Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1444 The Army and the Sea Sisters (4k)

Gao Zhendong laughed: "Yes, yes, you deserve the most credit. How about this, to reward your merits, I'll give you a new gadget to study."

His words instantly made Lou Xiao'e's eyes light up: "What? What?"

Gao Zhendong briefly explained the thermophilic bacteria, adding, "It's hard to say whether there's anything special about it right now, but I think there probably is. You guys who work on antibiotics are basically looking for bacterial strains all over the place, right? I think this might be a bit interesting."

As for what exactly he wanted Lou Xiao'e to do, Gao Zhendong didn't say at first.

Sure enough, his words immediately piqued Lou Xiao'e's interest. A significant portion of antibiotics were discovered in this way, and the subsequent selection, synthesis, and other processes all depended on this first step.

"Great, great! I was just worried that there wasn't any new work in the pharmaceutical field." Lou Xiao'e thought Gao Zhendong's words made sense. After all, special samples might bring special results.

"Yes, I have asked the relevant units to carry out the first step of isolating the bacterial strain. I hope to get good results, or rather, I hope to get results as soon as possible."

The presence of this bacterium does not mean it will be found immediately; this still requires a certain amount of luck. However, compared to searching for a needle in a haystack, targeted screening has a much, much higher success rate.

"It's okay, I'll wait." With a new goal in mind, Lou Xiao'e was no longer in a hurry. After all, her studies and work involved more than just biopharmaceuticals. She also had to keep cutting her chest with a knife every day at Dr. Fan's place.
-
In a coastal area of ​​eastern Guangdong, while the north is still experiencing the chill of early spring, the air here is already thick with heat.

A somewhat unusual ship was moored more than 20 kilometers from the coastline. Although the weather was starting to get hot, the enclosed bridge was not hot at all, and there was even a cool breeze.

A soldier stood on the bridge, and what was unusual was that he was wearing an army uniform.

At this moment, he held the binoculars, but did not place them over his eyes, since such binoculars were somewhat inadequate for today's target.

"Hey, you navy guys have it so comfortable. It's so hot, yet you're not even hot."

A naval officer next to me laughed and said, "You're just lucky to have come at the right time. Before the ship was refitted, the bridge was semi-open. It would have been unbearably hot in this weather. There was only a canvas canopy over your head to provide some shade. Now they've installed air conditioning and turned it into a closed bridge."

"Looks like I'm in good luck. I hope I'll have good luck in today's test too, hahaha." The army comrade laughed.

As the two were talking, a group of comrades were busy at the stern of the ship.

The reason this ship is different is that, apart from retaining a single 76mm gun at the bow, the only traditional armament on this ship is the two 12.7mm machine guns on either side of the bridge. They are clearly taken from an old 5DL tank, mainly because the two shock absorbers are so conspicuous.

The 76mm gun, with its semi-open turret, seemed to suggest that this newly modified ship had no regard for its original weaponry.

"You guys are too stingy. Besides keeping that outdated 76mm gun, all you've put on the ship are two salvaged tank anti-tank machine guns," the naval officer laughed.

"This ship has a prominent but also limited function. The gun and cannon configuration is sufficient. Besides, with your protection, we don't need to worry too much about the ship's self-defense. It only has one cannon and two anti-piracy guns, which is enough to defend against pirates when sailing and transferring."

Comrade Lu Jun's words were not an exaggeration at all. Although decades later, the "Sohai Group" in Africa became more famous for its piracy, Southeast Asian piracy has actually been rampant since ancient times. It is not uncommon for pirates to run into the gun barrels of warships when they are confused. However, we are far away from that area, but even if we are far away, we can still do what we want.

“You’re right. We’re confident about this. The ship is a limited size. You should focus your space, cargo capacity, and funds on more important things. If we’re going to use this ship, we’ll only use it once or twice. There’s no need to go overboard.”

Upon hearing the last sentence, the army comrade laughed: "Hopefully we can use it soon!"

Whether we need it or not depends on today's results.

"It's alright. If the result isn't good today, we can keep revising it. We just have to make sure it's used," said the army comrade.

Their discussion centered on three things located at the stern of the ship that are not commonly seen on warships.

—Three 40-tube 130mm long-range rocket launchers are the main weapons of this fire support ship converted from an old vessel.

To differentiate it from the older 130mm rocket launcher with a range of only 10 kilometers, the new rocket launcher with a range of 25 to 40 kilometers is called the long-range rocket launcher.

The group of busy comrades were working around these three rocket launchers.

And those in charge of directing the modifications here are the comrades.

"Do you think the accuracy of this target practice will meet the requirements?" one comrade asked another.

“I don’t think there’s a problem. After all, these rocket launchers are automatically stabilized using gyroscopes. I’ve calculated the stabilization accuracy and response speed. Combined with the performance of our control system, the accuracy of this launcher won’t be much worse than a 25-kilometer-long land-based projectile,” another comrade said confidently.

The reason for using a 25-kilometer-long shell instead of a 40-kilometer-long shell is that this range is already beyond the range of the coastal artillery of its target, thus avoiding threat from enemy coastal artillery fire. After all, the M110 203mm howitzer is from the 80s.

The accuracy of a 25-kilometer-long missile is undoubtedly better than that of a 40-kilometer-long missile; this is an objective physical law. Combined with a 40-tube rocket launcher with gyroscope-based automatic stabilization, three launchers would yield 120 rockets, making the firepower of a single ship formidable.

“Your choice of this 25-kilometer-long projectile as the main type of projectile is really a brilliant idea. It has better accuracy, and its weight and size are also more suitable for manual loading.”

Each cannon on this ship has 60 rounds of ammunition, but due to limitations in funding and space, it cannot be equipped with an automatic loading mechanism like the 130mm long-range rocket launcher used by the army. At this point, the appropriate size and weight become important.

"Yes, one of the important principles we've learned is to choose what's appropriate rather than what's most prominent."

This ship, like its two sister ships which are still undergoing refit, is of great importance but has a single purpose and is not expected to be used very often. Therefore, the comrade in charge of the refit put a lot of thought into the selection of ships for refitting. Speaking of this, he was quite proud of it.

"Report: Six test rounds for each gun, all loaded!"

A soldier wearing a sailor's shirt walked over and reported to the two comrades.

This is the requirement for testing precision. If every gun were fully loaded and fired, the cost would be enormous. It's best to save as much as possible. Therefore, only six rounds were loaded into each gun at typical positions: the four corners and the middle of the top and bottom rows, for testing purposes.

"Alright, everyone retreat to your reserve positions!" Once the rocket launcher was fired, the entire mid-to-rear deck was engulfed in flames and smoke, and the soldiers who were preparing to reload had to retreat to their well-protected reserve positions.

The two men left the area around the rocket launchers and quickly returned to the enclosed bridge. "Test preparation complete!"

"Alright! Let's see what it's like today."

The ship wasn't modified much. The most expensive part wasn't actually the three rocket launchers themselves, but rather the gyroscope stabilization system for them. After all, to ensure the overall performance of the gyroscopes, the comrades didn't choose mechanical gyroscopes, but instead used laser three-axis gyroscopes.

Although this thing is cheaper than the best mechanical gyroscope, it is still much more expensive than ordinary gyroscopes. In fact, the comrades had already decided that once the ship's mission was completed, these nine three-axis laser gyroscopes would be removed and reused.

The main idea is to save money where you can and spend money where you can.

Now, it's time to test the results of these modifications.

The three comrades input the target information into the fire control units of the three cannons respectively. In order to ensure that each cannon can quickly support its respective target, the comrades who made the modification even thoughtfully configured a fire control operator for each cannon, so that one can control all three cannons at once, or control them separately. The main idea is that you may not need it, but I cannot do without it.

With a command, 18 rockets soared into the air amidst a huge roar and smoke, heading towards the target area on the coast.

While the rockets were still flying through the air, several comrades from the unit couldn't resist climbing to the highest point of the ship and searching the distance with binoculars.

You can barely see anything through the telescope here, but to see the area you want within the telescope's field of view requires a great deal of experience. At this distance, even a slight shake will cause the telescope's field of view to drift away completely.

However, this did not stump the comrades, who were all experienced commanders.

"Hit! Hit!" The rocket struck the massive target area set up on the cliffs along the shore, high above the distant horizon.

Although the details were not visible through the telescope, it was possible to vaguely see a little bit of smoke rising from the expected target area.

If you can see a little bit of smoke from more than 20 kilometers away, it means that the rocket has been successfully detonated.

"Let's wait, let the comrades over there confirm the results!"

The general area is roughly what we've learned, which is the first piece of good news, but we'll have to wait for more specific details from our colleagues there.

About 15 minutes later, the comrades who returned to the command bridge saw a telegram on the screen of the joint tactical data link.

The telegram contained a lot of data, including data for every single shell, but the most crucial element was the final calculated circular error probability.

"The circular error probabilities of the three cannons are 144.3, 148.9, and 153.7 respectively!"

The army comrades were overjoyed to see this result!
To say that its accuracy is high is not particularly high. In fact, its average accuracy is even slightly lower than that of a 270mm ultra-long-range rocket launcher, which has a range that is about three times longer!
But this number is enough!

For rocket artillery that primarily uses cluster munitions as its means of destruction, this level of accuracy is undoubtedly sufficient.

In this way, during operations from sea to land, the army has gained control over a long-range fire support method that it can directly command and deploy. This is very important to them because the strikes are more direct, the status is under their control throughout, and they can use it more freely.

After all, even if the air force cooperates perfectly and the communication is smooth, whether it can provide support depends on whether there are any planes in the air at the time and what kind of missiles they are carrying.

Although apart from the firepower command team and the comrades at the rocket artillery positions, everyone else was borrowed from the Navy, the Army was still very satisfied with the result.

With three ships, a single strike can deliver 360 rockets. Theoretically, they can support nine battlefields when deployed separately. With a reserve of 900 rockets, their firepower projection capability is quite impressive.

With the addition of armored vehicles, accompanying assault firepower, and air support, it can be said that the firepower problem in sea-to-land operations has been largely solved.

A complete solution? That's impossible, it will never be possible.

"Thank you so much!" The army comrade's words were completely sincere, after all, most of them were borrowing from others.

"No need to thank us, it's all thanks to the comrades from the modification plant and weapons systems. We only contributed some personnel. We just hope for one thing—that you can return the borrowed personnel as soon as possible. Otherwise, we'll have to charge interest." The navy's words were ambiguous.

When will you return it? Return it when you no longer need it.

When won't you need it? Those who know, know.

"Hahaha! Definitely! Definitely!"

The comrades all laughed, filled with strong anticipation and confidence.

Meanwhile, in a shipyard dozens of kilometers away, two other sister ships seemed to have heard the cannon fire and slowly nodded in the rippling blue waves.

They all looked different from their eldest sister, but the swords they wielded were the same.
-
"Committee Member Gao, the spinning solution has been successfully produced! All major indicators fully meet the requirements!"

Engineer Pan from the Applied Chemistry Department sounded excited on the phone.

"You finished it? Great! That's fantastic!" Gao Zhendong exclaimed repeatedly, not just as a polite expression. He hadn't expected his comrades to be so quick. He had thought there would be some twists and turns, but he hadn't anticipated their speed.

Gao Zhendong could guess that they must be working in three shifts, day and night. In management terms, they had compressed time to the extreme, except for the uncompressible time.

"Alright, bring the colleagues we discussed the next step of the process with me here! This time, our target is raw silk!"

The precursor fiber is arguably the most important factor affecting the quality of carbon fiber, bar none. Just like an advertisement says, "Without sound, even the best show can't be performed."

(End of this chapter)