Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1257 Everyone's Slacking Off (It's been censored again, so today's post is only 4k words. See the author's note at the end for details.)
"What is a medium-range interceptor missile?" This term sounds very unfamiliar to most non-military personnel.

"A brand-new type of air combat weapon, gentlemen. Let's put it this way, we ourselves have only recently put it into service, and its actual combat effectiveness is not as impressive as the results achieved by the East this time." During the ColdWar period, the White Bear and the American were used to boasting, and this military advisor was quite well aware of the actual effectiveness of his own Sparrow missile.

If he didn't have so little connection with the missile manufacturers, he probably wouldn't have said that at all.

But his words had a great effect; the astonishment of those present was almost beyond measure. Was this still the same impoverished army from just over ten years ago?

"Have they already moved so fast?"

"Yes, actually, I'm more worried about our operations in Jiaozhi than their internal problems."

In his view, the situation there was actually quite easy to handle. He admitted that, in sporadic battles, it seemed that the Easterners did indeed rely on their technology and training to gain a certain asymmetric advantage in some areas, which allowed them to win in such skirmishes.

However, for large-scale operations, it depends on the overall balance of power between the navy and air force. In this regard, he has full confidence in the fleet stationed in the Asia-Pacific region. Facts have proven that as long as this fleet is positioned in this direction, no matter how many ideas the Easterners may have, they will have to back down.

However, he was more worried about Jiaozhi. If these scattered advantages were applied on a large scale in this quagmire, although he believed it would not reverse their absolute advantage, the quagmire would undoubtedly become deeper and more murky. This was especially true given that the Easterners had drawn a line in Jiaozhi, severely restricting their own actions; this scenario was even more likely to occur.

"The operation in Jiaozhi?"

"Yes, in fact, according to reports from troops participating in related operations in Jiaozhi, their loss rate has seen a significant increase since the beginning of the new year."

"You mean, this weapon may have been used to support North Vietnam?"

"No, not now, because the increased losses are not from air combat, but from ground attacks!"

"Ground attacks? Ground attack losses are already high enough, and you're telling me the losses are still increasing?"

"Yes, the main air defense force in key locations in Jiaozhi is currently anti-aircraft artillery. Of course, we know very well where a considerable portion of these anti-aircraft artillery units come from..." The main force of Jiaozhi's air defense missiles comes from the White Bear, but at this time, the White Bear's support has not yet reached its maximum. In fact, it can be said that the training of the receiving units has not yet been fully completed, and air defense is still mainly based on anti-aircraft artillery.

"...But recently, even when facing anti-aircraft artillery, our ground attack aircraft losses have increased significantly. Based on evidence from eyewitnesses and returning wounded survivors, we have reason to conclude that the enemy has begun using radio proximity fuses..."

His rambling was interrupted by the commander: "General, we are discussing strategic issues now, and they have nothing to do with Jiaozhi. If you are interested in this, I would be happy to hear your advice at another time, but now is not the right time to talk about this."

Strictly speaking, there was nothing wrong with what he said, but his dismissive attitude still saddened his staff. "You're not even willing to tell me when we'll be discussing this issue."

“Our fleet stationed nearby is already heading towards the area. Once the fleet arrives, everything will be fine. And I don’t think there will be any further action, otherwise we would never have been completely unaware of this and received no intelligence.” The general had to steer the conversation back on track.

Almost everyone shared his assessment, and this was also the direction everyone hoped things would take.

The main issue is the clashes at the forefront of European conflict. Although it's not a hot war, the drain on national strength and resources is not much less than that of a hot war. Meanwhile, they are truly engaged in a hot war in Vietnam. If this is added to the mix, it will be extremely difficult for the Americans.

In reality, launching attacks on multiple fronts is extremely difficult. Even at the height of their power, the United States only dared to boast about "winning two wars simultaneously," and dared not boast any more. When it comes to boasting, India is second to none, yet even they only dare to boast about winning two wars simultaneously in formal settings.

In fact, it has long been pointed out that the US's practice of stirring up trouble everywhere and using defense to bind relevant countries in various hotspots to gain benefits may seem like it's at its peak, but in reality, once its national power declines, these defense obligations will become a noose around their own necks.

If things don't go as badly as possible, that's the best outcome.

Their final decision was the same as always – to send the fleet over in case the situation escalates further.

As for the huge advantages of anti-ship missiles in actual combat, they seem to have collectively ignored them. What anti-ship missiles? Aren't iron bombs better? It doesn't matter if they shoot down 3 aircraft or 3 destroyers, since they didn't sink their own ships.

In reality, once a ship has accumulated enough power and inertia, changing course is extremely difficult. That's the situation they're in now; it's not that they can't see it, but that they can't change course.

Many things, once deeply entrenched, are not so easy to change as they are to be seen.

Decades later, a stark example emerged of this: the sow and the littoral combat ship, a pair of brilliant talents, faced opposition at the outset. However, this was utterly useless; in fact, the opponents even committed suicide.
Ultimately, this emergency report did not change anything; Citibank's equipment development continued "steadfastly" along its original path.

As for the threat of a large number of radio proximity fuses that the air force stationed in Koh-i-Vietnam might face, it didn't cause any ripples at all. It was the pilots who died, not Capitol Hill.
-
It was Tuesday again, and Gao Zhendong was in classroom 61 at Beijing University of Technology, watching his classmates develop the Internet Transport Protocol suite. This thing was getting closer and closer to its birth.

Gao Zhendong had just resolved a disagreement between two students regarding the specific details of a certain agreement when he looked up and saw Professor Liu standing in front of him.

"Ha, Professor Liu, what's this? You have something good to show me again?" He took the initiative, mainly because Professor Liu had come to him several times before, and he decided to save Professor Liu some time.

"No, no, this time I'm here to ask for your opinion, haha."

"Consultation? What? Come on, let's talk outside." Since we don't need to go to the firing range or the lab, let's settle this here. But there are too many people here, so we still need to consider discipline. Outside is perfect.

Gao Zhendong and Professor Liu came outside the door, and Professor Liu took out a diagram.

People around were asked to leave, creating a small, private space.

"Look, I've come up with this structure, what do you think? I think it can achieve a higher rate of fire without pushing the mechanical parts too close to their limits, it's a viable approach."

Gao Zhendong took the blueprints and examined them carefully.

This is a schematic diagram of the "cannon" part of a combined gun and missile system. Clearly, Professor Liu had just come up with this idea and hadn't yet incorporated it into actual equipment under development; instead, he consulted with Gao Zhendong first. Whether it's an internal or external Gatling gun, its rate of fire mainly depends on its rotational speed and heat dissipation, and both of these parameters have certain upper limits. Otherwise, a six-barrel Gatling gun wouldn't typically stop at around 6000 rounds per minute.

"Increase the rate of fire? What's the purpose?"

"To improve the hit rate, and for bullets to hit directly, the denser the barrage, the better. That's why we came up with this approach," Professor Liu said.

"At the original speed of 6500 rounds per minute, it can't meet the shooting requirements?" Gao Zhendong was a little surprised. It shouldn't be like this.

"No, it's possible, but it would be difficult against supersonic missiles." Professor Liu was thinking quite far ahead.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "What you said is fine, but in the foreseeable future of the next ten years, the threat posed by this type of missile is not significant. I think we can temporarily set aside this matter. Setting the targets too high will affect the speed at which you produce results." The US government only talks about iron bombs.

"Yes, you're right. I just wanted to see if I could do some research on it, even if it's just as a technical reserve." Professor Liu knew very well that changing the indicators midway was a major taboo in scientific research, especially raising the requirements. Changing one's mind frequently was something that almost all researchers disliked, which is why he said it was just as a technical reserve.

Gao Zhendong was relieved: "If it's just about discussing and researching, that's fine, but I don't think this kind of approach is suitable for close-range defense."

Professor Liu's blueprints proposed to make the gun, which was located in the center of the turret and whose axis of rotation passed through the center of the turret's rotation, into two guns, one on the left and one on the right, located on both sides of the turret.

In other words, the simplest solution is to use sheer numbers – quantity over quality. One cannon isn't enough for its rate of fire, right? I'll use two!

The rate of fire is almost doubled, which is a common and easy way to improve performance.

However, this method is not very suitable for this situation.

Professor Liu scratched his head: "Really? I really didn't expect that. Come, come, give me some pointers."

He knew that if Gao Zhendong said there was a problem, it was definitely not unfounded, and there must be a very difficult-to-overcome flaw in his method that he had not yet considered.

Gao Zhendong smiled and said, "Come on, Professor Liu, let's do a little experiment. Put your hands together and then stretch them out forward."

Professor Liu was somewhat puzzled, but he did as he was told, clasping his hands together and extending them out horizontally, his fists and shoulders forming an isosceles triangle.

Gao Zhendong reached out and gently pushed his fist.

Professor Liu couldn't hold on any longer and took two steps back, but his fist was still pointing straight ahead.

People in the distance looked at the two top students from their respective majors at the university with some strangeness. Were they fighting? It didn't seem like it.

However, Professor Liu was somewhat confused: "Professor Gao, what's going on?"

Gao Zhendong then said, "Now spread your hands apart, shoulder-width apart, and stretch them straight forward."

Professor Liu finally realized what was going on; he wasn't stupid.

He didn't even need Gao Zhendong to keep pushing his hand; he simply clapped his hand in the air and said, "Ah... I understand. You mean that if there is only one cannon, then the recoil axis of that cannon passes through the rotation center of the turret, so it will not cause horizontal disturbance when firing. However, if the cannons are arranged on the left and right, even if they fire as synchronously as possible, there will still be a difference in timing, which will cause the turret to sway slightly left and right in the horizontal direction?"

As expected of a professor, he understood immediately after just one reminder. The Tunguska missile-gun system and its shipborne version, the Kashtan, both suffer from this problem: they look good on paper, but their performance is rather disappointing.

Even the slightest lateral movement can have unpredictable consequences once the shells reach a distance.

"Yes, that's exactly what I mean. The reason we abandoned the cheaper internal energy source was to improve the accuracy of the cannon. But now we've gone back to the old ways. It's not worth it."

"Yes, you're right. It seems my lazy way of taking a dump isn't going to work. I need to think of another way," Professor Liu said.

"Moreover, this has a downside: the system weight increases, the complexity increases, and the ammunition capacity is relatively reduced."

The vehicle is only so big, and it can only hold so many shells. For small-caliber rapid-fire guns, the amount of ammunition is not the most telling indicator of combat endurance; what matters is how long they can fire continuously.

The shell consumption rate of two cannons is almost twice that of one cannon. At the same time, they have to load both cannons and missiles, and also bear the weight of two cannons, supply ammunition, and install them. They really can't fire a lot of shots.

"Hmm...right, right, if it's deployed on a ship, that's fine. As a field air defense system, the sustainability of firepower definitely needs to be considered. By the way, if it's deployed on a ship, what do you think is the best way to increase the rate of fire?"

Ships are high-value targets. When the corresponding supersonic threat appears, it doesn't matter if we load more shells, as long as the ship is saved.

Gao Zhendong laughed: "It's simple. We can't increase the number of cannons, so we can just add tubes to one cannon. Increasing the motor speed isn't too difficult now. Once the motor speed is higher, the rate of fire will also increase. This will place higher demands on heat dissipation, and there's a cost limit to heat dissipation. So we'll just increase the number of tubes. In short, we just need to make the re-firing time of a single tube about the same as that of a six-tube cannon, which means maintaining a basically consistent heat dissipation time."

He had a straightforward answer in his past life—1130 million cannon shots, copied on the spot, without hesitation.

"Ah...this..." Professor Liu never expected that Gao Zhendong's method was just as lazy as his, both were about accumulating quantity, just in a different direction.

(End of this chapter)