of thousands of engineers from the two factories.

Logically speaking, the further you go in the future, the more dependent you will be on the other party. After all, the technology is becoming more advanced and cutting-edge, and engineers with less ability and qualifications may not even be able to understand the drawings.

Perhaps the American companies that made the deal were particularly responsible and even sent a large group of experts to China to help Factories 132 and 112 with translation and also did some matching work.

This made Fang Xiang start to think.

That's right, he wants to make a drone.

Speaking of which, drones are not a new thing. Germany and the United States started playing with them during World War II.

The earliest V1 missile was actually classified as a drone by later generations. Doesn’t it sound funny?

Later, based on the V1 missile, more models and categories were extended.

Even the Soviet Union and my country were playing with this thing in the 1950s and 1960s.

Don't disbelieve it, we had drones in the 1960s. Of course, that was a project carried out with the assistance of the Soviet Union.

And in 66, there was actually a finished product! Unfortunately, with the withdrawal of Soviet experts and the subsequent turmoil, the project completely disappeared.

But even if you don’t play it, there are people playing it somewhere else.

In 82, the culprit that stirred up the Middle East, the Israeli family, came up with new tricks.

That year, Israel first sent out the Mastiff drone as bait to trick the Syrian army into turning on all radars and consuming a large number of SAM-6 missiles. At the same time, Israel sent out the Scout drone to collect the radar positions and signal frequencies of Syrian missile positions and transmit the information to the E-2C Hawkeye early warning aircraft. The Hawkeye early warning aircraft served as an airborne command station and guided the F-4 fighter jets to launch anti-radiation missiles to carry out precise strikes on the Syrian army's radar system. In this Lebanon-Israel conflict, the United States discovered that this thing actually had such a miraculous effect and immediately became interested.

Led by Raytheon, research on drones began.

And soon after a few years, they developed their own drones, MQ-4 and RQ-1, namely Global Hawk and Predator. Although these two drones were put into service in 95 and 00 respectively, it does not mean that they were mature models right from the start? There must have been a few experimental products and failures before, right?

Yes, the Americans do have them, such as the MQ-1. In 85, the Americans designed their first unmanned electronic reconnaissance aircraft after absorbing and learning the technology imported from there.

Now in 88, I don’t know how many experiments have been done.

Lao Mi already has it, so I can’t be without it, right?!

It was impossible before because there were no advanced radar technology and surveying and mapping technology, but now we have it!

And Lao Mi delivered the goods to my door.

What remains is simply the battery, engine, fuselage, transmission and remote control technology.

As for batteries, since the invention of lithium batteries, there has been no significant progress even in 2020, and they have been living off their old achievements. Everyone knows this.

So batteries certainly won't be a problem.

As for the engine and fuselage, which are now gradually being eliminated, the Liuye is the best material.

Although Fang Xiang had countless drone designs and more advanced engines in his mind, he couldn't help but feel that Liu Ye was cheap!

While the quantity is large and it will satisfy your hunger, it can also solve the problem of Mr. Liu’s monotonous retirement life, right?

So Fang Xiang put together a plan for drones and submitted it directly to the Air Force.

When the Air Force saw this, they were like, wow, there is such a good thing?!

The fact that Lebanon and Israel have a small conflict and use drones may not be known to many people at the general public, but it is almost transparent to the top leaders.

Everyone knows that people are now starting to play with high technology, but due to the limitations of national strength and insufficient scientific and technological level, we can only drool and think about it.

Who would have thought that in the blink of an eye, Fang Xiang would suddenly present an integration plan.

Using Liuye's engine and fuselage, and adding domestically produced radar and surveying equipment, they integrated an unmanned electronic reconnaissance aircraft of their own.

Everyone knows that Master Liu is already outdated, but even if he is outdated, our Master Liu is still capable of building a supersonic fighter jet, right?!

What's more, the turbojet-70, the heart of Liu Ye, has been continuously iterating and updating since it could be produced domestically. As early as the s, it used the turbojet-B engine that Fang Xiang promoted.

As the ultimate form of the turbojet six-engine, there is basically no potential to be tapped.

But it has the advantages of simple structure, low cost, good performance and overhaul time exceeding 500 hours.

So, the only problem left now is the transmission and remote control technology.

At present, there is still a blank in transmission and remote control technology in China.

And Lao Mi himself hasn’t figured out the game yet, so there is naturally no possibility for him to sell it.

Well... if I can’t buy it from Lao Mi, can I buy it from somewhere else?

Fang Xiang turned his attention to Xiao Yi.