Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1270 The Treatment of Celebrities (5k)

Some of the comrades at the scene who knew Gao Zhendong's background well knew what he meant by "the other leg," which was precisely Gao Zhendong's area of ​​expertise. And the facts proved that Gao Zhendong was right.

"...The inherent structure of vacuum tubes determines their two major drawbacks—large size and poor reliability at high G. Therefore, their proximity fuses on missiles don't have much of a problem. After all, missiles have a lot of space, and the acceleration at launch is not high, so it gives comrades the illusion that their proximity fuses will not have any problems..."

When Gao Zhendong got to this point, the comrades basically understood. Although both are proximity fuses, the ones on missiles and those on artillery shells are completely different things, with the latter being much more demanding.

Putting aside other things, the moment a shell leaves the barrel after firing is difficult for a regular vacuum tube to withstand. Reinforcing the outer casing is relatively easy, but reinforcing the electrodes is not so simple. Moreover, vacuum tubes may have multiple stages in order to achieve amplification, and many electrodes may be just thin pieces, making it even more difficult to reinforce the electrodes. At the same time, it is even more difficult to make the vacuum tube smaller.

"...Although it's possible to reinforce the vacuum tube, the reliability won't be good. Moreover, in terms of functional expandability, the vacuum tube is practically non-existent, so the available technical means for anti-interference are also very limited. Furthermore, the power consumption of the vacuum tube places higher demands on the power supply, which in turn increases the size in a vicious cycle. All things considered, it's quite difficult for them to develop a reliable radio proximity fuse for artillery shells, so it's normal that they haven't succeeded yet."

Although Gao Zhendong was referring to the White Bear, some comrades discerned a hidden meaning in his words—he was extremely knowledgeable about the anti-jamming technology of radio proximity fuses and had mastered many technical approaches; otherwise, he would not have been able to make such a judgment on the current state of radio proximity fuse technology in the White Bear.

There's no doubt about it! Our radio proximity fuse must have a very deep connection with this young comrade.

The National Defense Commission wasn't worried about the fact that everyone could guess the connection between Gao Zhendong and radio proximity fuses. Those who were here were all at a higher level, not in terms of administration or anything else, but in terms of awareness.

Besides, Gao Zhendong has a lot of dirty laundry on him, and many people within the National Defense Commission know about it. He's not bothered by having too many lice or too many debts, so this is no big deal.

"I believe everyone heard Comrade Zhendong's analysis of the fuse and the old... Northerner's analysis just now. It was quite brilliant and insightful..."

"Clap clap..." What are you waiting for? Clap your hands!

The leaders of the National Defense Industry Committee were somewhat amused and exasperated: "Alright, alright, that's the situation. So, overall, this is a good thing. What are your thoughts? Should we add this to the exhibition?"

It's almost a certainty that we'll be exchanging this technology with the polar bear. It's not some big deal. It may be rare, but there's absolutely no need to keep it a secret, especially when dealing with our northern counterparts. It's a typical example of something that can be sold and is easy to sell.

As we all know, the pressure on the Citibank in the air is immense. Even a small act of kindness from them can help alleviate some of that pressure on the Polar Bear, and we're all in the same boat, so there's no need to hide anything.

However, whether or not to sell it publicly is another matter that needs to be discussed.

"Huh? You can sell just a fuse?" Unexpectedly, this was what everyone was most interested in, mainly because they had never seen anything like it before.

The chief engineer of the National Defense Industry Committee laughed: "You know what, before the White Bear made this request, we hadn't thought of this aspect either. But their reminder made us realize that this thing can really be sold. Of course, our main idea is to use this as a starting point to sell anti-aircraft guns, hahaha."

In the words of those who handle bidding in later generations, this is called leveraging core competitiveness to drive sales of a full range of services. Regardless of how much profit is made, the total revenue goes up first. These days, in the foreign exchange market, even if you don't make a profit and sell at cost, as long as you obtain foreign exchange, the business is profitable.

Besides, how could it not make money?

The comrades all laughed and began to discuss whether or not this thing should be sold publicly.

Both sides have them, but the majority are for sale. Why can the polar bear buy them, but other countries can't? That doesn't make sense.

Those who advocate against selling mainly have one concern: will the diffusion of technology ultimately affect them?
This is a common thought among those who are just starting out – a fear of loss and gain. The main reason is that they haven't gotten used to it and their thinking hasn't kept up with their wealth.

This idea isn't wrong, but we need to analyze each specific problem in detail.

When it came to analyzing problems, the leader of the National Defense Industry Committee thought of one person. He turned his head and said, "Zhendong, tell me your thoughts."

Whether it's right or wrong, this kid's way of thinking can at least bring a lot of different perspectives to everyone.

Gao Zhendong closed his notebook: "Sell! My idea is to spread it! Spread this technology!"

Holy crap!!! Comrade Zhendong went all out right from the start!

However, the National Defense Committee knew very well that Gao Zhendong must have a deep-seated idea behind making such a big fuss, and they were even more interested: "Tell us your thoughts in detail."

"My idea is to lower the threshold for air defense in the anti-imperialist struggle! To ensure that even the poorest countries have a certain level of air defense capability, so that enemy aircraft cannot do whatever they want, no matter where they are, for a certain period of time. As long as there are cannons, relatively effective air defense capability can be obtained. At this stage, radio proximity fuses still have some capability in this regard."

As long as the enemy is throwing iron bombs, even cluster bombs, they will inevitably be affected by large and medium caliber anti-aircraft guns equipped with VT.

Everyone probably understood what he meant—to cause trouble for the Citibank.

But what people don't know is that Gao Zhendong thought further ahead—because the White Bear's own VT was incompetent, so until the mid-60s, the effectiveness of large and medium caliber anti-aircraft guns in most countries that it aided or sold arms to was limited, including the Gulf of Oil region!

Gao Zhendong didn't know, and didn't care to know, what the final result of such small changes would be. As long as there was a possibility, that was enough. Even if things were bad, they wouldn't be worse than the original history.

"But will this technology diffusion have an impact on us?" This is a core question.

Gao Zhendong shook his head: "It won't have much of an impact, because we are now transitioning to long-range precision strikes, and we have already achieved very good results. Not to mention hitting the Zang-4 missile from a distance, just recently, four anti-ship missiles were fired at a distance of 50 kilometers, and they also achieved very good results. The VT fuse can improve air defense effectiveness, but it cannot significantly increase the range."

Radio proximity fuses can indeed increase the effective range. As long as the trajectory is basically predictable, with the cooperation of radar and fire control computer, even with the same shell, radio proximity fuses will have a longer effective range than timed anti-aircraft fuses.

The principle is simple: the longer the distance, the more outrageous the timing error of the timed air defense fuse will become. Some of these errors come from the error in estimating the flight time of the shell, while others come from the error of the timer itself. The inherent flaws are beyond redemption; otherwise, timed air defense fuses would not have been phased out.

The VT doesn't have this problem. As long as it flies near the enemy aircraft according to the predicted trajectory, it can play its role. Compared to a timed fuse, it is at least more reliable.

However, this increase in range is only an improvement; it cannot magically increase the range of a shell from a few kilometers to tens of kilometers.

Upon hearing this, the Air Force comrades felt that Gao Zhendong's words made sense: "Hmm... Comrade Zhendong is right, we were a bit superficial in our considerations just now." They had originally had some concerns about this matter, precisely because of what they had just discussed.

After Gao Zhendong's reminder, they, who had already tasted the sweetness of precision strikes, also realized why they should drop iron bombs from the air. Wasn't that foolish?
Even if precision munitions are too expensive, after basically destroying the enemy's air defenses with precision-guided munitions, wouldn't we still be able to drop iron bombs however we want?
With their approval, the matter became simple.

As it turns out, Gao Zhendong's estimate was entirely correct; many countries are interested in this.

At the last, small-scale defense exhibition, which was not open to the general public, the people of Pharaoh looked at the radio proximity fuse on the display stand with surprise on their faces.

Even with the full support of the polar bear, the number of anti-aircraft missiles they have cannot be controlled at will; they still have to be deployed in key locations.

Moreover, issues such as the reaction speed, minimum close-range distance, and minimum firing altitude of anti-aircraft missiles mean that there are still many vulnerabilities when facing the largest hypothetical enemy.

They had anti-aircraft guns, but good shells were a different story. Not only them, but even the Soviet Union itself didn't have reliable ones. During the Cold War, arms were the absolute hard currency, and high-end arms were comparable to gold. The number of countries capable of producing these things could be counted on one hand; other countries were essentially at the mercy of the weather when waging war.

It's not entirely an exaggeration to say that a sudden rainstorm or a typhoon at sea could influence the outcome of a war between two small countries thousands of miles away.

It's not uncommon for fighting to escalate to the point where both sides run out of weapons and have to stop fighting while waiting for more to arrive.

In this context, there was no polar bear, and naturally, there was no Pharaoh's Kingdom either.

The Americans do have it, but the Pharaoh wants to get this from them? Absolutely not. It's a huge mistake. If the Americans heard this request, they would be utterly humiliated.

With the White Bear incompetent and the US too filial, even if the Pharaoh's country wanted to acquire anti-aircraft shells with radio proximity detonation, it would be a case of having a price but no market, and simply impossible to find.

Unexpectedly, this thing is openly displayed and sold on shelves in Eastern countries!

The representative of the Pharaoh's Kingdom rushed towards our comrade, taking three steps at a time: "Sir, can these fuses be supplied now? Or can artillery shells be supplied?"

To reiterate, even in the 2020s, let alone the 1960s, there were very few countries that could actually produce qualified artillery shells domestically. And those that could be made to burst open and be unusable by dogs don't count. The Pharaoh's country, let alone shells with proximity fuses, couldn't even manufacture ordinary anti-aircraft shells.

For a few countries, buying fuses means buying only fuses, but for the vast majority of countries, buying fuses is equivalent to buying shells.

Our staff really didn't expect that exhibiting a shell part would attract so many inquiries so quickly, and it was clear that they were very eager and extremely interested.

“We can supply the goods, but you need to provide the parameters of your shell fuse interface first. If it is not suitable, you will need to modify your fuse interface.” Our staff was very patient.

As for modifying our fuse interfaces for your shells, forget about it. There's no such thing as a free lunch. We'll use what we have. Even if we wanted to modify it according to your requirements, it's impossible. Radio proximity fuses have size limitations; they can't be changed.

But for the Pharaoh's Kingdom, this was not a problem at all. Shells? Where would I get the shell production capacity?
"No, no, no, if I could, I would prefer to get the finished shells."

The staff member smiled and said, "Yes, we can provide finished shells. However, you need to provide the model of your anti-aircraft gun first so we can check if we have shells for that model. If not, then we'll have to buy the anti-aircraft gun along with it. But we will try our best to meet your requirements, since the price of anti-aircraft guns and shells is different, and we don't want your existing equipment to be wasted."

How righteous! Easterners are so righteous! They really think of their clients. The Pharaoh's representative felt like he was about to cry.

He quickly wrote down several anti-aircraft gun models. Our staff swiftly checked them on the computer and then pointed to the screen, saying, "Fortunately, we can supply shells for all these anti-aircraft guns of 57mm and above. Look here..."

It goes without saying where the Pharaoh's anti-aircraft guns came from. Providing these types of shells would be no problem for us, since we use them ourselves. If it weren't for the fact that the Vietnamese used them so much, we could even directly transfer some of our stock to them.

"Hmm... Could you please organize a demonstration for us before we make the purchase?" The Pharaoh's representative wasn't stupid. It was true that Easterners had a good reputation, but they still understood the principle of "seeing is believing."

Another reason is that they were scared off by the false advertising of the White Bears. Those bastards don't care about basic principles when it comes to false advertising.

"Yes, that's no problem. If you'd like, we can even arrange for you to observe actual combat, though that would be somewhat dangerous."

A demonstration? No problem, anything more exciting is fine.

"Ah... that won't be necessary. What? This weapon has already been used in actual combat?" The Pharaoh's representative rejected this overly provocative suggestion, but immediately realized the implications of it.

"Yes, we cannot disclose the specific location of the actual battle, but we do have battle records. Here are some battle photos, which you can take a look at now."

Our staff took out a stack of documents and handed them over.

These days, the kind of rubbish that "blurs out bad guys and blurs out good guys" doesn't work. Looking at the clearly visible Citizens insignia on the downed plane in the photo, the Pharaoh's representative immediately felt that the matter was as sure as a rock.

"Great! How do we sign the relevant letter of intent?" Making an immediate decision was impossible, but signing a letter of intent was no problem; he had the authority to do so.

"Please come with me..." Our staff were overjoyed. Good wine needs no bush, the ancients were right.

The polar bear delegation, who were at the source of this incident, watched this scene thoughtfully, feeling that something was amiss, but they couldn't quite put their finger on what it was.

Forget it, I don't want to.

For them, there's naturally no need to sign any purchase agreements at the exhibition. They're different from others; they directly exchange technology. What's the point of buying fuses or shells? That's irrelevant.

However, their thinking was a bit too optimistic. Even if they exchanged technology, there were still some things they would have to buy because they didn't have them themselves.

I can tell you how to make steamed buns, but if you want my recipe for the thirteen-spice seasoning for steamed buns? Well, sorry, I don't have it!

However, the polar bears were unaware of this until they obtained the actual technical data, so it didn't stop them from happily visiting the small exhibition.

"The Southern comrades' Thunder-1 air-to-air missile is still so popular." This was somewhat unexpected for them. This thing had been sold in the previous session, but the response was not as great as this time.

This missile is currently among the world's top-tier infrared air-to-air missiles. Privately, even the White Bear admitted that its technology is better than their own K-13M, since the K-13M was developed after acquiring technologies such as the seeker head cooling system of this missile.

However, the people of White Bear could guess that there was only one main reason why Raiden-1 was so popular.

—His meritorious service is outstanding, and his achievements are verifiable!

晚上打过P-2V，高空打下U-2，大群的打过F-86而且还是21:0。

However, they were wrong about the last one; it was actually 20:0. One of them was shot down with a machine gun after they caught up with it.

Regardless of the score, especially this 21-0 victory, it almost completely solidified the Thunder-1's status as the world's number one infrared air-to-air missile. Almost all verifiable performance characteristics were thoroughly verified in this 21-0 match.

Those with combat achievements naturally receive different treatment. For some interested countries, such famous star weapons are usually kept tightly under wraps these days. Unexpectedly, the Easterners still put them on the shelves for sale!
If Gao Zhendong were here, he would definitely tell them that it's an old tradition, and it will remain so for decades to come.

15E: Look at me! Look at me!
Almost every representative who had any ideas about the Air Force's combat capabilities flocked to this booth. Whether they bought anything or not, it was worth taking a look.

The White Bear delegation even heard something that made them want to vomit blood: "Don't worry, as long as you can mount the K-13M, you can mount this missile..."

(End of this chapter)