Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1384 The final piece of the puzzle is revealed (6k)

Gao Zhendong, on the other hand, was much better. When he didn't eat well, he was still half-understanding and could only watch the excitement. He was happy just looking at the majestic tanks and warships. As for how many pairs of wheels a tank had, whether a warship was a shield-type ship with vertical launch, or whether an aircraft was stealthy, he couldn't tell at all.

In the rudimentary stage of relying on massive battleships and artillery, quantity was everything. Whether it was for area air defense or close-range defense was unclear; in any case, large numbers were all that mattered.

By the time he was able to discern all of this and objectively evaluate the level of equipment, the situation had already begun to change. Production was booming, technology was advancing rapidly, and technology was exploding.

His uncle said more than once that people of his generation have it easy.

Gao Zhendong will never forget that at this airport, through the shadowy branches, all the wings of that black plane rotated together for a self-check, as if it were trying to charm the countless military enthusiasts hanging on the big tree outside the wall.

At that moment, countless military enthusiasts were moved to tears, with the older ones crying the most.

Even a junior like Gao Zhendong felt a stone lodged in his eye at that moment.

A unique way military enthusiasts stubbornly deny things is by saying that if they get sand in their eyes and their eyes start to water, it means there's a huge rock in them.

Sitting here, Gao Zhendong felt a strange feeling welling up inside him, and for a moment, he was even a little speechless.

The comrades were waiting for him to continue, but suddenly they found that Gao Zhendong had run out of things to say. They turned around and saw him rubbing his eyes.

"Hey, Zhendong, what's wrong? If you're tired, just say so earlier. There's no rush." ​​The chief engineer quickly stood up and reached out to support Zhendong's shoulder.

Gao Zhendong is known for his good health and high energy levels, and this has never happened before during meetings.

But it is precisely because of this that comrades are even more worried. There is an old saying that the better one's health, the faster one will fall ill. Many comrades seem energetic and vigorous in daily life, but when they get sick, it may be a serious illness.

The other comrades were also shocked, but Gao Zhendong waved his hand and said, "It's nothing, it's just sand in my eye..."

Sand? Comrades, look around. Not even a mosquito can fly into this meeting room. Where did the sand come from?

The comrades from the Southwest Institute were honest: "Well, maybe we didn't do a good job of cleaning. We'll definitely pay attention next time."

Gao Zhendong shook his head: "No, no, it's not that bad. It's something I brought with me, something I brought with me."

The comrades then reluctantly gave up their skepticism. They couldn't very well pat Gao on the back as soon as he arrived; what would that look like? The chief engineer stood to the side, deep in thought.

Gao Zhendong quickly regained his composure and said to his comrades, "Let's continue. As I just said, I've calculated it, and there's no problem."

"Are you sure there's no problem?" the chief engineer asked.

Gao Zhendong nodded emphatically: "I dare to pledge my life, absolutely no problem!"

"I'm not talking about stealth aircraft, I'm talking about your physical condition."

Gao Zhendong almost fainted. So you were still thinking about this?

“No problem, no problem, we can all sign a pledge,” Gao Zhendong said with a smile.

The chief engineer chuckled. What good would a pledge be if there were health problems? But it seemed there really wasn't anything wrong, since Comrade Zhendong was in the prime of his life.

Since he's fine, this is going to be interesting!
"Stealth aircraft is no problem. Do you mean achieving radar stealth while essentially not affecting the aircraft's combat performance?" the chief engineer asked with a smile.

Sometimes, when discussing equipment, it's necessary to add sufficient qualifiers. Having no problem with stealth aircraft and having no problem with stealth fighters are two completely different things.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "Yes! Of course, full-band stealth seems impossible now, but stealth in certain specific bands is still very effective."

To put it bluntly, visible light is also a part of electromagnetic waves. If electromagnetic waves are invisible across the entire spectrum, then it means that visible light is also invisible. That's absurd, and Gao Zhendong certainly can't imagine it.

Let's not even talk about that far ahead. Even later stealth fighters are not very effective in the long-wave band. As I said before, long waves, whether they are long electromagnetic waves or long sound waves, have many drawbacks, but they are a powerful tool that can solve many special problems simply by virtue of their long wavelength.

However, although those present were not radar professionals, they were still quite familiar with radar applications. How many frequency bands can achieve stealth? Given the current state of radar, wouldn't that mean it's almost completely stealthy?

Regardless of whether Gao Zhendong's words are true or false, just considering the possibility that they are true is exciting enough.

The comrades from the Aircraft Equipment Bureau were all smiles. They knew Gao Zhendong's habits well. In Gao Zhendong's words, the more restrictions a technology had, the deeper and more comprehensive his thinking was. This often meant that under these restrictions, the most important indicators were indeed very likely to be achieved.

Restrictions are nothing; the key is having skills, having unique expertise. Just like the long wave mentioned above.

"Can you specify the band?" This was what excited him the most. Although radar is based on electromagnetic waves, and there are many bands of electromagnetic waves, considering the limitations of transmission, resolution, positioning, weight, volume, size, etc., there are actually only a few bands that can be used for radar detection at present.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "Theoretically it is possible, but it is limited by actual conditions. However, the frequency bands you are considering should be fine."

How did you know which frequency bands I was considering? The question had barely crossed the mind of the colleague from the Air Force Equipment Bureau when he immediately wanted to slap himself.

What a joke! Do you think Comrade Zhendong wouldn't know which frequency bands I'm thinking of? The digital pulse PD radar that we're now so proud of was developed by him and the comrades at the radar institute.
When it comes to understanding the nature of radar, I'm not even close to being able to carry their shoes. Since they've already considered developing stealth aircraft, how could they not have considered which frequency bands need to be addressed the most?

"Haha, good, good, good!"

Before the comrades from the Air Force Equipment Bureau could finish laughing, Gao Zhendong's next words proved to everyone that he had already thought about it.

"For fighter jets, the main requirement is good stealth performance in the S, C, and X bands. Radars used to counter fighter jets generally need high resolution, high precision, and accurate positioning, and are basically concentrated in these bands..."

The comrades believed Gao Zhendong when he said this, after all, no one here knew more about radar than him.

"How much can the distance be compressed?" the chief engineer asked.

It's impossible to become completely blind. Whether you start with the shape or the coating to absorb waves, the core of stealth technology is to reduce the intensity of the echo signal, but it's impossible to completely eliminate it.

Therefore, the compression effect is very important.

Gao Zhendong thought for a moment and smiled, "It's less than tens of kilometers, for example, reducing the detection range from 200 kilometers to 30 kilometers... This is related to the opponent's technical level and our development level. Or, to put it another way, it's about reducing the radar cross-section to less than one square meter."

Radar cross-section is a new term that we haven't encountered much of yet, and we haven't quite grasped it, but we can still understand what 30 kilometers means.

30 kilometers... The comrades at the Southwest Institute were somewhat disappointed. That's not close at all. The theoretical detection range of the MiG-19 radar is only a dozen kilometers. This 30 kilometers is even more than that.

However, the comrades from the Air Force Equipment Bureau were overjoyed.

30 kilometers?!
And it reduces the original detection range of 200 kilometers to 30 kilometers? The comrades in the Air Force Equipment Bureau know that this means that if the radar is already of poor performance, the detection range will be far less than 30 kilometers!

Moreover, even at a distance of 30 kilometers, the comrades in the Air Force Equipment Bureau were well aware of what that meant.

"30 kilometers? Hahahaha!!! Laser-guided bombs, TV-guided bombs, long-range dispensers, and medium-range interceptor missiles—the effective range of all these new weapons far exceeds 30 kilometers! And our fighter jets' new radars can detect typical light targets at a range of 100 kilometers, and they also have look-down and shoot-down capabilities! If we had this aircraft, our entire combat tactics and air power strategy could undergo a revolutionary change!" The laughter of the comrades from the Air Force Equipment Bureau echoed in the conference room.

The chief engineer then realized just how valuable the "revolutionary equipment" Gao Zhendong had described was.

You can't find me, but I can find you. You can't attack me, but I can freely attack you. How much of a change will this bring?
At this moment, the chief engineer of the committee pondered the words of the comrade from the Air Force Equipment Bureau and was extremely shocked. This paper was only published this year, but Gao Zhendong had begun to plan and research these long-range weapons and new radars that are used in conjunction with stealth fighters several years ago.

It now seems that once this stealth fighter is successfully developed, it will immediately have a suitable weapon to maximize its combat effectiveness! Or even if targeted modifications are needed, the time and cost required will not be significant.

Did he have this idea several years ago? Was it just that the conditions weren't right before, so he kept it a secret?
Now that the basic conditions are in place and all the suitable weapons have been developed, all that's missing is this aircraft! And this paper by Comrade Northern might just be the final piece of the puzzle for Gao Zhendong's revolutionary equipment!
Perhaps before this, Comrade Gao Zhendong had only considered radar-absorbing stealth, but the effect was not very good, so he kept it to himself until Comrade Beifang's paper was published, finally completing the last piece of the puzzle of his ideal fighter jet!
But is it really that simple?
The chief engineer of the National Defense Industry Committee shook his head. That should be it. Gao Zhendong is technically astute, but perhaps he was focused on solving more important things and didn't have the energy to study this matter, which caused him to be missing a piece of the puzzle. Now, it's complete!
The chief engineer believed that as long as Gao Zhendong was willing to devote his energy to this direction, he would have achieved similar results long ago. However, for him, there were too many more important things to do.

For example, the Air Force's advanced equipment that takes the lead.

"The comrades from the North are really good; they've taken on a lot of work for our comrades," the chief engineer thought to himself with a hearty laugh.

"Then tell me your more specific thoughts?" the chief engineer asked with a smile, seeing the excited expression on the faces of the Air Force Equipment Bureau comrades. How could the comrades at the Air Force Equipment Bureau not be excited? This meant that the first step had been taken!

The comrades at the Southwest Institute were somewhat bewildered. Suddenly, they were going to develop such advanced weapons?
This made them feel that taking such a big step was a bit too ambitious, as they were getting their hands on a new type of air superiority fighter jet, one that used a canard tailless delta wing that had not been researched domestically.

Fortunately, thanks to the delta wing experience gained from the Gaul-Lu exchange, and the strong support from Commissioner Gao in terms of aerodynamic design, the aircraft research progressed relatively smoothly. But now, such a big change has suddenly occurred.

They now understand what Committee Member Gao meant when he said at the airport, "Just don't scold me."

There's no way I'd criticize them. Being able to undertake such an important mission is something everyone involved in fighter jet development would love to do.

However, the importance and difficulty of this task made the comrades at the Southwest Institute somewhat apprehensive.

However, Gao Zhendong's next sentence after the chief engineer asked for a detailed explanation of his ideas made them even more unbearable.

"I won't share my thoughts yet. Come on, I'd like to suggest that the comrades at the Southwest Institute share their ideas. It's okay, you can share whatever you want," Gao Zhendong said with a smile.

The chief engineer laughed. "Is this a test?"
"Alright, since Comrade Zhendong has said so, you all should share your thoughts. But be careful, if you don't speak well, I might suggest to the committee that we adjust our work arrangements," the chief engineer joked.

The colleagues at the Southwest Institute were immediately alarmed. A job reassignment? How could that be? If the duck was already in their mouth, they had to eat it, even if they had to eat it raw!
What? Raw doesn't taste good? Doesn't that make the duck look fresh?

Then let's talk about it. What's there to be afraid of? If there's a problem, I'm sure Committee Member Gao won't sit idly by. We're all from the Southwest, so it shouldn't be a problem for him to take care of a fellow countryman.

To be fair, the colleagues at the Southwest Institute are no pushovers either. After calming down and reading the paper twice, they might not be able to speak fluently, but they did begin to express their own opinions.

"I think the first thing to solve is the damage to the original aerodynamic shape caused by the need to achieve a stealth design. I estimate that if the aircraft is designed according to the requirements in this paper, the aerodynamic shape will be very poor, and it will have almost no value as a fighter jet. So this is the most troublesome thing."

Gao Zhendong nodded. "The comrades are no less capable. This is the biggest reason why this paper was not taken seriously by the comrades in the north."

Have you considered how to resolve this?

How could we come up with an idea so quickly? The comrades at the Southwest Institute were both amused and exasperated: "Committee Member Gao, we really don't have one. It's just that we don't have enough time, and it's hard for us to grasp the direction in such a short time."

The chief engineer of the National Defense Industry Commission was very satisfied with the performance of the comrades from the Southwest Institute. It was good enough that they could find the problem, considering the short time available.

"Zhendong, what are your thoughts on this?" Gao Zhendong definitely had ideas, otherwise he wouldn't have been so decisive. In any case, he had achieved his goal of guiding the thinking of the comrades at the Southwest Institute, so he could now offer his own ideas.

Sure enough, Gao Zhendong had his own ideas: "My idea is to first determine an acceptable radar cross-section, and then, based on this radar cross-section, determine one or more main stealth directions. We are not pursuing comprehensive stealth; we are pursuing stealth in the main tactical directions!"

His speech was full of new terms, leaving his comrades completely bewildered.

"Radar cross-section?" This term is somewhat unfamiliar to those here who are not radar experts.

“Yes…” Gao Zhendong explained the concept of radar cross-section. The concept was a bit new, but not difficult to understand.

"Ah, I see. You mean, we use our new radar to test an acceptable radar cross-section, and then design based on that radar cross-section?"

Gao Zhendong nodded: "Yes, this way we don't have to pursue extremely small areas, which can bring a lot of convenience to aircraft design."

"So what do you mean by stealth in terms of tactical application?" I understand that, but I don't quite understand this one.

Gao Zhendong laughed and said, "That's simple. The radar cross-section of an aircraft varies in different directions because of the different geometry in each direction. We don't need it to be small in all directions; it just needs to be stealthy in a few directions that are most important for tactics."

The colleagues at the Southwest Institute were a bit stunned. Could it really be done like this?
Unexpectedly, the comrades from the Air Force Equipment Bureau burst into laughter.

"Good! Good! That's a great suggestion! In my opinion, we only need to be able to hide in front, not from behind." The forward direction is the direction of engagement with the enemy, so being able to hide is sufficient. The comrades in the Air Force Bureau knew that omnidirectional stealth would drastically increase the difficulty, or even prevent the project from being launched, so they chose forward-facing stealth.

The comrades at the Southwest Institute understood a little; that's what it meant. They hadn't expected the Air Force Equipment Bureau to actually agree.

The Air Force Bureau certainly agreed; striking the enemy was the most important thing. As long as the enemy was wiped out, it didn't matter if their rear was a little conspicuous.

The chief engineer nodded repeatedly, agreeing that this was a very mature consideration, focusing on the big picture and letting go of the small details. Indeed, although many of Gao Zhendong's ideas sounded bizarre, he had definitely weighed and considered them thoroughly. His ideas were comprehensive and mature, and they could well balance the contradictions between technology, difficulty, and practicality.

After hearing what the Air Force Equipment Bureau said, Gao Zhendong laughed: "It's not that extreme. My consideration is to ensure that the radar cross-section is small enough in the forward, upward, downward, and a certain angle on the front side. As for the side and rear, we just try to take them into account as much as possible."

At this point, Gao Zhendong added, "Moreover, these directions are relatively easy to achieve."

The colleagues from the Southwest Institute didn't quite understand. Of these directions, if you had to say, the back is the easiest to solve, as that area can be made relatively flat. But the other directions don't seem to be so easy.

“Committee Member Gao, the shape of your abdomen is complicated, it might be difficult to treat.”

The belly has landing gear and numerous openings. Due to the engine, air intake, and other factors, the belly has a very complex shape, and you can imagine how large its reflective area is.

Unexpectedly, Gao Zhendong laughed even harder: "What a coincidence, some of our previous design requirements just happen to meet today's situation."

Upon hearing Gao Zhendong's words, the comrades at the Southwest Institute were stunned, as if they had been frozen in place.

Even the chief engineer and his team, who had participated in the entire process of the new air superiority program, were stunned; they recalled many things.

At a meeting on the new air superiority program, Gao Zhendong demanded that the fuselage be as smooth as possible, that all hatches be designed as hexagonal or serrated, and that the fuselage cross-section be close to a trapezoidal shape...

All of this coincidentally points to the aerodynamic design requirements of this stealth fighter.

Although the Southwest Institute paid a considerable price in the design process, they still strictly followed Gao Zhendong's requirements and tried their best to meet them.

In retrospect, this was an unexpected but fortunate outcome. Some comrades are reminded of the saying, "Good theories are often universal."

Although details such as angles may not fully meet the requirements for stealth, making improvements on this basis is much simpler than making improvements on the extremely uneven airframe of a traditional fighter jet.

However, the chief engineer of the National Defense Industry Committee had a different idea from his comrades. He was certain that Gao Zhendong had this in mind when he first planned the aerodynamic shape of the new air superiority system!

At that time, however, the puzzle was not yet complete, so he could only rely on his technical intuition and do his best to make advance arrangements without affecting the new air superiority.

Now that the last piece of the puzzle has appeared, he can finally put his ideas into practice with full force!
"Comrade Zhendong, you've thought so far ahead!" He patted Gao Zhendong on the shoulder and said with admiration.

Upon hearing this, the comrades realized that perhaps the matter was not as simple as they had thought.

The comrades at the Southwest Institute then remembered that a colleague had once commented that the aerodynamic shape led by Committee Member Gao must have some special idea, but they had never been able to grasp it.

The mystery is now solved!
The comrades were speechless for a moment. It was remarkable to have this technical intuition, and even more remarkable to have this intuition and make as many advance plans as possible.

Only the comrades from the Air Force Equipment Bureau had wrinkles on their faces from smiling that were deeper than the sulci of a person's brain. They said Comrade Gao Zhendong never fought a battle he wasn't confident of winning, but no one expected his strategic planning to be so far-reaching.

As expected of a comrade from the military, this ambush skill is something most people don't have. Thanks to the army elder brother for helping to get the big plane!

After a moment of silence, Gao Zhendong couldn't stand it anymore and laughed, "Coincidence, coincidence. In any case, this is a good thing. Our conditions are more mature than we imagined."

What a coincidence... Never mind, can we blame Comrade Gao Zhendong for setting up such a perfect ambush?
Now that we've gotten to this point, the comrades' confidence has risen again; this thing might actually be feasible.

Since we're going to do this, let's delve deeper into the details, while Comrade Gao Zhendong is here.

"But there's a problem: what about the external cannons? We can't just rely on the machine guns to get by, can we?" Without external cannons, even the best ammunition can't be fired.

(End of this chapter)