I built an armada.

"Then why is the Longxia tribe able to do all this, and even prepare to use it as a flagship product for foreign trade!"

The chieftain asked angrily.

"Well... I think they may have made some key breakthroughs in the field of materials science..."

"While we don't know how they managed to reduce costs and size to an acceptable level, from a technological standpoint, it's not a pipe dream..."

"I only have one question: why did they achieve the breakthrough, and not us? When will we be able to achieve such a breakthrough?"

The chieftain's expression was unfriendly.

"This one……"

The bureau chief was quite helpless.

"Breakthroughs in materials science are often like this; it's hard to say that investing more will necessarily make you ahead of others."

It's no exaggeration to say that the breakthrough in materials science was a stroke of luck.

It's even possible that a failed product casually made in a graduate student's lab might outperform the genuine product that an old professor has painstakingly researched for over a decade!
"However, I currently believe that this weapon's performance in actual combat might be relatively poor, so I don't think it will pose any threat to us for the time being..."

The Army Chief of Staff asked, his voice laced with suppressed anger: "No threat?"

"That's the funniest joke I've heard all day!"

"The threat has simply reached the heavens!"

"This weapon is silent, flashless, has a high initial velocity, deep penetration, a flat trajectory, and may even have an intelligent fire control system... It almost embodies all the dreams of small arms designers!"

"Imagine our soldiers being easily hit by bullets from hundreds of meters away, whose source is neither visible nor audible, while they are in urban warfare!"

"Our armored vehicles and helicopters could be seriously threatened by individual weapons at conventional engagement distances!"

"Our tactical advantage may be greatly diminished in the face of this thing!"

"It changed the entire battlefield situation!"

Even if he has this or that flaw, his strengths are enough to make people overlook those flaws!

The chief of staff was so agitated not because he was particularly concerned about the country and its people.

As the Army Chief of Staff, he made a considerable income by reselling arms.

Now that such a formidable opponent has suddenly appeared out of nowhere, it could very well affect his profits in the arms trade. How could he not be anxious?

He wasn't worried that the Eagle Tribe might fall behind in this competition; he was worried that his own interests might be harmed.

Seeing this, the Marine Corps commander added, feigning concern, "What's even more frightening is its potential to become a standalone combat system."

"If this thing can be widely adopted... no, I think you may have forgotten that, according to the intelligence we have received, they have already used electromagnetic guns on their latest fleet."

"If they bring this weapon to land, God, it will be a nightmare for infantry, and a nightmare for our amphibious landing and ground assault tactics!"

The meeting room was deathly silent; everyone understood what this meant.

Over the past few decades, the Eagle Tribe's military advantage has been built on its generational superiority in aviation, information, and precision strike capabilities.

Although individual weapon systems are being improved, their essence has not changed much.

Now, it seems that the opponent has achieved a "dimensional reduction attack" in an unexpected and most basic aspect.

Without a doubt, the Dragonxia tribe possesses the most powerful land force in the world.

The battle where one man fought seventeen men decades ago already profoundly proved this point.

The Eagle Tribe's advantage has never been on land, but always on its naval fleet.

However, these recent clashes have undeniably shown everyone that the Eagle Tribe's advantage on the sea doesn't seem to be as significant as it once was.

Previously, they could find some excuses to deceive themselves, but now, with the appearance of another new piece of equipment today, it all tells the world that the Dragon Summer Tribe has begun to achieve a complete reversal.

“How are our similar projects progressing?” Thurston asked.

"Is it possible for us to come up with a similar weapon in a short period of time?"

A general in charge of the army looked grim.

He was in charge of two projects. The first was the "Next Generation Squad Weapon" (NGSW), which made no progress whatsoever.

The second one is the "Directed Energy Mobile Short-Range Air Defense" project, codenamed DE M-SHORAD. (Get out of here!)

The progress of this project is not exactly the same as the previous one, but rather on par.

“Mr. Minister, the NGSW project has just selected a new 6.8mm caliber rifle and light machine gun... As for our research on individual electromagnetic weapons, it is currently still in the laboratory prototype stage.”

Under the menacing gazes of everyone present, he forced himself to continue:

"It's the same old problem: huge size, staggering energy consumption, and extremely poor launch capability... According to our estimates, it will be at least five years, or even longer, before it can be put into practical use."

"Five years?!"

Thurston raised his voice.

"In just a few years, the Longxia tribe has already begun to catch up with us."

"Wait another five years? In five years, the broccoli will be cold. In five years, their soldiers will probably all have an electromagnetic rifle, while our soldiers will still be using crappy M4s?"

"Also, in the arms trade market, what kind of weapons should we use to compete with the Longxia tribe?"

"Once their electromagnetic rifles dominate the market, you should know that our arms trade will no longer have a place to survive!"

In fact, if we really want to make an analogy, although electromagnetic rifles have many advantages over gunpowder weapons, the customer base that gunpowder weapons have accumulated over the years is something that electromagnetic rifles can't even come close to.

The real problem isn't that they've taken away market share, but that the rules of the market could very well be rewritten by the Longxia Tribe!

As the saying goes, second-rate companies make products, first-rate companies build industries, and top-tier companies set industry standards.

Once the Longxia tribe sets the standards, everyone will have to play under the rules and standards set by the Longxia tribe.

The rules of this market are now dominated and established by them. Within the scope of the rules they created, they can't beat the people of the Longxia tribe.

If the rules were established by the Longxia tribe, what would happen?
"We need to launch an emergency project on par with the 'Manhattan Project'!"

The Air Force Chief of Staff suggested.

"We will integrate the nation's top laboratories, enterprises, and military resources, sparing no expense, to produce equivalent or even superior products in the shortest possible time!"

"What about funding? Will Congress approve such a bottomless pit of investment?"

Someone immediately raised a question.

"Approval is mandatory!"

Thurston was resolute.

"This is not a life-or-death crisis!"

"This is a life-saving project concerning the survivability and combat effectiveness of the Army, Marine Corps, and all ground forces in the future!" "Tell those congressmen on Capitol Hill that if we don't keep up quickly, our soldiers will face the dilemma of using flintlock rifles against automatic rifles on future battlefields!"

He turned to the DARPA director and representatives of the defense industry giants:

"I'm giving you 72 hours to produce an emergency research and development plan draft."

"I demand that you produce a prototype of a man-portable electromagnetic weapon that can be tested in actual combat within six months."

"There's no need to worry about the budget; there's no upper limit, and the authorization is completely unrestricted. We can access resources from any national laboratory."

"I grant you permission to bypass all unnecessary approval processes!"

"Mr. President, I hope you will grant my request!"

Thurston spoke with righteous indignation.

The chieftain glanced at everyone present, but didn't reply. Instead, he took out his phone from his pocket and sent a few messages.

After a while, he slowly nodded.

As for what he did... it's simple, he sent people to flood the stock market and wreak havoc.

After all, even a chieftain is human and needs to earn a living.

Now that the country is increasing its investment in the military field, the stock prices of many upstream and downstream industries will definitely rise accordingly.

He'll definitely have people prepare for his entry in advance so he can make a fortune!
Thurston then looked at the heads of the various branches of the armed forces:

"At the same time, all branches of the armed forces immediately launched research on new tactics and methods for weapons such as electromagnetic rifles."

"Furthermore, we need to develop corresponding protective measures against this type of weapon."

"We cannot sit idly by and wait for our demise! We must start thinking now about how to deal with any threats that may already exist."

In this extremely tense atmosphere, the meeting finally came to an end.

Various orders were quickly relayed from the conference room to all departments of the Eagle Tribe.

From the Pentagon to the research labs of various military branches, and then to the corridors of major defense contractors, the sounds of ringing phones, footsteps, and hurried conversations filled the air.

A top-secret national emergency research and development program, codenamed "Lightning Response," aimed at countering the impact of the Longxia tribe's electromagnetic rifle, was quietly launched less than 12 hours after the Longxia tribe's electromagnetic rifle was unveiled.

At the same time, many professional managers also took action.

Having received advance notice, they quickly took action.

The Eagle Tribe's research and development plan had only just been announced when these professional managers used their information advantage to rake in hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars in the stock market.

If this happened in some faraway country, they'd be making billions of dollars a day, and nobody would dare touch them.

In the Eagle Tribe, all of this is normal practice, and even completely legal and compliant.

No wonder the Eagle Tribe has never had any problems with incompetent officials holding positions, because in their system, all these operations are completely compliant and without any issues.

That said, the strength of the Eagle Tribe nation should not be underestimated.

The Eagle Tribe's massive war machine began to roar at maximum efficiency, attempting to close the seemingly sudden technological gap.

However, they knew that the window of opportunity to catch up could be very short.

The Longxia tribe has taken a significant lead in the development of electromagnetic weapons.

This silent revolution in small arms has only just begun.

Under these circumstances, however much of the gap the Eagle Tribe can close remains a big question mark.

After all, if one can make unimaginable profits simply by speculating on stocks, who would bother to actually study them?
Or rather... do those approved research budgets and funds actually reach the researchers?
Even if they do get their hands on it, how much of it will actually be used for real research?
Everything is still unknown.

……

Meanwhile, in a distant, powerful nation in the East.

Su Dingping tapped his fingers lightly on the table.

The development of stealth materials for sixth-generation fighter jets has been stuck in a bottleneck for some time.

During this period of time, Su Dingping tried all the materials he could find, but still could not find a suitable solution.

“It’s such a headache…”

Su Dingping rubbed his temples, quite moved.

Guo Xueyun walked in carrying a cup of coffee.

"It's getting late, why don't we get some rest?"

Looking at the scattered documents on the table, she shook her head helplessly.

"Breakthroughs in materials science are not simple matters; you might suddenly have an idea while you're out shopping."

"After all, inspiration is such a wonderful thing; it will appear out of nowhere when you don't seek it out."

"Speaking of which, there was a particularly interesting news story from a couple of years ago. I don't know if you've heard of it?"

Guo Xueyun chatted with Su Dingping while helping him tidy up the table.

"It's about the research and development of single-layer graphene. I heard that the recent Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to them."

"You mean that Nobel Prize that was torn out with duct tape? I'm sure I've heard of it."

Su Dingping smiled.

There is a very famous and interesting story in the field of materials science: the Nobel Prize was made by tearing off a piece of tape.

Graphene is a well-known material that boasts ultra-high strength, excellent electrical and thermal conductivity, and an extremely large specific surface area!
It also has excellent toughness and light transmission.

It plays a significant role in fields such as electronics and information, biomedicine, textiles and chemicals, and even aerospace.

It is no exaggeration to say that this material has single-handedly driven major breakthroughs and progress in numerous fields.

But the process by which it was discovered was simply bizarre!
Two scientists in the UK used a rudimentary method to peel off single-layer graphene from graphite!
One of the scientists, named Geim, focused his research on preparing single-layer graphene.

At that time, Geim bought a large block of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite.

This is a graphite material with very high purity, commonly used for analysis, and is also very expensive.

Then Geim handed the highly oriented pyrolytic graphite to one of his new doctoral students and gave him a very advanced polishing machine, hoping that he could make the thinnest possible film.

After all, it's a very boring and time-consuming manual labor job.

A great scientist like him would certainly not do this kind of work himself, but would instead delegate it to his subordinates.

A month later, the doctoral student brought Geim a petri dish and said it was done. (End of Chapter)